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The zoo is open! The zoo is open! Well, mostly. The zoo is open, but the water birds, outdoor birds, tropical building, and children’s zoo are still closed.

He was up just before 6. He was using Carly’s brush as an instrument. In the morning we played with a few of his apps on the iPad – he wanted to try out new ones, or one he hasn’t used recently, so we kind of jumped around. We ended up on a Duck Duck Moose app called Superheroes, which lets you make scenes with characters in them, then move them around and tell a story. I did a very simply demo using two dragons, then he did one with four bats, and when I pressed record he just started telling these stories about two of them. I don’t know where it came from. A very cool surprise. The first one wanted to learn the viola and said “I need learning. Will you help me?” And the second wanted to play the violin, but its mama said no.

We ate Cheerios and fruit and more banana bread for breakfast, then he was being animals in reading area, mainly a snake, as he later called it the snake game. He hid his hand under the blanket and said “Is that the pinkie?” We sang some songs, and he called Yankee Doodle an infinite song, I explained it was just long, but then taught him “This is the song that never ends…” and told him that could be an infinite song because it loops. We then went back to being snakes.

Did some math and ate the last piece of banana bread. He looked at the Musical Instruments book while I showered. After my shower he was picking up a container with his feet, then using Duplos to count by twos. He then just started building a big shape on his own, and said it was a crane picking up Duplos. Some how he got to talking about pooping robots: “My pooping system is not working.”

He then had a long GarageBand time, trying out the arpeggiator and different sounds. We were listening to children’s songs from Woody Guthrie, and there were two that he liked because Woody sings fast. So we added those to his playlist. Before we left he went to the bathroom, and while sitting on the toilet he was making up musical instruments.

We left at 12:45. On the train he talked about the optical illusion of the lights moving, then was doing math. He is starting to do subtraction that goes into negativeland a bit in his head. 7-8, for example. When we got off he was grabbing at the handles as I was trying to carry him off, even after I told him not to. As we talked about it out on the bench, he said “I can’t hear you because my sound system isn’t working.”

We got kimbap and an apple cookie and headed in. The zoo was open, so we headed that way, and ate lunch on the set. Over covered benches near the primates. He played around a lot there, picking up random garbage to recycle,  and recycling our own items. There was a little boy that he saw and called a “baby”. When he was done eating he went and played on the monkey statue. The metal statue has a tail on it that is tempting to climb, but I told him not to. He kept trying to do it though, and at one point I was looking at my phone to edit a photo. He called me on it, saying “I can climb up because dada’s looking at his phone. I remembered that.”

But mainly he used the statue as drums, using both his hands, and stomping with his feet.

There was a slightly older girl who had both a dolphin balloon on a string (August had said it was swimming in the air), and a balloon on a stick. She climbed up on the statue and did some drumming with him, and hit him with the balloon a couple times. August liked playing with her, and when she had to leave they said goodbye.

We then headed across to see the new playground, and if it was done. On the way he stopped to smell and count petals on flowers, and we looked at the rabbits. He spotted a bee and said it was making honey, then looked at the new leaves on bushes. The gate going out that was was closed, necessitating a long walk around. He stopped to look at toys at the gift shop, and I tried hats on him. Then he saw the elephants area and wanted to go in there. He was trying to read the sign on the entrance and said “starts with an F”. It was ‘Ferocious animals’. He pretended to be an elephant, lion, and tiger as we saw them. From up above, looking down on the tigers, he was playing on the glass and said “I’m doing a pattern.” He pointed out a little grass in the cage and I talked about how the habitats aren’t very nice. He said “But, there’s still grass.”

He heard music on the speakers and was dancing to it. He decided to walk out of the zoo, and we headed up and around to the playground. He was making music along with the speakers as we went. He walked all through the zoo and much of the walk before wanting to be picked up.

He’s now declaring what key or chord he is playing in, and will ask things like “G sharp. Does that make sense?”

We got to the playground. New one still isn’t open, but the one they didn’t tear down was pretty empty. He went on the swing, and declared it “Looks like Thailand”. I think because it was warm and he had short sleeves. I tried to get him to wear his hat but he wouldn’t, and he got upset when I put lotion on his face – he was wiping his face on the wood posts. We spent most of our time making piles of sand and he put sticks in them – I think he actually remembered that from Thailand as he did it first with Carly. We called them stick castles.

We discussed going to the new water area and he said he wanted to wear a yellow apron. I reminded him there are pink ones he can wear, and he said “pink. Because I love pink.”

At the children’s museum we first went to the first floor, and he spent. almost all of his time wearing a blue set of butterfly wings while being a butterfly on the screen. He would dance around and turn around so he could see his wings. The screen occasionally takes photos of people as butterflies and shows them at the top of the screen. He liked that four of them were him. One looked kind of like Carly, and he said it was “mama”.

We headed upstairs, but it took awhile. We did three of the paper rubbing things, then the crop seasons circles, then the apples. I got him up to the third floor, and he played in the water area for several minutes. Then we went over to the air area, and played with the one that shoots out the handkerchiefs. He was trying to catch them, but they kept going out the other side. So I was throwing them up and he was catching them.

As we walked across the center of the museum he looked down at the courtyard in the middle. It has some toy sort of things in it, including two of the medal pipe xylophone things. We have never seen anyone in it. He kept asking “Why?” For why it isn’t open, why we’ve never seen anyone, and why I don’t know. We went to the bathroom, then to the cafeteria for more of our lunch. Had it to ourself. He asked “How do spell please?” He then spelled it with a silent q, I think, at the end. We talked about the animals on his shirt (the Alaska shirt from Glecy). I was poking the animals and saying them, like “Moose mouse” He told me “Keep doing it.” He was also talking about being a crane, and asking things like “What happens if the crane picks up a toy and it’s the queen’s toy?”

We headed out eventually, but of course he saw the space area on the second floor. He said “I want to play in the space area for a couple minutes…please.” Of course, two turned into 20, so we were a little late. He mainly did the running and jumping things, then we did the hover board game (rather lame) and ended with dancing with the alien. He’s been a bit shy to do it, just watching, but was having fun with it today. On one of the stomping games he read ‘Jupiter’ no problem. Don’t know how he got that one.

No iPad needed on the train. Before we stopped off, he talked about what to do if there was someone standing in our way (you’re supposed to queue to the sides, but sometimes people try to walk straight into you
): “What happen if there a kid there…I can yell?”

At Hagye he talked about why I hold his hand getting off the train: “Why adults walk themselves?…why you still hold Zinnie’s hand?”

On the walk home we were talking about which song to sing next, and he asked “Why there’s another ‘like’? There’s the happy one, and the ‘like another one’ like.” He’s all into words with multiple meanings and has pointed out several, but this was the most complex one.

Outside the pink building we saw Sarah. August did a great job in saying “Hi Sarah!” and interacting with her, then saying bye and waving when we separated. As we entered Brownstone we talked about how the garage works and I mentioned the red light on the exit and how he used to call it a Baba light. He thought I meant like Baba in Puffin Rock, but I told him it was because of the Baa Baa song. He reminded me he calls them ‘Oona’ lights now (after Baba’s sister in Puffin Rock). In the elevator he was looking in the mirror and said something “looks curved even though it isn’t”. I wasn’t sure what he noticed (a waviness in the glass, perhaps), but told him he had spotted an optical illusion of sorts and he was very excited about that.

We were home close to 6. They nursed and he ate dinner. Think they finished Little House in the Big Woods – or did later. We showed her his video story about the bats, then he did more of the chapters in word. He didn’t want a bath, but I suggested the orchestra videos, and Carly said that totally changed him in the bathroom. He was totally fine until she was drying him off and accidentally poked him in the eye with the towel. He was done with the day. He still wanted to read Little House though, so I went and got the Kindle. He got out a very sad and cute “Thanks, Dada”. They read a few minutes and he was asleep by 7:15.

Don’t think I’ve mentioned how much he says “What you said?” He says it a lot because he wants. to know everything we say, and it also means “I don’t understand.” Very amusing.

Photos. Snake game: 

With his feet: 

Crane: 

Zoo. Looking at the baby: 

Statue and girl: 

Tigers: 

Playground. Stick instrument: 

Sand: 

Stick castle: 

Jumping on a pile of sand: 

Seeing his wings: 

Water area: 

Catching: 

Wearing my hat and making music: 

Space area: 

Robot dancing: 

Up a bit before 6. He had slept right up next to me for an hour or two last night before getting up and going to Carly.

Befor Carly left for work they read Welcome to the Symphony. Reminded me they had listened to the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth, probably on Friday. He put his fingers on the cover and said “My pinky is touching the trumpet, my ring finger is on the flute…” He played piano and wanted to know why Mary Had a Little Lamb is just white keys. I told him because it is in the key of C. He then wanted to know what The Ants Go Marching is, so we got out Piano Companion and figured out it is in C minor. We then were playing it and transposing it into different keys. Starting to figure out the circle of fifths. To mandolin. Chords for a long time, then picking out a song called “Soldier’s Joy” together. Then he played on his own for quite awhile. He had some banana bread and I went to hang laundry. He wanted to play GarageBand and said “I want to make a symphony.”

More GarageBand. Different sounds, and rhythms with the arpeggiator. He read “Jetstream” on his own. He was then sitting at the table and grooving along to the song playing – a Howie B remix of Polaroid Kiss’s “Pay Your Dues”. In the play list the song was listed several times, and he asked “Why is it the same song, but different?” I explained they were remixes of the same song. He really liked the song, so we made a playlist called ‘Zinnie’s Songs’ and I told him we could add other songs that he likes to it so we can listen to them again in the future.

We exercised and he watched Pirates of the Caribbean while I took a shower. I came out and he did some of the Chinese app, although he really only likes the parts where you can trace the characters. He then played sink or float while I got the backpack ready, and made a “Funny K” from his shakers (maracas and banana). Finally, he did some drum machines in GarageBand, played with the compass on the old phone, played my belt as a musical instrument, and we left at 10:40.

We sang Ants Go Marching on the way to the station. He said he wanted to get to 20-something but we got distracted. On the train he was talking about the seats for pregnant women, then noticed there was a woman in one across from us: “There’s a baby? That woman has a baby?” as he pointed. He wrote math problems in Paper, and did a lot of music, pretending to play instruments, on the second train (it was loud, and that seemed to encourage him).

We got walking at 11:45. I outsmarted myself and added a bit of distance at the beginning, but we got walking up a stream and along the Seoul Trail. He spotted a bee, then we saw gnats. I was explaining about the silent g, then he asked “how many words there are?” We were singing the How Many? Song from YouTube, and he wanted “How many leaves on a tree? Scales on a fish?”

We walked through a tunnel and he counted the lights as we went, saying the words funny. We stopped along the stream for lunch at 12:20. There was construction going on on either side of the stream, and he wasn’t a big fan of the noise of the elevators going up and down. He spotted fish though, and we watched and egret trying to catch fish. A lot of talk on the rest of the walk about why only little fish, and why it was hard to catch them.

Got walking about 12:40, and stopped a bit later at some bathrooms. On the way in saw a guy passed out at the top of the stairs, and a couple on the phone. Assumed he was drunk (not uncommon), but as we used the bathroom I thought about if he wasn’t breathing, and got myself ready to do CPR with August there. Went out and luckily found that he was breathing. Was able to communicate enough the with guy with the phone to confirm that and that the ambulance was on the way. It showed up a few seconds later, and August was interested in watching the doctors help him.

We went back down by the trail, and a minute later the couple who had called 119 walked by and I thanked them for calling. August was then a lizard, crawling around the rocks and through the grass. And making lizard noises with his lizard tongue. A few minutes later, the guy who the medics had woken up came and sat right next to us and started smoking a cigarette. August looked right at him and said “He needed medical help?”

We got walking again at 1:10. Up the stream, right at a road, then through a park area along a highway – actually nice, as it was bordered by those huge barriers, so quite quiet. We stopped at 1:45 for a letter cookie break: “R for raccoon” He got a second R: “There’s two Rs?” “R for rock music!” He counted with his finger shadows, then was a lizard again. He lay on the bench and held the backpack: “I’m going to hold it because I’m concerned it will blow away.” Walking again at 2:05.

At 2:30 we found a playground and we stopped. He played on a swing, but only had me push him for a few seconds. The rest was him swinging on his stomach and climbing on and off.

We had to get going, but he wanted to climb on the spider web thing, count the moving discs (like an abacus), and go on the teeter totter. We left at 2:55. Through the day he refused to wear his hat, although he wore it so well in Thailand. Had it on for a minute this time before taking it off. He called my bluff at one point: I said he either had to wear the hat or get sunscreen on his face. He has always chosen the hat. But he said sunscreen, then I had to admit I didn’t have any in the backpack yet. He won this battle, but I will prevail eventually.

We hurried along more to finish up the trail and get to Suseo Station at 4. As we walked we saw men cleaning the bottom of a stream, and August surprised me with this: “If 5 plus 5 is 10, and 3 plus 3 is 6, what 5 plus 5 plus 3 plus 3 is?” Then, when I restated it as 10+6 he was able to solve that and get 16.

The trail had taken us over a hill, along a stream, and along a river. We crossed the river and found the spot for the next stamp in the stamp book. He didn’t even do it, but was excited about getting more of them.

We got to the station right at 4. A convoluted trip to get home, requiring 3 transfers and just over 50 minutes. At one point he saw a girl wearing fishnet stockings and was commenting on those.

We got home at 5:30. I told her about his math problem, and he now did another one, but changed the 3s to 6s, so it was 10+12, and he was able to solve that.

She got him dinner, then he was typing on her computer. She showed him bullet points and headings, and got it to do chapters. He loved this, and got into the whole algorithm required to type a chapter title (he just typed nonsense), move the cursor back to the beginning of the line, delicate it, press enter so it starts the next chapter, etc. Then I showed him the Option+arrow commands for moving word by word, so he didn’t have to push the arrow keys so many times.

Carly gave him a bath and I did dishes, and he went to bed right after that and was asleep by 7:15.

 

Photos: 

Funny K: 

Subway music: 

On the trail. Concerned about the elevators: 

Fish: 

Letter cookie break: 

Shadow counting: 

Playground: 

Spider boy: 

Counting: 

Hat for a minute: 

River at the end: 

When I went to bed last night I had my headphones on, and looked over a few minutes later to see August missing. He had gotten up and gone to Carly. They were then up before 5. August was wondering where I was, so she opened the door so he could see me, and he yelled. I went back to sleep. At some point Carly was able to doze while he was up. I got up and Carly made oatmeal and they painted another pig mask for Colin and Vivian. He then played sink or float, after which Carly started an Indian kid’s video about why things float or sink. When he wanted to watch a second one Carly went to rest and he came and watched with me and ate banana bread. We then did sink or swim, finding boat-like things that both floated and sank. We then went in the parlor and played pretend go and checkers. That got silly, then we had a pillow fight. He decided he didn’t like that, and moved to counting the cardboard blocks, counting by two. He said he needed to go to the bathroom, but then was just walking around, counting by twos. He can get to 18 or 20 on his own.

Nursed and read Little House. He came out with the Kleenex box, counting the flowers on it and the petals on them. That sort of led to math with magnets on the door. I asked if he remembered going to mama last night. He didn’t reply. Then said “I’m busy. Too busy to answer.” Carly was cutting vegetables in the kitchen and he asked what she was doing and I joked she was making zucchini coffee. He liked that and kept asking  “Why you making zucchini coffee?”

The math on the door (addition, counting by fives) then led to playing piano. I got the Wee Sing Dionsaurs book and we worked on learning “If I was a Dinosaur”. He then wanted to play mandolin, so we took that in the parlor and played for a long time. Carly was making fried rice. He had me doing chords from the mandolin book and he was strumming them. He then played on his own, trying to see how high he could play (pushing with his thumb, as that is easiest for him) and making up chords.

He needed to go to the bathroom, but once again took several minutes to get there. He was walking around the apartment, pretending to play instruments: “I’m playing hard rock guitar…I’m playing chords…I’ve got a pipa…F chord…G chord…D chord…”

He spent a long time sitting on the toilet, and that turned into singing Yankee Doodle and asking about the words. He then went and made up songs on the piano and I went to take a shower.

They had fried rice and we played mandolin when I came out. We brushed our teeth, then read Willy’s Stories. They nursed, then we left a little before noon.

We went to Juicy Juice. Carly got fresh strawberry, August had strawberry banana, and I had mixed fruit. While we waited he was jumping, and I asked if he could jump backwards. He thought about this, then managed to jump backwards with two feet. That was a little exciting. He was then jumping over my jumps, like in checkers (which we played a little a few days ago).

We got walking along the stream and he was singing his Mani song. We stopped where there is a seating area to go in circles on the bike on a circle on the ground. Carly was sitting on the stairs/seats and he said “I’m gonna get mama.” Spent a good amount of time in the sun. He was a cat. We added to the Juicy Juice song: “Oh juicy Juice store, where is the bathroom door? I drank so much juice at the juice juice store?” He also wanted poop songs, requesting Elmo (we did Cookie Monster before). At one point he tripped and fell and almost whacked his head on a seat. Just missed, and. He was okay.

We went up to the park, which is the Poli Safety Park. He liked seeing the characters this time, since he knows them.  Spent most of his time climbing up on the play structure, then going down the slides. He went down a bumpy one and liked it. He’s never liked the bumpy ones for the longest time. I remember going down one at the water park across from APIS (when it wasn’t a water park) and he didn’t like it. Since then he’s always been skeptical of any slide that looks like it curves, and I have to assure him they aren’t bumpy. This one was, but he didn’t care, and went down a few times.

There was a girl going down the slide, and a few times he timed it so he would go down the one next to her at the same time, like when he goes down with me or Carly (which we also did). August and Carly explored the play structure a bit more, then went to the bathroom and we we walked home along the streets. He made a diamond with his fingers then made letters by moving his fingers: “diamond turns to W turns to M”

At home he did letter math: “T minus Q equals negative X”. Carly did some work and we watched English horn and bugle videos, then played mandolin. I got some peanuts out, which we never had, and he ate a few.

Eventually I suggested we go outside, and we left, giving Carly some peace, at about 3. We walked to the ‘Four Swing Playground’. Spent our whole time on the swings. At some point he added the words “Swimming goggles on” to a song – Yankee Doodle, I think. The big thing was that he figured out how to stand up, then kneel or sit down on the swings all on his own. He did it several times after I spotted him the first time.

On the way home we stopped at Tous les Jours for bread and spent a few minutes looking at cakes, discussing what we should get for my birthday. We were home at 4:15. They nursed and read Little House. He played piano, then we did TodoMath. I asked if he wanted to do it alone or with me,  and he wanted me there. We then did the Green Eggs and Ham app and he was getting sleepy. Had fried rice for dinner, then Carly gave him a bath. They talked a lot about temperatures and Celsius versus Fahrenheit. He got through his bath just fine – a nice surprise as he was so sleepy. To keep him up a bit more I had promised some hot chocolate after his bath. So we had that, then he and Carly played with play dough for awhile. He decided his favorite color is currently turquoise and wanted to spell it. I explained it, and we discussed how crazy the ‘quiose’ part is, with 3 vowels, a ‘s’ that makes a ‘z’ sound and a silent ‘e’. He liked that. We let him go to sleep about a quarter to 7.

Photos. Counting by fives:

Juicy Juice: 

Stream and heron:

Copying mama: 

Kneeling on the swing: 

Cakes: 

Hot cocoa: 

After I went to sleep last night, he sat up and lay back down at least one more time. Then, around 1 he woke up and was quietly saying “Mama”. He was about to turn on the light when I got his attention and walked him out to Carly. She apparently liked the interruption, as she had been having a dream in which there were snakes under our couch, and I was just casually trying to shoo them out. She then felt something poking her and it was August.

They were up around 7. When I got up he was then playing piano and played “Old MacDonald” and asked about which fingers to use for which notes. He worked on a puzzle with Carly, and was really talking through the pieces and how they fit together. She made oatmeal for breakfast. Carly had just briefly told me about the snake dream, but August totally caught it, and kept talking about it: “There’s snakes under there? Why there were snakes?”

They then skyped with Vivian and Colin. Vivian and August were doing a lot of typing back and forth. After that we did piano and chords, then he nursed with Carly and they read more Little House in the Woods. Carly then tried an experiment where baking soda and vinegar in water are supposed to make pieces of spaghetti float. That didn’t work, but it was still pretty cool. I went and took a shower, and when I came out they were adding fractions. I saw the dinosaur cup in the cupboard. We stopped using it because he choked too much, and it has just sat in the cupboard. He was excited to see it, and wanted to know where it came from, so we told him how it was from Vivian.

A bit later we were getting ready to go and my closet was open. He was using the holes in my belt hanging on the door like an instrument.

We left before 12:30. It was warm, so Carly went back to take off a coat and August and I waited by the playground. He didn’t want to get out of the backpack, and just sat in there, making music. We went and caught the 1140 north and up to Sanggye Station. We looked for the sock place but it wasn’t there, then walked up to our favorite coffee place, 커피공방고흐오솔길. While we waited for our coffees, August played with the stuffed dog on the floor wand was a puppy.

On our way back we found a sock stand and Carly got some socks. We walked back along the stream, then turned south and went to Toys R Us. The block before August wanted down and we spent several minutes looking at the flowers. Once in the building we first went to the pet store and looked at the fish and turtles and plants. He then found a rubber chicken and liked playing with that. He thought it sounded like it needed to poop.

At Toys R Us I bought two books, an illustrated dictionary and Willy’s Stories by Anthony Browne. Willy’s Stories are each a page long, and leave you with a question, getting you to think about the rest of the story.

August wanted to go in to Toys R Us and play with the toys. They found a table of Legos, the regular ones. He was really into them, and we foresee a lot of Legos in our future in Israel. Played with those for quite awhile. We were going to go up to Lotte Mart to use some gift certificates we have, but it was a zoo up there so we headed out.

It had rained while we were outside, so we hurried down to the Alpha and quickly got (redacted), then headed home.

We got home at 3:25. Carly had gone to Lucky Mart to do some grocery shopping and August didn’t want to go. We had a snack of crab, little eggs, strawberries, and a couple of letter cookies. He was talking about infinity and said “I skipped infinity.” I asked “Ooh. Tricky. What’s after infinity?” He thought and said “Zero again.”

Carly got home and he played kalimba. We then watched instrument videos of clarinets, then a pipe organ kit for kids, then another pipe organ. I was cleaning out one of the closets, and they did some painting of a (redacted). But when they tried to (redacted) they found that it was (redacted). So they (redacted) and that worked. We then watched another video, a tour of inside a pipe organ, then they did the new puzzle.

He and I then made banana bread, after which Carly gave him a bath and he went to sleep at 7:15.

I went to bed around 10:30 and had headphones on. A few minutes later I looked over and August was gone. He had gotten up and gone out to Carly.

 

Photos: 

Waiting for coffee: 

Smelling flowers: 

Legos: 

Banana bread: 

They were eating oatmeal when I got up. Carly was bagging up the clothes to donate, and he saw his old shoes, and he wore the green shoes around the house for the rest of the morning. He was asking about moving to Israel, and asked which direction was “Israelbound”. He was then singing silly lyrics to Mary Had a Little Lamb: “Why does Itsy like the numbers, like the numbers…in case there are some doubts.” We cleaned out the drawer of flash cards, etc. and he played with the counting cards. He remembered the English alphabet/word cards and found the Q: “Q is my favorite and Z is my favorite and O is another favorite and U is another favorite and I is another favorite and I really like V…” While wearing his green shoes, he asked me to take pictures of him. Twice. He was then playing on the big timeline on his own, and doing negative subtraction problems on his own.

Then, when climbing up on the couch, he somehow fell backwards and had a big fall of the couch, hitting his head. They nursed, and after he was feeling better I took off sometime after 10 to go finish the Fortress Trail. August and I had done about 80 percent of it. I had to turn back on a steep section on the NW portion, after which we had resumed at a later date in the NE, so it basically left the northern part to be done.

The hiking went smoothly, although it rained much of the way, which meant there wasn’t much in the way of views, either. And this after I had picked Friday because it was supposed to be in the low 60s. Anyway, I started after taking a train to Hyewha, then a bus up to 와룡공원. This is where August and I had started our last hike, headed east. We hade stopped for a snack or lunch in this park, and he had played with a big dustpan. So I saw that spot, and what was likely the same dustpan. I then headed out, west this time. I soon came across 삼청공원, where he and I also touched on the Seoul Trail, sometime back in the early fall, I think. I continued west, getting my ID card (the north section goes behind the Blue House, so you have to show ID, and can’t take photos through much of it) and then up and over the first peak. Not hard, as it is a nice trail the whole way, but so many stairs, especially going down the west side. Then it was back up and over the second peak. Here it was more difficult, and the worst portion was right where I had stopped with August.

I continued down, then once done with the trail section, veered off and through the Healing Park (where August and I had stopped to eat on our way back down) towards Sajik Park (사직공원), where August and I had played at the playground and taken shelter in a tube thing when it started to rain. My knees were aching from all the going down stairs, so I decided to stop at a coffee shop and sit for awhile before having to stand on the subway home. I thought about going to Pot de Miel, where I went when August took a nap on our previous visit, but instead for a place called Hanokpresso (한옥프레소). I had a grain latte, read a few pages, then headed to the subway.

After I left, and they were nursing, he said he wanted to start from the beginning of Little House in the Big Woods. They had made it more than halfway through. It shows that he’s interested and trying to follow along, as I’ve noticed him do the same with other stories. While I was gone, Carly did a lot of sorting and cleaning out and found it rather amazing to do that while August was around. In fact, he really enjoyed helping sort through the medicine cabinet (which he’s always been fascinated by) and throwing away and recycling things. They had nachos, and he really liked the sour cream (the real stuff, from Costco). They played a ‘sink or float?’ game and he loved that. At one point Carly was going to put in a tortilla chip, but he got the look on his face like when he wants Carly’s swing at the playground. He wanted to eat the chip instead.

After 2 they went to the Art Museum play area. He did a lot of jumping in the heart-shaped ball pits, and they played in the tubey area, rolling balls back and forth, trying to get them to each others’ side. When the announcement came on at 3:50 saying they had 10 minutes, he wanted to leave right away, as if he was afraid they would get locked inside. They then went up to Pizza School, using the stroller, as it was raining, and got a noodle and a pepperoni pizza. They then skyped with me as I was waiting to board line 1 on my way home.

I got home about 5:30. I ate some pizza, then August and I did math with blueberries and towers with blocks. He tried to run off before picking up all the blocks, but I called him back for robot cleanup. I only held him like a robot for the blueberry blocks, then we were robots as we pushed the cardboard blocks to the corner and stacked them.

They then painted a (redacted), and Carly gave him his bath. He was asleep before 7:30. Carly slept in the parlor, and it worked. He sat up at 10:25 for several minutes, seemed to stretch out towards me, then fell back to sleep. If Carly was there he likely would have nursed. He was then laughing in his sleep and talking. I think maybe abut things floating or numbers. I think he said “float” or “fifteen”.

 

 

Photos. Old shoes: 

Vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines: 

My hike. At the top of the second peak: 

From almost to the second peak, looking back at the first: 

And from the second peak looking at where I was going. This was the piece I had done with August, and we had stopped just below where I was: 

While I was gone. Sink or float: 

Home. Counting by threes: 

He was up at 6. They did some skyping and had french toast for breakfast. With the french toast they were working on fractions, then he did some number line. He went and drew shapes: crescent, heart, “spirally Spiral” He grabbed some french toast and said “I’m going to take french toast in the parlor, but I’m not going to do it on the carpet. I’m going to do it over here cuz it’s not carpet.” He ate a bunch, then said he was really full and sleepy. We read part of Gabriella’s Song, then he wanted to play mandolin, so we got that out. When he wanted it off it bumped him in the head, just barely, and he wanted to nurse. Carly was busy and they had nursed all morning. He got really sad and at one point went and grabbed What are Clouds Made Of? and brought it to her. Eventually they nursed. He then played piano with me singing Itsy Bitsy. Then back to mandolin. He said “I’m staring at Dada and dada is staring at you.” We did the Cookie Monster game, drawing our words on paper. He then played with the friends and had them poop and use the toilet. He then pretended there were sensors flushing toilets everywhere as he ran in front of them. We then drew on the paper and he drew letters with thorns on them. We then did color mixing with the markers, which worked pretty good.

I took a shower. When I came out they were starting to paint the (redacted) when I came out. He was humming as they painted and mixed colors. He made a “peachy red” color and called it “outside peach”. They had a discussion of (redacted). August kept asking for this ‘story’ to be told over and over.

August and I then skyped with my parents. He was playing GarageBand so was focused on that until I turned it off. Then he did a good job of talking to them. He did a lot of instruments, but didn’t actually play his piano.

After that we got ready to go and all headed to Teuni Teuni. Carly was kind of amazed by the transformation from when she last went and he had to be coaxed into class. Now, you could basically sit and he’d be fine in class for 40 minutes. He was screeching and running around as soon as we got in. When they did forward rolls he started counting them as he ran by us. There were so many though that when I asked, he just said “a lot”. I think it was 10. When they all sat down he was counting the group and including the teacher again. Carly tried to give him a high five at one point and he totally rejected her, just about hitting her hand, then pulling away. Class was all about donuts. When the teacher brought one out, August and the other kids pretended to eat it. They then rolled big donuts around, the teacher stacked them around August, there were walkways made of donuts for them to walk through, big donut bouncy things, and ramps to roll smaller donuts down. He was constantly moving the entire time.

When we went out to his bike he said he wanted to go to the soup place. We hadn’t mentioned lunch yet. We went down, but I convinced him to go to the food court, figuring there would be more choices for Carly. We decided on the 모밀도실악, which was dongatsu, cold noodles, a little soup, rice, and a small cold soup. We enjoyed it, and August got to have his cold noodles and soup, which he has been wanting.

From there we walked east over to the Alpha store. We got some more (redacted) and (redacted) and paint and some (redacted), and I found a music notebook for August. He found wooden maracas, and we got two of those. Had to wait while they figured out how much the maracas cost. It was a whole 2000 won each (less than 2 dollars).

We then walked a block south to 골마을근린공원. This was a park that I found on my very first walk around the neighborhood on my own, and August and I have played here once. But Carly had never been. They went on the swings, then August wanted to go on the play structure and wanted Carly to go with him. We took turns playing on that. He climbed up the little climbing wall, and the very first time he did a cool slide down it, on his stomach, using his hands to lower himself down the climbing holds. After that though he couldn’t figure out how to do it. Went down the slide several times, and once when going back up he took the stairs and I took the climbing wall and he slipped on the stairs and tumbled off backwards from 3 or 4 steps up. A big tumble. I managed to keep him from wanting to nurse by pulling out the letter cookies.

They went back to the swings. I left the backpack on the bench and it fell of a minute later. There were three teenage boys on the teeter totters (the crab ones – we had gone on them as well), and one came over and picked it up for me. Carly noted that that probably wound’t happen most places.

We headed back a little before 4 and went to the English class. It was kind of awful, although August did okay. It was more fun when we were learning the characters names, and the colors. We could translate them into Korean, and spell them. Today was about things like hose and crane and wheel and siren. If August was really into trucks it may have worked better (although he did like acting like a crane a couple times). Also, she only had one set of cards and had the kids come up to pick them, etc. If every kid had their own set it would have made a lot more sense.

Back home we ate some dinner and Carly and August painted the (redacted). He was really doing a good job of mixing colors: “That’s a nice plum color…Yours is lighter than mine?…I mixed it pretty well.”

We played some mandolin, and he had Baby Q strum the strings. When it was time for his bath, August took Baby Q in with him to the bathroom, and gave Baby Q some kisses. We watched several of the outdoor orchestra videos. He requested “Wake Me Up” by name (https://youtu.be/F1j2lK2H388).

After his bath, he and Carly (redacted) they had painted. He was then sleepy and went to sleep just after 7. Carly tried sleeping in the other room again, but at 10:45 he rolled over and I think got kind of stuck by the wall. He sat up and we watched him for a few minutes. He said “Let’s go” at one point and seemed to be asleep sitting up and kept almost lying down. But then his eyes were opening and he said “Dada” and Carly picked him up and put him back to sleep.

 

Photos. Q with thorns: 

Teuni Teuni: 

Lunch: 

Hats: 

Maracas: 

Park: 

English class. Being a crane: 

Choosing a card (Carly had to choose one for him): 

Baby Q: 

Carly slept out in the parlor, thinking maybe not having her right there might mean he would nurse less during the night. And it worked, in a way. Sometime during the night he got up and left the bedroom. When Carly woke up in the morning she was surprised to find him sleeping next to her. So he had gone out, then just lay down next to her and fell asleep. They were up 6 or so. Out at 6:30. When I got up he was playing Tinybop Earth. There was a lot of nursing and bothering Carly about it as she tried to clean through the morning. I did laundry. When they nursed they read more of Little House. Carly tried him out in the Ergo on her back.

He watched the pipe organ video, then I found a sousaphone video for him and I went and took a shower. He switched to Mouk, and was scared by something that happened in it and paused it. They skyped with Cherie, then after that I turned Mouk on a bit more. He sort of watched me watch it and said “Dada watch it”. But then he was done. We did chords on the piano, then he went to the bathroom. As he sat on the toilet he said “How do you count by circles? In going to count by circles: Circle, oval, triangle, rectangle…”

Carly left to take down the broken fan and go get boxes at the post office. He was sad when she left. I held him and he kept pointing towards the backpack, wanting to get in. She came back and we got ready to go and left at 11:45. On the way we sang some of the Mother Goose songs we haven’t sung in awhile and Yankee Doodle. As we waited at Taerung for the next train he had some of the lentil snacks. He knows they’re too messy to eat on the train, so he saved the last one to take on the train and eat. I didn’t think he could wait that long, but he managed to do it. Carly says we should do the marshmallow test on him.

On the train he was asking about directions again, and about mixing them (southeast, northwest, etc.) I remembered there is a compass on my phone and got it out, and he spent much of the trip turning it around and figuring out directions. Then we had time to read Click Clack, Moo before we got to Itaewon. In Itaewon he counted stairs as we walked up: 36 on the first flight, then I took 36 on the escalator.

In Itaewon we went to Coreanos for lunch. Had never been, but I’d talked to the owner with Derek once. We got two burritos, and August and I shared a cranberry juice, which he liked. It was good, but not quite what we had hoped for – a bit spicy for Carly, and August didn’t eat much. August saw an employee walk by with a box and said “That’s a big box. Looks like it’s heavy.”

We got walking, him in the backpack. He asked how to spell ‘Paddington’, then requested “Song Baa Baa Black Sheep with 200 bags. Do it.” He then was singing his own funny versions of Baa Baa Black Sheep.

The weather was nice today (in fact, earlier, when we said we were going to Itaewon, he asked if it was going to be rainy), so we went to the playground (한남동어린이놀이터). This was the one we played at with Chuck and Cherie when they went to Itaewon with with us. He went on the swing a bit, then the baby swing for a minute, then to the play structure: “Is the slide bumpy? I don’t…after I climb up this you must go down it.” He climbed up the climbing wall, then back down. Then up on the rope bridge and walked across that. The big accomplishment was the ladder going up to the slide. The first couple times I spotted him and helped him figure out how to do the top, but then he was doing it on his own. He did several laps, sliding down and then going and attacking mama, or with me resting at the bottom so he could run into me. Then back to the swing a bit, and some good cuddling with mama in the sun.

A bit after 2 we walked to the clinic so Carly good get the results of her TB test. August and I looked for the kimchi article at first but couldn’t find it, so we looked at a different magazine and he was flipping through the pages. A woman came over and complimented him on his diction (said he spoke more like a girl for his age). He was being silly and would only make a funny noise now, but she had been brushing her teeth in the bathroom on Monday when Carly had taken him in to the bathroom and had heard him talking away. I eventually found the kimchi article up on the counter and we looked at that.

Carly took him into the bathroom again, and this time he wanted the toilet to flush with him on it. She actually had to lift him up to get it to flush, since it had a sensor, then set him back down.

We headed out the back, thinking to walk up to the Namsan Botanical Garden. Out back Carly and August went and admired the parking tower. We then got in the backpack and headed out. But a wrong turn led to extra walking, then I realized it would be more of a hill. So it was close to 3 when we headed back.

On the train he played iPad with Carly. She would type a question, and August would read it and answer. When I asked what words they used he said “f-o-o-d. Food.” August and I stopped to look at bushes with new little leaves on them by the pink building. Carly went to Lucky Mart to do some grocery shopping and we headed home when he was done with the bushes. He wanted to look at chords using the iPad. Carly got home, and when he was done with chords he wanted to nurse.

We ate dinner, then he wanted me to sing songs so we read the Mother Goose book. He then had some milk with Carly and they watched cow milking videos – about the machines this time.

Carly got his bath ready and I joked it was a hair washing day. August said “Dada made a mistake?” Carly said I was making a joke, and August said “Silly dada. You’re funny.” Carly had left it too hot, so she had to add cold water. August kept asking “Is it ready? Is it ready? Is it ready?”

After his bath he composed music using Notion, then listened and hummed along to his tunes. Carly wanted him to head to bed right after 7, but he talked about me getting 10 books. But he happily went to bed and fell right asleep.

 

Photos. Trying out the Ergo as a backpack: 

Cranberry juice: 

Playground: 

Doctors office: 

Subway station piano: 

Little leaves: 

Sometime after 10 last night he sat up in bed for a few minutes, then lay back down, putting his head on my leg for a pillow.

He got up at 7:30, just as Carly started skyping with Cassie. Unfortunately, their attempts to Skype with people this morning didn’t go too well: first Vivian got hurt and cried. Then when they called back both Vivian and Colin wanted to sit on Cassie’s lap, so that was the end of that. They Skyped with Cherie, but she was babysitting Ava, who was putting shells in her mouth, so that didn’t last long. I got up and they did some hallway number line, then they ate some noodles. August was putting his foot high up on the counter, standing on one foot, being a stretchy flamingo. Cherie called back, free from babysitting and Skyped.

After skyping, August was on his pianos for a long time. First the toy pianos, then he wanted chords. I pulled up Piano Companion on my iPad to make sure I was teaching him chords correctly, but he ended up playing with that instead. He would find a complicated chord and ask me to play it on the toy piano. Then say “Stop playing, please…I’m being polite.” He wanted his electric keyboard, so we set that up and he used it with my iPad.

Carly started reading Little House in the Big Woods to him while they nursed, and would read more of it later. I took a shower, and when I came out they were hiding under the blankets. We then had a blanket fight. Carly made a funny voice and he wanted more. When she said she was out of funny voices he said “I put more voices in there.” like he does (or used to do) with ideas.

He and I played catch with the blankets. When he would throw a blanket on me he would say “Ka….BOOM!” He then did a headstand on the rocking chair and he caught the blankets upside down when I threw them to him.

We left at 10:50, headed for Children’s Grand Park and the children’s museum. On the train he asked which direction we were headed, then was asking why the lights were going the other direction. We explained it was an optical illusion: “But the lights are going north.” They did math on their fingers, then when he wanted to see a problem written out they used Paper on the iPad.

At Children’s Grand Park station we headed out the south exit and went to Subway for lunch. He and I got a seafood one to share and Carly got a Turkey one to share with him. We walked into Children’s Grand Park and sat on a bench near the children’s museum and ate. I gave him a cucumber and he ate it and said  “Thank you Dada for cucumbers.”

In the children’s museum I had to pay for him, adding him to our membership now that he is 3. He spotted a big group of kids walking in pairs and said “groups of two”. She ran over to them and started counting: “two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve…”

We started on the first floor, in the nature area. He mainly played with Carly while I did some reading. He stood on the thing that makes you look like a butterfly on a screen – he used to be afraid of that before. He’d watch people do it, but wouldn’t stand for it himself. He wore the butterfly wings outfit, and wore it for a long time as they did the pencil rubbing and he looked at the minerals and ran around.

Eventually he was ready to move on. He ran and got me and held my finger and said “Dada come too.” We went over to the Idea Transformer area. We’ve played there a couple times, but not his favorite area. Nor anyone’s, as it is barely used, especially compared to the ball area that was there before. But more success this time. We did the recycling area for a long time, then the touch ensemble, then recycling again. They built things for a minute, and he also posed as a girl and a dog in the cutout things. But mainly we built towers and knocked them over. A couple fell on his head and Carly ‘saved’ him once. He tried to get me to do all the work, saying “Build a tower, Dada.” as he cuddled with Carly.

Finally, we went upstairs to the third floor and were pleasantly surprised to find that they had installed a whole new water area. Not only is it new, but it is much more interactive than the old one was. All sorts of places to have balls float down streams, buckets to pour, etc. His favorite thing was a place where you place a ball in a tube with spraying water in it and the ball sprays out the top. Some water would also spray out the sides and hit him in the face, so he would push the ball on the track, then try to get away before he got wet. Did that over and over and over.

Once he took off the apron he headed to the rest of the third floor, where they now have air draft things that blow handkerchiefs in the air, then to the TV broadcasting area and fashion runway, which are old. Played there for a few minutes, then Carly took him to the bathroom. But a toilet usage error resulted in pee on his pants and underwear, necessitating a change.

On our way out we stopped at the coffee shop in the children’s museum. Haven’t really used that one (think I got a lemonade there once). He got an orange juice. We went out and sat on the benches and drank our drinks, then August jumped over the squares in the pavement. He went with me to throw away our garbage and smelled and counted the petals on the flowers.

We also ate the rest of our sandwiches, and he was as worried as ever about things throwing away:“I’m worried” Carly convinced him to let something blow in the wind to see what would happen, and it turned into a game.

From there we headed to the train and on to Costco where we got cheese and sour cream and a couple of free samples. That went smoothly, then we headed home. On the train he was eating crackers and bit his tongue.

We got home and they nursed and read more of Little House. He took out the piano keys and put them back in out of order, being silly, with Green Monster. We read The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore and started Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed.

We continued No Girls Allowed in the bath. Carly washed him, and I read. We then finished reading the story in bed. We then started The Phantom Tollbooth. He had lots of questions about all the books. He’s also been asking about the lyrics to Yankee Doodle a lot. He did a sweet good night. He leaned in for extra kisses, then said  “I got one on the cheek and the mouth.” He was asleep at 7:10.

When I asked him why he had been sad yesterday he said “I don’t remember.”

Children’s museum: 

New water area! 

Photos: 

Catching and throwing: 

Hiding Spikey: 

Children’s museum: 

He was up a few minutes before 7. When I got up a little later the first thing he said was “I’m a monster and I’m scrunching my teeth.” A bit later I started the beginning of the Formula 1 race. August was excited by it, to the point where he was screeching and I couldn’t hear anything. TUrned it off for the time being. He had Cheerios and shared some noodles with Carly for breakfast. I took a shower. They were starting to read Tickle when I went in. A few minutes later he opened the door and said “uh-oh” but then closed it when I asked.

August and Carly then played a door game, where Carly tried to block him from going into the parlor. She then got the spaceship thing and was pretending to chomp with them; he found it funny at first but was then scared of the chomping.

We headed out at 9. He was singing Skip to My Lou on the train and said  “I was playing hard rock guitar.” Today Carly had a dentist appointment at U.S. Dental down by the National Museum, then her health check for her new job at the international clinic in Itaewon. We dropped her off at the dentist a little after 10, then August and I walked to the National Museum. We sat by the mirror pond and had a snack. After that, August spotted some workers working on the drain and ran over to see what they were doing. They were very concerned that he not get too close. We watched them for a minute, then headed up to the museum and to the children’s museum. We looked at the flowers along the way, and at the poppies up at the top that we hadn’t looked at last time.

We got to the children’s museum just after 10:30. He first went in the house area and watched the video again, then we constructed a traditional Korean roof and ground some wheat. He went and played on the hills briefly. He saw a school group and said “All those kids look the same age.” We then went over to the wall writing area and he did some math on there. Carly called, saying she was done at the dentist. We headed out, went to the bathroom, and met her out by the poppies. In discussing the poppies and their petals, he made connections to other words: “Petal…like a bike.” “Poppy…pop, like a balloon.”

We went to the station and headed to Itaewon. On the train he was doing math like 10-2 and 6-5 pretty easily on his fingers. We headed to one of our favorite places in Itaewon for lunch,, Petra Palace. In looking at the menu August copied me: “So many options”. We got the lamb and hummus, and a falafel plate. August got a strawberry yogurt drink and I got the ginger and lemon tea. He was pretending to play the menu as an instrument and said “Maybe I didn’t set it up right”. I refilled his water bottle from the container on the table. He asked “You filled it up with that?” When I said I did he replied “Thank you.” As we finished eating and got full, he joked about getting sick: “soon get sick” And he remembered it was a Frog and Toad reference.  And at some point he started singing a “Paint another pancake” song. No idea where that came from.

From there we had an hour until Carly’s appointment. But it had started raining. We tried to go to the Beautiful Store book store, but it was closed, and appeared permanently so. We stopped by the office to see if she could go earlier, but they were at lunch until 2. While we waited for Carly to talk to the nurse, August and I read an article about how to make kimchi. We still had 40 minutes. Luckily, the rain had slowed. We walked to Whatthebook, the big bookstore. August and I went to the children’s book section. August wanted to read a book called Stories for 7 Year Olds, but I went to set down the backpack I kind of bumped his head. Don’t know if it was that, or that he thought I had said no to the book, or because it was too dark (a rather dim bookstore), but he started crying. Carly came over, he was better, and we started reading the book. But then out of nowhere he started crying again. A second visit from Carly and he was fine after that.

We walked back to the clinic and August and I read more about Kimchi while Carly had her appointment. Went pretty quickly and we headed home right after 2:30. At some point, as we were walking through Itaewon, we were talking about ice cream and August said to Carly “You’re dreaming of bubble gum ice cream?”

We were home at 3:30. The walk from the subway station was a wet one though. At first August liked the rain on his head and didn’t want his hood on, and took it down. But he changed his mind and when we got home he said “Dry me off.” They nursed, then shared a toasted peanut butter sandwich. When he wanted more he requested not toasted. Carly read The Grouchy Ladybug to him. He pretended to be a skunk (“Spray”) and all the other animals. She then read My Family Plays Music. We played music together. He created a little musical line, and told me to play it on xylophone while he played it on piano. After that we read Frog and Toad stories, then he wanted to type in Pages. He typed “We are living in a yellow submarine.” He said “That’s pretty cool.” when changing fonts. We did mah on the floor using the Duplos and talked about music as we listened to M83 remixes.

He went in on the toilet and sat there for a long time. Carly was showing him pipe organ videos. She asked why he was sitting on the toilet and he said “For funsies.” Got him out to the living room where we watched more organ videos, and found the organ in Philadelphia that I now want to go see.

I gave him a bath. Carly had started making a number line on the floor in the hall, so we made it a quick bath. He went out, and they did math on the big number line. He was very excited about that one. He was tired though and went to sleep at 7:30.

Photos. Running to see the workers: 

Poppies: 

Making a roof: 

Tracing the sign: 

Lunch: 

Lights in the book store: 

Hood in the rain: 

Typing: 

A long time on the toilet: 

He was up about seven. When I got up later he was having Cheerios and Carly had started the big cleaning out. We spent the next couple of hours going through old toys and books and papers and art supplies, etc. A lot of progress was made. August liked helping to take things to the recycle box, and he wasn’t bothered by the idea of getting rid of stuff, so that was nice. Carly made french toast for breakfast, and August and I played GarageBand. I took a shower, then he wanted bubbles, so he and I blew some bubbles.

We left for a walk at 12:40. We went and got juice at Juicy Juice – August chose strawberry – and we headed towards the stream. At the corner by the stream they were doing some construction work and August stopped and watched and listened. He said “I’m playing the viola.” At the sidewalk flower shop across the street he counted petals with Carly. We then walked up the stream, then down the other side to the river. He stepped on the stones, then along the way it was a bit breezy and he noticed the ripples on the stream: “It’s a group of ripples.” He was walking, and Carly did races with him to the tree and bridge. At the bridge, he looked down in the water and spotted fish. By the river we spotted a heron and an egret, then four ducks.

We walked back up our side of the stream, then down the street to the “playground with four swings”, which was August’s request for where to go today. We went on the swings for awhile and he looked up at the buildings and leaned back in the swing a lot. We then went up on the play structure and did a lot of sliding. He held hands to slide down with me and Carly, and he slide into my head and into the backpack: “I CRUSHED the backamapack! I’m strong enough.” It was getting cooler, so we did a quick addition of August’s extra sweatshirt, which involved taking off his coat and sweatshirt, then putting them all on really fast.

We headed home and as we walked through the apartment complex we noticed all the green on the bushes, and found a cut branch that had some pussy willow sort of things on it. I broke off a couple and August carried them home. We got here at 2:30. While he was on the toilet he was making a really loud hacking sound, very Korean of him, much to the chagrin of me and Carly. He had me be a robot falling down and getting hurt. Did some GarageBand, then read Itsy Bitsy and others with Carly. I made a chicken sandwich and he ate it with me, then we played mandolin and PianoMaestro. Carly had made fettuccini alfredo earlier, and they ate some together. She accidentally gave him a big bite, then asked if it was too big. He kept chewing, then said “I couldn’t talk because my mouth was full.” Afterwards, he said “I didn’t do my mmmm noises…I like it though.”

More cleaning out: We tackled the shoe closet. August had fun trying on his old shoes and then new (to him) shoes. He then used them as shoe instruments. He and I ended up making a couple of Cookie Monster poop songs, then read the Animal Tales book. He went to the bathroom, after which we did some stickers and tracing and writing in one of the Hangeul books. They nursed, then did more Hangeul. Carly then realized that his underwear was on backwards, which was why he kept grabbing at it – I had put his pants and underwear on backwards after he had gone to the bathroom.

We had been listening to Neil Young through the day, and he would occasionally comment on the instruments or ask what the songs were about.

Carly and August wrestled on the reading area, with August flapping his arms to fly. Glecy called, so we skyped with her. I gave August his bath while they talked. He went back out and talked to Glecy a bit more. It was to bed soon after that, and he was asleep around 7:30.

Saturday photos: 

Banana: 

Colors: 

Dirt: 

Helping unpack: 

QR book: 

My glasses: