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Skyped with Vivian in the morning. I heard them talking about ballet dancing and the Tallulah books, and doing some dancing. A bit later he was playing with Carly and gave her a blueberry fish: “A blueberry fish doesn’t need to be cooked.” They then used tape to tape together all the leftover plastic spoons and straws into an invention. He told me “Don’t take my cool machine.”

Carly moved out the donations to the hallways and I made pancakes and August and I ate them. Carly then took him outside. They took down the fan and the vacuum cleaner to the recycling area. They didn’t have to pay for them. They then went over to the playground, where Carly got to see him do the tube slide on his own several times. She hadn’t really seen that. And they also went to Dunkin Donuts and got a bagel and cream cheese. They were home at 9:45.

He was sitting in the parlor, playing with the cord to the lamp, having the plastic piece on it slide on it like a slide. When he started to try to plug it in instead, I went and got the friends that we were going to pack and tossed them to him and he was going crazy with them on the floor. We then got ready to head to Children’s Grand Park for the last time. He got his omega-3 vitamins bottle and was playing with it. There were only a few left, enough for today and a couple extra. He was trying to get them out, but I didn’t think he could, as they stick to the bottom. I can barely get them out with my fingers. But he managed to get them and ate them all. Carly made a peanut butter sandwich but didn’t know how we make our sandwiches exactly.

We were talking about using up what was in the cupboards and I said I was the king of using up ingredients. He said “No. I’M the king of using up ingredients.”

We headed out and first took a bus up to Nowon. We went to the tea place, August commented on it being open this time. He spotted a sushi place with a conveyor belt and we watched it and talked about how eating there works: “That’s a conveyor belt?” At the tea places we had two iced teas and August really liked both of them. We talked about making iced tea in Israel.

We then walked over to the KT Olleh office and I cancelled my cell phone. While I did that they looked around and there was an exercise bike that he played on. It had buttons on the handles and he pretended they sprayed coffee and other things:  “it sprays coffee” When I was done he wanted to stay there and keep playing on the bike, but I convinced him to get going to the park. Carly took him to the bathroom, and he used the hand dryer as it was quiet, and was talking about it when they came out. We left at 11:40

In Nowon station we looked at an optical illusion – tiles that made cubes on the wall. As we went down the escalator we looked at the stained glass above us and he said “That’s dada’s favorite piece of art?” On the train they read Tallulah’s Tutu and Carly asked if he wanted to be in the audience or on stage. He said “On stage…mama wear red, Zinnie wears green.” They then read two Peppa books.

At the park he didn’t want to get lunch and wanted to go straight to the children’s museum instead. Talked him into it though and we headed to the same place. We got a shrimp burger and cheese sticks again and ate outside this time. He stood in line with a school group, then went over to see a baby, then he and the big sister ran around and chased pigeons. He really liked the ketchup.

We got to children’s museum at 1:30. Went down to the blue blocks, where he wanted to sit in the window thing and I built a set of steps for him. Then a rather timid girl came along. He asked “Can I build with you?” But then he started to get too rough and I had to take him away. We went and played with the airport machine, then Carly pushed him around in a wheelchair, then we did the robot together. August was turning two wheels at once. Went back to the blue blocks, and there was a boy that he did a better job of playing with. August was going a bit wild, using one of the long ones and climbing around saying “pee, pee, pee” when he fell off the blocks. He somehow ended up with a small scratch under his nose. They were then looking through the holes of the blue blocks, and August was saying “There’s nothing in there. It’s black.” The boy eventually left, and August had fun knocking everything down. He got one for Carly: “Mama. You can have one. I’ll get you one.”

Went to the bathroom, went into the spaceship game and actually got to play it. And he was paying more attention than me about what you do because he said  “Don’t take my aliens…I don’t want that alien.” On a computer screen where you can decorate a face he put a bandaid on to match the cut on his face. Went back to the spaceship and he and Carly played the spaceship game together. We headed to the water area at 3.

Watched him play a bit, then I headed over to the upstairs coffee shop and got a drink. They went to the construction site and played with the brick conveyor belt. They came over to the coffee shop a little before 4. He got an apple juice and chose a table with the comfy chairs. We sat there and I found the counting book he used to like. He said “I still like it. I always like it.”

On our way out he wanted to look at the little garden place again. They had stopped to look on the way over too. He pulled the cup up from the dirty water in the little fake well area.

On the way home we had to stop and get off once when he hit the arm of a woman next to him. He and Carly then read Harold and The Purple Crayon and something else. We were home at 5:20.

At home I made a smoothie. As he drank it he said “I like cold things. Not warm things. Not hot things.” He wanted to play in the sink and when he realized his stool was gone he got upset. Really upset. I dragged the table over and got him to stand on that instead.

A bit later he was standing, looking out the window and said “If there was nobody down there…nothing…there’d be pipes?” We’ve talked a lot about the pipes underground and was thinking about them.

I put on the Smurfs and gave him a shower. Took a little convincing, but it went okay. We got him in and asleep at 7:15.

Photos. Exercise bike at the cell phone store: 

Leading a line of kids at Children’s Grand Park: 

Cheese stick: 

Staircase: 

Video game: 

One last visit to the coffee shop: 

He was up sometime after 6. He was on a roll with Carly this morning. He pointed out the set of hooks on the bathroom door. We might have just left those behind if he hadn’t pointed them out. Then, they were doing bubbles and Carly commented on it being tippy, and he suggested taping it down, so they did. Finally, he was drinking milk and eating banana bread and had the idea of dipping it in the milk.

Recently he hasn’t been too warm to me when I wake up. He’s concerned that seeing me means that Carly’s going to work. So instead of saying “Go away” or “I don’t like dada.” we’ve been working on what else he can say. Today he was on the toilet, and told me “I want some quiet time…I ALWAYS want some quiet time.” He was then playing in the room with all the stuff and he was making a thing from the Popsicle makers and said “I wanted some private time to make this.”

At 8 they took down recycling, which took a couple loads. After the second load they went to the park and played on the exercise equipment. They got Carly a sandwich and went to check on the bank to see when it opened. And they went past that room by the movie theater with rides in it and he played around in there and went on one. Played there about 15 minutes, but didn’t seem too thrilled with the ride. Glad she took him though, as I’d been meaning to let him go on one.

They came back, and the plan was for Carly to go to the bank first, alone. But August, being a bit angsty, wanted to go too. So we all went. He was doing really well sitting with us and waiting, so we went ahead and started with closing my accounts. Kind of a mistake, as later the teller told us Carly couldn’t transfer all of the money, as there was a $50,000 transfer limit. She could still transfer in my name, but it added to the difficulty.

At one point, while Carly was with the teller, August and I went to an empty bank window and he wanted to pretend to do paperwork. So I asked him questions and he wrote the answers on a pretend piece of paper. I asked what country he was going to and he thought about it and said “Gramma and grampa”.

The whole thing took over an hour and a half. I did have to haul him out at some point when he was getting too hyper and loud. Once he calmed down, we went back in, and Carly was able to wander around with him for awhile.

August had seen the Burger Ton and wanted to eat there, but then I clarified and he wanted bop burgers. So we went to the bop burger place and got three burgers and went and sat by the playground and ate. A little boy came along, and August got protective of his bike, grabbing it and holding it. When he was done eating he ran and we started to play on the teeter totters. Carly tried to head on home, but August figured out what was going on and wouldn’t let Carly go home by herself.

Back home he added water drink to his milk and was drinking a lot of it and said: “I fell down because I had too much drinking. My drain was full! It’s going down my pipes…pee!”

We did a lot of cleaning and downloading of new apps, videos, etc. for him and us. He was mocking Carly at one point: “Oh my goodness.” And kept repeating it. While sitting on the toilet he sat for a long time, and said “I want lots of private time.” He was then copying Carly again, saying “Are You serious?”

I was talking to him about going outside if he didn’t want to see the workers, but then they got there early, at 1:50. Surprisingly though they barely bothered him at all. He was curious, and got close to watch and was actually starting to get in the way. He did decided to go outside twice, but it was the first two times they were making a lot of noise using tape to make boxes. It is a noise he didn’t like in the past. But then he was playing around again, first with our shoes, then pretending to be a crane out of gas that I would fill up.

At one point he was singing “I pooped, I peed, I peed I peed I peed” to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. They nursed, then I was carrying around and we were pretending I was a crane and he was picking stuff up. We looked at the globe to see where us and our stuff are going and how we’re getting there different directions. We had a bit of a snack: he had the rest of the crackers he got at Cafe Tolerance (from a mom that was there) and some Cheerios.

The movers were done at 3:30 I suggested he say “Bye bye stuff. See you in Israel!” And he did.

We then left at 3:45. As we walked by the north end of the park he noticed 4 or 5 people in wheelchairs gathered together, talking. He asked “That is a wheelchair spot?” He was then screeching Eine Kleine Nachtmusik in my ear. We went over to the police station a ways east of See and Me (the second one). We got the simple criminal background checks, in case we ever need them for future jobs. August was given a piece of hard candy while we were there, and Carly broke it up for him. It was mint, and August was talking about how he likes mint.

At 4:30, on our way back, in the street by 2001 Outlet, there was a work crew filling in a hole they had made with asphalt. We watched for 5 to 10 minutes, discussing all the machines, until they were done. We then went and caught the Nowon 15. We had to pay with coins, as we no longer have our cards. The bus was incredibly crowded. But August was fine the whole way despite people pressed up right against him.

We were walking and he was being loud again and I told him he had discovered a new loudness level. He switched to a high pitch and said “I discovered a new squeaky noise too.”  We had intended to go to the tea shop in the Lotte Department Store to get gifts for the people that helped with our car. But it was closed.

We then walked home, stopping at our usual Starbucks. We still had two gift cards – enough to cover a drinks trip and then our drinks and food at the airport. August got his usual: the chia seed and yogurt drink. He really likes that stuff. We sat for awhile, and they read a book or tow on the iPad.

We came home and as we came down our hall we saw Meg and her boyfriend moving boxes into Sara’s apartment across from us. They are moving into our apartment on Friday and were moving boxes up so they would be easier to move then. We told them that we had an empty room and they could move them straight in if they like. August was not at all happy about us inviting them in and he was quite upset. We took him into the parlor. Luckily, it didn’t take long.

We had dinner. At one point I said “I was just being silly. I know that’s a big surprise.” He replied “No. That is NOT a big surprise.”

His bathtub is now headed to Israel, so we had to do a shower. Or that was the idea. Got him as far as the bathroom, and he started to lose it at the idea. So we decided to just skip a bath today.

They went in and tried for sleep at 7, but he just wasn’t ready. He came out, and tried some of my strawberry and mango tea and liked it. He then watched some Formula 1 qualifying with me, and had lots of questions about parts on the cars and crashing. He was ready to go back to bed and was asleep around 8.

Had a card for a free drink at our favorite coffee place, 8st. Also got a lot of packing done today – basically everything is ready to go: our bags, the donations, and the stuff for the movers. August seemed his most stressed out today, which made the trip coming home from the coffee shop rather difficult.

At some point during the night August turned sideways and was sleeping against the headboard, then took over my pillow with one of his legs and I had to move him off of it.

He was up just before 7. At some point, while he was on the toilet, I think, he wanted Carly to be an escalator and she didn’t know how to respond to that. She made him yogurt with fruit and honey for breakfast. He really, really liked that, mainly of course because of the honey. He likes it on top, not mixed in though, which Carly learned the hard way.

When I got up I started making banana bread, and he helped with that. I mentioned before him finishing our sentences. We were talking about the bananas and I said “That’s okay because it gets…” He finished “smooshed up?” I got back at him a minute later when was talking about it: “I’m doing mama and dada’s…” “sentences”. Carly was packing her bags and he crawled in the open suitcase and said “I’m clothes. I’m clothes mama. You can wear me.” He spent a good amount of time playing in the sink. Carly was hungry but didn’t know what to eat and said “I hate food.” August started repeating the sentence over and over.

I took him out at 10. As he was getting on his bike in the hall, a neighbor was bring in their dog. August saw it, still a ways a way and didn’t want it to lick him: “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!” He repeated that until the neighbor stopped bring the dog closer and I picked him up. Then, when we headed out, we saw Megan on the first floor. I was going to the ATM to pay our final internet bill, but August didn’t want to get off the bike, so we had to walk back around to take another path and we saw her again. That ATM didn’t work, so we walked over to the pink building and went to our actual branch and it worked there.

We then went to the park past the pink building. He had wanted juice at the Lee Toast and Juice place, and I told him we were going to a coffee shop with mama later. He didn’t forget, so while he found a little bottle and wanted to fill it with sand (settling for the dirt and what now, also using our sand toys), that didn’t last long and he wanted to go home to mama and go to a coffee shop, singing a song about it. So we were home at 10:45.

He had some banana bread, then sat in the basically full changing room and played with the coffee maker and rice cooker awaiting their trip to Israel. Played on his own for quite awhile.

We left at 11:40. We needed to stop for food and were going to get bop burgers, but it was closed. So we went to Mama Juice and got a couple corndogs. Carly got the cheddar one and I got the squid ink (오징어먹물치즈핫도그). We went and caught the Nowon 9 bus to Kwangwoon. On the train he sat next to a smaller boy, and August talked about wanting to be a toddler: “I want to be that kid…I want to be that size.” August also said “Can I play with you?”

August was more of a rule breaker today, which started a bit on the way there, as he didn’t want to hold hands going down stairs, etc. but it wasn’t too bad.

At 8st Coffee I got a Viennese coffee, he got a blueberry smoothie again, and Carly got her mocha frappe. We went up to the second floor and August drank his smoothie and kind of just sat in a daze. But then he said “I like warm things, not cold things.” Lots of opinions on things, including me. He was then dancing to music and making some noise. Carly took him to the bathroom, then when they came back he had wanted to play in a sink, so I was going to take him. We never made it though, as he found the an old espresso machine and coffee grinder and we played with them for a long time, pretending to make coffee. Sadly, he said “I want to play with it every time we come here.” A Moi Caprice song came on and I identified it – had already heard it somewhere and added it to iTunes. Perhaps it was last time we were here. We switched and Carly played with it with him.

We then got going. They went to the bathroom again. I saw a woman with a shirt that simply said ‘puberty silent’. Then August played out front for quite awhile with the hose and watering can, which dripped a little water. And Carly had him smell the mint and other plants they had out front. And he simply lay on the ground for awhile.

Then the long walk home. It started with him spitting from the backpack and when we told him he needed to stop he kept spitting. So I got him out of the backpack to talk, which he didn’t like. He then didn’t want to be carried, and wanted to walk and was not holding our hands, running away in the train station, etc.

Got on a train at 2:50. A guy touched him, and August got off the seat but Carly got him back on. He sat in a trance again, then was touching and hitting the guy. Carly said the guy might touch him back if he did that, and August squealed “No! Don’t touch you back!” and jumped off the seat. But generally he was having fun with it.

At Kwangwoon Station he was spitting in the drains and Carly chased him around a bit. Took the bus home, then Carly wanted to go to Lucky Mart. August wanted to go too, so I took him and she did the shopping. We got home at 3:45. We were working on various things, but August was kind of bouncing off of everything, so Carly took him out for awhile while I worked on things.

They went to the Bye Fuzzy playground. There was a boy his age who was playing at being a monster. August was a little scared of him. August was a monster too. They chased each other around, and at one point were holding hands. And August walked the ledge. Never went up on the actual play structure though. There was also a little girl that he went and said hi to. And of course he was spitting in the grates.

They came home after 5. I gave him a bath. We watched th bathtub and million customer Pink Panther episodes then washed him. He had a good play time in the bath for his last bath in Korea.

He drank a bunch of milk before going to bed, and said “I can’t have enough milk…You keep growing?” He was asleep after 7:30.

They were up at 5. When I got up he helped me pour out the old spices and was smelling them. Carly took down recycling. It took three trips, and August went down for the third trip. Carly left at 7:30 and August wanted to go out, so we went out on his bike. There was a some setting going on in the park for a festival, and there was a series of blue tent sort of things in the center on our side of the park. He spent a long time riding his bike around, under and around the blue covers, trying to get close to the pigeons, and often getting close to other people before I would stop him. He got the bike tipping up on one wheel at one point, and I warned him to be careful. But several minutes later he tipped and fell over and scraped his knee a bit. Just a little one, and he handled it pretty well. He has a pretty good collection of scrapes on his knees. At 8:15 I said I needed to have some breakfast “No. we already at French toast.” He had had some with Carly, but I didn’t.

We came in at 8:40. I made some pancakes and August was scooping sugar in the sugar bowl. I was chatting with my friend Peter, and then realized that August was putting sugar in my tea. Think he put two or three spoonfuls in there. I didn’t mix it, and got most of the way down before finding it too sweet.

We ate breakfast, then made a sign for Carly, saying ‘You’re done!’ It is interesting how he is less into art and writing, and it actually took a fair amount of redirecting and convincing to get him to do it. We hang it on the door, then were looking through the books we are donating. He found the Freight Train book and we read it a couple times. Then, we were playing with the sampler in GarageBand and recorded a couple of noises, like the beeping noise of the refrigerator to play with. Also, at some point I was sure he said “Dada lost weight”, but I don’t know why he would have said that.

Carly was home at 10:10. I was reminded of that when she said she couldn’t lift him, and he asked “Mama needs exercising?”

Carly then took him outside for awhile. They went up to the spiderweb playground. He pretended to be a baby learning to walk with one of those walker things. He found a faucet and they were filling part of it with water. They went and got a snack and found a spot over in Madeul Park to eat it. He was holding the bag up so it would blow in the wind and told her “That’s the point.”

I had taken a shower and gotten a couple things done, then went up and met them by the stadium. I was walking a different path and sort of passed them without seeing them, which confused him. We all went up to the space-themed little tube play area and played there. He tried sitting on the spheres outside but found them slippery, then crawled a little inside with me, but didn’t like that too much. We all went on a wooden dragonfly shaky thing together, then Carly and I debated which way he should pronounce ‘bag’, since we pronounce it differently. He was also mildly interested in the kids playing soccer on the field, and he mentioned something about going to see them. I then said something about watching them, and he said “No. Not watch. Just see.”

We then walked up to the Nowon Ecocenter. On the way he found a big stick he wanted to hold: Carly said “You want to hold it, huh?” And he replied “It doesn’t make any sense.” Then “It has birdies on it.” We got to the Ecocenter at 12:15.

First, we went to the merry-go-round/teeter totter thing. They went on it like a teeter totter, then I spent a long time pushing him in circles. He liked the lights lighting up. He was then chanting “Faster, Gargamel, faster.” A variation on a line from one of the episodes where Gargamel tells Azrael to go faster. We stopped to eat the rest of their snack: Bugles that they put little strips of dried cheese into. Not bad. August dropped a bunch of Bugles on the ground at one point and when we picked them up apparently missed one. Several minutes later he spotted it and said “Ooh!” and ate it.

We then went inside to use the bathroom. He was disappointed to find the power generating bikes missing. Used the bathroom, then we went and looked at the musical instrument in a classroom, and he found a little container with toys that another kid had left. Played with that a bit, then put it back. He wanted to play in the nice sink more, and referred to each turning on of the sing as a ‘sinky sink’: “One more sinky sink…That’s enough sinky sink.”

We all headed to Cafe Tolerance, but as we were about to get there August noticed that the right handle of his bike was missing. We had to walk back most of the way before we found it along the side of the sidewalk. Carly was feeling tired, so she headed home, and August and I went to the coffee shop together. He got grape and I got my cinnamon drink again. And I got a cheese bread thing. We sat in the coffee shop for a few minutes, then headed home. Along the way he was a crossing the street machine.

We were home at 1:55. Carly went in to lie down on the bed for awhile. August was with me a bit, then went in with her for awhile. We then read some Smurfs and ate some cherries. I let him pour water drink in his cup, but he poured to much and spilled on the table. It was a cool learning moment. He’s gotten good with pouring, but usually with only a little in the big bottle, so it would all fit in his cup. He said “you tried to pour it all?” I showed him he had to pay attention to how much was already in the cup, then he practiced pouring just a little bit at a time until it was almost full.

He wanted to watch Eine Kleine Nachtmusik so we watched that and part of Beethoven’s Ninth. Carly came out after 2:50. He lay on the floor and was stretching his green bracelet in his teeth. He joked about something, but I don’t remember what: “And that’s okay because Dada was eating and it was not mama?” He then played in the sink.

After four I took him to Home Plus. That was the idea. It turned into a tough trip, starting with the festival thing in the park. Very busy, and August wanted to do everything, starting with the power-generating bikes (not the same ones that were missing from the Ecocenter, I think). He got to try a different set, that run air compressors that fill up animal balloons. He did the polar bear. Then we played in the recycled materials playground: teeter totters made out of bike parts, a pole that you threw old tires over, a walking path.

We got to Home Plus and started with a couple pieces of watermelon samples. But then he wanted to drive himself around and it was way too busy, and he wasn’t listening to me. Then he spit in Home Plus a couple times. Got a mandu sample to, and made it through. Also decided he was hungry, so we headed straight home, avoiding the park. Got home at 5:15.

I cooked the broccoli and mushrooms and he had a bunch of those (mainly mushrooms) with teriyaki sauce for dinner. Carly cut up the watermelon and we had some of that as well.

He had some milk, and I was having my water drink. He had the idea of mixing them: “Water drink and milk? That sounds GOOD!” So he added some to his milk and liked it.

At 6:10 we took a bath. We watched Fountain of Smurf while he stood in the bath, then we watched Baby Smurf while I washed him.

He had some naked time after that, and kept carefully adding water drink to his milk. Took him to bed after that and he was asleep by 7:20.

 

He was up around 6 again. He and Carly read Little Red Riding Hood and part of Tallulah’s Tutu. After Carly left we played with with Duplos a little, then he played in sink and got his sleeves really wet. We made pancakes for breakfast, and he wanted to put cinnamon in, so we did. We were listening to U2’s The Joshua Tree. The cinnamon was a nice addition to the pancakes. August asked about how vitamins were made and wanted to watch a video on it. Watched one on vitamins, then drinking water, then eggs. We start of exercised together, then he played with the cord to my headphones, eventually turning it and one of his doctor toys into a teeth cleaner and cleaning my teeth. He wanted some of my water drink and poured it into his cup on his own – he’s gotten pretty darn good with pouring things now. We watched a new Smurf episode (Fountain of Youth) then he watched Baby Smurf while I took a shower.

APIS was coming by to do our apartment checkout this afternoon, so we spent some time straightening, and did a little more paint patching in the bedroom. He played in the sink more, then we skyped with my parents. Not terribly long, as he was eager to get going outside. But he and my mom talked about making snickerdoodles together.

As I got us ready to go I got his toothbrush and I swear he said “I hate brushing my teeth.” I have no idea where he got ‘hate’ – although now I’m thinking that maybe Gargamel says he hates the Smurfs…the corrupting power of cartoons.

He then, for some reason, noticed the panel covering the internet cords and equipment. So I showed him how it opens and closed, and then we talked about it. Compared it to the gas, water, and electricity coming into the house. He had a lot of questions about it, and then was asking ‘what ifs’: what if there was no cords, what if there was a fire in there, what if the yellow one isn’t connected, etc.

We left at 12. He was humming Mozart’s Eine Kleine Natchmusik on the way, which was surprising as we haven’t listened to it in quite awhile, and not that much. It had, however, been on a commercial at the pension office last night, but just for a few seconds. That was enough.

On the train he just sat on his own much of the way, then we played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers. In the station he saw a boy walking and shooting one of those bubble guns. He asked “This is not a very good place to do bubbles?” Then, as we walked into the park he said “Every time I get loud it rains…Every time I get quieter it rains…Dada is getting wet! But not Zinnie because a vacuum cleaner is sucking up that water from Zinnie!”

We ate a little lunch outside the children’s museum. There was a family group, speaking English, with about 6 adults and 7 kids, and watching them try to keep track of the kids and plan their next move made me glad it was just me and August.

We went in at 1:00. Played with the recycling machine a bit, then the grey and yellow blocks. Went over to the hand puppets and he grabbed puppets for us and then got crazy with the other kids playing there. Then he wandered around, puppet still on one hand, playing with the various light rods, etc. Ran over to the shadow animal things and grabbed a giraffe from another kid. I gave it back and picked him up:  “But I want the shadow of a giraffe!” “But did you take it?” “Yes”. But then a nice kid gave him a moose, I think it was, and he played with that, running over to the colorful shadows area to make shadows. Then danced and spun in front of the kaleidoscope screen for several minutes.

From there up to the second floor, where he kept getting in line with other groups (which was fine) and trying to get in their photos (not so fine). Then a lot of playing with the ball/tug of war game. And he sprinted over to take a group photo with a school group. I tried to grab him, but the teacher said it was okay, then gave him a high five when they were done. Back to the turning thing. I made him take turns on it and he said “No. I want to fight over them!” But not angry; I think he was actually having fun contesting control of the wheel. He did the other parts, but got back to the spinning when it opened up.

Most of the kids left, and I picked him up and just held him for a few minutes – did a cheek rub and he just leaned against me. Exhausting playing. He then wanted to spit and I told him to go to the sink. He used one of the little paper cups to get water from a machine then handed it to me: “I did water for Dada!” Finally, we spent several minutes watching a guy repair the projector .

At 2 we headed up to the third floor. But he had chosen to wear a long sleeve shirt this morning (he had gotten it out of the drawer thing himself and told me he wanted to wear it). As we got to the water I told him we could change his shirt or roll up his sleeves. He didn’t like the idea of getting wet. Spent a few minutes over at the TV camera/microphone area, pretending to sing/make noise into the mic, but then by 2:10 we headed down to the basement.

He played with the woman in the blocks and jumping area until 2:30. She took photos on her phone using the filter things on Snapchat and then spent several minutes jumping on the circles to start the fan. They finished with a couple minutes playing with the magnets. She asked his name, and he said Zinnie. Then I had him ask her name and she said ‘Sunny’.

We went to the bathroom, then headed outside. He sang Eine Kleine Nachtmusik “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5…” Then, when I tried to video that he was making up imaginary numbers.

We headed to the same restaurant as last time, but this time ordered a shrimp burger and cheese sticks from the fast food menu. Ate inside, but then when we left he told me he had wanted to eat outside.

He was talking about a robot: “I’m breaking all the mechanical parts.” We went and saw the alpacas. I said “I want to see the serval.” He asked “Why?” Me: “Because I like it. It used to be Zinnie’s favorite animal here.” Him: “No. It still is.” We went and saw the seals for a couple minutes, then worked our way through the herbivores, then to the jaguars, Asian bears, and to the serval. He then spotted the leopard in a tree photo spot. He started to climb it and wanted me to help him get higher. I said “I don’t think it’s for climbing.” Him: “No. I’ve seen kids climbing on it.” I pointed out it was loose, and he said “No. I want one that isn’t loose.” A girl walked by and he said “I want those heart glasses.”

Back on the ground he went and checked out an empty stroller that a woman was pushing and wanted to touch it and maybe get in. He was upset when I wouldn’t let him do that. Looked at the red fox, then actually startled the lynx when it was up by the window. He was then pushing the rules, climbing up on the edge after I had told him not to. So bit of a long haul along this backside of the ferocious animals area, as he was getting frustrated.

But he got excited when we saw the elephant. August was making some odd rhythmic noises at it, then some music. Looked for the lion, then got to the Jeep photo thing and played there a long time. Played with a couple kids, then said “I’m waiting till another kid comes.” A group of teenage girls came and wanted their photo with him. Twice. The second was a few minutes later when they came back and took a selfie on a bench with him. Hanging out in the jeep is a good way to get your photo taken with strangers, as it happened with other kids a couple of times. Generally good sharing with other kids when they climbed on it with him, but getting a bit exhausting for me. He saw a boy with his shoes off, sitting on a bench and wanted to run over and do it too. No room on the bench though so I wouldn’t let him force his way on, and he wasn’t happy about doing it on a different bench. He also tried running around without shoes, which I said wasn’t okay. Him: “Don’t put my shoes on. I’m still climb
ing on the bench!”

So about 4:30 we headed out. On the train, there was a couple moms with girls that got on. I suggested, since we only had a couple stops, that we could give up our seat. He said “I want a little sharing, not a lot.” But then when we got up to get off he went over to the girl, on his own, and said “You can have our seat.”

At the station he saw a woman with a pizza in a box and ran over to investigate. They thought that was funny. We got home at 5:40. Nursed, then he wanted some cow milk. Carly made him egg and veggies for dinner. We read The Purple Smurf

He was humming Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. I had actually been wrong and thought it was from Beethoven earlier in the day, so I was trying to figure it out. He went on the toilet, then I heard him shout:  “Maybe we made it up!” But then I figured out what it was.

I gave him a bath. We watched the Mozart and washed his hair. He did his crazy time on the bed. At one point he wanted to fight over the sheet with me. I pulled it from him and he said “No. Don’t take it from me. We are fighting over it.” Which was kind of funny. He was asleep about 7:15.

Photos. Being a dentist: 

Carrying around the puppet as he played: 

Shadows: 

Getting with a group: 

High five after a group photo: 

Lynx: 

Jeep: 

Think he was up around 6. He and I read the rest of The Purple Smurf and started The Flying Smurf. He wanted some of Carly’s quesadilla, then followed her to the door, but was fine when she left. I made him a broccoli and cheese quesadilla. He then wanted to go outside. He had his shoes on his hands and said “I want to go.” We got clothes on him, then had a good discussion about electricity.

We went outside, or rather downstairs, on his bike, at 7:40. It was a regular light rain. Mainly rode up and down the hallways, and outside for a minute or so at a time. He spotted the fly papers hanging outside restaurants and was curious about those. He pedaled the bike around on his own from time to time, and we just sort of sat and people watched as well. We went up to the second floor and rode around up there as well. Since we weren’t doing anything in particular I also was adding places we’ve gone to Google Maps. He also decided to eat the rain and was sticking his tongue out. We headed home at 8:40.

We read more Smurfs – finished Purple Smurf, The Flying Smurf, and read bits of others. He then played in the water and I made the cell phone and internet calls. Successful on the first, although they just told me I had to go into the store to cancel (after I hung up I realized they didn’t need my phone number or anything – that is, the person on Monday could have told me the same thing instead of telling me I needed to call back on Wednesday). No luck on the second, after being on hold for ten minutes.

We then watched Smurfs: Baby Smurf twice, and the Jokey Smurf episode. I exercised and took a shower in there. We had a salmon sandoo and soup. He ate a good amount of the potato soup on his own, but didn’t like the dripping. Any time he dripped he wanted me to come and wipe it up.

He wanted to watch an orchestra, and we tried a couple new ones out before settling on Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, which we watched or awhile.

We then headed out to the Kwangwoon University area KB Bank branch. Word was there is a coin ATM there where you can exchange your change for bills. Figured that would be fun for August to do and a good rainy day activity. We took the Nowon 9 bus and got there at 12:40. Only to find that they recently changed their hours to only allow you to use the machine from 9 to noon.

We turned right around and hopped a bus home. As we got close to home, in the warm, humid bus August fell asleep just after 1:10. I got off and went up to our local KB Bank branch. The lobby attendant asked what I needed and I asked about a coin ATM. He simply took my box of coins, went behind the counter, and started doing it for me. I woke August up (about 5 minutes on the nap) and he perked up (although first he asked where we were) and liked watching the coin machine from a distance. Not as much fun as doing it ourselves, but it got the job done.

We then went down to Lucky Mart and got crackers and bananas and milk before heading home at 1:40. Earlier, on the bus, he had been asking what was above us. At some point he was then speculating, asking “What if there was a bathroom on the roof?” of the bus.

We then turned around pretty quickly and left for Nowon, as August wanted to leave right away. He chose the backpack and taking the bus over the bike and walking. We got off after the Nowon 15 makes its left. We then walked around a bit in an area we haven’t really walked. We found a coffee shop called Penguin Drinks Coffee, which really made the whole trip worth it, even if we didn’t actually go in.

We then walked back to the main street and went to the Daiso, where I found a few more of the small carabiners to use as zipper pulls and August played with the cleaning supplies, shaking them and asking what they were for.

The plan was then to go to the coffee shop/cinema and get a drink and treat and play and hangout until we went to meet Carly at the pension office around 4. But we got there and tried to walk in, only to find a scene of construction. Turns out it hadn’t closed, but was doing two days of quick construction for something. This was the first day.

Then I remembered that Carly wanted to get a couple of boxes of tea as presents for people taking care of our car. So August and I went down to the Osulloc counter in the basement of the department store. No luck though, as the woman was hovering, there was no black tea, and August wanted to go to every little shop and look at all the food and desserts to eat. We did have a nice sample of an iced tea though.

We then went to find the pension office, only to find out that I couldn’t find it. The instructions I had said it was visible across the street from exit 2 of Nowon station. The only problem was that the only building ‘across the street’ from exit 2 that was close to being tall enough was only 7 stories tall – and the office was on the 8th floor. As I was trying to figure it out, August spotted a hotdog (corndog) stand and wanted one. So we got a mozzarella one, and let them roll it in sugar. It was very good.

Carly had an actual address. It was actually a block south. So we headed down there, and sat in the waiting area of the pension office until Carly showed up with Atsuko, Melinda, and Megan. I had run over the play with August several times, but not being able to nurse was too much for him. Carly ended up taking him down to the bathroom for awhile. He was better after that. He was shy with Melinda a bit, then had his fingers in his ears as he walked around the office. Actually, he was the best after Atsuko came back with cupcakes for him and me – she had ‘missed’ our birthdays, so this was a makeup gift. August ate one and was very happy. Sugar covered hotdog, followed by a cupcake…

I did make him sad once though. Megan and I were talking about the things we had left to do, and I mentioned next going to the bank on Monday. August was listening, then asked ‘Then we go home?’ I said, well, then we go to visit Gramma and Grampa and Thatcher… “No! I don’t want to go!” Then I realized that he thought I was talking about right now…he thought we were going to the bank next, then getting on a plane. I quickly corrected the miscommunication and assured him we were heading home next.

The pension office went smoothly. The guy spoke English and we had everything in order. Carly went to the bathroom and we headed home. At the bus stop we realized we hadn’t had August go to the bathroom. When he said he needed to go. I asked if he could wait ten minutes, and he said no, he needed to go right now. Well, good to know he can tell. Luckily, there was a big building right there, and they all have restrooms in them. Went in, went to the bathroom, and were back out in time for our bus.

We were home at 5:25. He was getting a bit frustrated about Duplos, though wasn’t clear if it was real frustration, or ‘play frustration’. He was talking to Carly about her flowers when she trimmed them. She said they would eventually die. He asked “It doesn’t make any noise when it dies?” Which is an interesting question, as I don’t think he’s heard anything make noise when it dies, or really seen much of anything die, except for when we talk about trees or plants that are dead, or dead ants or a dead bird we saw the other day.

He was stacking things on the water bottle but they were falling off, and he kept saying, frustrated “Don’t do that!” I was asking “Play frustration?”  Again, not clear. At one point he also threw the Teuni spaceship. I picked it up, and he said  “No, don’t take it away. It’s my toy.”

Carly gave him a bath and they watched some Cookie Monster show or video I hadn’t seen. I asked him afterwards if he liked it and he said “I didn’t really like it. It was just pretty boring.” He played in the sink for awhile, then headed to bed. Asleep about 7:15.

 

Photos:

Waking up at the bank: 

Daiso: 

Sugary corn dog: 

He was up sometime around 6. When I got up they were reading Berenstain Bears Go to School. A bit later he was eating enchilada and threw it up. And then more, and then more. I cleaned it up while Carly took care of him. Seems to be that he got a big bite or spinach stuck in his throat or something as he was fine the rest of the day.

I took a shower and Carly started making hummus. I took August out at 9:20. We went to the park past the pink building. He surprised me by wanting to play there. He spotted an open swing and wanted to go on it. So he got on the green swing. Then we realized that the girl on the other swing had a bird in a plastic cage under her swing. While on the swing he noted that it was squeaky:  “I want to measure how squeaky it is. Sounds like a mouse. Hard to tell. Maybe it’s a wood swing, I think.”

The girl got down and headed over to the exercise equipment. August followed, playing on the exercise equipment and watching her swing the bird on the exercise equipment as well. He got close to it as she put leaves in the cage. Soon after that she ran off over to her grandmother. We headed the other way. August got up on the slanted wooden bench sort of exercise equipment and slid down it several times, holding my fingers. And he had me lift him up to the chin up bars. He found a big grate and saw a bunch of garbage under it. He asked why, and I said it was probably because there were no garbage cans and all the kids threw their garbage down there. He wanted to do it as well, but settled for dropping rocks.

We left about 10 and headed home. We all left about 10:30. He saw a light on in the other room and said “That light’s on so it’s making pollution?” He had apparently discussed this with Carly. As we left he spotted the broken light fixture cover that I had broken a bit a long time ago. He asked why I had broken it and I said something about dropping it. He added “Also gravity? Gravity pulled it down? Maybe a crane could catch it. Or a vacuum cleaner.”

On the walk to the station he was making up instruments and said “I’m playing a dump truck mixer” as he hummed Ode to Joy. He sat with Carly on the train. Think they did Art Maker. A woman gave him a piece of candy and we put it in his pocket to eat at the park.

Sat outside the museum and he had the chewy vitamin D candy then chased and popped bubbles a girl was blowing (along with several other kids).

We went into the children’s museum and saw the woman from downstairs working the entry and said hi. He headed down to the basement and played with the robot and a couple things before heading to the blue blocks. Only one kid there when we enter d, then more showed up. A girl spoke English and kept asking “Can I play with you?” They then played together as more kids showed up and joined in.

It got really crowded, but generally things went really well. The girl who had been really nice at first kind of turned on him though when she had girls her own age to play with. August saw them being cats and he wanted to be a cat too and tried to curl up in the fort they had made. She told him to go lie on the floor, and August did. He also got frustrated at one point when basically all the blocks had been claimed due to the various building projects going on. We took a little break, but then some kids left and there were plenty of blocks. There was one more time that August tried to lie down like the girls, lying on one of the curved pieces. She was telling him to move and pushing the piece away with her foot. I didn’t make him move, as she was being quite bratty. He wasn’t going anywhere. Her dad saw and wasn’t having it either and made them leave at that point.

He needed to go to the bathroom, but had to spend some time playing with the x-ray and jumping on the round things before we headed out.

We were hungry for lunch, so we got in the backpack and headed out of the park and across the street. Carly went to Subway and August and I went to KFC. We got a sandwich and chicken salad and a drink. August filled the cup for me. We then walked down to Subway and met Carly. We all then walked back to Children’s Grand Park in the drizzle. We went up by the rectangle pond and sat at a table under a tree and ate lunch.

After that we went up to the coffee shop and Carly got a drink. On our way out he saw the piano, so we went and played a bit. At one point he was done, or wanted me to stop playing and I said I wanted to play more piano. He told me “You can play for one minute.” As we were then leaving he said “We’re ready to go to the playground. The really fun one.”

We walked over and showed Carly the new playground they’re slowly working on. We got to the four swing playground at 2. I went and got a cappuccino at the little place next to there. I came back to find him playing in the sand, filling a cardboard coffee holder. There was a girl with a plastic drink container that he was seriously coveting. We then headed over by the walking path where a boy and a girl were getting water from the faucets and pouring it in the sand. August played with them, using our cup from the backpack to play with. They also ran around a bit crazy. But eventually the desiring of the toys other kids had was too much when he spotted someone playing with a simple paper cup and had to have it.

Time to leave. But he spotted the water pouring down to keep drinks cold and we stopped to watch that. We stopped at the bathrooms by the entrance of the park, then he started playing on the little prince statue and the associated snake in an elephant structure. That started about 2:45 and lasted about an hour. There were two kids in particular that he was watching and copying (and taking turns with), walking up on and sliding down the elephant’s trunk. He did a little slide and said “That wasn’t cool.” He caught himself falling off the edge: “But babies can’t do that. Babies would fall right on the ground?”

They left, and he had it to himself for awhile. When someone else came I mentioned he’d have to share: “No. I don’t want to share. I want to go to Israel…I want to go to a small town.” And he’d been calling it an elephant, but at some point he changed his mind: “I don’t like really like the slide. It’s actually a snake and I don’t like snakes.” He had, on his own, remembered the story (I had briefly reminded him we’d read about it when he was on the Little Prince sculpture) and that it was an elephant inside a snake, and not just an elephant.

We headed out about 3:30. As we walked in the station I was lifting him up to the ceiling. When I got tired, he put things in my head (like he used to put ideas in there): “I put exercise in there.” He saw a clock and thought it wasn’t working: “It’s not clocking?”

We stopped at the bakery and got some pastries. Looked at a little hand fan (battery powered) then headed home. Art Maker on the train. We were home after 4. He was pretty sleepy in the backpack.

I gave him an early bath. We watched the William Tell Overture and Ride of the Valkyries. Carly finished the hummus. He ate Watermelon and broccoli for dinner and added a Waxahatchee song to his playlist. He then was joking

“I want to add watermelon to your playlist…forks to your playlist.”

We then sat on the couch and read “The Weather Smurfing Machine” and most of “The Purple Smurf”. He had to go to the bathroom, then went in to bed about 6:50. We got him ready, and he was asleep by 7:20.

Photos: 

At some point in the morning he did a bunch of sneezing, then fall back to sleep before getting up about 6:10. On Carly’s computer he spotted the word “Community” and asked what it meant, so we tried to explain that. He had some banana bread for breakfast, then we read some Smurfs, reading all of the Baby Smurf volume. I had Cheerios for breakfast and he wanted some of his own and was upset when I didn’t immediately agree to give him his own bowl. I was done with mine though and he was okay using my bowl.

We then played with Duplos, and he was playing on his own, humming the Pink Panther song. We took care of alligator and built an exhibit for the dinosaur. We also packed some more Duplos, adding them to the block that they worked on yesterday. He got pillows and surfed on me, then requested I make up songs: one about a kid playing in a bathroom, and another about going to the doctor.

He was hungry so we had some watermelon. I took a shower and he just played on his own. Requested more watermelon when I got out. We then ate the rest of our treat from Tous les Jour a couple days ago. He then got my sheet off the bed and played with it. He said “I want to fight over it.” so we pulled on it. He got it wrapped around himself, and while he was walking he said “This is my apron.” We were listening to the remix album of the Erasure song “I Love You to the Sky” – a band and song he already likes. He wanted to add each of them to his playlist, and ended up just sitting on the couch and listening to them for several minutes. He then played in the sink, so I took the opportunity to make phone calls to KT about cancelling our phone and internet. Only to find they are upgrading all their systems and can’t do anything until Wednesday.

He had been talking about going out to ride his bike, so we were going to do that then come back home and have lunch, then head to the National Museum in the afternoon since Carly had middle school graduation and wouldn’t be home until 7. But when we were ready to go he changed his mind and said he wanted to go straight to the National Museum. So we made a sandwich and grabbed a little more food and switched to the big backpack and left by 11:40.

He patted the mama statue but I didn’t, and he wanted me to go back and touch the statue to see how hot it was. It was really hot. On the train I handed him Sesame Street Art Maker. He kept turning up the volume when I turned it down “I don’t like quiet things; I like loud things.”

We got to the National Museum and went and had lunch by lake at 12:40. There was a girl who went by, being a duck. He said “Zinnie should be a goose.” We then went in and got a children’s museum ticket for 1:30. We had about a half hour, so went into the main museum and looked around a bit. He saw the ten story pagoda and wanted to take a photo, so we did that. Then up the escalators, eventually to the third floor. I took him through the Silk Road and Asia rooms for a bit, but he wasn’t a fan of the darkness. We then heard music, so tracked it down to the lobby, where a woman was finishing soundchecking her accordion. There was a sign saying the concert would be at 3.

We went into to children’s museum at 1:30. He ran into the primitive house and fell in a hole (cooking pi, I think). He brushed himself off, then went and was grinding wheat for a few minutes. Then headed towards the back, where he threw around the big pillow-like dice, and hit a bigger kid with it. The boy (12 or so) didn’t seem to mind. He then went and was climbing on the hills, and took his shoes off to do it. From there we went towards the bathrooms and he saw the spear game, where you throw a spear to try to hit a bird. He wanted to run in and play but didn’t want to wait. We watched for awhile, then we went and used the bathroom.

Then he wanted to go into the toddler room. He played in there for quite awhile, going down the little slide and playing with the toddler cube things. He kept saying  “I wanted to be a toddler.” He then ran across to the book/lounge room and climbed up on the step things and hung out with a family. In the hall there are tables with little wooden blocks that you can change the shape of. They don’t stick together, but he expected them to: “I expect this one to stick.” It was starting to clear out, and he got a turn at the spear thing. I started to tell him how to play, but he grabbed two spears and started running in front of the screen: “I just want my shadow.”

We left at 2:50 and sat and had a snack of banana bread and crackers. We then went and watched a few minutes of the accordion player, but he was ready to play outside.

When we were coming in he was wanting to go to the Arabia special exhibit, but I missed my chance. He wanted to play outside now, and we ended up running out of time to come back. We walked over to Yongsan Park and wandered around a bit. He didn’t want the playground at first, and he didn’t want to play in the stream either, saying there wasn’t enough water. We saw a woman watering the big yellowing field with a single hose (rather Sisyphus like) and he wanted to follow the hose. It went across the field, then stretched across the stream to faucets on the other side, near the playground. We walked around and he was playing with the faucets by 3:30. Played with those for awhile, then he headed over to the playground and the sand.

There were two girls playing with the sand under the play structure and they sort of scared him a bit and chased him, then were pretending to offer him sand that was chocolate. He knew it was chocolate, but when one girl kept putting it by his mouth he said “I don’t want to eat sand.” He then saw a mom and little girl playing with buckets filled with water, and went and played with them. The mom gave him a cup and let him play with the water. Played with them, then went over to the little mushroom house and sat with some girls in there. Yes, there were only girls at the playground today.

The two girls in there came out and they all went over and played with the other girl with the water. He then went and climbed on one of the big bears, and sang a  “I’m climbing on the bear” song. Then back to the window area playing with a girl and a bracelet he found. He put the bracelet on his arm, and pushed it up to his upper arm and left it there the rest of the time we were there. The girl was only reluctantly playing with him – she was making a mountain or cake and didn’t want August to touch it. Eventually he was pretending to put candles on it: “candle, candle, candle…I was pretending it was a cake.”

Eventually, I got him to head out as we needed to go get dinner. I was hungry. In the bathroom I asked if he wanted to keep the bracelet or leave it here. He said “Give it back”. He ran out, over to the girl who had been making the cake, and gave it to her.

We stopped at the faucets to fill his water bottle, then he started playing again. I said “I want to go get dinner.” He replied “Yeah, but one minute.” He had also been asking about dinner, and asked if we were going to Brownstone. Then I realized he was confused: “But I not have dinner because it’s not home.” He’s not used to eating out for dinner.

We were headed back towards the museum and he saw a big area of exercise equipment: “What those handles things are for?” “Down please. I want to find out.” We ended up spending twenty minutes or so there. At one point: “I want a made up song: Cookie Monster finds the cookie.” And while on exercise equipment: “I’m twisting. I’m not working well. I squeaked. The gear squeaked…Zinnie Clockwork isn’t working well. The gears are lose.” The most fun though was the rolling equipment, and he walked on the rolling treadmill.

We finally got out of there, and got to the little snack restaurant by the CU near the entrance at 5:40 – just in time, as after they took our order they told people they were closing. We go
t shrimp fried rice and ate it outside. We then went to CU and I got a coffee drink and we got two cookies: strawberry and apple. We went over and sat on a bench and ate them.

We went and got on the line 4 train this time. We read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes and Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed. We got off the train, then stopped to look at the billboard with babies on it and walk up and down the musical stairs once. When we got to the bus stop it said it was 14 minutes until the next one. So we started walking. After 12 minutes or so August said “I don’t want to take a bus. Let’s walk home.” I had been about to suggest the same thing, as it was clear we were going to be pretty close to home by the time the bus came by anyway. Indeed, we were about to cross the stream to Chrysanthemum Park when it finally went by.

He got quiet a couple times, but didn’t go to sleep. Right before we got home I asked “What do you want to tell mama about?” He replied “Nothing…All I want to do is nursing.” It was the first time he had mentioned nursing. We were home at 7:40. He quickly spotted the flowers that Carly had brought home from graduation: “What the flowers is from?”

We washed his feet, then they went in to go to sleep. But he couldn’t quite go to sleep yet. They came out and read a couple books on his iPad then went back in and he was asleep at 8:30.

Photos. Children’s history museum. Throwing the dice: 

Shoe hands: 

Jumping in the toddler area: 

Wearing the bracelet: 

Exercise: 

A dinner out: 

Silly on the train: 

He was up 6:15ish. Carly was making toast and eggs, and hew as doing butter and toast chants as she made it and buttered it. He was eating toast while sitting on the table and making yummy noises. I asked what he thought of the toast and he responded “Well, I can’t say anything.” Carly sneezed and he told her “Maybe you should take some medicine.” They then went in and read one of the Little House for a good amount of time before nursing. That turned into a silly time, as he was making the reading area slide out. At some point he said “I want to smurf Green Eggs and Ham.” But we read Smurfs, reading most of Gargamel and the Smurfs. He then spent time putting Duplos away with Carly, starting to pack them into a big cube to take up as little room as possible.

I took a shower, and when I came out Carly was vacuuming. He had closed himself in the parlor and kept opening the door and asking “Are you done yet?” He was wanting some alone time, and when I came up to him he said “Go away. Please.” and pushed me back to the bathroom.

We were then cleaning more stuff out. He and Carly in particular made progress cleaning out the art supplies and consolidating containers. Out of nowhere he said “I want to stop eating food and be a big kid…I don’t want to grow…I want to be a kid.” Then, as we was sitting on the floor, playing around: “That toe is very dirty. We should wash you. I want to take a bath…tomorrow.” He then played with the white stick and one of the purple things from that Teuni spinning thing and said “I’m not sure how this works and I’m going to find out.” He went to the bathroom. Not sure what he was talking about, but he said “I’m going to put the broken pieces in the toilet and suck them up with my penis.”

At 11:30 we went and got Dippin’ Dots at Home Plus. He’s been mentioning doing this with mama for weeks, so hopefully I’ll hear a bit less of it during the week. August chose rainbow flavor. We went over to the park and sat on a bench and ate them. He wasn’t disappointed. When he was done he went and played with a couple of kids by some rocks for a minute, then ran off to the sculpture area and ran around there. He came back and tried going under a rope that was keeping people out of some plants. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t step on them, and when we stopped him he was saying “Leave me alone.”

We got going over to Home Plus. Down on the first basement August stopped to look at the little vending machines. Carly went on to start shopping. August watched a boy actually get two bouncy balls out of one. I thought he was going to want to do it himself now, but that was apparently enough for him. We went down and found Carly by the fruits. He had some watermelon samples, then we finished up and headed home for lunch.

Carly cut up a bunch of the watermelon and gave him a bowl. He went and grabbed a big fork and used that to eat it. He asked Carly if it was her fork, and she said that both her and me use it, and now him. He seemed to like that. I made potato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich and we shared that. August and I read Baby Smurf. Carly was making her enchiladas and realized she’d forgotten yogurt (aka ‘sour cream’ here). I went to Lucky Mart to get that and tortillas.

When I came home he was playing with the Listerine for a long time, shaking it for the bubbles. He then just sort of sat on the floor with it and the two pillows from the couch and talked about it. I then went and vacuumed under the bed, finding the missing Bob book. He helped Carly with some of her cooking.

We talked about moving the beds, as we likely need to move the queen bed back into the master bedroom before we leave. Carly asked how he felt about rolling off the bed. He replied “I don’t like rolling off the bed because if I roll off the bed I fall. I want to balance.” I took the hangers off the wall, including the ones that were put on with some rather permanent adhesive. They took off the new paint we had had painted. So I got out the leftover paint and painted the spots on the light paint. August was very intrigued with the whole process, from opening the cans to painting the wall. After that, he was following around the apartment and it turned into a game of follow the leader for awhile. When he was getting tired with it though he said “in starting to get smurfed up with following Dada.”

We all headed out to Hangeulbi Park at 4:20. We first saw a dad and two kids flying a small drone. He talked about it flying up to space and I explained it didn’t have enough power to go that high. He was then saying “Didn’t have enough power to go to space?” We walked, or tried to, back to the playground, but he wanted to go play in the bathroom, turning the sink on and watching water go down the drain for a minute.

Carly had sat down and he went and climbed on her, and did a flip in her lap. Did that several times, and he was asking “The gravity is pulling Zinnie right now?” We made it back to the playground and they went on the swings. We also played on the play structure, with him climbing up the round platforms with no problems now. He was doing the sliding down on my head thing, but started stomping/kicking me. He kept doing it, and eventually we had to stop. He went around to the different kinds of exercise equipment and tried them all out for awhile and spent a little more time on the swings. But he wanted Carly’s, and kept walking in front of/behind her and got hit once.

We headed home and had enchilada for dinner. He liked his without sauce. Carly was cleaning through the bathroom stuff and he played with a hairdryer for a bit. He then helped me make banana bread. I gave him a bath. We watched the Baby Smurf episode of Smurfs. Odd, because the story was very different from the comic book, as it involves Gargamel turning himself into a baby to infiltrate the village. But it takes some of the lines and jokes from the comic book. I know there was an actual Baby Smurf in the TV show at some point, but this wasn’t it.

Anyway, he really liked the potions that Gargamel and Papa Smurf made, and when he was out from his bath he was with Carly and changed her into Gargamel and into Azrael.

Took him to bed and he was asleep about 7:15.

Photos. Toast on the table: 

Watermelon: 

Bubbles: 

Helping: 

At the park. Flip: 

Exercise: 

He seemed to have a lot of bad dreams last night. Sometime around midnight, I heard him say “Tissue…please.” Carly got up, half asleep herself, to get one, but by the time she came back to the room he was asleep again. They then got up at 6:15. He has started unrolling the toilet paper again, much to our chagrin. Dealt with that this morning. We were getting stuff ready for recycling, and of something he said “I want to recycle that later. I want to recycle that afternoon.” 

Carly took him outside a little before 8. They went to Chrysanthemum, ate their snacks, played with garbage he found in the sand, and got a sandwich at Tous Les Jour. They were home at 9:30 as I was taking out recycling. He was then being rather negative about things, although much of it seems to be that he’s acting like Grouchy Smurf: “I don’t want you to say that. I don’t really like that word. I don’t really like Korean. I don’t like kids…I like mama, dada, Zinnie.”

Meg Pendleton, the previous art teacher, flew in from Moscow for the weekend for graduation. We were meeting her at 10. Before we left, I said what we were doing, and he said “That’s the art teacher?” I then mentioned that she had given him The Boy Who Bit Picasso and he really wanted to read it. Unfortunately, it is in a box for Israel.

We met her at 10 by the pagoda. We tried to go to the coffee shop in the art museum but it wasn’t open yet. So we walked past See and Me and went to the Coffee House place (where Meg and I once went, and where August took a nap a month or two ago). August got an apple juice, and the rest of us got teas or coffees. Meg got a bagel and cream cheese and said she would share it with him. She said Sharing is caring” and he said “I don’t like ‘caring’”. He did really well though, looking around the coffee shop, talking to us, drinking his apple juice, and sitting on Carly’s lap and cuddling.

We all then walked back to the art museum, and into the play area. I offered Carly and Meg a mint and the woman came over and told us we couldn’t eat in there. We weren’t actually in the play area yet, just the shoe area. August had fun playing with other kids. They were throwing balls at each other, which went well for the most part, except when he would throw balls at people who weren’t throwing back, or would be too close to their heads.

Eventually, Meg took off. August was a bit disappointed, and asked why Meg had to go. The three of us then wandered around, looking at all the art museum. We made sure to show Carly the U Ram Choe bird sculpture downstairs. And Carly liked the crazy Star Wars shrine, and we looked at those figures/dolls. Unfortunately, just before we left he spit on the ground by where the bike was. He was then spitting on the ground outside, which is okay.

Anyway, he spent several minutes climbing on the yellow sculpture with a couple of other kids. Decent sharing, although he was stepping on a boy’s feet when he got too close. He then followed a boy on rollerblades as he skated around the wooden benches. He was then riding his bike around, so Carly headed home without us.

When we headed home a couple minutes later, he saw a Korean boy about his size and age walking in front of us, wearing a hat. August said “Is that Zinnie?” I made him repeat it a couple times to make sure I had it correct. He was either being funny (it did kind of look like him) or was having an existential crisis.

We were home a bit after noon. We ate a salmon sandwich and potato soup for lunch. Carly taught him how to play Simon says, and then he was telling Carly what to do. While nursing he was pinching and grabbing Carly, so I got him to apologize. Then spent a good time playing in the sink. He then helped take apart his other set of green shelves.

Carly was getting ready to go to the APIS high school graduation. August was upset about this, and he was upset that we couldn’t dry off a toilet paper roll he had been playing with in the sink. Upset about that, he then slipped on something on the floor and fell a bit. Carly comforted him a little, but was already running late, so had to leave.

He took a few minutes to calm down and was still upset when I suggested we head outside. That helped a bit, and when I mentioned I was turning off the lights he went and turned off the bathroom light. We left at 2:14.

We decided to go to Sarang Park. We walked by Cafe Sarang Bbang but it is still closed with the same signs saying they were closed until June. We got to Sarang Park 2:40. Played just a little with the water and in the sand, then he needed a bathroom at 2:50. He didn’t want to use a urinal or squat, so we walked south to Madeul Stadium and used the bathroom there.

There was a soccer match, and we heard some drumming. So we went in and watched the match and the drumming. Just a single drum, but August was pretty excited about it and stood on the seat of his bike to watch at one point. He then had fun drinking from his water bottle and spitting in the drain, and playing with a lid and straw someone had dropped. And occasionally looked at soccer (or ‘football’ as we call it).

Out water bottles were almost empty, so when he was done we walked up to the faucets. He played for a few minutes there. A man came with a little black dog. August was several feet away, but the dog barked at him rather aggressively. August jumped and flapped his arms and exclaimed “Don’t lick me!!!” Really, really traumatized by that one licking experience, since he doesn’t even seem concerned about getting bitten.

He then rode his bike around the plaza there and then we headed home. We stopped to make sure the ant road is still there. We went to Tous les Jour to get bread, and got a red bean and cream cheese bread thing to share. We decided to go to the park, and we went down the two stairs at the edge of Brownstone in the bike. I said “How cool is that?” He replied “A little cool…but a little boring.”

We sat across from the mama statue again to eat it. I asked “Do you like it?” He replied “Yeah…not as much as candy, but I still like it.” He then went and climbed on the mama statue, then we spent a lot of time lifting him up to the three exercise bars and letting him hang and drop. They are actually quite high, so I would have my arms around him and catch him. More climbing on the mama statue, and he hugged it, then went up and climbed on a big rock. There were a couple of girls up on the hill and he followed them around a bit. At one point the older girl ran down the hill and he followed, then kept following her halfway to the playground before he turned back around.

Finally, there was a dad with two kids at a nearby bench. They had a bubble gun and a regular bubble wand thing. August popped the bubbles and watched. But when they would offer them to him to use he would say “I’m just watching.”

He had wanted Carly to meet us in the park at one point, but she was later than I expected. We headed home at 4:50. We then fixed the fan by taking off the cover and tightening it. He said “We’re workers?” We also washed off all the dust while we were at it. We then had fun talking and making noise into the fan. We then changed the sheets and were doing that when Carly got home just before 5:55.

August told her “I don’t want you to go to work again.” She made them egg and beans and rice for dinner. He brought out the pillows and said “I want to surf on mama because I have pillows.” They did that, then Carly gave him a bath and I did dishes.

He then wanted to read Smurfs so we read part of King Smurf story then Baby Smurf. He was ready for sleep and we took him in and he was asleep by 7:50.