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He started waking up around 5:30 and they got up at 6. They were humming and singing and making up random lines to On Top of Spaghetti. At one point, Carly sang “On top of Zinnie…” and August continued “all covered with poop.” He then explained that the poop ended up on the wall. We were reading Daisy-Head Mayzie when Carly left for work. August got hungry and wanted cereal. I asked if he wanted to share or wanted his own bowl and he said “own bowl”. When I got out the blue straw bowl he said “No…the bowls I usually use.” referring to the small normal bowls he’s been using for dinner. I also got his Claritin ready and decided to just put it in his water bottle today and see how that goes. I also gave him his vitamins, and he wanted to know how vitamins were made, so we watched a few videos. While I’d been getting everything ready, music by The Urge was playing. He liked it and we added one song to his playlist (quite a contrast to the Sesame Street songs we added yesterday) and he talked about how loud hard rock guitar is.

After the videos, and he ate more cereal, we did exercise and a little Human Body. He was then playing with Duplos and sang something about something being beautiful and a spaceship. He was then humming the Juicy Juice song as he filled the desk drawer again with Duplos.

He was using he word ‘exactly’ a lot this morning, mainly to mean ‘completely’, as in “Are you exactly done?”

We played mandolin and did chords and tempos, and tuned it. Then he wanted to play iPad together and we played a round of Animal Doctor, which we haven’t done in a long time. I wanted to go take a shower, but he wanted to keep playing with me, so I played some Tinybop Earth before slipping away for a shower. We were listening to the new Amanda Palmer album.

Banana Bread. While listening to Amanda Palmer he hummed along to at least one song, and identified a glockenspiel in it. He helped make banana bread, then played with the vegetable steamer and funnels and stacked them with magnets and other things.

I showed him how a funnel works and he got excited. He wanted to play in the water in the sink, something he hasn’t done in a long time. I suggested he go get his stool and he headed for Carly’s bathroom. I reminded him it was in my bathroom and as he ran in there he yelled “One second!” – I think he got that from Carly, although I might say it too. He played with the water a long time. At one point, while he was playing and humming to himself, I went into my bathroom to get something. He ran into the bathroom and asked “What happens if a monkey drives a bus?” I speculated that monkeys might not make great drivers and might run into things. I asked what he thought and he said “Maybe people.” He then ran back to the sink and played with more water.

I hung up laundry, then we skyped with my parents. He did quite a bit of talking with them. Banana bread was done, and after we hung up with them he ate some. He then played with xylophone and magnets and funnel, filling the funnel with magnets and other objects. He was then kicking the magnets across the floor.

We headed to Teuni Teuni class and got there a couple minutes early for once. Class was a blast for him again. The usual dancing at the beginning, then the teacher was acting like animals and August was acting them out too, waddling like a penguin, for example. When it came to a duck, August ran away, almost out of the class, then came back. Then the duck costumes. There was a hat, then a body that they attached around their waist. August wore both parts for the entire rest of class. There was a shaky walking path that August walked as a duck several times. He also squated down several times to have the duck poop.

August is always pointing out the red X and circles with a line through them that mean ‘exit’ or ‘don’t go this way’. Today he started making an X with his fingers and saying ‘exit sign’ when he didn’t want me to do something, and he did it to the teacher once. Makes sense if you know his line of thinking, but otherwise not so much.

Class continued with other duck activities – sliding ducks down a ramp, jumping of a ramp themselves – and the final activity involved a hand puppet duck head and getting fish to feed the duck. The idea was for the parents to be the duck, but August really liked the duck and did it himself.

At the end of class they got a new toy: a Teuni Monster Drum. It is pretty cool. If you roll it on the floor it comes back to you. And of course you can use it as a drum. After class I asked him what the best part of class was and he said “being a duck and playing a drum and it rolled away and came back.”

After class we got on the bike and headed south, to the area southeast of the hospital and north of the university. We found a place called U-Yeon Curry, on the second floor above a coffee shop. It looked good, and August was ready to go up. Climbed the steep steps and went in. We got the dongatsu curry, along with a fried shrimp, a piece of fried chicken, and a croquette. It also came with soup. And some radish that August ate all of. A perfect lunch for us. Ate it all, and then we headed to the nearby park.

On the way we discovered some sad news about a coffee shop we never made it to: Cafe Comma had closed. Would have gone that one time I was down there when August took a nap in the stroller, but it had stairs.

Anyway, we went to the park and went on the swings. When he wanted my swing I wouldn’t let him have it until he made the look he gives Carly. He did it, then said “The other look I do is like…” Not sure what the second face was for.

He wanted to do the step letter game, so I got the stick. We were playing that, and a bigger boy came over, stood by August a few seconds, then simply reached out and tried grabbing the stick from August. August kept the stick from him and I told him no and told him to get away. He didn’t seem too happy about that.

We didn’t play too much longer, and August was talking about going home. But then he found dandelions in seed, and had fun knocking off the seeds, and we watched how they were starting to blow away, even though it was barely breezy. Finally, we left at 2:45.

We walked up past the fire station. August kept saying he wanted to go home. But then he said he needed to go to the bathroom. I took him to the art museum and we went to the bathroom. The play area looked busy, and August didn’t try to go in. He wanted to go look at art. We went downstairs, which is now open. Some interesting stuff down there: a couple of big zoetropes that the attendants spin for you, videos of balloons, and a mechanical U Ram Choe sculpture, that sort of looks like two flying birds. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’ve seen that exact piece when Carly and I saw a show of his work at a gallery downtown. But as a children’s art gallery it continues to be mediocre: nothing to touch, and nothing particularly childlike, except for balloons.

We went back upstairs and into the main gallery. The intent was to go upstairs, which we haven’t done yet. Didn’t get that far. He watched the sewing video again, but then again had the same idea of touching, or perhaps crawling under these big translucent rectangles of plastic hanging from the ceiling. He wasn’t happy when I wouldn’t let him, and angrily said “I want it!”

In the lobby he said he was hungry. As if on cue a woman came over and gave him two pieces of chewy fruit candy. We went outside and he ate it outside on the big wooden benches around the green and yellow sculptures. He then sat on his bike and grabbed his shovel from the back. He used it as a telescope, then discovered the handle could hook on the handlebar and swing up and down. He said it was a backhoe, then a magic telescope, which he changed to a nonsense telescope.

It was time for English class, so we headed to Home Plus. A lot of songs and singing, and not a lot of other kids today,
so it went pretty well.

After class we went to try to find Carly. Didn’t see her at the corner, so we called her and he asked where she was. She was a block away, so we walked to meet her. He sang “Don’t see mama here, don’t see mama there” as we went. We found her, and got up just after 5.

They nursed, then Carly took a shower. He went to the bathroom, then left his shorts off. We play fought for his shorts and hid them in the reading area.

He then turned to filling the door area in the desk with stuff, humming while he did so. He played with the funnel for awhile, and that led to playing in the sink again. When he was done with that we went in on the reading area and read part of If I Ran the Circus, Gustav the Goldfish, part of If I Ran the Zoo, and were reading Daisy-Head Mayzie when he started getting crazy with a pillow. When he threw one at the iPad again after I told him he needed to be careful, I put the iPad away. He got upset – definitely bedtime – but I got him to calm down and to calmly ask Carly for a little nursing before his bath.

She gave him a bath and I did dishes. Then he and I watched our primary Sesame Street videos: We All Sing the Same Song, What’s the Name of that Song?, etc. before he was ready for bed, and he was asleep at 7:40.

Photos: 

Teuni Teuni. Zinnie duck: 

Lunch: 

Art: 

Poli English: 

Home. Filling the desk: 

Ernie: 

No allergies today! August didn’t do any eye scratching, so maybe the Claritin is working…

He was up at 6. They were nursing when I got up, then Carly put on the fourth movement for him and he watched all of that. She made him oatmeal with Apple for breakfast, and he sang Ode to Joy using numbers: “I sang Ode to Joy with numbers. Ha ha.”

He ate his oatmeal and carly headed to work. I prepared his allergy medicine in Gatorade and when he drank that we then read Daisy-Head Mayzie, then all of The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. He found all the little cats to be really silly. We started to read Marvin K. Mooney but he decided he wanted Namoo, where he looked at photosynthesis. “If you put a cake in a very big pipe and it sucks it up and you lose it – you lose the chocolate cake? The pipe sucks it up. The pipe takes it away. You lose the cake? Because you put it in a very big pipe? It’s THIS big. It’s THAT big, Dada. And you put it in there and close it and it sucks it up? Yeah? I’m doing it with chocolate cake, but I have bubble gum ice cream…” The story continued for several more minutes after that.

He played a little Human Body, then sat in the chair looking at my iPad and humming along as we listened to Sesame Street songs: “ABC-DEF-GHI”, “Elmo’s Song”, and others. He then wanted to play with play dough and we made a couple letters out of it, then exercised and I went to take a shower. Watched a few more Sesame Street videos. During Ernie’s “I don’t want to live on the moon” video he kept asking “Why?” Then he said “I want to live on stars.” And “Stay on the moon.” We had a snack of crackers and crab and string cheese and grapes and listened to more Sesame Street songs. When I was cutting crab he wanted to use the knife, so I let him cut a couple pieces.

Out of nowhere he started asking about what we teach. He asked “What Dada used to teach?” And then “What Dada teach in Israel?”

I cooked some tofu for lunch and made a tofu sandwich. In Human Body he was focused on the whole pooping process. He also joked that he had three or four hands: “I have three hands.” I asked where the extra hands were and he pointed to his forearms.

When I tried to take off his pajama shirt and put on a shirt he started playing with both, wrapping them around his hand and calling them “Funny hands” It continued from there: “I have two electric saxophones.” “Tuba horn and puba horn.” “Funny sock…it’s an instrument with three buttons and two mouthpieces.” I was trying to get us going and finally got him to the bathroom, but he was still playing with the pajama shirt afterwards. At one point he decided “I want to go outside” But quickly changed his mind: “No, no, no, no.” He got my sandal and used it for a “Shoe game.” When I suggested we go he said “I will not stop this game.” He then stuck a drum stick in my shoe and was putting stuff on it. He said “This is a machine I’m making. I’m putting together a machine.”

We watched a couple more Sesame Street videos (We All Sing the Same Song, What’s the Name of This Song?) as we got ready and he was in the backpack, and we left 1:20. We got to the elevator just as it left the 8th floor. I said something about just missing it and he said “Ha ha.”

We walked down and caught the 111 bus to Dream Forest, which had been his idea all morning. At Dream Forest we walked up and found that the wading stream/pool in the middle of the park was on. We took our shoes off and changed his shorts. He really fought getting sunscreen put on his arms and legs. But I did that and we waded down the stream, maybe taking ten minutes or so. He got in just deep enough that his shorts stated to get wet, then he wanted out. And he got upset when he started playing with someone’s shoe and I wouldn’t let him. Couldn’t get him back in the water – he wanted to go back to the backpack and go someplace else.

We walked farther up, and the rectangle wading pools were on, but he wanted to go in the arts building. We went in and there was a photo op set up with a bunch of big stuffed animals. There were other kids playing with them despite the ‘No touching’ sign, so we joined in. He got upset when I made him get out of the way when someone wanted to take a photo, and was actually trying to pose and get in some of the photos. And at one point he hugged a flamingo.

He then wanted to head up the stairs. Nothing in the art gallery. He wanted to go in the book cafe. We went in and I got an iced tea and he got an apple juice. We went in the kids area for awhile and he played on the iPad and I read. He said he needed to go to the bathroom, and as we were going to put our shoes on we saw Jenny, his Poli English teacher. He didn’t talk to her much, but did kind of joke with her through one of the holes/shelves in the wall. And we met her daughter, who is younger than August.

We went to the bathroom then got walking at 3:42 as he wanted to head towards Mama and didn’t want to go in the water. A lot of talk about tempos as we walked. At the stream we saw a big bird and I was trying to decide if it was a crane or a heron and asked what he though. He said “It has feet. It has feathers. It has a beak.” As we walked he was asking about directions, and as we walked down the other side of the stream he was asking why we don’t see more blue flowers.

We got to the entrance of APIS about 4:10. I’d been telling him we couldn’t go in before 4:30, but he didn’t agree with that, and got upset when I started to walk up to the park across the street: “Now go back!” When we got to the park he didn’t want to get out of the backpack. I got out the bubble gun and got out and played with it for a couple minutes, then wanted me to put it back in the bag. We headed into APIS and got to Carly’s classroom just before Carly did. The first thing he said was “Why it say ‘pee’ there?” He had seen it up on a sign she had on the board as part of an acronym for her students. As soon as Carly came in he ran up to her and said “I’ve got my shoes on!” Then proceeded to sit down and take off his shoes; he knows that Carly doesn’t want him to get his feet all dirty on the classroom floor. They nursed, then did some painting together, then we headed home around 5:20.

On the way he decided that he wanted all the vehicles when we go to Israel: the cars, the trucks, the motorbikes, a little backhoe on a truck: “I want that truck in Israel too.” At one point I suggested that instead of getting a bunch of vehicles we get just one perfect vehicle that was just right for us. He got quiet and thought about it for several seconds, then said he wanted a car. Then a second, a third, a fourth… Close to the pink building I let him down so he could walk. He looked at the flowers and did some running. We went to Lucky Mart with Carly. He ran around a bit, but then helped me get cream cheese and crab. On the way home we were also singing Yellow Submarine and he was adding notes to it and making interesting rhythms.

We got home and they nursed, then he hid some tissues in the reading area and had me find them. He went to the bathroom, then back out in the living room said “Uh-oh, the shirt is pooping.”

Carly gave him a bath awhile later, then he got really upset when we made him go to the bathroom before going to bed. Anyway, we got him into bed and he was asleep at 7:20.

Using a knife: 

Funny hand: 

Jumping: 

Dream Forest: 

Jenny putting on his shoes. Him hiding his hands: 

More bubbles: 

Painting: 

Catching: 

Helping carry groceries: 

It was a rough night, as August woke up twice, really rubbing his eyes: once around midnight, then at 5am. So Carly in particular didn’t get much sleep, although I didn’t do too much better.

Carly had him watching Beethoven’s Ninth in the morning. He kept wanting to nurse, but then wouldn’t nurse because he was paying attention to Beethoven instead. At the piccolo part he got really exciting. He stared fake coughing and laughing “coughing instrument”. Carly had looked up child doses of Loratadine. It is half a pill, so I broke one in half, crushed it, and put it in a drink of Gatorade for August and he drank it. He had some banana bread for breakfast and Carly found a Gatorade factory video for him as he was asking how it was made. We read Daisy-head Mayzie and Hop on Pop. Carly headed to work during that. He did some GarageBand, then we played a full game of checkers. I had some videos, and he wanted to know how they were made, so we found a couple videos, then watched his ink video.

He picked up a tissue and put it between his toes, then started walking around, vacuuming with it – a “toe vacuum cleaner”. We went in and played with the Smurfs. There were only 9 figures at first, and I realized there should be twelve. I looked for the missing ones, and he got excited when I found the others in a book basket. Wasn’t clear if he had hid/put them in there today, or yesterday. We had them have picnics. Then he was hiding them. Then he was hitting me and having Papa Smurf bandage me up.

We read Daisy-head Mayzie again, and ate the rest of the banana bread. Exercised, then he made a very long game of filling the desk drawer with stuff. Starting with the DVDs and CDs I had out, but expanding to Duplos, the Smurfs, xylophone sticks, etc: “I’m doing stuff in there.” He kept doing it, and I tried to get him interested in doing some art by doing dots on a piece of paper. He looked at it and said “I see the colors of that. Beautiful!” But he kept putting stuff in the drawer: “I’m putting them in there because they’re pooping.”

Eventually he did dots with me and we filled the paper pretty well. He decided it was “Germs inside your body”. That made him think of Human Body on the iPad: “I want to do Human Body because hat is inside your skin and there’s germs in your body.” He was looking at blood and wanted to know what the macrophages were, so we looked that up. Then I got an email from Carly saying guys were going to come look at the bathroom soon. So we hurried to get ready to go, but just as I was about to put August in the backpack they showed up. They only looked for like ten seconds though, then left. So I made half a peanut butter and jam sandwich for August and he ate that. He then said “I’m ready to go”, but proceeded to play with Duplos, then some piano before we left at 11:20.

At the station he was really rubbing his eyes. We were then singing “Lay Down Your Weary Tune”, as we had been humming it on the way there. A woman tried to talk to him, and he said “I want candy. Do you have candy?” Luckily, she didn’t understand him. I had let him not go to the bathroom before we left, but after a few stops he said he had to go. So we got off and used the bathroom, then got back on.

At Children’s Grand Park he wanted to go to the piano. The park was crazy busy (full of both school groups and families) but the piano was free. There was a group of teenage girls close though, and they kept talking about August. Then a woman and a little girl came and stood by the piano. The girl sharing the piano would have been fine, but the woman was just staring at August from about a foot away, so I decided it was time to go.

We went to the children’s museum. He started in the nature area, looking at the rocks and doing the snowflake puzzles and other things around there. We went to the chalkboard and he had me write the ABCs. Headed further into the art area, and he played with the puff things, excited by how far up he could place them, and then making a shape that he called a “horse letter”. He continued on and played with the CDs you can hang on a fish shape, looked at the kaleidoscopes, then played with the light rods and light blocks and light shapes. Finally, he spent several minutes in the ribbon gymnastics area, twirling and spinning about. That was fun to see.

We went to the food place by the conservatory, but it has changed. The food court area has a. Lot less choices (and no burger place), and the end is now a GS25. We went there, but they didn’t have much, and the line was long. We got a couple of regular soft-boiled eggs, some garlic-filled crab, and a couple of drinks. He did a good job standing in line. We got separated for a few seconds as we walked to the zoo and he didn’t see me turn, but quickly found each other. Hard to find a place to sit, but we finally found a bench between the primates and the tigers and ate there. A group of teenage girls came and took their photo with him.

We started to walk towards the playground on the other side of the hill, but realized the water birds and tropical buildings were open. So we went in both of those, although in the tropical building he mainly only looked at the fish. The zookeeper door was propped open, and I explained how he used to really like them, but he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. We then walked through the children’s zoo (also now open) and spent some time with the goats. And he really liked the farmer and sheep statue, which he’s seen many times before.

At about 3 we went to our usual bathroom. When we exited, he ran ahead of me. He had gone up the hill, then ran really fast back down to me.

Kind of startled me the first time, and I was glad he didn’t fall. He did it a couple more times, but was safer about it, and didn’t go as fast. He then spent a few minutes listening to and humming the music on the PA system. There were high school students gathering in the theater space below us, and he went and sat and watched them (and at one point picked up an empty chips bag and sort of threw it down), then made a game of pulling things off the trees and dropping them down the drains. We left there at 3:20; he wanted to go back to the children’s museum.

We didn’t make it that far. We saw a boy with one of those battery-operated bubble guns, and I remembered that we’d brought ours. It was part of our unbirthday president to Carly last year and we had never used it. So we stopped at the deck area by the coffee shop and played with it there. He sprayed them for kids passing by a few times, and also shot them at the bushes and trees. He called the music that it makes the “Bubble song”. We went through most of the small two bottles that we brought. At 3:50 he said “I want to go somewhere.” and walked off. He sprayed some bubbles and we walked towards the exit, then let me put it in the backpack.

In the subway station I stopped to look at the new bakery that had replaced the old bakery. We got a blueberry pie, then a chocolate one for Carly. We ate our blueberry one on the platform. We were on the subway about 4:15. Got the dancing spot again, and he did some dancing, and was singing my tune (and words) to the nursery rhyme “There was an old woman tossed up in a basket”. A seat was open, but he didn’t want it at first, but then changed his mind. I got him on the seat, then went to get the iPad from the backpack. While my back was turned, a woman either tried to shake his hand, or tried to move him back or keep him on the seat. I heard him say “Don’t. Shake. My arm!” as he got off the seat and came to me. He then asked “How angry was that?”

Walking home he sang “hit, hit, hitty, hit, hit” to the tune of Ode to Joy and hit my back as he did so. He got quiet and I reminded him he couldn’t fall asleep. He started singing again, then a minute later got quiet again. He fooled me, because he was only acting like he was falling asleep. We went to Tous Les Jour and got bread and were home at
4:55. He played Human Body and was rubbing his face. But he hadn’t done much of that while we were out, and it was more nose and much less eyes today, so that was good.

Carly was home at 5:25. We were just about to start reading Daisy-Head Mayzie, and he let us do that instead of nursing right away. When we were done, I had him give Carly her chocolate pastry. She gave him a bite of that, then they nursed. A bit later he did the toe vacuum with Carly’s light black sweatshirt.

At one point they were on the reading area and he was talking about ice cream and other foods, and asking what I like: “Dada likes bubble gum ice cream? Plums? Pineapples?” I asked if he liked flamingoes, and he got a bit serious and answered “Noooo…I can’t eat them. They’re a bird.”

I gave him a bath again while Carly did dishes. August watched more Sesame Street videos: “Me Lost Me Cookie at the Disco”, then Little Richard’s “Rubber Ducky”, Smokey Robinson’s “U Really Got a Hold on Me” (https://youtu.be/ws_vnXup7so) (which August found hilarious, because the giant U kept chasing and grabbing him), “What’s the Name of that Song?” (https://youtu.be/6TjX5r37V0Q) (Which he also really liked), and “We All Sing the Same Song” (https://youtu.be/MYXJlfcfFKU) (which he also really liked, and I vaguely remember from when I was a kid). We finished with “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon” (https://youtu.be/kIq8jLj5TzU). By this point he was really quiet and serious, and sucking on two fingers in his mouth.

He got out, and we put him to bed and he was asleep about 7:20.

Photos: 

Children’s museum: 

Stretching tall: 

Horse letter: 

Zoo: 

Bubbles: 

Blueberry pastry: 

Watching work in the street: 

Taking photos. One of his: 

Watching Sesame Street: 

He was up just after 7. He went to the front door and after a bit said “Now, go!” We got our shoes on but that was enough to really calm him down. He talked about how our shoes were the same, then we ended up in the “changing room” (as he still calls it) and he helped take down dry clothes. He found he could take clothes off the lower rack and could reach up on the ironing board and set Carly’s clothes up there.

We took our shoes off and went and got banana bread for breakfast. We watched some of the Formula 1 race and he played Human Body and was actually singing “Buffalo Gals” on his own. We discussed the nervous system, then while I got coffee he sang a “Feed him, feed him, feed him…” song to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It. We got enough coins in Big Numbers to watch the dance thing at the end, then read Daisy-Head Mayzie and the rest of Horton Hatches an Egg. We had some grapes,  then I cleaned the bathroom.

For several minutes he was playing by himself with the Smurfs and singing “Buffalo Gals”, which he then turned into a “dance with me” song. We played mandolin and he wanted to figure out how to play our Lost My Helmet song. Luckily, the two chords I can play well on it, C and G, work just fine.

We threw around some pillows, then were hiding Duplos. We looked at Human Body and discussed nerves and how they send messages to the brain. He put some Duplos on the end of his finger and was then hitting me with it: “This is my hitting button. I hit people.” He played a little Namoo but then needed to use the bathroom. There, he declared “Three thousand, three hundred, thirty four. That’s how many cats we should have in gramma and grampa’s house.” He then asked “What happens if cats be in pipes? It would be nonsense?”

We had crackers, crab, and cream cheese for a snack, then exercised. He found the Poli flashlight thing and was looking into it and said “Hello, Amber.” I took a shower. When I came out, he was setting books all over the reading area: “I want to read now.” We read Biscuit Wants to Play, Five Minutes Peace, The Hole in the King’s Sock, and Wheels on the Bus.

We were planning to head up to Uijeongbu, but he kept wanting to do things at home, so we were in no hurry. He painted, and used the wood end of a brush: “I’m painting in a funny way.” with end of the brush. He made some spots of colors, then said: “I’m connecting now.” Then he told me “I’m making someone trying to catch a bus.” And asked “What ‘catch a bus’ mean?” We’ve actually discussed this phrase several times in the last couple of days: Mayzie’s mom says she’ll “catch the next bus” in Daisy-Head Mayzie and of course we had just read The Wheels on the Bus.

Finally, he played some piano, then declared he was ready to go outside. We got ready to go and left at 12:45. He was humming Odd to Joy a lot on the way up. Played Human Body on the train, and ate some banana bread while we waited for the U-line. We got on the train and had a nice view outside.  He excitedly said “B sound!” It is the unique sound of the elevated monorail train that they have. In the past I think he used a different letter to describe it, but he was insistent it was a B sound today.

We got off at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office stop and walked south to 청사초롱근린공원. Along the way, August declared “The cars are laughing.” He then made a really cool “J, J, J, J, Jellyfish” chant and song that went on and on. We got to the park and found a lunch spot on a round bench. We had stopped on the way out of Brownstone and got some kimbap, which we ate along with some grapes and other things we brought from home.

He then wanted to walk around. In particular, there was a flute player up on the hill somewhere and he wanted to go find the flute. The flute was playing a song that reminded me of Dylan’s “Lay down your weary arms”. Well, that’s how I remembered it at the time, but would later realize it is called “Lay down your weary tune”. Anyway, we went up a little hill, walked to the right, and found there wasn’t a path. Went back, trying a sad climbing thing for a minute, then back up to the trails, hoping one would loop around. WHen it was clear that one wouldn’t, I told August we were headed the wrong way. He said “I want to keep walking the wrong way.” and led the way, walking ahead of me.

And then we found the shape area and wooden instrument. This was quite a find. First, he played with the wooden instrument, which was sticks of various length hanging from ropes, then a stick to hit them with. Then, we started playing with all the large blocks, cut from trees. We were there for probably an hour, and built 6 towers. We saw a bunch of different insects along the way: a grey caterpillar, a green ladybug, a green inchworm, and some. Scary looking black things. Earlier, we had seen a different inchworm and some bees.

When we were done with the towers he played the instrument a bit more, then we kept walking the trails and found a rope area. There were different climbing things involving ropes, and he tried them out. A few times today he was remembering the nerves part of Human Body and said “Touch my leg. There’s messages up to your brain?”

We were running out of time, and were both interested in looking for an actual playground at another park, so we got going. We walked back roads to the west to another park, 열린맘근린공원. East end didn’t have much, but August wanted a snack. We found a covered bench area so got down and had another piece of banana bread. He was then playing with a big C-shaped stick, holding it in the air and making an arch on the ground with it. He said he needed to use the bathroom, so we got going. He wanted to walk, and we headed to the west end of the park. He held my hand as we walked down some sketchy stairs, with all sorts of bolts missing, making the steps shaky. But no bathroom in the west end of the park (or playground), so we got in the backpack and walked a block to the nearest train station.

We went to the bathroom, and he let the door close on the stall. When I opened it he said “Haha. I wanted private time.” He was rubbing his eyes, so I gave his hands and arms a good washing in the sink. Before I could suggest doing his face he protested. As we went out I said “Remember what Opa said, “If it itches, put wawa on it.” He flatly replied, “I don’t do that.”

We took the U-Line to line 1. Had a few minutes before the train came, so we popped into a StoryWay to get something to drink. They had a 2+1 deal on these smoothie drink things, so we got one of each color, purple, yellow, and green. We drank two there, then the third one while we waited for the line 7 train at Dobongson. On the last train he was sitting to my left and the woman on my right said hi to him. He nicely said “Hi! Hi, hi, hi.” But then she tried to shake his hands. He pulled his hands away and hid them in his shirt. He said “My hands are not here. They go out when we go home.”

As we walked home, he sang “Red, red, red, red is a primary color…yes, yes, yes, red is a primary color.” Earlier, we’d been talking about primary colors, and I reminded them they are a bit different in the ink video, as they use cyan, yellow, black, and the red color… I couldn’t remember the red color, and August did: “Magenta!”

We were home at 5:12. Carly was home. He was getting allergic, and they nursed, then ate some dinner. He was chewing, and suddenly upset about something. We thought he had bit his tongue or something, but he didn’t seem to be confirming it. Using the thumbs up/thumbs down, I asked him a bunch of questions, and he said it was his foot – think he may have stepped on something pokey or hit it on the door. Not entirely convinced though.

He went to the bathroom, then ended up having some naked time. He played some Human Body, then was laying on reading area looking at books. I gav
e him a bath in my shower. The bathtub barely fits. We watched Sesame Street videos: “Me Lost My Cookie at the Disco” (https://youtu.be/kKW7TIjqZAA), “Rubber Ducky” (https://youtu.be/tWCEG6lV0ek), “Elmo’s Song” (https://youtu.be/vSYadh2xmcI), “Two Different Worlds” (https://youtu.be/o9_LOwDeMBA), and “Elmo’s Got the Moves” (https://youtu.be/SVEAro-eIQc).

We read Daisy-Head Mayzie, then he was to bed soon after that, asleep about 7:40.

Photos. For mama: 

Hitting button: 

Giving the mama statue a pat: 

Lunch spot: 

Badminton: 

Leading the way: 

Building: 

Ropes: 

“My hands are not here”: 

Naked time: 

Reading: 

He went to Carly at 3 something, then was up at 4 something. He nursed and entertained himself with the iPad, mainly, and Carly dozed until they got up at 7. I heard them then and got up a few minutes later. We had gotten the estimate for shipping our stuff and it was high – $4000. So Carly started going through boxes and getting rid of more stuff. August ‘helped’ with this, putting stuff back in boxes, and trying to pull his clothes out of drawers and put them in the boxes. I went and got stuff out and we made banana bread instead. He also played with his “extendo arm” quite a bit – a plastic cord cover we were going to recycle yesterday but he wanted to play with.

We went back to work on boxes, and I went through all the books again and organized them better as well. He was moving books from one box to another. When banana bread was done I got him some, then went and took a shower. Carly and August did a lot of nursing and resting. He and I played xylophone- he playfully took the sticks and wouldn’t share them. I started to make lunch (chicken sandwich, soup) and Carly tried to go to the store, but he wouldn’t let her. Instead, they nursed and he fell asleep just as I had food ready for him. He was asleep 11:45 to to 12:50. Nursed and fell back to sleep. Carly napped as well. She went and woke him up 1:50ish. When she went to wake him, he was sleeping with his bottom in the air.

They nursed, and then he watched a little Puffin Rock – the story where Bernie needs a new shell. Been weeks and weeks since he has watched a show, but he still refers to the characters. In fact, yesterday as we were walking to the Arts Center, he saw a red light turn on for a parking garage and said “Baba light is on.” And sometime today or yesterday I said something and he said I sounded like Baba or Oona.

He ate his now cold lunch. I played some Shel Silverstein from iTunes. August was intrigued, and started pretending to write in the air. He said “I’m writing the words in cursive.” I think it sounded like Dr. Seuss to him, as he then wanted to read some Dr. Seuss and we read Daisy Head Mayzie. He then nursed again, after again not letting Carly leave on her own to the store, and we all headed to the store about 3.

We took the bike down into the store. August and I found a couple things on the list, then we paid and started to walk out. August was pointing at things and saying “I don’t need that fan for home…I don’t need that coffee…I don’t need to go in there (down to the movie theater area).” He also said “I don’t like black and white, or grey.” When I asked what colors he does like, he said “Green, yellow, orange, purple.”

We went home and dropped off groceries. He played with the front door, turning the handle on one side, but then looking at the other side and joking about how it was turning. But he was also asking about how it works. He was fine going back out with me now and leaving Carly at home while she cooked a rice and tofu and veggie dish.

We walked over to the stream. He said “I don’t see bike fixing.” as we passed the usual place for that. As we walked up past the Bye Fuzzy playground he was singing “Stream, stream, stream, stream… He said it was a “Stream instrument”. Then he saw the flowers and sang “Flower, flower, flower, flower…” and I asked what it was and he said “electric flower violin”. As we got up by Madeul he plugged his ears and I asked why. He said “I’m plugging my ears because the flowers are yelling…for food.” He then said “I’m plugging my ears because things are yelling. Those stairs are yelling. Also those trees are yelling.”

We got to the Spiderweb Playground at 3:45. We went and played in the sand, making an island. He then took his shoe off and we filled that. Some other kids had some plastic toy things out and August went over and played with those. They had been sitting there for several minutes. One of the boys seemed concerned about them though and started picking them up, so I got August to help pick them up. There was also a big, very bent, hula hoop there, and August played with that for awhile. He said he wanted to buy a hula hoop and said it would be 16 dollars. We left close to 4:20.

We walked up and through Madeul park. He saw the answer and question signs and said “A…Q. That not how the alphabet works.” As we walked home he started to sing his name as a song “August Zinn Althauser Nimand…I added a D at the end!” And one time he sang it and skipped ‘Althauser’ and joked “Who needs Althauser?” I knew Carly wouldn’t approve of that one and had to tell her later.

We got back to Brownstone and kept walking, across and around the park. He noted no one was playing Korean chess and wanted to get off and play pretend Korean chess: “I captured all your pieces.” We got home at 5 and nursed. Carly had cooked veggies and rice and tofu. I scooped up a bunch of veggies for him and he ate a bunch of them.

He played Human Body and spent a lot of time on the tooth part – feeding it food and brushing the teeth. Earlier we had dropped off a suitcase and a couple of speaker systems at the recycling area downstairs. I had thought we didn’t have to pay if stuff was in good condition. They caught us and called, and I went down to pay, but the guy came up to the apartment. We met again at the elevators and went down and he gave me change. He was nice about it, and I explained the mix up, but he was mainly excited to show me all the CCTV cameras where they can track people.

Back upstairs, August and I read much of If I Ran the Zoo, Gustav the Goldfish, and half of Horton Hatches an Egg. I gave him a bath at 7. We watched Beethoven’s Ninth, the fourth movement. He wanted the piccolo flute part. Took awhile to get there, and he was very excited when we got to it. We watched all of the fourth movement. Carly brought his food into him and he overheard her talking about how she would prefer plain rice. He said “No, I don’t like this one. I want plain.”

We finished the fourth movement, then headed out to the parlor. He had naked time, and we read more books: Picasso’s Trousers, Help the Earth, Double Dare, and Hole in the King’s Socks.

Then, a guy rang the doorbell. Apparently, there was leaking into the bathroom below during Carly’s shower. Two guys came in and worked on it, running water down the drain. Carly put August to sleep in the reading area, he was asleep by, and the men left several minutes later. They couldn’t fix it, so APIS will have to deal with it tomorrow. No using that shower for the time being.

Photos. Helping with boxes: 

A nap: 

Playground: 

Tasting the wind: 

Pretend Korean chess:

Obsessed with the tooth: 

Today we enjoyed the 77 degree weather and made the long trip to the Seoul Arts Center for the Shepard Fairey exhibit, and then walked over to a traditional instruments museum that Melinda had told us about at Cora’s party.

He was up before 6. A lot of rubbing his eyes this morning, including when they Skyped with Cherie and Chuck. We got to tell them about our house in Israel. After that, August and I read Where the Wild Things Are, A Pocket for Corduroy, and Five Minutes Peace. Carly got recycling ready, and we all took it down. Back up, Carly started vacuuming. August and I did the parlor until the vacuum cleaner shut off. He had been doing okay with the noise and actually vacuuming, but he was a bit sad/worried when he thought it was broken, and as we tried the other vacuum and tried. To get this one to work he was scared of the possible noise. I took a shower, and when I came out they were still nursing. We got ready to leave, and were talking about the art show. August was conflicted on it. He didn’t want to go, then wanted to go. He asked if it would be dark, and that seemed to be the major sticking point – he said he hadn’t liked the Egyptian show because it was dark. But he also remembered the carrot-shaped mummy. After that there was lots of talk of octaves and piccolo flutes and we got going.

Sat with Carly on the subway down and was using the Human. Body app today and obsessed with that. More of the sudden science kick.

Near the Seoul Arts Center we found a coffee shop and cafe called Little By Little. We got a ham and cheese panini (which was good, but on regular bread, like what is called a ‘toast’ sandwich here), bowl of broccoli cheese soup, and a yellow smoothie (mango, pineapple, and banana). We ate lunch, then headed to the Arts Center and up tot he museum where the Shepard Fairey exhibit was. August first liked all the little ‘Obey’ pictures that people had colored, and I showed him it didn’t look too dark inside. We went in, and he did quite well. At first he was running around, pointing to a bunch of them and repeating “I like that one.” He and Carly went back and forth through the exhibit for awhile, but he kept wanting to go back to the pink room, the first one, because pink was suddenly his favorite color. He also sat and watched the video there a couple times. Later, I picked him up and we walked through a bit more slowly and I pointed out some of the pieces and we discussed them. They headed out, and I spent a couple more minutes inside, then came out to see them watching the Simpsons episode with Fairey in it, where Bart is a graffiti artist. He thought it was really funny. I bought a small poster in the gift shop, and we left.

We walked up and across the Seoul Arts Center. August counted steps, and we saw the fountain turn on. Picked him up and we walked up and into the university next door and to the traditional instruments museum. Outside, he played some drums, then we went in (it is free) and looked around. Upstairs we found a couple zither-type instruments you could play and we sat and played those. Carly headed outside to enjoy the weather, and to get away from all the wood that she thought was making her allergic. August and I walked around the rest of the second floor and found some bells/chimes to play. Lots of other interesting instruments to look at (and showed him more record players – there had been one at the Fairey exhibit as well), then we headed out and found Carly.

He was rubbing his eyes and acting a little tired. Carly talkedto him, and he volunteered “I’m sad”. Not clear about what “I’m not sure.” Think it was a combination of wanting more instruments to play, not knowing where mama was for a minute, and apparently he thought we were going to an instrument store before we got there.

We got in the backpack and walked back to the station. He was falling asleep in the backpack as we got to the station. Went to the bathroom, then headed home. He played Human Body again on line 7. Walked home and he stayed awake. At one point I saw his mouth open and was afraid he was yawning,but he said “I was eating the wind.” We were home a 4:10.

He played Human Body and we talked about skin and temperatures. He and I then played the Larva memory game and the Monster Mix game. We adjusted our rules in Monster Mix so it worked better, but I lost badly. He finished 5 monsters and I only finished 2.

Before we had left, as I was getting him in the backpack, I was whistling a song, and August asked what it was and started humming it himself. I could only remember one word from it, ‘always’, but a quick search on iTunes didn’t find it. When we got home I searched some more. I was excited when I found it, as was August. It was Guided by Voices’s song “Sentimental Wars” (https://youtu.be/Wk08yneSSbI). We added it to his playlist and listened to it on repeat as we played our games.

Carly gave him a bath. I had some soup ready for him, but after his bath he was very sleepy and just wanted to nurse. He hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep last night, so we got him ready for bed and he was asleep just after 6.

Photos: 

Exhibit: 

Instrument museum: 

Home. Playing cards: 

He was up at 5:45. I got up a bit later and he and I read George Catches a Cold and Tiny Rabbit’s Big Wish. Carly headed to work and he played some Dragonbox Numbers. He saw me looking at an event invite on Facebook and it had an accordion on it. It was for a Kesselgarden concert (I used to work with the clarinet player), so I put on their music and we listened to some klezmer music  and discussed tempos. He then played Namoo and I made French toast with blackberries for breakfast. He asked how canned blackberries are made, so we watched a video about how tomatoes are canned, and then how maple syrup is made. The first maple syrup one was for a big company, but then we found one for a farm in Canada that featured two boys. August liked that one a lot more and watched it twice. He then played the TinyBop Plant and Earth apps (into the science stuff all the sudden) and he watched Beethoven’s Ninth while I showered.

He was asking for different tempos, then trying to sing songs to them. He found his brush/comb and remembered how he could make it into a V:  “I went back to the V game…its eating bugs…blah, blah, blah…because of the bugs.” He then stuck a xylophone stick through the brush and made a T. He listed a bunch of T words and said “Those are all my T words.”

I started laundry, then I made a salmon sandoo and we ate that. He was asking about adults being kids: “Gramma used to be a kid?” “All people used to be a kid?” We ate some grapes, then he helped hang laundry. He played some Busy Shapes, then we watched a video each on how mandolins and guitars are made.

We got going, and he didn’t want to go to the bathroom before we left. He started to protest as I pushed his pants down and lifted him on the toilet, but then he was peeing even as he protested. Luckily, all went well.

Not a big plan on where to go, so we headed south. They’re doing some construction work in the middle of the street between us and the park, and it was nice as it was basically a pedestrian street. We walked south, and walked along the railroad tracks. Went to the east end. You can go over the small bridge over a street, but still no farther. We went back to Hagye Children’s Park, the Tree Playground, and played there. Pretty much had the park to ourself at first. First went over to the bathroom, then he was looking up at the trees while kneeling on the bike. He went over on his own and wanted to pose as a rabbit.

From there we wandered over the play structure. He talked about going down a slide, but couldn’t decide on the best one. I suggested that if he wanted to go on a swing now was the time, as they might get busy later. So he went on a swing for a good amount of time. He played the rope of the swing as a sort of musical instrument.

We then went over by the bushes and I sat on a rock. He picked some leaves off the bushes and I read my book. He was climbing around on the rocks by and behind me. He then took his shoe off, and started filling it with sand. This became a game, and we filled it several times. I asked if I should go to the bike and get our bucket and shovel. He said yes. I warned him I would be out of sight for awhile, and he asked how many minutes. It was just a few seconds, and he was just fine. Came back and did more with his shoe, then we used the bucket to make an island in the sand, which he then smashed.

He sat next to me, and we talked about Israel and what would be exciting about it. I asked him what instrument he wanted, and he first said autoharp, but then it became clear he was talking about a harpsichord. We also had a good talk about how the leaves on all the trees around us work, applying what he sees on the Namoo app about carbon dioxide and oxygen and photosynthesis.

He ran across to the short climbing wall things and I started putting our stuff away. I looked up to find him up on top of it. But after that he couldn’t get up on his own – I think he was trying to climb it from the more difficult side.

Belatedly, I tried to put sunscreen on him, and I got one arm done. He then ran off and was wiping that one arm on a bench or something. He then kept running away from me to avoid me doing the second arm, basically until he tired out.

I had the idea of getting pizza and surprising Carly. Naver said there was a pizza place between us and home, and we left the park at 4:20. Couldn’t find that pizza place though, so we headed home, grabbed the iPad (he really, really wanted to play Namoo after our tree discussion), and headed up to Pizza School. As we left the building, he said “I want to go to Baskin Robbins instead.” Told him he needed to talk to mama about ice cream.

We ordered a noodle pizza and pepperoni pizza and he played Namoo while we waited. We headed home. He was making up words to song both directions. He was singing a cheery tune, then I heard him singing lines that included “was hit…50 times…there was blood…I was angry.”

We got home a minute before Carly. She grabbed the breast pump, then headed to the post office to send it to someone she had found that wants it. AUgust was fine with this, as we ate pizza. And more pizza. And more pizza. We dipped pizza in soup, ate some soup, shared a banana. I told Carly when she got back that soon we are going to have to get three pizzas when we order it.

Carly was back home at 5:25. He ate some pizza with her and nursed. He and I then put the keys back in the piano. I asked him to sing his song about hitting. He didn’t remember it, but sang “I was angry singing this song / because it goes on and on”

He was playing with the measuring tape, and calling the measuring tape the “number line”. He and Carly did art together. He wanted “A human bleeding.” They made a cool picture. Carly kept spacing out, and he would order her to “Draw”. She went to get his bath ready, and he requested the “Carrier”. He wanted the Ergo. So she put that one and he sat in it for a minute.

She gave him a bath, then he ended up having naked time in the parlor. He was excited about that, and spent a good amount of time just lying between us in the reading area.

They tried for sleep, but no luck. They played on the bed, and he named the bear from Carly’s childhood “Trumpet trumpety”. He came out and we read Daisy-head Mayzie. Then back to bed and he was asleep at 8:30.

The big news today is that we have a home in Israel. We have concerns about the place, but it also looks nice in a lot of ways.

The other big news was that around 11 I heard him awake and rubbing his eyes. That went on for a couple minutes, then he sat up and made some noise, and I think he said “Nurse”. I went to him and asked if his eyes were itching. I then laid him back down and put my hand on his chest. And he fell back asleep. The first time that has ever worked.

Photos. T: 

Organized keys: 

Park. Looking at the trees: 

Rabbit Zinnie: 

Throwing leaves: 

Biting his shoe: 

Pouring: 

Hanging: 

Waiting for pizza: 

Art with mama: 

Ergo: 

He got up at 7:00, after Carly had headed to work. He was a bit upset, but not too bad. He sat on the step for a few minutes, then we put on our shoes, but I realized we hadn’t taken off his diaper yet, so we changed him into underwear. He then wanted to measure his feet. They’re 15cm long. He asked “What happens if you’re 12 cm tall?” Still wanted out: “I want to go out in the hall.” So we went out and roamed the hallways, from 7:15 to 7:32. Looked at the mail boxes, and he led the way, humming as he wandered the building. At one point he rubbed his hand on the wall as he walked and said “I’m making a sine wave.”

Back in the house he played with all the xylophone stuff (magnets, etc.) We read “Spring” (Frog and Toad) and part of The Little Prince. He then said he wanted to play with the Namoo app: “Namoo? What? It’s about growing.” He wanted cereal for breakfast, but didn’t reply when I asked if he wanted his own bowl. When I brought just one to share he said “I want my own bowl.” After he ate he was looking out the window at cars: “I want that black car. That’s a good size for our car in Israel?…How about that car? It’s a little big.” We had been listening to music, and he liked songs by the Black Angels after the the Telemann classical album was over.

I took a shower and came out to find him hauling pillows to the bedroom: “I was taking away the pillows from the reading area. I mean the nursing spot.” We played on the bed and did cupcakes and cake with the friends .

Then he was really hungry. I offered him several options (French toast, hummus, soup, etc.) but he remembered crackers and cream cheese and crab. So we had that and he was getting pretty good st scooping cream cheese with a cracker and putting a piece of crab on it. He was making a lot of his yummy noises as he ate.

Did some art. He started drawing a picture: “I’m making a machine instrument. This is a machine that cuts those pieces in half.” By the time he finished it he had slightly changed his mind and said it was a machine that cuts pizzas. He then made a line of Duplos and other things through the middle of the parlor. He then remembered the playground and getting sprayed game on reading area. That was from back when we had the Teuni gym set thing and it was a “playground” that you had to be a certain age to use, or you got sprayed with a hose. We were also cuddling in the reading area, and talking about germs and how there are good and bad germs.

He said he was still hungry, then needed to use the bathroom. Then he talked about how “I want to do Dragonbox Numbers because I was talking about Dragonbox Numbers.” Let him do that a bit, then we skyped with my parents. He did a great job talking to them and engaging with them today. He was being a cat, and took the lid off his water bottle and was drinking from it like a cup. Did fine until he spilled a bunch on his shirt. He tried taking his shirt off but found that the shirts he had today were too small for his previous method. Will have to work on that. We also played some mandolin for them, me pressing frets and him doing the strumming. He had called Uncle Paul quiet at the beginning, because he didn’t hear Paul say hi when August had his fingers in his ears. After we hung up, he asked again “Uncle Paul is quiet?”

He brought up visiting gramma and grampa this summer, and said “I want to stay in Korea.” He then talked a bit more about moving and said “We’re not going to move right now?”  Definitely thinking about it all.

We headed to Teuni Teuni. Got there just as bubbles were finishing. August ran in to pop bubbles and I had to chase him to take off his shoes. Then proceeded to run and dance and everything as usual. He was tickling other kids today, at first, I think, when they were crowding him on the walking path, but then also as a game with the teacher.

Class was about routines. It started with them getting sleeping mats and pretending to sleep, then waking up and putting them away in a cabinet (little Korean culture lesson for him there). At first the teacher pretended to sleep, and all the kids went and woke him up. Really funny. Then they had vacuum cleaners that picked up pieces of dust using magnets. August really liked that. Next was sorting blocks from cars and putting them away. The teacher was driving a car piece on people, so August started doing it back to him. They then got fake books and were putting them away on shelves. There were also seats they could sit down on with their books.

After class we came to Mama Juice and he chose an orange and carrot juice and I got strawberry banana. We got two corndogs – one covered with potato chunks, and one covered in ramen. Enjoyed both of those, and we tried sauces on them this time, preferring the usual ketchup and also an onion sauce. Next time we’ll try one rolled in sugar.

We then went to the art museum play are, getting there at 2:50. He did a lot of jumping in. He saw me throwing balls off shapes on the wall, and he practiced that as well. He and another boy were throwing balls out of one of them, and August kept saying “I’m spending so much coins.” A reference to Big Numbers. He started to get crazy at the end, intentionally throwing balls down the steps and not stopping when I asked. After a couple more minutes we left.

He wanted to go see the art, which is new. Didn’t have much time, and he got crazy in the gallery once, but calmed down and was able to go back in. He liked a video of a sewing machine sewing bird pictures on hats and watched that a bit and we looked at the hats.

We then headed to the Poli class. Went well enough today. We made an owl out of paper. I brought the book from last time, which we hadn’t done the stickers in yet, and our notebook, so those helped. A good example of her lack of efficiency was passing out all of the pieces of the owl. One. At. A. Time. August liked the owl though, and did a good job dancing to the songs. For the videos he likes going up to the front of the room and watching them on the computer screen instead of the projector screen. He was also rubbing his eyes a lot throughout class. Tired.

Carly beat us home. They nursed, then we read The Little Red Hen twice. He suddenly is all interested in buying more books. He did the spraying game with Carly, then he built a small tower things out of Duplos on his own, then brought the pieces over to Carly and rebuilt it in her hands as she held it. He then filled his shirt with Duplos and dumped them on her. Not a new thing, but what was funny was how serious he was as he carefully filled up his shirt.

I brought him noodles and veggies for dinner and he ate them. He asked how you made noodles, and I gave him a joke answer. He asked “How do you ACTUALLY make noodles.”

Carly gave him a bath, and as we got him ready for bed she realized there was a series of red dots down each of his legs. I had seen the bottom ones and thought they were bruises. But they appear to be more of a pattern. They aren’t bumpy though, and he says they don’t itch. Our shared possibly-shared allergic reactions get more mysterious. He was asleep by 7:20.

Photos: 

Teuni Teuni: 

Lunch: 

Ball area: 

Art: 

English class. Making an owl: 

Driving: 

Building Duplos on mama: 

Spots on his legs: 

He was up right at 6. He and Carly read “Five minutes peace”, the first time Carly has read that book. He then played with Duplos on his own and was singing a lot and talking to himself. Earlier, Carly had called them Legos, and he said “Actually, they’re Duplos.” He made monster finger things and attacked Carly. We made a 2, then a 3 out of Duplos, then it turned into a fountain, then a home for a gorilla.

We had oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast, and there was a lot of watching Beethoven’s Ninth through the day. We also watched the ink video, and he played the Namoo app – he is primarily fascinated by the carbon dioxide going in the leaves, and the oxygen coming out. We read Berenstain Bears Go to School, DInosaurs Love Underpants, and looked at the song book and Musical Instruments book.

I tried to give him a dose of his allergy medicine, but he wasn’t as cooperative with me. He would only take a tiny sip and say he was done. Eventually got him to take a full dose, by first mixing it with some water drink, then the remains of that with just water.

Oh, and he did some more Dragonbox Big Numbers, paying (with the fake coins) for the disco dance at the end several times and sort of dancing and humming along.

We had fettuccini alfredo with veggies, and a chicken breast for lunch. As we ate the chicken he said “I want a video of this…the smoky chicken.” We left at 12:30. His eye wasn’t as bad as it had been at its worst yesterday, but was still quite puffy, and he was rubbing it more than I would like, so I was going to try to take him to the doctor. We had talked about it, but when we got to the second floor he really wasn’t happy. Very upset about the idea. I got him down the hall, to look in the office and he was generally calm, but it was now 12:37 and quite crowded – I was pretty sure we weren’t going to get in before their lunch break at 1.

So we headed out, and went for a walk, August humming along the entire way, up past Toys R Us and a park that we’ve missed in the past. We got to the park, 다람쥐어린이공원, and he first went on a teeter totter. Did that, then ran back and forth on the little mound surrounding the park and jumped off. Over to the play structure, where he found a pair of shoes lying on the ground that he tried to play with. He said he was being silly. Then he went up on the structure and went down the slide once, then just went up and down the stairs a lot.

Then he found the exercise bikes. He was excited that he could reach the pedals and turn them all on his own. Rode them for quite awhile. It was actually a video game sort of thing that you could race the other person on, but he was pedaling backwards as it was easier that way, so it wouldn’t work for him.

Next, over to the swings when one opened up. We had a good turn on them, and he switched from the shorter red swing to the higher green swing at one point. But then a bunch of other kids arrived and it was time to let someone else have a turn. I initially gave him one more set of pushes, but then he wanted more, so I asked how many pushes. He’s getting smart to this tactic and said 20. So I started pushing him, but when I got to about 10 he started saying “Stop pushing! Stop pushing!” So then I playfully grabbed him off the swing, but he wasn’t letting it go and got quite upset. He kept pointing towards the swings and saying “I want it!”

Eventually, he calmed down a bit and I sat down next to our backpack and got out the last of the letter cookies from Glecy and he ate those. He was hungry, so we continued on with crackers, pine nuts, and dried cherries. Spent a lot of time cuddling on my lap before getting up and going back on the bikes. He then played under the play structure and chased the blowing flower petals, putting some down a drain. Once more down the slide, and we left at 2:30.

Just to the south of park is a building we have walked by several times, but this time we spotted a coffee shop. Indego,  on the north side, not visible from the Main Street to the south. I just poked in the building to give it a look, but August wanted to go to the coffee shop. I thought about it a second and realized we hadn’t been to one recently, so we went on in. He got an apple juice, and my caramel macchiato came with a lot of whipped cream on top, which I shared with him. He played some Dragonbox Numbers, standing on the floor next to me with the iPad on a chair, while I read. He needed to use the bathroom so we went and found one. When we came back, one of the women brought August a pack of chocolate-covered Sesame seeds. When he finished them, another woman brought him a pack of potato crisps and American cheese. He switched to Big Numbers, and was chanting “How much gold? So many gold.” He only drank a bit of his apple juice, then wanted his water instead. He was then really interested in how much was left in each of the water bottles, so we were talking about it as fractions.

Eventually we started the walk home. At the elevators I remembered we needed to go to Tous Les Jour for bread. I had to tell him he could pick something out, as he was ready to go up the elevators. He chose a bun with custard in it. We paid and looked at the cakes. He kept asking “Mama would like that one?” He caught on that I was replying that she would like the ones with chocolate and as we left he was making up cakes and saying “Mama would like…? Because it has chocolate?” Some of his cakes were:

“One with Legoes you can eat and chocolate?”

“One with a monster that you can eat on it, and chocolate?”

“One with strawberries and yogurt and chocolate?”

We were home at 4:30. We were playing mandolin (August was working on pressing the forests with his foot) when Carly got home about 5. They nursed and had some dinner, then he nursed some more and Carly thought he was asleep about 6:30 and was going to take him to bed. But he got back up and instead wanted a pillow fight. I hit him with a pillow, then he hit back:  “oh yeah? Well kaboom.” He was then carrying pillows with his mouth, like he was a dog, and wanted me to pull on them: “I want to fight over it.” “I’m not sharing.”

I gave him a bath. We started watching Beethoven’s First until the internet started acting up. We played with a squirt car, then play fought over it. He played with the bag of letters, pushing it down in the water and then letting it drip.

After his bath we ate some hummus and crackers. He grabbed the old banana on the counter and said “I was playing a squeezing banana instrument.” He went to bed after that and was asleep by 8:10.

 

Photos. Morning Duplos: 

The eye today: 

Playground: 

Coffee shop: 

Home: 

He was up just before 6. When I got up he was doing math in Word and also played in PowerPoint. He was playing with the door thing Carly had made when she left. He was fine when she left, but a few seconds later decided he wasn’t. I tried to be sympathetic, but I was in no shape to want to wander the halls when he wanted to put his shoes on. So it took until 7:25 for him to completely calm down, and I got him cheered up by watching videos on how ink is made, then sausage and then smoked salmon. He played with the Namoo app a lot, and there was a lot of discussing photosynthesis, etc. I took a shower, and as I got out I heard him telling me something. I got out to find that he had gone to the bathroom – turned the light on and closed the door and everything.

We had hummus and crackers for a snack (cereal and strawberries earlier for breakfast), then played Dragonbox Numbers – and we did it, we finished the game. The end is cool, as they have a little disco dance and you can rewatch it. There is a disco ball, so he knows what a disco ball is now.

He then wanted to watch Beethoven’s Ninth, fourth movement. I watched a bit with him but then got up. He ordered “Dada, go” and hit the floor next to him. He wanted me to sit back down with him. He started asking “This is still Beethoven’s Ninth?” And I’d reply “Yes.” Repeat until it becomes a game.

He did some math problems on the door, then I finally got us out of the house as I knew we’d be getting hungry for lunch. We made it to Children’s Grand Park and got some kimbap, a juice, and an apple cookie in the station. We went up to the rectangle pond and ate lunch there a little after 1. When he was done eating he did some math with the bolts on the table, looking at groups of 4.

We got going, planning to go to the playground, but then remembered the piano. We went up to it a little before 1:40. Played on the piano for quite awhile. He’s playing around with chords (and had done some of that at home) and we played around with songs as well.

I had noticed at lunch that the skin around his right eye was looking red and swollen. He started to rub it more, and I was hoping that getting him on a swing would distract him from it a bit. SO we started walking that direction. But he kept wiping his eye with his grimy hands. When I stopped at the fountains by the middle playground to wash them and his face, his eye was really swollen. We turned around and headed for the subway. He was okay with this, although he said his eye wasn’t bothering him.

We were home at 3. He played with the Princess app (like the Superhero one) in which you make scenes, add stickers, and then move them around while you tell a story. Did three of those, although I think he one about letters falling. Mainly he was talking in a madeup language, but at one point he explained “That means it is learning an instrument. A violin.”

We ate some soup and crackers, then he played with the door magnets, making big numbers from them, and the stuffing things in the xylophone until it was overfull. He then surprised both of us by taking his shirt off: “I just took my shirt off. I’m half naked.”

I got his shirt back on and we headed back outside to get some Mama Juice. He got mango and I got blueberry. He hasn’t been drinking much of his juices lately, but he sucked down most of this one. We went and rode around the park. He kept asking “What Beethoven’s Ninth sounds like?” Then we would hum it together. He wanted to watch a go game, so we stopped and he did that. He then wandered over to the fence where there were four brooms of various length, and he played with them, starting with the longest, which he instantly called “extendo arms” and working his way to the shortest.

We got back on the bike and walked around the park a bit more, then tried to intercept Carly at the corner of the pink building. Turned out we had just missed her though, as she had left school five minutes early. We were home at 5:35, a few minutes after her. They nursed, then we started watching Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21. Carly got him to drink some allergy medicine. She was talking about it having a lot of sugar, and they were saying “How much sugar? So much sugar.” Very nice to have him willingly take medicine for once.

Carly gave him a bath. They finished watching the concerto, then started watching Beethoven’s Ninth – starting with the fourth movement before moving to the second.

He came out, and we read Tadd and Todd and most of Daisy-Head Mayzie, both by Dr. Seuss, and he was asleep 7:20ish.

 

Photos. Wrapping paper flute: 

Lunch by the rectangle pond. You can see his eye looking swollen: 

Using the railing: 

His eye on the subway: 

Asleep: 

Home: 

Loading the xylophone: 

All the stuff:

Park. Watching go: 

Extendo arm: 

Comparing their heights: