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He slept until 7:29. He was quite awake after nearly 12 hours of sleep, doing a lot of talking right away, asking “Why you wake up?” And “What’s in your ear?” He found the lint roller in the changing room (can’t really call it that anymore) and I taught him how to use it. Randomly, he asked “Why Zinnie have blood in you?” He kept wanting to get lint off of one of Carly’s shirts: “I want more limps (lints).” We left, but he asked “What if we forgot some limps?” so we went back and did some more.

Back in the parlor where he talked about what “in order” meant as he then walked back and forth around the room with just a shirt on reciting numbers and then singing our numbers song (to ABC). He spotted the Eric Carle Animal Tales book and pushed the buttons. Then he decided he wanted ALL of the Bob Books boxes over on the other side of the reading area “Those were all the boxes I was carrying.” We read half of Animal Tales until he was hungry.

He got 4 little chunks of brown sugar. Then he played Are You Sleeping while I got the oatmeal ready. He played both of our verses of the song, and was figuring out the slight rhythm changes (each adds one note to the song, but in different places). We ate oatmeal. I plugged in the Christmas lights and he said “I want music”. I started iTunes and one of his playlists. He asked what the song was, and I said “The Satellites” (https://youtu.be/H22bwiMtyrs). He asked “What’s satellites?” I gave him an explanation and we kept eating.

He made the frog on floor frown and said “I want to see what mama says about it.” He took the photo and we sent it on Skype. He watched Meet the MathFacts videos while I showered. Watched some more math and symphony and science (ear, heart) videos with me. He spotted a saxophone in one of the orchestras and asked what it was, and what it sounded like. So we watched a video of just a saxophone.

He started walking around and making up a language, saying things like “uuumqua stands for two”. Did that for a few minutes, then wanted to do math on paper. So we went in and did that: “Another way to do this is count by tens.”

He did headstands in the chair, which is easy for him, so I suggested he could do it on the ground. Indeed he can, and kept doing them in the reading area against the wall. He took some photos and took a couple of me, but they were blurry, so he was working on holding the camera still to make it sharp and took a good photo of me on the reading area. He did more headstands, and wanted me to take photos of him. So I did that and got a good one, so we posted it to Instagram. He chose the filter. Then, when I typed the description I wrote two sentences. August wanted to add periods, turning both of my periods into ellipses. He must know I use a lot of ellipses…

Looking at Instagram, we saw a photo of Meg, now in Russia. I reminder him who she is, saying she gave him the book The Boy Who Bit Picasso. He got excited and said “I want to read that, The Boy Who Bit Picasso…was there blood?” I got the book, but then wanted to eat lunch first. As I was making a salmon sandoo, he was reading the title of the book on his own, then pretending to write it all out. We ate the salmon sandoo, then watched hula hoop and rocket videos – the hula hoop was because he had a big circle out of the octopus tubes and I said it looked like a hula hoop. He then said “I want to learn how to draw a heart all on my own.” We went and worked on that and he was getting better. He got his iPad and looked at the skeleton app. He said “Can I feel my hyoid bone?” We sort of tried feeling that, and he realized he had a thumb up. Put it down as I took a photo. He then wrote ‘mamá’ on paper. Worked on the little a and on the accent.

At one point he started to go to the rocking chair, but said “Wait, I don’t need that any more” then went to the reading area to do a head stand. Ate most of a banana, then had to go to the bathroom again. His toilet humor: “There’s poop on the door. It is sticky poop so dada has to wipe a lot. I pooped there this morning…I pooped a lot so you have to do a lot of wipes.” He talked about the moles on his legs.

Back in the parlor he said “Dada pretend to be mama…Say something…like ‘cute’” Funny because later in the day he did something and Carly called it ‘cute’. He had one of the orange octopus tubes and was twisting it into shapes “It’s abstract, but it looks like a foot.” Earlier, when we read The Boy Who Bit Picasso, he had liked the abstract sculpture of a mother and a child in a stroller. I had used similar phrasing about something.

We finally got entirely ready and left around 2. Didn’t find his blue hat at first, so I grabbed the Cookie Monster hat instead. He hasn’t worn it yet. He found the dark blue one by the door, but stayed with the CM hat. We went out and caught the 1144 bus right away. He sat in a seat and was really tired. Seemed like he was contemplating a nap. He was also very quiet when we got off and headed to the park.

There were two playgrounds at the park, but both small and neither had swings. He played around one for a bit and said he was still hungry. I gave him the letter cookies I found on iHerb. When he saw one he giggled and said “What this?” He then talked about the ones that we used to find in the store. Ate those, all except one. He then got on the teeter totter. He didn’t have his gloves on (it was pretty warm in the sun, and close to 40) and was talking about how he was holding on with his coat. He started to slip when he took one hand off but caught himself. I told him to be careful, but right away I think he tried to do it again. He fell off, and on his face. A lot of crying, and a little sand on his forehead where he it, and the slightest spot of blood on his lip. He never mentioned the blood though. The last letter cookie helped him recover.

And then the mystery: he found a jump rope in the corner of the playground. At first I thought it was missing a handle. But when he tried to pick it up we discovered the end was buried in the ground. The hard, hard ground. Tried to dig down, but it would take a real shovel. We ended up playing with the 4 feet of jump rope though, swinging it and jumping over it, etc.

Eventually, we got our stick and started writing in the sand. He needed the bathroom, so we went there, then came back and did more writing. It got cloudy and cooler, so sometime before 4 we headed home, walking with the backamapack. We stumbled upon another park that didn’t really show up on the map. It had a better play structure, but no mystery jump rope. We continued on, across the river and through Madeul. We were singing, but at some point he was tired. We made up another verse of Are You Sleeping: Are you sleeping, little Zinnie?… You know the rule…No falling asleep…

We had talked about getting chocolate for Carly and he liked the idea. We went to the pink building and got a simple bar of chocolate and a couple other things we needed. We saw Sarah and Jen in elevator at home and they complimented him on his Cookie Monster hat. As we left the elevator he was asking about their names.

When we got home he talked about how his hands were cold and his feet, having worn only one pair of socks, also were: “My feet are cold…Just a LITTLE cold…why my feet can’t nurse?”

He did Hangeul writing and I did some Hebrew. He took my pen and started writing ה on the paper. I suggested we turn music on, and started with a cello suite. He wanted something with drums. We went through an orchestra with piano, gamelan orchestras, and the Blue Man group. Not what he wanted. But then I found a video of a musical instrument that runs on 2000 marbles. He liked that and we were watching it when Carly came home.

They nursed and we ate dinner. When August ate, she told him some people eat dinner together around a table. He was curious about that, so we all sat at the table. He did the cookie app and Elmo
Loves ABCs. He made Cookie Monster sad in the game by not sharing. I act d sad and August tried to comfort me. I was holding my tea though and he bumped it with his head. Luckily, not very hot. Got some on his head and my shirt. Not nearly as traumatic as the Sprite incident at the burrito place with my parents when he was 5 months old.

He read with Carly: The Red Car Bob Book and Wild about Books. She gave him a bath. I heard him continuing with his toilet humor: “I have poop on my hand and rub it on there.” And he talked of another kid pooping in his underwear on his toilet.

After his bath we were sitting on the couch and doing some nonsense singing. It started because he asked me to sing the wrong notes. That turned into wrong words as well. I’d say a random word and he’d start laughing. He was trying to sing in Carly’s ear and be sneaky about getting close, which means he wasn’t sneaky at all, so she was run away. When he calmed down he went and wrote Korean syllables. He wrote more Hebrew in my practice notebook and said “That’s Hebrew and it’s abstract. Dada likes abstract Hebrew.”

He got tired and was ready for bed. He chose his regular pajamas tonight and was asleep a little before 8.

I forgot to mention yesterday the radio game on his bike. He’s been doing it for a week or two. There is a plastic thing that slides around on his handlebars. He will move it, and it is like changing the radio station. I’m supposed to sing a different song. He keeps doing it until it is a song he wants. He will then use the other hand to say he is turning it louder or softer.

 

Photos. “That’s a cool shape”: 

Math: 

Headstand on the reading area: 

His photo of me: 

Again: 

Thumbs up (before he put it down): 

Cookie Monster hat: 

Bus: 

Park. Letter cookies:

Q: 

Right before he fell off: 

Jump rope: 

Writing ‘mama’: 

Evening. Drawing abstract molecules in my notebook: 

August and Carly were up at 7. They skyped with Chuck and Cherie and I was up by 8. He did some Endless Spanish and was really getting into the words. Carly vacuumed and we cleaned out his coats and other clothes for the clothing drive at APIS. August happily tried on a couple spring coats and said they fit. He opened the Sesame Street Cookie app and at first only wanted to do vowels with Elmo. When it came time for the cookie feeding he called me over to do it and he went and watched from the doorway. He was afraid of Cookie Monster. After hat I switched to doing words, which requires Cookie Monster. August was interested, but kept running back to the doorway. After a few rounds though he was proudly doing it by himself. He was also doing a good job sounding out which vowels could go in the gaps, sounding out words he knew.

I made the steel cut oats for breakfast, and he got to taste brown sugar. We added that and cinnamon and blueberries and strawberries.

He started doing his swinging by his hands between the table and couch thing and then throwing up his hands. I asked Carly if she had shown him any gymnastics, and she said that he’d seen Vivian do it. That made sense. He looked at the Hangeul app a bit, then went back to writing the complex vowels on paper. I took a shower. He and Carly were doing Hebrew when I came out, then he was making things out of Duplos on his own.

He and I ate the last of the pizza for lunch. He was pretending to swim on the floor, and I thought he was an animal, but he said he was himself. We read Biscuit Goes Camping, with him surprising me with the words he knows. He did more of the cookie iPad app. Carly was trying to do it with him, but when she asked if she was bothering him he said yes.

Carly headed to a coffee shop to do some work and August and I were going to go out for a bike ride. I heard her talking to someone out in the hall, then the door bell rang. It was a security guard telling us (well, yelling at us) that the downstairs neighbors had complained about noise from August and couldn’t sleep. An odd complaint, as August hadn’t been too active in the morning. I tried to get the guy to give us some more information, like when, but he just kept yelling, and the most detail I got out of him was ‘morning’. He seemed just as upset that we hadn’t answered the intercom earlier when he called up (a call which had come while Carly and August was nursing, and, I think, after they had been doing Hangeul in the other room and my shower – so nothing to help identify what the unacceptable noise part was).

After he went away, August was a bit upset. I tried to explain what had happened, but that just led August to want to run around, and he talked about wanting to go to the seventh floor and run around. Just as I was thinking in my mind that the loudest thing we had done today was when Carly was slamming the freezer door to make the buzzing noise go away, August decided to make a game out of just that. That ended with us sitting together for a timeout on the couch. He continued to test how much noise I would let him get away with closing drawers, etc. At one point he started to close the door to the parlor. When I asked why, he said he was going to slam it. We had some crackers and cheese, then headed out at 2:05.

Carly had forgotten her headphones, so we found her on the second floor and August waited on the bike while I ran them in to her.

As we walked to Hagye Children’s Park (aka the tree playground), August said “I see notes on the ground.” It was the shadow of the metal railings along the edge, casting 4 lines along the ground, with circles for the ‘children’s zone’ signs. It did indeed look rather like a staff and notes. He was singing and counting them.

We walked down to the area that used to be train tracks but is now a park. We haven’t been there since it opened. He got off and explored an area with flower/garden plots. He liked them, but particularly liked walking on the dead plants and then wanted to see what happens if you bend the plant signs. We got back on the bike and walked the path along the tracks a bit, then went to the tree playground.

He went on the swings. When the swing next to him was empty he would say he wanted another kid to sit there. He did some standing, but otherwise had a relaxing time on the swings. Finally, a bit of a line formed, and I told him we were going to take a break. He didn’t like this, and I eventually had to pull him off. Seemed a bit tired, and indeed when we got home later he would try to fall asleep with Carly.

He recovered though and we walked up on the play structure. Up at the top he wanted to go down the slide. At first he wanted to go with me. I asked if he wanted to go by himself and he said yes, and down he went. I then had to go find him at the bottom. It was the biggest slide – the one Carly hasn’t gone down yet – and I hadn’t quite realized how big it was from the top. I found him walking around at the bottom, looking for me. He was perfectly happy though, and was excited he had done it. He would happily tell mama about it later.

He got in the turtle shell a bit, then went back on the swings. I had mentioned we had sung a song here last year, and he wanted to know what it was. I looked it up, then we sang Bingo. We eventually were ready to leave. He paused to pretend to eat the mushrooms statues first.

It was 37 and sunny today, so when we stopped by the ice rink we found it to be more of a slush rink. A few kids were in it, but it looked pretty sad, and is supposed to close. August liked looking at it, but didn’t want to go in. He did, however, want to ride his bike around. In particular he wanted to pedal on his own. We tried it in a couple places, and eventually he started to get it on his own on flat ground without needing a push first. Some improvement in pedaling technique, and also his legs getting stronger and longer. Don’t think he’ll every be really able to ride it around too well though. Hopefully he isn’t clamoring for a real bike before we leave Korea.

At one point he somehow managed to tip it over as he tried to get off. He was okay, but the beads he has gradually collected and put in the back spilled everywhere. We took a minute to pick them all back up.

We were home a little after 4. They nursed and read Go, Dog, Go! Learned about helicopters, roller coasters and scuba diving, as when they found them in the book they would look up photos and YouTube videos.

Played triangle and drums with me. He was the conductor at first. We worked on rhythm. Then he went to play Are You Sleeping on the piano by himself. He called the banana shaker a maraca and I asked how he knew that. He said it was from a book. First he said No Girls Allowed, but then remembered Drum Dream Girl.

We read the rest of Go, Dog, Go! He ate peanut fried rice for dinner and some mushrooms. He put the reusable farm animal stickers on his shirt then took them off. He wanted a milking the cow video, and I mentioned that goats also get nursed, so he wanted a video of that. He also started singing “There’s milking a cow in a hole at the bottom of the sea.”  We’d been singing that song outside.

At 6 he started asking if it was bedtime and said he was sleepy. Watched a video of a boy getting stung by a sea urchin. We read Doc McStuffins again (ugh) and 1-2-3 Peas. I went to start his bath, and told him to read 1-2-3 Peas by himself while I was gone, and he did. He called me back for help with a word on 8, but I watched him read much of it on his own. Before heading to his bath, he wanted to work on ‘photograph’ and do tongue twisters. I had him recite ours (Now streamlined to ‘The thick fish’s thin fin.’) and he surprised me by having memorized She Sells Sea Shells. He then did Peter Piper after me.

Carly gave him a bath. Earlier in the day we had gone through more of his clothes and coats to decide what we could donate. She found a pair of pajamas – one piece but without feet – and put them on him now. He liked
them and wore them to bed. He modeled them, and did a little more of his gymnastics in them.

Had him brush his teeth, which went fine except he didn’t want to stop. Was a bit sad and definitely ready for sleep. He said “Where are my socks?” as I took him in to bed, and he was asleep at 7:50.

Photos. His first photo of mama:

Shadow musical notes: 

Standing: 

Slide he went down: 

Circle: 

Pajamas: 

We were all up about 7:40. Skyped with Vivian and Colin. August and Vivian had fun playing the ‘don’t do it’ game with Carly. He did some Hangeul tracing a couple times through the morning. He has rediscovered that. I took down recycling, then shared some pizza with him. We read the Doc McStuffins coloring books. He had the octopus arm things made into circles – 3 small ones and one big oval shape. I started to make one of them into a crown for him, and August said the smaller two were feet and put them at the end of the big oval. My bigger circle then became the head. Of course, then he decided to step on it and “break the skull”.

We practiced drawing stars and he did his first one on his own. He’s expanded the ‘ballistic’ game from just eating in the parlor, to anything we tell him not to do, including cleaning things. Useful for now. I got him to clean up the markers, Duplos, Bob Books and other things today by telling him not to do it.

We then headed to the bedroom and had the friends eat oatmeal for breakfast, and August made a nest. He started talking about bones, and we looked at the skeleton app. He definitely read ‘vomer’ and mandible’. When he was tired of that he went out to Carly and they went and did Hangeul. Lots of Hangeul app and nursing today.

The Hangeul app time was working though as he started writing, rather easily, the complex vowels on paper and pronouncing them. He climbed on the rocking chair and said he was a spider. Was using it like a jungle gym, and was even more fun because he thought he was making mama nervous.

Carly and I were ready for a walk. I tried to convince him he wanted to go out by suggesting Mama Juice to him. That worked. To Carly he whispered “What kind should we get?”

Downstairs he chose blueberry and I got a macchiato. We headed over to the stream and walked north along it. He started to act tired on our walk, but there wasn’t a nap today. I gave him a wheelie, and he kept wanting them. Finally, he got off and did some walking through the tunnel. As usual he sang all the way through the tunnel. On the other side he was walking with Carly and she was singing her version of When Johnny Comes Marching, making up words. She was sort of marching him by the arms, which was fine but again he kept wanting more after both of our arms were sore.

We turned around and got him on the bike and he wanted to stop at Chrysanthemum Park. But when we got there he and I were singing Yankee Doodle (we learned the seventh verse) and he didn’t want to stop.

We walked over to the art museum. We thought about one of us staying with him at the play area while the other went to the post office to see what there hours are during the week (we’re working on planning our move now that summer and moving info are starting to take shape). But the play area was full. So we all went over to the post office only to find that it doesn’t have an hours sign on it (why does any business not have this basic feature?).

We went back to the park. August and I went and played on the melting ice rink, and Carly headed home to eat some lunch. August walked around on the ice and stepped in wet areas, and found spots where he could see the bottom poking through. I think the ice rink closes after this weekend, and I don’t think they’ll be extending the dates this year. He had no interest in going on a board, but had fun with the arrow throwing after we were off the ice.

We headed home after that (he didn’t want the playground, and I think his feet were a bit cold and damp) and were home at 2:45. Carly had eaten but not left for the store yet. He went to the bathroom, and came back to me excited about how he can reach the light switch and the soap. Carly mixed him up some rice and broccoli. While eating it he kept saying “I want more of my great rice.” He took the piano keys out and put them back in. Carly headed to the store. He was working on Hangeul. Outside, August had asked what playground was in Arabic and Hebrew, and I decided that should be one of the words we know in five languages. So I worked on that.

Carly came home and started cooking. August and I went in on the bed and had the friends make kimbap for lunch. Back out in the kitchen, August shared something with Carly, I think. Anyway, the idea of sharing and not sharing came up, and August, as he and I went in the parlor, said “I want to talk about sharing and not sharing.” We did some of that, but then really ended up playing with the Teuni Octopus. I set it up like the teacher had shown, kind of like hopscotch so August could jump from corner to corner. Did that, then we started to add in variations. Put in all the legs so there were 8 spaces. August said “I have another game…another game that sangsaengnim showed you.” We took the legs off and made a straight course, then he moved them around to make bigger and smaller shapes. I stepped out of the room for a second for tea or something and when I came back he had made them into a zigzag shape.

Somehow, it was decided it was a playground, then the playground was limited to certain ages. At first, if we touched it the people running the playground would tell us to leave. But August of course took it to “What if we not leave?” Then there was hose spraying involved. August really liked this, an turned into the person doing the spraying, and pretended there were kids in the playground that weren’t 7 and he would spray them.

We took a break to read Old King Cole, then he got the I Spy book and said “I want to learn how to remember things…in this book.” We went through that a couple times.

He ate the green soup and peanut fried rice that Carly had made for dinner. We saw the fire parade from our window one last time. I’ve thought we should go outside for it, but then I remember it is February and cold, and watching from the window is enough.

He then started pretending to be in Creepy Carrots, with me making the ‘tunktunktunk’ sound of the creepy carrots. He both liked the game, and got afraid of it. Carly gave him a bath, and I took down the compost. When I came back they were having fun playing with the soap. Before going to bed he wanted a nest to sleep in. He was happy with the little corner of pillows and stuffed animals. He was asleep around 7:40.

 

Star: 

Stepping on the skull: 

Spider on the chair: 

Licking Green Monster: 

Octopus: 

Fire: 

He woke up a little before 6 and started nursing. After awhile they came out and nursed more on the couch. August agreed to stop when we suggested watching the orchestra on his iPad. Did that for awhile, then watched math and science videos. He traced some Arabic, then wanted to add Spanish words to the tracing app. We got the book and added people words. He then wanted to write them on paper, so we went in and he practiced ‘el’ and ‘la’. Turned out he wasn’t sure about writing ‘a’ so he practiced that. Took photos on his own. Refused to take a photo of me. I suggested the stuffed animals and he likes that idea. “Come on!” So he took photos on the bed, and took one of me and Marshy. He made a nest on the bed, and said he was taking all the pillows:  “Well, some of them.” He had them make omelettes again for breakfast, then was doing sort of jump kicks off the headboard with his hands on the bed. He cuddled with me and hugged Marshy. After omelettes, he had them get 8 kinds of ice cream and then cookies.

After some jumping, we headed out to the kitchen where “I want real peanut butter on a spoon.” and ate a banana. We ate Cheerios for breakfast and he played some piano. He put together the octopus things as a hose and said there was water going through it. He took more photos, of the hose and some out the window.

He was reading lots of words today. While looking at the skeleton app I was pretty sure he read mandible and vomer, and then while using my phone as a camera he would say the names of buttons when he pushed them: camera, photo.

We watched an orchestra video and read the Doc book again. He pretended to be a “different kid” again today while on the toilet. This is something he started yesterday. Today he was being a different kid pooping in his underwear.

He watched a Venus fly trap video, then watched orchestra videos while I took a shower. After my shower we read and colored one of the Bob Book activities books. He then found the cardboard kaleidoscope cards while look in the draw and remembered that they were a present from gramma and grampa. We also discussed dolphins for some reason and he remembered not liking the dolphin show at the big zoo.

Finally, he got afraid of the announcements this morning. Because they happened five times. They’ve been happeneing every morning this week, but this was the first time there has been so many of them. He had me pick him up and was hiding his face on my chest like with the wind yesterday. He took a few more photos with my camera and then we got going, leaving at 11:40.

Got kimbap and a strawberry sandwich (yes, with strawberries and whipped cream – had to try it once) for lunch, then went to the children’s museum and ate. A smaller kid was screeching, so August took that as an invitation to screech at first. Then, he wanted to interact with other people, but was going up to them and yelling ‘boo’. We were working on that, and alternative things to say. He did kind of twist/shimmy like a woman who was doing that for some reason. That was funny.

He then wanted to go to the little kids area. A little time on the trampoline, then to the puzzles. One of the wooden puzzles was missing a piece and he wanted me to find it, but I couldn’t. He saw a worker put sausage back in the wrong place (too lazy to go upstairs, it seemed). He went and took it upstairs and put it away and came back. He found the lion (saja) hand puppet and really wanted to play with it. Took it upstairs, sat in a little chair, and hugged it. He wanted me to do the voice of it, and I chose a growly voice. August told me it was the wrong voice, so it switched to a higher pitch, and said it had had a frog in its throat. August thought that was a funny expression, so we ended up having the lion eat frogs and get them caught in its throat.

Before we left he put all the hand puppets away, the worms that go in the center apple, and a couple other things. Back upstairs, we found that missing piece from the puzzle at the beginning, so he went and put it away.

He played with one of the little push beetle things for a few seconds, then carefully maneuvered it back to its spot along the wall. Alas, then he hit a boy on the head for no apparent reason.

We headed out. Bathroom, etc. then as we got ready to go he sang a little song:

“I can’t go anywhere cuz

I’m tired and sleepy”

He spent several minutes walking around the lobby and pretending to draw hopscotch patterns, and made up a colors song as we walked out. He ate some Larabar, then we got to walking. Took rather awhile – 25 minutes. Possibly extended first by asking about why the zoo was closed, then having a bunch of questions about bird flu. He would keep asking about it. At one point he also said “I want mama to come here.” I said that If you go to sleep you’ll see her sooner. He gave perhaps his first real “Okaaaay”.

He fell asleep and we went to the downstairs cafe. He slept from 2:27 to 3:37. I tried waking him up after an hour, but he wouldn’t, so I let him keep sleeping. When I did wake him up he went back to sleep on me sitting in the chair until 3:57. It was nice to have him sleeping on me again.

He then wanted a drink. He was a little sad when I said he had already had juice (we brought orange juice) and a treat (the strawberry sandwich) with lunch.

We headed home, stopping at the bathroom in the subway station. He had some more difficulties in the train: he lightly hit one woman on the head before we got a seat, then was grabbing at a couple of coats, saying “grab, grab”.  Got him settled down and was fine the rest of the way.

At Hagye, as we got in the backpack, I asked what he wanted to do until mama got home. We first discussed writing Hangeul on the paper, then he said Hangeul on his iPad. I asked which one he preferred and he said “Let’s do some of each…what’s ‘each’?” Interesting that he used ‘some of each’ in the proper context, but didn’t quite know what it meant.

Carly was home close to 6, having stayed a little late. I filled out the class registration form for spring (doing Teuni Teuni one last time, and also trying out the English class, which meets later on Thursdays) then walked to Home Plus on my own. Ordered a pizza, then went and bought a couple groceries and registered for his classes.

At home we ate pizza. August was happy about that. He had mentioned doing patterns with Duplos, so we did that. He has the idea of patterns down pretty well now and was doing two and three color patterns. We read the Doc McStuffins coloring book and he wanted me to draw a dog, then a puffin (Oona) on paper. That made him want to watch Puffin Rock, so he did that while Carly took a shower. He then nursed and they played a bit. At one point she asked me the time and I told her. August said “It’s one past two”. So working on that structure as well.

I gave him his bath. It was a long one. The water was quite lukewarm by this point but he didn’t mind. Or rather a long sitting on the toilet. We used the P O and E letters to list words that started with each, then spelled ‘poem’. Basic to bed routine after that and he was asleep about 10.

Photos. Skeleton: 

His photo of me: 

Walking on the 3 shape: 

Strawberry sandwich: 

Little kids area: 

Hopping down the stairs: 

Sitting with the rainbow: 

A rest: 

Hugging and feeding the saja: 

Asleep on me: 

Patterns: 

Poem: 

He came out at 7:12, rubbing his eyes. Lay down on the couch beside me. Then sat on the floor, with his head on the couch before going fully on the floor and slowly rolling around on the warm floor for the next several minutes. Watched some math and cow milking videos, then age Cheerios for breakfast. He played some piano and xylophone and we played together. He took the keys out of the piano. To put them back he said “I want Bluie to help us. He’s a nice friend.” We put the keys back and I introduced him to practicing intervals on the xylophone. He’s also working on playing the full chromatic scale.

We went in on the bed. For breakfast I suggested the friends have omelettes. He didn’t know what they were, so we watched a short Jamie Oliver video. They had omelettes, then ice cream, of course. I had Bluie do the rabbit dance, and mentioned I’d invented that when he was a baby and that I think I had it on video. The video wouldn’t play, but we looked at some of his baby photos.

August started describing the languages and alphabets of all the animals, drawing with his finger on the bed. He then took Peter Rabbit and GM out to learn Arabic. We did lion (asad) and home (bayt) (I can’t type Arabic yet), writing them on paper, and he traced letters on the iPad. I got the video working, so we watched the rabbit dance, which was on April 13th, I think, when he was a month old. We did some exercise together, then I went to take a shower.

He was hungry so I got crackers and cheese for him. He was eating that and watching orchestra videos when I went for my shower, and was still there when I came out. He wanted Bluie to do the rabbit dance so we went and did that and recorded the reenactment, as he was pretending to be a baby. While playing on the bed he was talking about things in the ocean and I mentioned sea anemones, which despite our many visits to aquariums he has never seen. So we watched some videos, including one of an anemone that swims. Crazy.

August then pretended to poop on my pillow. He wanted me to be sad so he could comfort me and snuggle.

We skyped with my parents. Got to see the other cat, Cindy, and the crazy amount of snow outside. August was playing piano for them, then leaned on it and it fell over, kind of pinching his fingers against the wall. He recovered though.

After skyping we got ready to go, put the piano keys back in the piano one more time, and headed to Home Plus for class. Got there a few minutes early for once. As we rode up the walkway August pretended to hit every window, etc. with a hammer and break it, repeating “hammer break” over and over.

As I piled all our coats on the bike, August went into class. He apparently went up to the teacher and gave him a high five, but was also pretending to cut open his arm: “I cut the arm open for funsies.” During the annyang song he waved to everyone. Then, during the forward roll time he thought about it, then went and did one forward roll with the teacher. He was very excited and proud about that. Then, when the teacher and kids carried the inflatable walkway to put it away, August helped out for the first time, then came sprinting back to me. He was very proud about doing that as well. I hadn’t realized that he’d been scared about doing that – I just thought he never wanted to. But he kept talking about how he did a forward roll and helped carry it.

Class was all about being barbarians, starting with a barbarian outfit that August wanted to put on. Then they did activities involving spears and fire. He was totally into each activity today; there was no trying something once then deciding he was done. At the end of class they got these Teuni Octopus toys. The teacher did a demo, and pulled one of the octopus legs, making a loud noise in front of August. August was startled and asked “What you did?” Before we left I told August to go say goodbye and bow. August did so, exaggerating his bow as usual. It turned into putting his head on the floor, then doing his flip forward roll, where he stands on his head for a second before rolling over.

We went downstairs for lunch, and decided on the soup counter next to the pizza place in Home Plus. We ordered the udon soup (어묵우동). August played with the skinny chairs while we waited, then really enjoyed all the lunch, even eating a few bites of radish. By the time we left we had planned out our next few Thursday lunches there.

We did some grocery shopping, then headed home, getting there at 3. We colored and read the Doc coloring book, and put together the octopus toy. He ate some dried cherries and watched orchestra videos, then had to go to the bathroom. From the bathroom we heard a cat meowing, but then it stopped, much to his dismay. Back to the dried cherries, he started doing math problems on his own with them: “I’m doing math problems.”

I had explained that we were home early, but he was missing mama a bit more than usual today; he hadn’t nursed at all last night/this morning, so that probably added to it. At one point he asked why mama was late today, and at another point he said “I just want you to have nursing.”

At some point we decided to head back out on his bike. We went to Chrysanthemum Park. But it was rather windy and cloudy along the way. We considered going back at one point. We got to the park and he wanted to go on the swings. But as he got off the bike I said something about hoping that the wind didn’t pick up. He asked what that meant, and I explained. He then got upset and was afraid of the wind. He wanted to be picked up, and he covered his eyes and hid his face against my chest and wanted to go home. I talked to him a couple minutes, and reminded him of how good he had felt after he got over his forward roll/helping carry fears at Teuni Teuni. He then agreed to go on the swing. He closed his eyes for awhile, but then said he wasn’t afraid of the wind anymore. He was happy with himself, and I said something about being proud about himself. He then asked “What if you’re not proud?” We discussed ’embarrassed’ and ‘ashamed’ after that.

It was cold though, so we didn’t stay for a long time. we headed home and were home at 4:40 or so. He was talking about meeting mama today, so about 5:20 we headed out and got on his bike. As we left he said “My hands are not cold. I can nurse.” We rode around the hall a bit, then went downstairs and were riding around, doing wheelies, and met Carly by Pink Burger at 5:35.

They nursed, then he had dinner with me. We were running out of the sauce stuff that Carly had made, so I added some teriyaki sauce. I told August to let me know if it needed more, and the moment the first bite touched his tongue he declared “More teriyaki sauce.” We read part of  Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed, then he played with the Montessorium Numbers app. Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. It went well, as he decided to like the drips on his face. When he was done he ran out and told me “I like the drips.” Also said he liked brushing his hair. Quite the growth mindset today. He spent some time looking at the skeleton app, then headed to bed and was asleep by 7:45.

Oh, and at some point earlier today I tried to put some music on the iPad (the new Flaming Lips). He asked if it was orchestra music. He let it play for a few songs before insisting we switch to orchestra music.

 

He was holding a pillow on his head and then started to sneeze. I took a photo just as his hands came down but before the pillow fell off:

Barbarian: 

Spear: 

Our lunch: 

Squinting at the wind: 

Because you can’t have enough swing photos: 

He got up at 6:50. He came and cuddled behind me on the couch. Then went and did the frog puzzle in the floor. He was hungry and excited about Cheerios and strawberries this morning. I took off his diaper, which was dry, and he wanted long underwear (pajama pants) on. We ate breakfast together, then he watched math and science videos and traced some words. He played Are You Sleeping and added in a bass note to the last line. Had some more Cheerios, then randomly asked “How do you spell key?” We continued thusly:

“Like a key for a house?”

“A key for a car!”

“K e y”

He then wrote it with his finger on the table, then up towards the ceiling.

“K out of poop.”

“Ahh, why does everything have to be made of poop?”

“I like it that way.”

We went in to the bed. He had them make blueberry waffles, then stuffed them in the crack. We made a fort and read Creepy Carrots, then August made cookies and sent GM to get ice cream. Then more ice cream. We ended up discussing Molly Moon’s in Seattle and looking up what flavors they have now. Anyway, I said they’d had enough. He replied “Come on. Everyone is still hungry. I want Marshy to get more ice cream…I’m not stuffed. I have more room in my tummy. I can still eat more ice cream.”

He asked “Where do strawberries come from? Where does milk come from?” So we looked up photos of strawberry plants and YouTube videos of milking cows.

Sitting in his fort, he was pretending to find garbage in the pillows “it’s upstairs…a cold hallway…garbage…and other things…I can show you dada…a movie theater…there’s animals down there.” He had the blanket over his feet and said he didn’t have any, which led to a deep conversation about what it would be like if he didn’t have feet or lets.

We went out and had cheese and crackers for a snack, then I took a shower. I came out to find him playing with ShapeKit (he made a turtle) and then the Montessorium Numbers app. He was starting to figure out the puzzle where you arrange the lines in order. We made a salmon sandoo, then he played piano, and we looked up the words to Frere Jacques in French. I said he’d start learning a new song soon, and he said he wants to learn Yankee Doodle on the piano. That would be a difficult one.

We brushed our teeth and got ready to go out. Paused to look at a globe app on the iPad. He then made up a little song that went “Bye bye friends, we’re going to go outside.” “Bye!”

We left at 12:35. When he saw the backpack on the table he stopped, looked at me seriously, and said “I want my bike.” I said he might take a nap so we needed the backpack and reminded him he had been tired (he had been rubbing his eyes, and pointed it out, when he was on the toilet). He thought for a second and said “Let’s give it a try. Let’s do that.” I thought he was going to say try a nap on the bike, but he was suddenly fine with the backpack.

Walked up towards Sarang Children’s Park. He was falling asleep. A little before 1 I looked back as he was quiet and he said something like “I not taking a nap.” He was asleep at 12:57. Or so I thought. The second I walked into a building at 1:00 I heard a very slurred “Where we going?” Stood at the corner waiting for a light for a couple minutes, but then figured he was asleep so I went back in the building and upstairs to YogerPresso. He slept until 2:21. I had unzipped his coat, but he had ended up laying on the zipper, and had marks all over his face. I think he woke up because it was uncomfortable.

We went up the stairs to the fifth floor to the Trampoline Cafe. Basically a small kids cafe with a bouncy area (like the Namu one next door in the pink building). I had said he could have a drink, but all they had in their big selection of drinks was the sugary Pororo drinks. You could just tell, and it delivered. August enjoyed the strawberry drink though. He went and played in the digging place for a couple minutes, then went and played with one of the dolls. It didn’t have clothes on, so he put it in the bath and it took a bath. We spent most of our time playing with these curved block things. We made shapes, worked on patterns (he’s understanding those better), and he made a snake that kept getting bigger. At one point, when we were doing patterns, I asked if I could use a piece off of it and he said “No”.

We heard “Puff the Magic Dragon” playing and I noted we hadn’t sung/read that in a long time. We were still playing, but he was apparently listening, as he asked “Why ‘not so little boys’?” “Why ‘came no more’?” I mentioned he might like the cartoon version now, and he kept asking about that: “Why now?” I made a shape on the ground, and he said it was a dragon. He was then talking excitedly about it. Wasn’t clear the narrative: “bandage, bandage, bandage…for funsies.” Then something about earwax and other gross things in it.

At one point I thought we’d add another hour to our time. We hadn’t been in the ball or trampoline area, but he showed no interest in them. And then he started to say he was sleepy: “Let’s head home. I’m too sleepy. I want to get in the backamapack. I’m sleepy. I want to go home.“ We left at 3:21. The woman gave him a couple little treats and he ate one. We had had the place to ourself the whole time, but another boy arrived just before we left. August still didn’t want to stay. Anyway, we went to the bathroom. August used a urinal, as he talked about not liking the cold toilets.

He was walking, and worked on carefully crossing crosswalks as we headed west. He said he had woken up and wanted to go to a park. We headed to the one with the big rope climbing structure – Persimmon Children’s Park. Along the way we spotted a 7-sided (heptagon) hole made out of bricks next to the path and reviewed our polygons.

At the park there were a bunch of kids playing around the swings – like upper elementary. They were a bit crazy and climbing on top of the play structure and the swings. August enjoyed watching them. He went on the swing, and when a boy started standing on the other swing, August wanted to stand to. Did a good amount of swinging, then when he got off he wanted to stand on the railing and hold onto the swings structure. We called that the ‘making mama nervous’ photo of the day.

He played around with chunks of ice and three girls followed us around and talked to us a bit. August tried throwing ice at them a couple times, but then accepted that he couldn’t. Worked our way around, and at one point he and the girls sort of played around on a slippery spot together. Before we left he and I were translating a sign, and the girls came and gave him a chocolate. He ate it as we left and really liked that.

We stopped at Sarang to get in the backpack and he ate a Larabar as we walked. We were home at 4:40. He had been looking forward to his math videos, then did some art on my iPad. He had to go to the bathroom and mostly did it all on his own as he can now turn the light on and off as he is tall enough.

Carly was home at 5:20. They nursed, then we went in on the bed and had the friends eat dinner and ice cream. In the morning he had gone out and gotten all the animals, so it is now quite a crowd. With Carly he went to the bathroom and then they did a lot of math, going in to do it on the paper and with the blocks and with their fingers. He then stood on the dining room chair to make mama nervous, then decided to make her nervous by pretending to snorkel in the reading area (I had mentioned surfing and scuba diving in Israel). I had seen a spark from a shock earlier in the day but he had missed it. So I took him into the closet with the static-y blanket. But he wouldn’t look and keep the door closed long enough to see them. Back on, he explained why we couldn’t go in the closet:  “Maybe there are alligators. We cannot go in there. They will not like us and chomp you.” He then pretended to play with an eel as he sn
orkeled, alternating between hurting it and being nice: “I’m making it a nest because we scared it.”

He also found out he could jump up into the rocking chair and into a headstand pretty easily. He wanted Carly to come in so he could show her a couple times.

I gave him a bath. He watched about 20 minutes of orchestra pieces (Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars) before getting in the water, then watched some more.

Back out, he did more Montessorium Numbers and tracing. He apparently thought he wasn’t supposed to trace the shapes with Carly. I remember once telling him he should do the words instead, but hadn’t made it a big thing. Oh, and at some point earlier in the day he had asked for Q words, and we listed a bunch.

He told Carly he was ready for sleep time, and I thought they were both asleep about 9:45, but Carly came out at 9:55, and August came out a minute later. She went back in with him, and was back out at 10:05.

Photos. Sad frog: 

With the friends: 

Almost asleep by Sarang: 

Awake with zipper marks: 

Sugary drink: 

Doll in the bath: 

Snake: 

Making mama nervous: 

Eating with the friends: 

Upside down counting: 

They were up at 5:40. Silently, as I didn’t hear them. When I got up a little later, August was sitting by himself writing down math problems. He did 8-8 and 1-1 on his own, figuring out the answer was 0. He then moved to the piano where he made up a little repeating rhythm that was unique. He was tracing words as mama left, then did some art on the iPad. He was hungry so we made scrambled eggs with olives and mushrooms. He wanted to have his own bowl this morning. We next went into the bed and played with the friends. Had them making food, then was being hyper. I think I was suggesting something else, and he said “I have a few things on my list.” Eventually, he wanted to move to the reading area, and took some of the stuffed animals: “I want to read books with the friends.” We read the 0 to 10 Bob Book. He next wanted to watch an orchestra. We watched the Auckland Symphony Orchestra play Pirates of the Caribbean. Then Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. We agreed that one wasn’t as good, so we switched to Beethoven’s Ninth. Did some exercise, then he watched math and word videos and I showered.

As I was finishing up, he came in and said he needed to go to the bathroom. Wanted mama’s bathroom though. He waited until I was out of the shower. He wanted a snack and I gave him a few crackers. He asked “Can you eat crackers in the parlor?” I said no. He asked “Are You sure about that?” We then read Creepy Carrots – he’s reading more and more of it himself, then back on the toilet. Often when he eats or drinks now he talks about the food or water going down to his stomach. Today he asked what happens if it goes up. That had us joking about poop coming out his head.

We brushed our teeth and he chose the spit out kind today, then were getting ready to go. He had voiced a lack of excitement about going out today because “It’s cold outside.” But once we got out he ended up playing in playgrounds a lot. Getting him there was a bit of a struggle, and he was showing first signs of getting tired when he suddenly started crying when I tried to brush his hair. He then wanted in the backamapack and we were out the door just past 11.

Didn’t have him go to the bathroom right before we left, and that was a mistake. I had been hoping he could make it to Children’s Grand Park. On the train he sat between two women on the train that fawned over him. One let him watch part of the video she was watching. Then, while he was playing on his iPad, he said “I’m peeing…I need to go on the toilet.” We jumped off at the next stop, Meokgol, and went up to the bathroom. His underwear and long underwear were a bit wet, so we changed those, but his grey pants were fine.  Got back on a train and made it to Children’s Grand Park. When we got off the train he started walking shapes on the ground: “I’m making a J…I’m making a U on the ground.” He passed on getting kimbap, eggs, etc., saying peanut butter sandoo and strawberries were enough.

We walked to the Botanical Garden building. It was open today. We went upstairs and ate lunch in our usual spot. He was good with the plants today, but I had to issue some warnings about being rough with the leaves and plants. He asked what would happen if he broke off leaves and I said they make us leave. Then he asked what would happen if they told us to leave but we didn’t. I talked about the police coming. He then asked “What happen if they kick us out and we don’t leave and we hide in a tree?” I have no idea where this hiding in a tree idea came from. Or evading the cops, for that matter.

Back outside the botanical garden we spent several minutes breaking up the snow/ice on the ground. Then over to the playground where he did hopscotch and went on the swing. It was getting to be time for a nap. He did hopscotch again, then worked on getting in the big round swing. He wanted me to put him in, but I said after his nap. We went up to the bathroom, then went to put him in the backpack. He wanted me to pick him up, and started to run to me and tripped on a hole in the ground and fell right on his hands and stomach. He wanted in the backpack, and we were off. Took 10 minutes to fall asleep, and was asleep at 1:34. Went to the upstairs coffee shop and slept until just after 3 when I woke him up.

He was still sleepy. He woke up a bit and wanted a drink, so we went up and he chose an apple juice. Drank that and played a couple minutes on the iPad, but then went and sat on the floor, looking out the window for a few minutes. After that, he wanted to go back to the playground. We went back and went in the big round swing. Did that for several minutes, then he wanted to check out the blue seat swing. In that he instantly looked sleepy and I thought he might fall back to sleep. I asked him and he agreed he felt sleepy. He wanted his sunglasses on, then I really couldn’t tell. Close to 15 minutes in that swing, and at about 4 we headed home. He called that swing the “Relaxing swing”. And we made up a new Are You Sleeping? verse: “Are you sleeping…Little Zinnie…Your sunglasses are on…Bee, buzz, bzzz”. The last being the noises he makes to pretend to be a bee and wake us up.

We were home at 4:45. Watched some iPad videos, then was hungry. I had just offered some rice pilaf and he had requested “Something else” when Carly got home at 5:45. They nursed, then Carly was going to go downstairs and get more rice. August said “I’m tired of rice”. But he wanted to go down to GS25 with her. Last time she had had an issue with him running off while she was trying to pay, so she talked through the rules this time. He asked what ‘aisle’ meant, so she drew a map of GS25 and talked through it. It worked, as he did fine.

Back up, he watched some math videos and ate with Carly. I then suggested we go in on the bed to play with the friends. He agreed, but first ate much of my dinner as well (he wasn’t tired of rice pilaf after all). He had the friends eat dinner, then that turned into the throwing up game after he stepped in the food. I had the pillows throw up on him. He then said there was poop everywhere, including the pillows. He then laughed hysterically as he went and told mama he put poop on her pillow after I suggested he shouldn’t go tell her.

He calmed down a bit and then went and nursed, then played piano. Carly gave him a bath, and I heard him joking around about whether it was a hair washing day: “Is it a spine washing day?” When she got him dressed he wanted a lot of socks, and came out wearing 4 on one foot and 3 on the other. He was quite happy with his 7 socks, and wore them to sleep. He saw a vein on Carly’s wrist and asked what bone it was. She pointed out it was a vein. He pressed it and said it was “squishy”. She took a shower and he and I played with the friends one more time. This time they had desert. He kept saying he was ready to sleep. We didn’t believe him at first, but he kept asking, and looked tired. Carly had some more getting ready to do, so he watched her iron, a bit impatiently, then was asleep by 8:40.

Breaking ice: 

Hopscotch: 

Apple juice: 

Sitting on the floor: 

New swings: 

7 socks: 

We stayed home much of the day, which was fine because there was a lot of music and math and art time in there, then headed out to parks in the later afternoon.

He was up at 7:25. First thing he said was that he is hungry, so he ate the last bit of banana bread. Then played Are You Sleeping and worked on the Brother John part after which he traced our list of body part words for awhile. He watched some math videos, then we exercised and I took a shower. He was back to watching math and word videos. Made egg and toast for breakfast, and he ate a lot of that. I haven’t felt like eggs for quite awhile, but was getting tired of cereal. He ate a lot of that, then decided to do math, first on the door, but then said we should do it on paper. Went into the parlor and we did math on paper. Out of the blue he wrote ‘ALL’ on the paper – it was one of the word videos he had watched earlier. We used the blue counting squares for working out our math problems – we called them blueberries. In the end we counted all of them and found we have 97.

He tried doing a headstand and actually got his feet in the air for a second or two then did a forward roll. He called this a “Flip forward roll”. We read the Red Hen Bob Book and another one at some point. He was singing songs from the song book, and one song title is in French (Dites-moi, I think). He said “I want to learn French…and German.” I don’t know where he got German from. We watched a German number songs video, but then he remembered watching an orchestra yesterday. We watched Beethoven’s Ninth, performed by the Chicago Orchestra. He watched 15 minutes before wanting to do something else.

We went in on the bed. He had the friends do some cooking, then was really into pretending to cook himself. It was fun to see him copy what we do when making banana bread (including using things like baking soda). I went and got a bowl and spoon and measuring cup for him. After that, we made a fort and read Creepy Carrots a couple times. He had wanted more friends in there, so we brought Turkey, GG, and Peter Rabbit in as well.

We were getting hungry, so started with some cheese and crackers, then made a salmon sandoo. I’d been tracking the Super Bowl, so turned on the end of it and overtime. August didn’t show any interest until it was over and there was all the cheering. I had also had a webinar thing playing earlier and he had ignored that. But when the orchestra is on he is very attentive.

He showed me some more how to slide and jump, then played all of Are You Sleeping. Wanted me to play xylophone while he played piano. Then to ipad for Figure and Notion. We watched more of the orchestra, then did art on the iPad with the pencil before tracing body part words. I was getting him ready to go, and picked him up to put on a pair of pants. He instantly started crying. He agreed he was tired, and said he wanted to go sleep in the parlor. We lay in there for awhile, but he said the sun was too bright and said he wanted the bed. As usual though, once we were in on the bed he wouldn’t rest. Went back out and he was tracing some words while I finished getting us ready.

They started testing the alarms in the building (so that was what they had announced this morning…). I told August it was okay, but it still scared him as it kept going off every few seconds: “I want to go home…I want to go outside.” I picked him up and he was then hiding in reading area while I got our coats. We slipped out and got on his bike and headed out. It was just after 2:30.

We rode up north and ended up going to 3 parks. First, we went to 느티울근린공원, which is the park complex north of Sarang Children’s Park. We were last here with Carly several months ago when he watched big kids climbing on the big rope structure and he wanted to climb to. That’s where he went first, and he was actually able to climb up in it a bit, with just a little help. He climbed around a pole, then was trying to step down while holding on to a horizontal rope with both hands. He couldn’t reach the rope below, and ended up swinging by his hands. He hung there for several seconds, then fell the 4 inches to the ground. Kind of tumbled, but recovered and was fine with it.

He then went over and started to climb up the little play structure, but then realized he needed to go to the bathroom. We went over only to find the bathrooms closed. While figuring out what to do, he went on the swings for a minute. We then went and got on the bike and walked around and found bathrooms in a little office/community center building. But while we were talking I had mentioned another park nearby that, last time we were there, was all dug up. He wanted to go see what the work had done, so we headed that direction. The park (선녀어린이공원) was a disappointment – all the work they had been doing was apparently just for a water line or something. But there were some small swings. He went on those for several minutes. We then headed over to Sarang Children’s park, just a block west, to play with the sand.

We did our usual bucket and chute filling and emptying. He worked a bit on pulling the chain to raise the bucket. A girl came and asked him his name in English. He replied with ‘August’. I told him to ask her name, in Korean, but she had already run off and didn’t hear him. A bit later there were a few boys kind of close, and August went up and made funny noises to them. They responded by yelling back, and acting like chickens, and chasing August around. Fun, but a bit much, and I had to tell one boy to stop chasing August when he got a little worried. Then, they were playing with August’s shovel. August at first said something about sharing, but a minute later when I mentioned they’d give it back, August suddenly got upset and started crying. I paused to comfort him, then go get the shovel, but then I heard a crack. They had cracked the shovel. Luckily, it still works and should be fixable.

But August was done, and wanted to head home. He was fine after he had the shovel back and we were on our way.

In the evening he played Are You Sleeping for Carly, and we all finished watching Beethoven’s Ninth. August now said he wants to play the oboe. He also traced the body parts words and made funny sentences in the sentence app. Carly gave him a bath, and he wanted two pairs of socks on for sleeping. He said his feet have been cold. He was asleep by 7:20.

 

Photos. Our blueberries: 

Math: 

Reading in a fort: 

Hiding from the alarm test: 

Climbing: 

Swinging: 

Swings: 

Larabar: 

With the friends: 

Upside down: 

Hiding from the light: 

He woke up at 12:30 during the night and needed to go to the bathroom. Carly helped him into the bathroom, then he came and fell back to sleep. Woohoo! Later in the night I thought I heard him up and talking. I rolled over and looked. He was sleeping on his back, with his head towards the end of the bed. Think he had woken up a bit, then lay back down.

He was up about 6:30 or so. They were Skyping with Cherie and Chuck when I got up awhile later. After I’d had some breakfast, he took me into the bedroom to play. He told Bluie “Carrot waffles, Bluie.” They ate various things, including pizza which had ”spiders, macaroni, sauce, pepper, onion, peach, apple.” Back out to Carly where he nursed and then watched a bit of a documentary on Netflix about blue whales. He was interested in it, but decided it was an “adult” video because it was confusing. They did some typing, then he took me back to the bedroom and we played more with the animals. It turned into a throw up game. Worn out, he went in the parlor and played with ththe fruits and veggies a bit by himself. I then watched as he put them all away, put the lid on, and put the container away along the wall, all without a word from me. After that he played with Duplos by himself for a few minutes before wanting me to join him.

He said something about Mama not going to work today, and we started discussing days of the week. I used Duplos in a line to represent the days, with short Duplos being the weekdays that she works, and tall ones being the weekend days she doesn’t. That turned into a game where he started adding days (blocks) to the cycle. We would then inform Carly of her new work schedule, and she would (generally) be upset about it, because it meant working more days in a row. August got it up to something like 24 days of work in a row, followed by 8 days off.

They then nursed and rested on the couch, then August piled things on top of her. I took a shower and she took him outside at 10:30. They came back a few minutes later for a towel to dry of the swings. Back outside it was rainy and snowy. August liked drying off the swings but didn’t want to get on them. They were back a little after 11. He and I made a salmon sandwich. While I made it, he ate salmon on crackers and like tormenting Carly with his breath. That game got old after a bit, so as we finished up the sandwich Carly closed the door to the parlor.

He took a nap from about 12:15 to 1:20. Nursed and played with Carly. They pretended to be in the ocean, being eels and whales and eating fish and things. And they read a couple Bob Books. They put Bob Book stickers on a piece of paper, then colored it. I started playing with him and we colored it some more, then he started making squares out of crayons on his own. I showed him he could make equilateral triangles, and he did those, then used a broken crayon to make an isosceles triangle. Carly came in and made more shapes with him. They made something like 30 shapes. They were all triangles except for one square, which I pointed out was lonely. August then made a big rectangle and said it was so the square wouldn’t be lonely.

He had me play a bit of the meeting game, then we brushed our teeth. He was getting crazy with it, trying to run around while brushing, and I had to take it away. He was upset about that. They nursed, then we got him ready to go outside. On the toilet, he asked about washing strawberries again. We ended up joking about all the kinds of poop that could be on the strawberries: giraffe, bear, Zinnie, etc. Finally, he wanted to look at his fingerprints with the flashlight.

He and I left with his bike and got to the art museum play area about 3:40. Had 20 good minutes of play time before it closed. It was busy, which was good and bad. Lots of kids to play with, but August also wanted to just throw balls at people, and practice overhand. So I had to stop him a few times, and use the treat of leaving. Later, when we were back home he told Carly about throwing balls and Dada saying we’d have to leave. He got better though, and got gentle with other people, and did overhand at a wall and the metal tank structure.

He wanted to ride around on the bike (no rain now, so nicer than earlier). We rode around that side of the park, through all the Pokémon players, then back over to our side of the park, where we did most of a loop, then stopped at the ‘Mama sculpture’. He walked along the edge, and we went up on the boardwalk area. He started to find beads and put them in the back of the bike. There were a lot. We played around up there for 15 minutes or so, finding beads, then back down on the path he jumped in a muddy puddle. He said, I thought, something about going “swinging”, so I got the stroller, then wasn’t understanding why he didn’t want to go to the playground. He said “I said swimming.” I figured out that he had said ‘swimming’ in the first place, not swinging. He thought that was pretty funny. He also found one of the ice pushing things laying on the ground, so we decided to take it back to the ice area where it belonged. We put it in the bike and walked around and put it on the side of the ice rink, then headed home.

At home he nursed and spent a little time with Carly. She wanted to get out for a walk, so the two of them took the stroller (the first time in the stroller in a couple weeks?) and they went to Starbucks. He got his chia drink again. They were home at 6:30.

He ate pilaf for dinner, then was tracing letters and numbers on the iPad. He was really into that, and had already done a lot, but wanted lots more. But he agreed to go take a bath if he could do some more afterwards.

In the bathroom I decided we should watch some more music. I got my iPad and searched for ‘orchestra’ in YouTube. One of the first results was for the Seoul Symphony performing Tchaikovsky’s 6th. August loved it. When we spotted Jeff (Cora’s dad) playing trumpet, we went out and showed Carly, then went back in. August stood and watched 22 minutes of it before I decided it was time to wash him. We washed him (at first he insisted on washing himself, but then said we should do it together), then went out on the couch where we watched the rest of the symphony (50 minutes total) with Carly, and he now traced Arabic. Carly asked him what instrument he wanted to play. He sat up from nursing for several seconds, thinking about it, and said “viola”.

Around 9 I had him put the iPad away and we went in on the bed and played a little. He then sang from the songbook. 9:30 or so he was all dressed for bed and went to the bathroom (he remembered himself about going to the bathroom before going to sleep) and was ready to go to sleep. He went to tell Carly. She needed a couple more minutes to finish writing something, so I suggested we go back and tell a Puffin Rock story in the dark. He agreed, but then on the bed just started playing with the animals, jumping on them to break their bones, yelling “break”. I put an end to that, and Carly came in. Thought he was very ready for sleep, but not so much. Had difficulty getting to sleep. I told him one Puffin Rock story at one point, then finally he was asleep at 10:22.

 

Photos: 

Playing by himself: 

Mama’s work schedule: 

Stickers and coloring: 

Rectangle: 

Ball area: 

Walking by the mama statue: 

Collecting beads: 

Pushing: 

Arabic: 

Awake 7:20. He helped me with recycling and was really into putting everything in bags, and into seeing how many milk cartons or styrofoam pieces he could carry. And carefully holding a glass bottle. He and Carly took down the recycling in two trips and I had my book group meeting to discuss the Corporate High School book. August came in and said hi and shalom and the beginning, then was hyper for the next hour and a half. He did a lot of screeching out in the living room, then they Skyped with Vivian and company and August and Vivian danced together. She had gone to her first ballet class and wanted August to dress in a ballet outfit as well.

When I was done at 10 he was calming down with Carly. He then played with me. First hyper, playing the ‘interrupting dada’s meeting’ game, then showing me his dancing. But then he calmed down and was pretending to sleep on the reading area. For several minutes he was just pretending to be a slightly sad baby sleeping or trying to sleep. A very adorable new thing. He then listened to my heart.

Out to Carly where he nursed and they read Frida. I took a shower. Back out, we played piano together. August is doing a full C chord now, but requires two hands. He took the keys out, then went and got Green Monster to help us put the keys back in. That done, we did some surgery on Green Monster. August took GM and put him in a cave in the reading area so he could sleep.

August nursed, then we decided to go to Pink Burger for lunch. August was sort of playing hide and seek with Carly, and she was hiding back in my bathroom, in the dark. August didn’t want to go back there on his own, so made me go as well. She growled and I said maybe it was a dragon. August was laughing and squealing and hid behind my leg, crouching on the ground. After she came out, he then went and hid by the couch and made dragon noises himself.

We headed down to Pink Burger for lunch. I ordered our burgers and fries and squid rings. We took a notebook and markers down, so he and Carly did some Hebrew letters. He wanted to watch the cooking, but then got impatient waiting for the food. So Carly took him over to Mama Juice and he got a blueberry juice. Came back and ate – he really liked dipping the fries and rings in ketchup. We then all went over to the grocery store.

Kind of like the last time we went with Carly, he had difficulty in the grocery store, wanting to touch everything and run off. Carly was about done, but started crying when I picked him up. We switched and I did check out and she played with him. They turned the poking/breaking thing into the game, and as we headed home, him on the bike, he was pretending to poke and break everything, saying “break, break, break…”

Back at home, he wanted to see pictures of blood: “I want pictures of blood please. Blood, blood, blood, blood…more blood, please.” He then played with the Arabic app and piano keyboard app. We were then trying to decide to go outside. He wasn’t sure he wanted to go, and the pollution was high. But eventually he was getting a bit hyper. Carly was chopping vegetables, and he was joking about trying to put his finger up on the cutting board. I started spinning him on the floor, and he was giggling like crazy, and kept chanting “more, more, more.” He then wanted to play on the bed, and went and got GM from where he had put him after the surgery earlier. Also earlier, he had fallen off the bed. He had gone to jump of the end, kind of plopping his bottom on the edge of the bed, then his feet on the ground. But he bounced off the mattress, and bounced across and hit the door. He recovered and said he was okay.

Anyway, this time Green Monster broke his tailbone. He said GM “slipped on ice, snow, pee, and poop.” With Green Monster resting from his surgery, August then got Peter Rabbit and we did the objects on the table game from Sesame Street. He went to the bathroom and then checked out mama’s cooking, then he played Are You Sleeping and kept repeating the “Brother John” notes and sang along, screeching it.

Finally, we really got ready to go outside. Or, almost, as he and Carly ended up playing around and coming up with the phrase “Mama mission mode” while being silly.

So August and I left, and walked up to Chrysanthemum Park. His choice. There, we went on the swings for awhile, then he got off and walking around. He was looking for slippery spots, but everything was melting because of the heat. When I told him there were no slippery spots he got sad and started crying. He was done with the park after that and wanted to head home.

On the way home we sang Yankee Doodle and he decided he wanted to go to the Dinosaur playground across the street. We spent about an hour there. Due to the way I narrate what we’re doing, he has caught me pointing out Pokémon players several times. And he’s started asking “What’s Pokémon?” So when it happened by the dinosaurs I put Pokémon Go on my phone and we caught a few Pokémon. I then realized I could have August ‘pet’ the Pokémon and I could take a screenshot, so we took a few photos to do that. He would go stand and I’d take the photo, then he’d come and look at it, and want to do another one.

Eventually the swings opened up and August went on the swing for awhile. We then headed home. Carly had finished a rice pilaf, and August ate a bunch of it for dinner. He kept wanting more and more. They nursed, and August was falling asleep. Got him to wake up with Puffin Rock. I took him in for his bath. He kept asking if it was a hair washing day. And said “I’m going to make it a hair washing day.” In the bathroom, I realized that Amanda Palmer was live broadcasting a concert. So we had that on the iPad while he took a shower. He watched her playing piano. And he did most of his own washing again.

After that we went out to the living room and he did Arabic and letter tracing on the iPad as we watched more Amanda Palmer. He was asleep by 8:20.

 

Photos. Pretending to slee: 

Triangle: 

Pink Burger. Hebrew: 

Squid: 

Mama’s shoes: 

Chrysanthemum Park: 

Dinosaur playground. Pokémon:  

Home. Arabic and Amanda Palmer: