Category: Uncategorized

Carly had a half day of parent conferences today, so it was me and August in the morning. He acted like a lot of different animals today: from a frog in the morning, to beetle and ladybug on our walk, to a puffin in the evening.

He got up right at 7:00. He spent several minutes on reading area. I chased him off by trying to use a tissue on his nose. He hid under the kitchen table and sat there a couple minutes. We finished off the banana bread for breakfast. We played music on the piano, then he took the keys out and wanted Green Monster to help put them back – we haven’t had GM help in quite awhile. Did that, then he said “Want to go in the parlor.” Went in and used the crayons. He said that today “My favorite is salmon.” He started typing Hangeul, and I took a shower. He was then being a froggy and hopping around, and hid in the corner. We did some of the Asia puzzle, then he was back to doing some more writing, then being a froggy again. He climbed on top of the Bob Books and puzzles and wasn’t happy when I took him down.

We did recycling, and went to take it downstairs. He found the front door unlocked, and asked “what’s it unlocked about?” I explained that Carly didn’t lock it in the morning so the door noise didn’t wake him up. He then wanted to understand ‘door noise’ and talked a lot about that. I asked if he wanted to play outside when we took down recycling, but he said “No. Its much too late for that. How bout we take the garbage?” It was only 9am.

We took down recycling and came back up. He wanted to write ‘jellyfish stew’ (I had made that up as a joke once a few days ago) and ‘neighbor’. He wrote 진 (Zinn) and 친구 (friend) on his own.

Eventually he wanted to go back outside. In the stroller. We walked around the little So So Festival (it lived up to its name). We got the fish-shaped bread and sat and watched a brass band play for a bit. Then went over to the playground. He focused on the pipe slide thing, going down a few times. I still helped him down, but he could sit on it on his own. Just needs to work on the sliding part. Also played on exercise equipment. Did some dancing to the drum group we could hear. And he saw a ‘blob’ shape on the ground again and was laughing about that. He then sung ‘The ants go marching blob by blob’ and thought it was hilarious when I had the little one say “blob, blob, blob”. We ended by going on the teeter totter. A girl got on the other end, and I helped them go up and down. As we left, he read 마미쿡 on a booth sign (Mommy Cook).

At home we went to books and read Little Kipper Collection and Little Big. We ate the rest of the Mandy for lunch. I had music playing and he was asking about the names of songs. He asked “What ‘baseball coming up’ about?” Siri had said it earlier when we were asking her random things. We then read Snappy Little Monsters, Moby Dick, and Puff the Magic Dragon.

Carly came home about 12:30 and he fell asleep from 12:45 to 1:42. He and I finished the puzzle, and they did more nursing. He was typing more Hangeul, and Carly was noticing that he was doing full syllables. I’d noticed this a couple days ago. He’s picked up the structure of Korean from the Hangeul app. Anyway, he was typing random things and saying things like “we go there last time” and talking about the smurfs.

We went for a walk at 3:30. August did a lot of walking at first, which made for slow going. He was acting like a froggy, then a beetle, hopping and crawling on the sidewalk: “you goed backwards”. Then a ladybug, helping push the stroller. He said “I want to ribbit.” I read an email to him from grampa. August had sent him a message earlier, saying he wanted to see how grampa was doing. August then said “you typed a message to grampa; he wrote back.” He then picked up leaves and put them on Carly, saying they were medicine. Asked how he was doing, and he said “I feel much better.” As we walked along the stream, he stopped and looked back and said “H is coming. H! Where are you?” He also stopped to put little rocks in his shoes. We tried to get him in the stroller, but he scooted on his bottom instead and said “oh my goodness.”

We got up to 햇살머금은채, a coffee shop we hadn’t been to. Got coffees and headed back along the stream. August was a little hurt, it turned out, that we hadn’t gotten a drink for him. We got to Pizza School and ordered a couple pizzas. He sat in the red chairs with Carly to wait, then stole her chair when she got up. We had told him we would stop at Mama Juice to get him something, but as we left the woman gave him an orange juice pouch, so that was his drink.

Got home and ate some pizza, and he did some writing. Carly went to the store. He wanted to watch Peppa Pig, but I introduced him to Puffin Rock instead. He really liked it, I liked how we learned about animals as well. Carly came home and started making food. August spent a long time pretending to be a puffin. He made a puffin burrow on the reading area, and had me get all the soft things I could find for his burrow. He also pretended that Mossy the shrew was in the burrow eating too many blueberries and getting sick. We read some Pooh, and he played with the Hangeul magnet app.

Got him to head to a bath. He washed his hands first, and said “I washed the germs off…I just washed my hands and the germs are gone.” As we got close to getting in he called out to Carly “Is it a hair washing day?” But then he was avoiding a bath, going out to Carly and asking “Does mama need some tea?” Finally got him in the bath and he was fine. Did some words, but then tried to escape. When I got him back in he was sad. Carly took him, and tried to get him to sleep around 9. He had other ideas and came back out. He and I read LMNO Peas, 123 Peas, The Earth Book, and Curious George Goes to the Zoo. He crawled out of the parlor to Carly when he was ready, and went to sleep about 10.

 

Playground: 

Our walk: 

Photos. Waking up: 

Under the table: 

Jumping on the “quadrant”: 

Our walk: 

Waiting for pizza: 

Stealing her seat: 

Puffin burrow: 

8:25 sad face when he saw me in the reading area, but then laid down and was quiet for a few minutes. Did a little coloring, and we got banana bread. I asked him how he was feeling, and he replied “I feel si uh ck.” Talking about where we should go today, he mentioned Uidong and Uijeongbu. We were lazy in the morning and watched a couple new Peppa Pig episodes. Had a lot of fun with that. We also spent a lot of time writing on the paper. He would want words that started a certain way and I would write a few down and he would copy them: t words, r words, ex words, etc. He was acting like a fox, and went under the rocking chair as if it was his cave. He was getting a bit whiny, and decided he didn’t want to go outside.

He was then typing Hangeul, and would occasionally ask what it was. So we were making up Smurf stories, such as:

– the smurfs go camping and are attacked by a crab

– the smurfs get a swimming pool

– the smurfs go to the Australian Pavilion

– the smurfs eat a big lunch and take a nap (that was the whole story)

– the smurfs learn to sail

I was coughing, and so August started telling one:“Azrael says watch out smurfs!…there’s a crab.”  He then said “What’s going to happen?” That’s something I say a lot when we are reading or watching something.

We skyped with my parents. My did is doing better. He was mainly typing emojis to them, but then August sang a ‘Lulu’ song for them. They also asked him something and he replied with “can’t tell you. It’s a secret.” Skyped for 30 minutes or so, then he decided he wanted to talk to Siri, which wouldn’t work so well. He got upset and was acting really tired, so we said goodbye.

I held him for a few minutes, then we sat on the bed, with him on my chest for a couple more. But then he got up and was playing around. He was turning his head back and forth, saying “I can’t see the time…there’s the time.” He got up and was whispering everything, like reading off the numbers on the growth charts. He closed me in the parlor, and I laid down on the reading area, hoping to draw him over to rest. He opened the door and came in, but went to the paper and started coloring. I dozed off for awhile, but popped up when I heard him climbing on the chair and the desk. He found Carly’s Z painting up there. Got him back down and spun him in the chair. He declared “My favorite color is violet now.”

At some point he declared “Dada go in the parlor…because you’re alive.” No idea. He also told me “Dada write an oops word. And I’ll be right back.” He closed the door, and came back in a minute. He also decided it was back to being the parlor: “It’s the parlor now.”

We made mandu for lunch and dipped it in sauces. I got him dressed to get going, and he didn’t like the green shirt:  “it’s too greeeeen.” He started talking about everyone’s favorite letter and guessed “Maybe mama’s favorite letter is W. Maybe Logans favorite letter is B. Maybe Siri’s favorite letter is E.”

We got going, close to 2. We had settled on Uidong and Solbat Park. On the bus, he watched a girl behind us popping bubbles with her gum and really liked that. The seat covers were yellow, and he now declared “my favorite color is yellow.”

We played I Spy and a little iPad on the way over. Got off, and in the park he sang “I can go anywhere.” That’s from Reading Rainbow, but I swear he hasn’t heard that in a few weeks. He spent much of the time playing with his favorite water faucets, washing everything off. Ate banana bread for a snack, standing on a little fence thing. And we played the banana bread ingredients game. Right at 4 he decided he was tired, and wanted to nurse. We packed up and got walking.

Walked around the park and behind it, to check on the Embroidery Museum. It was open. I said we could come back, but August wanted to go in. Which was good, as it was the last day of a show. He kind of changed his mind once we were inside, as he wanted to go back outside, but there was a woman who spoke English and she gave us a tour. August really liked when she let him touch the colorful felt shapes sculpture. We lasted 20+ minutes before we headed out.

He was ready to go to the bus, but then started singing as we walked. So I walked back streets, headed north. Area we haven’t really been in. Had fun winding through the streets, and found a couple of interesting brick patterns. While taking a photo of one, a car honked a bit to tell us he was going by, but then really honked a half second later, startling me. Then, when we came out on the main street – which is all congested due to subway construction – there were a bunch of cars honking at each other. I said something like “What’s with all the honking?” He really liked that, and kept repeating it.

We caught the bus home. He leaned against me, looking out the window for much of the trip, then spent the last few minutes sending himself messages on Skype.

Got home at 6:00. We ate dinner and watched the Silent E and other videos by that company – we had been trying to sing them on our walk and realized we needed to study the words. He knocked the iPad over on its back, which was hilarious and he said “Gramma and grampa look up at the ceiling!” When we were skyping, he had wanted to type in Hangeul, but doing so would mean taking off the physical keyboard and using the software keyboard. As such, the camera would have been pointing to the ceiling. Like it was now. Anyway, at 6:30 August whispered that he wanted to look out in the hall and went and opened the door and looked out for a couple minutes.

He came back in, and she got home a couple minutes later. She was late because she had had parent conferences today. They nursed. I asked him about his favorite color, and it was back to being violet. He was mama’s boy now, and told me “Want dada to sleep in the playroom.” Talking about his water bottles, he said “I prefer blue wawa.” I believe I’ve heard him say ‘prefer’ before, but it was very clear how he used it this time. Carly gave him a bath. Went very well, considering how tired he was and that she washed his hair. He went to bed pretty quickly after that, falling asleep at 7:20.

To Uidong: 

Park. Birds:

Favorite faucets: 

Ingredients game: 

Embroidery museum: 

Looking for mama: 

He walked out at 6:56. A slight change in his morning routine as he came straight to me and had me pick him up. Held him a little, then we both laid down on the reading area for a few minutes. After 5 minutes he said “One zero zero zero zero zero one”. He rolled over and got up and looked out the window for a minute, then came back to reading area and whispered “talk to Siri.” But then he laid back down on the reading area and didn’t get up until 7:14 to go and play with the smurfs. We then had some banana bread.

I watched the debate this morning, and he watched Pooh much of the time. We were writing on the paper at some point, and I started writing ‘banana’ in English. On his own, he then spelled it in Korean: 바나나 Finally, we spent a good amount of time sorting the magnets on the door. That started because we couldn’t find the Hangeul ㄱ magnet for a word.

Eventually, we headed out and went to his Teuni Teuni class. Got there as they were doing the path and forward rolls. August was excited to go in. Walked the path once and calmly told the teacher “No forward roll.” Class was about ropes today. We first got a rope with handles on each end to play with – working on winding and swinging motions, pulling, etc. We then set them on the floor and the kids were jumping over them. August liked this (and reminded me how he couldn’t jump at all that long ago).

Next was a walking path made of elastic bands just a few inches above the ground. They would stretch to the ground, so it made a sort of tricky walking path as you tried to not trip on them. August wanted to do it on his own, without me holding on, which caused a bit of a traffic jam of kids behind him. I notice that regularly, and with all the activities he was into today, where he/we tend to take our times on things, while other people are rushing by.

Anyway, he did the path a second time, all on his own, while everyone else moved on to these boards with big jellyfish on them. The tentacles were actually ropes that went through a hole and hung down both sides of the board. There were stoppers on the end, so you couldn’t pull them out. Half the kids went on one side, and the other kids went on the other side. You would pull the ropes, only to have them get pulled back the other way. August loved that. The teacher then set up the next course, and August was the last one left pulling on the ropes.

The next thing involved lowering a then pulling (another motion) a rope to catch a candy with a magnet. They then crawled through the stretchy net things, now placed vertically. All was going well until August dropped his candy as he crawled through the first net. He was reaching for it when another mom – maybe not realizing where it came from – grabbed it and put it in the box at the end. August didn’t know what had happened, and he wanted that one. Held him for a minute then he was ready to go again.

Finally, there was an obstacle course where they went over the walking path again, climbed up aboard at an angle and jumped off.

At the end of class we got these vacuum cleaner sort of toys where you catch balls in it. August then got his two treats and handstamps on both hands. He got the treats then went back and held his hand out until the teacher got the idea and got out the stamp.

We went home for lunch. Asked what he wanted and he said salmon sandwich. That was convenient as it was what I had in mind. I made that and he played with magnets. He said “Zinnie likes P because it is for pink. Zinnie likes pink. Your favorite is pink.” He was then hiding a magnet, then going in the other room while I looked: “Ill stay in there until you find it.”

We ate then headed out with the stroller for a nap. He was asleep in 5 minutes. Went to the women’s center coffee shop and he slept from 1:42 to 2:59.

We walked from there east and behind Toys R Us to a park we’d never been to. A cool structure, shaped like a spaceship. Never played on it though. He sat in the stroller and had a snack, and when he got out he found a stick and wanted to write. We spent most of our time writing Korean in the sand around the badminton courts. He corrected me once, when I accidentally wrote 의 instead of 와 (for ‘and’). We worked on some verbs and simple sentences in Korean. At one point he was running around and declared “I’m having fun.” For the last 15 minutes or so he wanted to actually type Korean, so we sat on a bench and he typed on the iPad while I asked Carly what she wanted from the store. We got a reply from her and got ready to go. August at first didn’t like the idea of going to the store, but I said we could get something for the sick boy. He liked that, and a minute later put together the sentence “We can find a slurpy thing for the sick little boy.”

We walked to the pink building and did our shopping. He got out of the stroller and got his pineapple jello thing, then helped push the stroller and put things on the conveyor belt. As we left he was helping push but tripped on the wheel and fell. Not crying, but wanted to be picked up. He was a bit sad as we walked out and I talked about all the stuff we had done today. I mentioned I had gotten a lot of good work done at the coffee shop while he slept. He said “Zinnie do lot of good work at home. Art is my work.”

We were home a little after Carly. He ate the slurpy thing, and then declared that “Indigo is my favorite.” So no longer pink. He sang some lines from the Silent E song, then wanted to watch Pooh. He kept saying the Tigger line “not enough pictures/colors” and wanted to know what it meant.

I gave him a bath. He was trying to spell words and there was a word that needed two ‘d’s in the middle (well, like that). Oh, it was puddle. Anyway, I told him he could pretend with just the one. He kept saying/asking if he could do it with just one letter. Something about that exchange made him sad, and he wanted to go nurse. But we hadn’t started washing him yet. Made it through that with only a light washing of the hair and took him in to Carly. He wouldn’t tell me why he was sad, and he never told Carly about it either.

They nursed, then he was typing on her computer. He said “You have lots of important work to do.” He would type a bunch and point at it and say “What is that!?”

Carly saw the Teuni Teuni toy, which we hadn’t used yet, so she opened it and put it together and they played with it a bit. I then took him in to bed and he and I read books. We bought LMNO Peas and read that, then some Pete the Cat. He then saw me rearrange a couple books in iBooks and he wanted to do that. He put all the Biscuit books together, etc. and then messed them all up. Carly came in and he was ready for sleep. He was asleep about 9:30.

Typing LMNOP: 

Jumping over the rope:

– 

– https://youtu.be/7CCSmUaDDv4

The tricky path on his own: 

The jellyfish rope thing: 

Air drying his hands: 

Made up silent e – dak to dake: 

I have a lot of important work to do: 

New Teuni toy: 

Sorting books on the iPad: 

Tricky path

Stamp pad fun

Writing Hangeul

Helping push

His bruise as he watches Pooh

Photos. Fox in the cave: 

Stamp pad: 

Snack: 

Tracing “is nursing”: 

Hangeul in the park: 

Home Plus: 

Bruise: 

7:27. Walked out and sat on the Smurf thing. His first words were “Where’s Jokey Smurf?” A bit wheezy like yesterday. I laid back on the reading area, and he came up and laid down next to me for a few minutes. A woman at APIS had given Carly a bag of books, and August and I read Five Minutes Peace and All in One Piece by Jill Murphy and a little Amelia Bedelia and the Cat. While talking about “raining cats and dogs” he came up with “cats and anise” and “cats and stories”

Out to his iPad to type in search in iBooks. At one point he ran in the kitchen and said “Why you in the kitchen?” I asked and he said “16 g?????” I asked him to repeat the mystery word. At one point he said something like “I don’t know the word.” And I got out of him that he thought it started with ‘g’. Eventually he went back to the typing.

He switched to Hangeul, and we tapped out the tempo of the characters. He wanted to do art, and said “Want to do lots of work.” He was doing art while I showered, then got out the glass markers and colored with those. From there it was “Want to type on Skype.” He sent a lot of messages. He recited the line “Look what I can do.” from the Controlling R song, although he still likes to joke that it is a ‘controlling K’. More Hangeul, and occasionally wiping his runny nose. At some point we read the Alphabet book. At the end, he wanted me to draw a zorilla. I drew one on the paper, and he said something like “Oops” or “Good job trying” and I was like “Hey. That is a pretty good zorilla.”

We were getting ready to go, and he randomly said “Want a rice burger.” We haven’t had one in quite awhile. Finally, before we left he made a “mosaic” of all the door magnets.

We left, stopping to get one rice burger, then took the subway up to Suraksan. Headed to a couple parks to the northeast, stopping at the second. Ate on a covered platform. He wanted ‘sh’ words and listed shoe, shock, and shaving on his own. We were then singing Ants Go Marching.

A very relaxing park, and I laid down for awhile, and he laid down with his head on my stomach for a minute. He was then sitting up, but still cuddling with me while eating an apple. Suddenly, a woman came along and started talking to us. I made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t welcome to interrupt us, but she kept talking and touching August and I think even our food (like she was going to feed him). I packed up our food and backpack. Finally, she moved off, motioning that I could lay back down.

August and I went up and played on the structure. He went back and forth on the shaky bridge thing a couple times. I went down the slides, but he didn’t. He saw a shape in the rubbery surface and called it a circle. I said it was more of a blob. He thought that was a funny word and wanted me to explain it. I used the example of squirting out mayonnaise. He thought this was even funnier, asking “what you squirt the mayonnaise about?” and laughing harder.

Earlier, on the platform, he had been doing some yoga, and from there I ended up saying “breath out, breath in.” Now, walking around the playground, he started repeating it and breathing in and out. Did it off and on for a few minutes.

We got ready to go and changed him. Just as we were about to go – and he was ready for a nap – a group of slightly older kids came to play. “Want to play with them.” He’s showing more awareness of who speaks Korean, as he next said something like “What they speak Korean about? What they not speak English about?” I told him we could stay and play, but he was tired, and just watched them from the platform for a few minutes, mainly on his hands and knees or lying down. We got walking at 1:20.

Walked up to the trailhead for Suraksan Mountain. Took a bridge across the stream to head back and we saw a cat. He said “it’s alone…what there no friends about?” Reading into the kids thing and that I’m thinking he could use some friends.

Actually took some time for him to fall asleep. We checked out a couple other parks in the process, and he finally fell asleep from 2:00 to 3:02. We went to a coffee shop we found called Once that had awesome metal tables. After we woke up, we walked south and east to two maps marked on the map. Along the way, we spotted several coffee shops and restaurants I marked for future reference. Later, back home, when Carly asked him what we did today, the first thing he said was “Found lots of coffee shop.” It was a nice area, and as we got to the end of the road I realized that Derek and I had walked through on our very first Seoul Trail walk.

The two park areas were small things – no playgrounds here. We stopped to get out a Larabar, but otherwise kept walking and headed home. As we walked, we played the fake Larabars ingredients game. August came up with a pretty good list: “computers…woman…music groups…tomatoes…”

We were home at 4:30 and August wanted to get straight to art: “Look at all those mosaic… want to do lots of work…I’m an expert at it (orange?)…I’m showing dada how to do art…”

Carly was home a bit after 5. He mentioned anise again and then wanted to smell spices. The two of them were skyping messages back and forth, like he and I had done yesterday. And he actually called her – his first skype call on his own. They nursed and read Pooh. I made banana bread, and he came over and said “Where’s the stool.” Then went on his own to the bathroom and brought it back. He helped pour a few things in and stir. He licked the spatula. When done he said “good night spatula sweet dreams.”

Back to skype. He wanted to ghost emoji, but it doesn’t show up on his iPad keyboard. So Carly taught him how to type it out. He wanted Hangeul on the keyboard, and Carly didn’t know how to do it, so he taught her. Perhaps the first reversal there.

I gave him a bath. After his bath, he decided to start calling the parlor the ‘play room’. Carly objected, but he said “no. I think it is the play room.” No idea where the ‘play room’ idea came from.

He was talking a lot, telling stories and about words: “you make it up…then a smurf came by and the smurf said play with the piano and the other smurf said no!” “Pufferfish is a tricky word.”

A bit later he said “your tummy feels sick.” The first time he’s said that. But when the banana bread was done he said “You did a good job waiting!” And then ate a couple slices.

Had a lot of fun with Siri, then was singing Ants Go Marching. Went in to nurse at 9:20. He mentioned again about his tummy not feeling well. He was playing around on the bed and we told him it was time for sleep. He said “The game’s all over. It’s closed for business.” They nursed for awhile, but it wasn’t working. They got up and read some Pooh and went back for try 2, which worked, at 10. 

Waking up: 

Tired before we even left: 

Park. Relaxing on me: 

Home. His skyping pose:

He slept nice and late. He came out at 8:44 and lay on the floor. He was wheezing and sounded stuffy. After awhile I got out the Smurf box thing that I had bought at Toys R Us last time and put in the closet. He liked the figures, and put them in the water, then out of it. He ended up really liking Jokey Smurf, and kept having him hurt the other Smurfs. Eventually we had to put Jokey in a timeout. He was then typing on Skype, sending messages to a bunch of people, then me. I was in one room and he was in the other and we were sending emojis and words back and forth. At some point we also played with Siri, and he ended up singing to Siri. I said we were going to Children’s Grand Park, but he initially did not want to go. He said “it’s too crowded.” He had us crunching fake lollipops at one point, and wanted me to sing the We Like to Make Mistakes song. Finally, we tried the new Sesame Street crackers that arrived the other day.

We got going. At the other station we were looking at the subway map, and he pointed out 오이도. He wanted to know why it said ‘cucumber’, as the first two syllables spell cucumber in Korean. Then, at GS25 August was reading out the Korean on the sandwich wrappers. The guy working there heard him and was impressed.

We went up to our rectangle pond for lunch. After we ate we spent time reading the Ants Go Marching book. He called one of the pages ‘periwinkle’. He was then singing Ants go Marching and walking around. He would choose random numbers, then fill in the “Little one stops to say…” part. He also acted out playing hide and seek and trying to find George.

From there we headed over to the playground. The goal was sidewalk chalk, but he saw the sand and wanted to play in that. I found a stick, and we ended up writing words. For some reason, he wanted ‘tion’ words, and we wrote words like ‘question’ and ‘action’. I asked him something, and he started acting like Siri: “Hmm. Good question. Let me think, Ryan…I’m Siri, I’m Siri, I’m Siri…”

He got was acting somewhat tired, so we changed him and got ready to go. I didn’t really expect a nap, but hadn’t mentioned the idea as I didn’t want him to actually attempt to avoid a nap. As we were getting ready to go he remembered sidewalk chalk and was sad. We walked for 30 minutes. He was silent and resting for much of it, but that was all he needed.

We went to the coffee shop about 2:30. I asked “Do you want a strawberry smoothie?”  He replied with another Siri line: “Hmm. Interesting question, Ryan.” We sat and shared the smoothie. He played with Hangeul on his iPad: “This is my favorite song…this was your old favorite…this is a new song I like.” Then in the magnets app he was filling the screen with letters: “what are you spelling? That’s super crazy!” “Look at that you typed! It’s crazy!” “You’re doing lots of work.”

We were there for a good hour. He then had the choice between sidewalk chalk and the children’s museum. He chose the sidewalk chalk. We got there and used the broom to sweep off some sand. He immediately started talking about ‘blending’ – he remembered from the girl who had made a rainbow last time. He started doing the chalk and talking to himself: “I’ll blend it.” “You’re making it nice and pretty.” He had been focusing on the name of the playground earlier:꿈틀꿈틀놀이타. He had said it maybe meant ‘catepillar playground’. Eventually I realized why he said that – in one of his videos from class there are caterpillars and they are crawling. 꿈틀 means crawling or wriggling or something of the sort. So I think it is in the song and he made the connection. Anyway, he wanted to write that in sidewalk chalk. He was mixing colors, and said “maroonish mixed with periwinkle” A bunch of other kids joined in and it was quite a party. Unlike that one time, when no one asked or said thank you for the chalk, this time a mom, after they had been using the chalk for a long time, suddenly asked if it was ours and was then very apologetic. Overly so. She and the other moms kept letting their kids use the chalk, but every time they changed colors, they would have their kids come and hand the piece of chalk back to August. August was rather confused why the other kids and the moms kept shoving new pieces of chalk in his hands. Anyway, near the end he was making a bunch of deliberate lines and said “I’m writing Japanese…” Then he made an ‘e’ on top of a Hangeul ‘ㅜ’ He said “that’s an ‘e’ sitting on a ‘ㅜ’…” He then decided the ㅜ was an iron: “that’s an iron…burned the e…the mama was ironing…”

It was past 4:30 and time to go. Other kids had all come and gone with the chalk, but August was still going. It was hard to get him away. Eventually I convinced him to head home to her. As we left the park, there was a man playing guitar and singing. August wondered why he was by himself: “What he alone about?” August was then clapping along to the music, and really liked clapping at the end of songs. We listened to two. The second included some yodeling. Probably August’s first yodeling experience.

As we headed out, August was saying “dinosaur” repeatedly in his George voice. Then, he was speaking ‘smurf’: “then smurf up to the smurf”. I used the phrase ‘that doesn’t ring a bell’ on the subway, and he thought that was funny and wanted to know what it meant. I used names to explain ‘rings a bell’ and ‘doesn’t ring a bell’. He caught on, and started naming people, and making up names…he came up with Opa, uncle paul, and Megan.

As we crossed the road by the pink building, I suddenly heard him say “oops oops oops…” He had pulled out the stick and dropped it. We retrieved it and as we kept walking I said “Good use of ‘oops’.” He said something about making a mistake and “you did a bunch of oops.”

We were late getting home. He nursed, then wandered into the parlor and was playing with the Smurfs by himself, talking to himself as he did so. Really clear imaginative play going on. Later, he talked like Siri again, saying “It seems that I cut you off. Please repeat.” He did a lot of singing of Ants Go Marching, did more of his George voice, and did a lot of drawing on his own. I gave him a bath. After that, it was a pretty straightforward bedtime, with him going to sleep at 8:05. Pretty good for a no-nap day.

 

Photos: 

Counting to ten: 

Shaking his head: 

The last two chalkers: 

He was up at 7:22. Silently walked into the parlor, and curled up on the reading area when he didn’t find Carly. I went and sat by him. After a few minutes he sat up and sort of slid off the reading area. His first word was “Hug”, which he said a couple times. So I leaned over and hugged him. His next words were requesting to watch Peppa Pig. So we watched some Peppa Pig together. We watched the story where George goes to play group with her. After that story, August was asking what a word meant, but I didn’t know what he was saying. We went back and watched it again, and it was Peppa saying ‘colour’. August didn’t understand her accent on it. I noticed he was a bit stuffy, but we talked about our day, and he still wanted to go to the aquarium. He did some writing on paper, then playing with door magnets. He wanted Siri, and we talked to her a couple times during the day. Then skyped with my parents for a little over a half hour. They got to see the nice bruise on his bottom from falling on my mug the other day. He spent much of the time typing and sending emojis to them.

We got ready to go and finally headed for the aquarium. I had asked him what animals he wanted to see, and he had repeated pufferfish, manatees, moray eels…basically the same list we had come up with last night. Did the walk from Cheongdam to the COEX Mall. As we walked the stairs down into the mall, he said “you’re going to touch the spoon worms today.” We stopped at the same bench and ate a little lunch, but he was in a hurry to get to the aquarium.

We went in only to find there’d be no pufferfish today – the first set of tanks was closed. We found everything else on our list though. We were in for maybe a little over an hour. Went more quickly through the first few sections, until we got to the touch lab. Spent a lot of time with the sea stars and shells, and I lifted him up for the spoon worms. We found the moray eel, and he waved to that. And we got to a beaver sorting through pieces of wood and pulling a piece around. And when we went through the funny fish tanks section, he pointed out the phone booth one and laughed about it. Looking at a tank that was supposed to be like the Great Barrier Reef, there was a many-tentacled we really liked. He looked at that for quite awhile and sang the ABC song. The last place we stopped was at the penguins, and we watched them swim for a couple minutes.

Sat out by the lockers in the aquarium entrance and ate some crackers. August started acting out the Peppa Pig hide and seek story. He’s pretty cute when he scrunches his eyes shuts and counts to ten. He was then looking for George in the lockers. He had me join in a bit. We changed him in the changing room there, then got going.

Walked east from the mall, and he fell asleep soon enough. Found a coffee shop attached to a pen and notebook store. He slept from 2:06 to 3:35. He woke up, looked around, and said “you found an L word”, pointing up to ‘Lanybook’ in the pen/notebook shop. “Two Os…make oooh.”

We got going. Walked up the hill and through the park and playground, but he didn’t want to get out. I specifically asked about all the different toys, and he said no. So we headed home. We went to Home Plus, mainly for parmesan cheese. He was talking about ‘glitch’ for some reason, and I commented about that being a word in a Figure sound, though I couldn’t remember the whole name. He said “maybe the Figure sound is glitch berries.” He spotted jelly drink things, so I let him get an orange one for us to split. We paid and headed home. Outside, he started talking about electric carpets, and said “electric carpet goes bzzzzt.” Don’t know where that all came from, although we had talked about the electric eel earlier.

At home, I had some pear and prune juice, which he jokingly calls “parrot and prune juice”. Carly got home, and a bit later Megan and Torrey came over for some tax advice. We had just told him about Megan, so at first he only wanted her there. But then I suggested hide and seek, and Megan hid from him, and he was excited about that. I talked to Torrey, and Megan played with August. After awhile we were all in the parlor. August wanted to know what piano was in Korean, so I told him. Megan tried to write it, but didn’t have it quite right, and I showed her. August took the opportunity to tell Megan “Good job trying Megan…good job trying Megan right there…” He said it several times.

After they left, we had a good time playing with Siri. Got her to sing a couple times. He was with Carly for awhile, then upset when he tried to get my iPad and I said no. Eventually, I gave him a bath. A hair washing day. He was in the parlor with Carly after that. Carly said something about moving to some country, and August had a different idea. He said “We can go to India and speak Chinese. That’s a great idea.”

Carly tried to put him to bed a bit before 9. Once again it was a two times out sort of evening, with me watching home while Carly tried to get to sleep. The first time they both came out. He closed and locked the door. Again he had said something about me getting a tissue, but that didn’t happen. He wanted to play in his bird nest, and I was feeding him a worm. Asked what it smelled like, and he looked up at the photos on the wall and said “smells like grampa…tastes like gramma.” Pretty sure that is a compliment, as his worms are always yummy things. He did some art, and Carly went to bed. He cleverly remembered that Siri was also on my watch, and started playing with that. We read the Peppa ballet book and Peppa’s Windy Fall Day.

I took him in to bed, saying it was past 10. He asked what that meant and I explained. In the bedroom, he looked at the clock and read/said the time: 10:02, then said “it’s past 10”. Carly got up for a minute a bit later. August still seemed pretty hyper when she tried to get him to lay back down with her, so I asked if he needed to come cuddle with me. He said yes. I picked him up, and started whispering to me for the next few minutes. He was talking about wanting to go outside. I just held him and he put his head on my shoulder as we walked around. I told him to close his eyes and try to go to sleep, and he closed his eyes and whisper counted, like in hide and seek, and then made sleeping noises. He wanted to get down on the reading area. I wouldn’t let him do anything but lie down or cuddle. Did that for a few minutes, then he wanted to go back to bed with mama. Finally, he was asleep at 10:30.

 

A fox, I think: 

Aquarium. Pretending to feed them: 

Touch area: 

Waving to the moray eel: 

Walking through: 

Shirt at Home Plus: 

Home: 

Siri: 

Hide and seek:

Bird nest: 

Admiring his work: 

At some point during the night he was really laughing in his sleep. He turned the light on a little before 7, waking me up. He went out to Carly and I went back to sleep. They skyped with Vivian for quite awhile. I heard her telling him knock knock jokes: “…Lettuce.” But he replied “Lettuce is a vegetable.” Carly was then having him say “That’s funny, Vivian.” After I was up, we did piano keys together. He then saw the name on the xylophone, and wanted to write it on paper. So we took the xylophone in the parlor and did that, then did more writing. That led to the Hangeul, which led to looking things up on Google Translate, which led to him making Korean syllables on the magnet app, which led to him giving me a lecture about the ㄱ and the subtleties of its ‘g’/’k’ sounds in the onset and coda positions. Really. After that he switched to Loopimal and was doing some dancing. A bit later, Carly discovered that Siri is now on her computer, so the two of them were playing with that. A couple of the random things he asked Siri: “How many pockets Siri wants?” And “What’s a bow wow called in the morning?”

He and I did some of the Peter Rabbit puzzle while Carly went to the store. He managed to get on my iPad, typing, but was then in the app store. He would click on an app and find it funny when I said “Are you trying to get apps?” He was writing on the paper, and saying “That is a toy you play with when you’re 77 hundred years old” and pointing to the ceiling (because obviously you would be really tall by the time you are that old). He fell backwards and just clipped his tailbone or butt on my coffee mug. It slid backwards, barely spilling any tea, but must have hurt him a bit. He noticed Carly was gone and wanted to go outside and find her at the store. I got us dizzy, and he cheered up. He then wanted to go back to the parlor and work on Korean workbooks. Did that until Carly got home, then he went and startled her by screaming when he saw her. He wanted to nurse, and fell asleep from 12:25 to 1:29.

Carly had been making nutty noodles, and August had some before we left. I took him outside so she could do some work. Except it had started to rain, and August didn’t want to leave Carly. Got him out the door about 3:15, and he wasn’t happy about it. It was pretty wet out – too wet for a playground – and after dropping off compost I initially told August we could go back up. But then I suggested we do a quick walk by the stream, and he didn’t object, so we walked that way, singing A ah Apples and Ants go Marching. He kept asking to go home, so we were headed back, but then I remembered the shows were closing at the Buk.

He liked the idea of heading there, so we went to the museum, and first to the play area. He climbed up into it, and managed to get over the turning thing. He said “The baby fox did it” He got stuck coming back, but eventually did it, and said it again. Still acting like a baby fox, he curled up and said “baby fox is sleeping” and “baby fox is hiding in the sand.” And he said I was dada fox. He had me feed him fox food through the netting, and was also a fish at one point, wanting fish food.

We then went to look at art. Went downstairs to the children’s gallery, but it isn’t a children’s show for the next couple months. There was one piece – a chalkboard and tons of chalk dust – that we both liked though. Went back up into the main galleries. Our main reason to go was to see the blow up waving people things, as it was their last day. Alas, they weren’t turning on anymore. But we looked around a bit, and ended up upstairs, where he listened to/watched the one with headphones and words going across the floor. Did that for quite awhile, and did some dancing.

At home he opened the door back up to look out in the hall to “check to see if something wrong.” Don’t know where that came from. Ate nutty noodles for dinner, then was with Carly and looking at our Asia puzzle. He said “Jeff wants to go to Kazakhstan…Zinnie wants to go to Mongolia.” And was talking about other countries. We had talked about going back to the Buk at 6 for a concert that was being set up, but he decided he wanted to stay home. He worked on his art, then was singing Ants Go Marching, with the little one stopping to say “How bout we get some coffee?” He wanted to watch Peppa Pig, and we watched the Polly Parrot story, and he really liked the hide and seek one, getting excited when Peppa hid from George. He went back and watched it a few times. He got frustrated when I wouldn’t let him use Siri, and ended up nursing. We read some Peppa Pig and the new cat book that was on sale on the iBooks store – Tiptop Cat. He ate some more nutty noodles.

He was saying something silly and I said “that doesn’t ring a bell” and he found that really funny. I gave him a bath. At some point after that “aye caramba” came up and he really liked that as well. He wanted Siri again but it was time for bed. Read more Peppa (kind of a constant nowadays) and 123 Peas, then Carly tried to put him to sleep. He got up after awhile, telling her he wanted me to help with the snot. But when he got out to me, he actually whispered to me that he wanted to talk to Siri. Carly had gotten up as well, and they tried again. But he came back out about 9:30. I read a little, but mainly we looked up Korean words from his notebook. I took him back in and he was asleep about 10.

 

Photos. Are you trying to get apps?:

Baby fox sleeping: 

Back home: 

Watching Peppa Pig: 

W on his head: 

He was up very early, at 5:30, just a bit after Carly was up. I believe they skyped with Chuck and Cherie at some point, and did math: He was writing really big numbers and Carly started to show him how to put commas in. Also, he wrote a subtraction problem that went into the negatives, so she drew a number line and introduced that. I was up around 7. He was making words out of magnets, and of one said “Maybe that’s an awesome music group.” We read Peppa Pig, the swimming and ballet ones, while Carly took down recycling. After she got back, he kicked me out of the parlor: “Dads go out there.” They read Pooh and nursed. He was then doing the shape matching game on the iPad, but wanted Carly to finish the actual shapes, so he could do the art/decorating part after each one. He had kind of a new whining sound to him as he was asking her to do this, saying “help mama. Help mama. Help mama.”

He took an early nap, and not an incredibly long one at that: 10:05 to 11:15. When he came out he was wide awake and ready to play, going straight to the iPad, and not mentioning nursing. On the iPad he was doing the Hangeul letters, holding them down so they repeated their sounds over and over. He was then asking me for their tempos. I used the metronome app we downloaded a few days ago to tap out the tempo and he could read off the BPM. He was then using the magnet app, writing Korean words, and learning the proper names of the Hangeul characters. We pulled up the page on Wikipedia that let us read them as well. Spent several minutes on that.

At one point he got up, grabbed my cough drops of the table, and hid them behind the backpack. Pretty random, but he found it funny, and did it a few times later as well. I was asking him why he hid them, and he answered with a chant,  “me, po, do, gu…boom, kablooie…” then started running back and forth in the house and singing. He then went back to making up Korean words: “Maybe that is a toy you play with when you are seven.”

We went for a walk at 1. We needed to pick up cookies at Subway for our dinner later. August was singing ABC songs much of the way. At Subway he was happy to spot a 웨 on a sign. We went to Eunji Park, and August spotted animals on a railing, and called “Rabbit, kinkajou!” He sat with Carly and ate some of her sandwich, and was saying “want mild!” He was remembering the last time we got Subway and they talked about the sandwich being mild. There was a girl that was talking to us, and she said she was 7. August decided to insist that she was 6, and kept saying ‘6’ and pointing at her. A couple of women were also there, and we found out that one of them was from Mongolia. She had a daughter. The woman was a bit touchy with August and he didn’t like that, but otherwise we all kind of talked and played on the structure. The Korean woman helped August pronounce the park sign in Korean. August was asking who spoke Korean and who spoke English. To Carly he said “You speak Korean mama?” She said she spoke Spanish. He said  “You speak oops words.” Carly asked “Do you speak oops words?” And he said “A little.”

We headed home. I rested and they did big numbers and typing. After that, we were getting ready to leave. August didn’t really want to leave – seemed a little nervous about going and meeting Logan and family. Closed the door to the parlor at one point. But convinced him with the idea of going down and getting ice cream and it being a secret.

We headed out and stopped at Baskin Robbins. Subway had been out of chocolate chip cookies earlier, and now Baskin Robbins was out of chocolate ice cream. Got a coffee and chocolate flavor. We walked over and took the bus to Wolgye, and walked to the park where Derek was playing with the kids. August played with Logan’s dump truck and we found beads and he buried them in the sand. I pushed Logan on the swing a bit. Jill came, and had Logan’s tricycle. Carly and I took turns pushing August on it. At some point August said “enjoy yourself”, which he said was from Pooh. We check later, and it is. He also said to himself “you’re a good climber…you’re a good builder.”

Derek and I walked to Paris Baguette to get buns and drinks for dinner. Carly and Jill took the kids, and were playing at the playground outside the apartment when we got there. August had been kind of upset and wanting to nurse, but the climbing wall thing cheered him up. He was reading the sign on the building in Korean and said it maybe meant “People Building”, then he wanted to go see Logan’s toys in it. He changed his mind and didn’t want to go inside, but I convinced him with a reminder of the ‘secret’ ice cream.

Inside he played with random toys. Logan had stickers and was putting insect stickers on Carly, and August joined in with that. He got Logan’s scissors, and pinched his hand in them and was bleeding. Carly had to nurse him, and he wasn’t happy about washing his hand off. But no need for a bandaid. He liked the rolls, but didn’t eat much BBQ pork. Finally, he said “Want to go home…want mama and zinnie and dada to go home.” His sign for being tired. So quickly to dessert. He was excited about sharing a raspberry cookie with me, and more excited when we let him eat some of the ice cream.

He did fine on the walk home in the backpack, singing numbers songs. We stopped for milk, then were home about 7:45. Carly made him some eggs and broccoli and he watched that. He went to the iPad, saw the Pooh book, and was singing lines of “Coddlestone Pie”. He ate his eggs, and quoted the Peppa Pig ballet book, saying “our favorite dance was the pas de deux”. We skipped a bath – I was amazed he had made it this late – but I got our toothbrushes out and brushed his teeth. He went to sleep a bit before 9.

He was up at 6, and Carly was already up. When I got up a bit later he was hungry, and I made us some toast. After Carly left, we read some Winnie the Pooh, then watched the bookends episode of the Winnie the Pooh cartoon again before switching to watching Spanish songs. He played with the door magnets and we ate quesadilla and banana. We made a couple letters out of Duplos, then I rested while he played on the iPad. A bit later I was feeling better, and started talking to him about our day. I got as far as saying “I was thinking…” and he said “Kwangwoon University”. But first we were looking up the songs from the Hangeul up on YouTube, and watching the videos. He started singing to “Tell Me” and dancing to “Wolf”. He watched some phonics/words songs, and while watching the “Controlling R” song (https://youtu.be/lIGDpEVPzCw) he saw a horn on an animal and wanted to see one for real today. He was a bit upset when I said we probably wouldn’t today. We brushed our teeth, and he picked up my toothbrush and wanted to brush my teeth. He looked in my mouth as he did so and said “Ooh, teeth look very messy.” He was then doing a lot of art, only using the red pastel, and managed to get it on his hands and then on the chair and pillow and floor. He was happy to wash his hands in the sink though. Finally, before we left he was talking about counting jars of honey and pockets and handkerchiefs: “and one jar for a hankerchief”

We took the #9 bus to Kwangwoon University. Bought some kimbap and juice and a sandwich for lunch and walked up to a little park, 연천내어린이공원, and sat and ate lunch. Had fun joking around on the couch, then he was getting tired…I know when he’s ready for a nap because he asks if we can go home. Headed off and walked up to the top of the university and walked around campus until he fell asleep. Walked down to the main road and found a coffee shop, 베르데, where he slept from 12:24 to 1:41.

We walked up along the stream a bit and found the playground at the southwest corner of 영축산근린공원. That is the big hill south of APIS. August and I walked over it once a long time ago. We started writing in the sand. He is focused on final consonant sounds in Korean, and said “it more makes a t sound to me.” He wanted to write ‘sometimes’ and then we were talking about English words and he wanted to list words that end in K, have OO, etc. He was also saying Kwangwoon University in Korean. We stopped and had a snack, then played on the play structure a bit. There were two older boys, and they found a shovel and brought it over to August. He started playing with it, and was trying to pour sand on them. We did some talking with the boys – they told us their names. We played on the slide a bit, then after the boys left August wanted to write their names (the best we remembered them) in the sand. August also spelled ‘pig’.

We walked home, north to the main street, then the usual way home. August was singing a song, and said it was a spider song. I didn’t catch the connection. Then he said “Maybe got-me” means ‘spider’. It took me a moment to realize that he was correct, having remembered it from class the other day. We spent most of the rest of the walk singing Ants Go Marching. At one point he said they go marching “in the usual way” (a Pooh quote). Then he started to give insanely long numbers and explanations, like “go marching 8 billion 5 million 11 trillion 6 hundred 5 in a car in a tree…”

Got home at 3:45. He started coloring on the paper, and just making art – that is, not just writing letters, but choosing different colors and drawing abstract lines. He was really focused on that for a long time. He kept saying things like “Look at all that nice art…I did lots of art for dada.” “I’m doing lots of work.” I laid down on the reading area to rest, and he came and laid down with me for a minute, curling under my left arm. We got ready to go back out to Home Plus, and just as we were changing him to go he decided he wanted to watch Peppa Pig. He was sad when I said no, and we almost didn’t go. But finally I said he could push all the buttons along the way, and that got him. Nice how that worked, as he pushes all the buttons anyway.

At Home Plus he wanted to crawl on the floor. But got him back and we ordered pizza, then did our other shopping. Wanted to crawl on the floor, but I got him back by the pizza place and he played on a table and chair there, then played with the swinging door and marveled at the pizza oven and its lights and buttons. Got our pizza, then he laid on the floor while I paid for our groceries. Then I was holding him, and he kept asking if he could nurse, and reaching down my shirt. I carried him home, with the pizza propped on the stroller.

We got home a bit after Carly. I had some pizza and went to lie down. They nursed, read some Pooh, did some art, and played on the iPad. I heard them singing  “I like to make mistakes…” I came out, and played some Classify It with him, then he took a bath with her. He was then getting out of the bath to draw one of his bath words, then explaining what it was, then going back in the bath to make another word: MRBHI “…goes past the museum we have not been to…to the university…transfers there…goes up to the sky…” KXA “that’s a snake…that’s a centimapede…and that is that…” “PT is a kind of snake” Carly had drawn something, and August called it a ‘superworm’. He then started to call Carly ‘Carly’, and was doing it repeatedly: “How you doing Carly. Hey Carly, where’s your computer? Hey Carly, you’re messy.”

A bit later, while Carly was taking a shower, he went to the window and was looking out: “I’m thinking a sad thing…sad thing right there…a man…likes to smoke a piglet on a stage…” Got him to bed a bit later, and he was asleep about 9:00.

 

Being lazy: 

Waiting for pizza: 

Studying the pizza oven: 

On the floor at Home Plus: 

A long sleep…he didn’t come out until 8:52. And quite the routine he has going on. Once again he laid down on the carpet, and didn’t speak for several minutes. His first words came at 8:58 when he started sounding out the ‘fort’ sign. From there moved to the paper, where we were sounding out and writing Korean words like 포로로 and 포비 and our names in Korean. We read one Peppa Pig book, but my voice couldn’t handle much, so I suggested we watch Peppa Pig instead. Pulled up Netflix on the iPad, but then he saw Daniel Tiger, and we watched the first episode of that. He was quite into it, asking lots of questions. Also, the second story in it is the doctor book we have, so that was fun. From there we did apps and art, and got ready to go to class. He wanted to read the Pooh section on pockets, and he now insists that it is “71 pockets” Finally, I asked him what we should do later, and he said “Maybe we can go to Kwangwoon University…fort museum.”

Headed out to class and got there a little late. It was all about shopping – they pushed little shopping carts around, scanned items on a scanner that beeped: “later…orange juice…lots of noise.” In this case he liked the lot of noise that the scanner was making. Also, near the beginning of class he was talking about me smoking plastic. Not quite sure where that all came from. I asked him where he got that, and I thought he said something about the no smoking signs. The teacher was talking, so I didn’t really follow up on that. August didn’t do a forward roll again, but at the end of class did a great job of saying bye bye and thank you and bowing to the teacher – going back multiple times to get it all done.

After class we were walking out, and August decided to start crawling through Home Plus and singing. Then he was on his hands and feet, then on just his knees, then lying down…then he was doing circles while on his hands and feet. We walked over to the closest part of the park (by the water faucets) and he did more crawling. He also spotted graffiti on a rock and was reading that, then spent a lot of time sounding out the Hangeul on an inscription on a plaque.

At home he went straight to a poster and was reading it. He said “dada practice Korean”. He went to the paper and wrote 배 (off the poster – means boat and stomach) and was doing art: “Look at that art. It’s red.” We made a salmon sandwich and ate that, and read some Pooh. He then wanted the iPad: “I’ll do what music group, okay? I’ll be right back.” Went in the parlor and closed the door, then brought it out and played out here. No nap for him, but I needed a rest. I laid on the couch and he sat/laid on me and watched his word songs on YouTube. He let me doze off for awhile and rest, although he wanted me to look at things a couple times.

I was feeling better, so in the afternoon we got in the stroller and went out for a walk. We got Mama Juice (he wouldn’t hear of going to King Kong Juice). He got orange pineapple and I got a coffee. Got up to Chrysanthemum Park and played there. He climbed up the climbing wall, sat at the top, came down with my help (working on getting down), went back up, and then did the route around the top. He did much of the rope bridge by himself, then got a bit scared and needed my help. Made it, then did the wood bridge and got to the part around the platform. I climbed up on another portion and helped him just a little to get down to the platform. There, he laid down and did a lot of talking. A couple of other kids came and were getting on it, and he initially said “No” to them (strikes me that this is the first he’s really told someone ‘no’ since I taught him to say it to his Teuni Teuni teacher – he also said “No no no” today when he did the walking path, but then didn’t want to do the forward roll). I told him he had to share and he was okay with it. He also started talking about Smurfs, and was asking them how to climb.

He went down the slide, then we spent some time writing Korean in the sand before heading out. We walked over by the stadium. He spotted the globe thing and we were sad to find out that someone had vandalized it, breaking off the handles that let you open it up and scratching off some of the ocean. I pointed out where Oma and Opa were, and then he had fun pointing to spots on the globe and asking who lived there. Was able to give him a few people. I told him someone lived in Indonesia, and he was trying to figure out which island “Maybe it’s this one. Maybe…”

Headed home. Carly was home when we got there. August told her about our juice and coffee. I went to take a rest, but August was acting very tired and started crying. I came back out after awhile. He recovered, and took a good bath with Carly. He came out wearing his froggy towel and kneeled on the floor and was writing in the air. He made it until 7:15 and went to sleep.

 

Thinking about Hangeul: