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He walked out at 7:30. A few minutes earlier I had heard him making noises – like long moans. He whispered something about mama and I had to tell him she was at work. He went in and laid down on the reading area and didn’t want me to come in. I went back to the couch. He came out to me after 5 minutes. We watched Puffin Rock and had Cheerios for breakfast. Took off his pants, then he was being a froggy and spinning in circles on his hands and his knees: “You were going very fast.” I took a shower, then we made art in Paper and Art Maker.He pooped twice on big toilet. Then I put his diaper on as we got going and he pooped a third time. Changed him, and we headed out of the house a little after 10.

On the train down he didn’t request iPad or food at all. Just stood, leaning against my leg and watched and chatted for several stops, did some singing, watched the river, etc. He was drawing in the air with his finger and said “I drew a tremble clef.” He said his back itched at one point. He then got out Smokey, and played with Smokey the last few stops.

We stopped at the little store in Seoul Grand Park Station and got some lunch: kimbap and a strawberry yogurt. We walked out to find things looking very hazy. First, we smelled burning leaves, and he asked about that smell. Then, as we walked by the construction site, as they redo the long walkway to the park, he said he smelled the dirt. You could.

He had said he wanted to see the giraffes. I hadn’t thought about the fact that they might not be outside anymore. So we saw flamingoes and then ate in our usual spot, but no giraffes to see. It was theoretically 50 degrees, but felt cold, and he said he was cold, so we put his sweatshirt on under his coat. He played around on the bench a little, but not as much as on previous trips. He had chosen to get the zoo map in Japanese today, so we also looked at that.

When done, we walked to the changing room and changed him. Poop #4 of the day. He wanted to see animals, so took him to a platform to put him in the backpack. As I was doing that he said “I’m a little sleepy”. We walked and saw the Barbary sheep (바바리양) and ostriches, and then made our way up to the camels. We’ve never gotten great views of the camels, but now they were out on the grass, up close. We saw both one-hump and two-hump camels. Watched them for a few minutes. He heard a bird noise and wanted to go investigate. It took us down to the Stork Village area. It was a black-crowned crane. He got down and we had a Larabar. He played around a bit and looked at the ducks. Oh, and as we looked at the birds he had slipped a shoe off, so had to put that back on before he walked around.

He wanted to go to the big water bird exhibit. We walked around it to the entrance, but there was a rope and sign saying it was closed. I translated it and it said it was to prevent avian flu. He went under the rope and played between the rope and the actual entrance. He kept wanting me to come with him. I think he was quite frustrated that we couldn’t go in. When I said he’d played there enough he got upset and tried crawling on the ground. Picked him up, and walked to a bench. Got him in the backpack and consoled him by saying we could go check on the Australian Pavilion. We walked towards it, and he was starting to doze off. He was awake enough though that when we walked by the kangaroos and they were hopping around he said “What’s that?” I don’t think he’s seen a kangaroo hop. I’ve caught them hopping a couple times for very brief moments. Maybe because it was cooler, they were more active, and we watched them for a few minutes.

Started walking again, and saw that the actual Australian Pavilion building was open. However, he was really falling asleep now, so I figured we’d go after his nap. But then he fell asleep. And kept sleeping and sleeping. From 2:10 to about 4:05 after I picked up the backpack and started walking towards the exit. No time for more animals. We did stop to watch the flamingoes for a minute as he woke up. One was doing what we called ‘flamingo yoga’, stretching its leg back.

A long journey home. He ate some apple in the station, then did art much of the way home, but also played the Simple Machines app for awhile. We caught an 1144 bus right away in Changdong, and got home right after 6. It is a two hour trip home. Carly asked if he had fun today, and he said “No…little fun.”

They nursed and hung out together, then he and I read a few stories in The Cat on the Mat is Flat and Would You Feed It to the Monkey? We had read a bit of the former before, but he seemed to get it more this time and found the first couple stories really funny.

I then remembered that we had talked about making banana bread. He had requested it for breakfast and I told him we could make it this evening. Carly had been nice enough to stop at the store on her way home and get bananas, strawberries, and bread for us. He helped me through the entire process. I grated carrots to put in this one, and he started eating the shredded carrots, almost as fast as I could grate. He was amazed to find that he liked carrots. Kept making ‘Mmm’ noises and saying “You like carrots now.” At one point he even talked about “Yesterday you did not like carrots.”

He had his spatula at the end, then Carly gave him a bath. Back out, he wanted more carrot. Started with giving him small chunks, and he ate those. Then Carly cut carrot rounds and he was liked those too. We told him it was another sign that he was becoming a big kid: liking crunchy foods. He said it looked like money: “Money…I’m eating the money…It’s carrot coins…It’s a D moon.”

He had told Carly he wanted the ‘notebook’ earlier. Now he asked me. Took us a minute to figure out that he meant the songbook on the iPad with all the musical notes in it. He was very excited when I figure it out. We did a little counting/singing of real songs, but mainly he pretended. First hew as asking if I knew a song, and when I said no he would then show me how the song went. But then he started making up songs with actual words. I first realized what he was doing when he sang the line “What is the painting about?” a few times. I started recording as he then listed things, like “Dinosaur…” After that song he would then look around the room and think about what to sing about. See the videos below.

It was now close to 10. He wanted some more carrot, then the banana bread beeped and it was done. So we ate a slice of that. August pounced on the crumbs when I took the bread out, and liked eating those. It turned out really well. I declared us the best father-son rice cooker banana bread team in the world.

In bed, as Carly held him, he extended his arm out, reaching towards the kitchen, and joked “I can’t reach it. It’s too far…the banana bread.” I left them at 10:10. He was back out at 10:35. He lay on the carpet then wanted to read and I refused. He started to get really sad, but I told him I could tell him stories. He lay on the pillows on the reading area and I told him three Puffin Rock stories that I made up. After each he asked for another one:

– Oona and Baba having to spend the night in May’s cave to weather a storm. They pretended to be rabbits.

– Oona catching fish for her family for lunch. Attacked by seagulls, she flies into a cave that turns out to be a hedgehog burrow. The hedgehogs defend her by rolling into balls and blocking the cave.

– he wanted another story about storms. So there was a big storm that flooded the rabbit, hedgehog, and shrew burrows. They all gather at the top of the hill until Momma and Dadda Puffin rescue them, flying them back to the puffin burrows one by one.

He went back in at 10:50 and fell asleep.

 

Smokey on the train: 

Disobeying the sign: 

Asleep: 

Can you spot our Christmas lights? 

Toilet: 

Banana bread: 

He was up just before 8. They nursed, then he typed, then we watched Puffin Rock together. Carly made the pancakes for breakfast, and August ate a ton of them. They skyped with Vivian, and August and Vivian sent a little math back and forth, then with Cherie. Carly then hung up the second string of lights. I took a shower, and came out to find August getting upset that he couldn’t climb up on the chair like mama. A couple times during the morning, if he saw me typing on my iPad he would want to come over and type. Did that, then he played with the SoundPrism and Noise music apps. Carly got out the vacuum cleaner, and he spent a long time helping to vacuum.

He asked Carly about the season, and she said ‘late autumn’. He then asked “What if it is morning autumn?” Don’t think that one was an intentional joke, but very cute. He was playing with Smokey, and once again asked what the belt was for. He answered his own question: “His pants fall down like this.” and pulled down his own pants. He threw Smokey around, and at some point we read the Smokey Bear book. He then painted with Carly, and played a little Musyc before taking a nap.

He slept from 1:30 to 2:15ish. He came out and fell back asleep on Carly until about 3:30. He was hungry, and wanted alphabet pasta. He wanted to try it raw, and ate a little handful of it that way before the pasta was cooked. He and I wrote words and musical notes on paper. He was still hungry, so ate some apple. He really rejects the skin nowadays. He wanted melogold, so I peeled one, but then he changed his mind.

Carly was organizing in her closet, and he went in and helped. He kept moving clothes around and saying he was organizing or going to clean them: “I’m very helpful.” “You can have your pajamas in a second but I’m gonna wash it first.” He also kept saying he was going to find things that mama lost. He would look through his drawer of random things in the kitchen and take something to her.

We got ready to go outside and play. Derek was still sick, and they had asked if Jill could bring the two kids over and hang out with us. So we were going outside to play for awhile before they got here.

He peed on the big toilet in Carly’s bathroom. Yesterday he had gone on the one in my bathroom. And he has a new fake word: twuxchwenicalll. For this one he said it has 3 Ls. Finally, before we left I asked what he wanted to do. He said ‘Dragon Park’ and when I asked where it was, he once again said it was by mama’s work. In the spring we’ll have to double back to all the playgrounds by her work and see if one is the dragon playground.

At the park there was a food-related thing going on. Carly went to get a tea from the vending machine. August want around to the left and saw a mouse in the bush. Carly then saw it. He helped Carly get her tea. He then wanted the coins that came out as change: “I need the coins…I want a drink.” Carly said he could get a job and get his own coins, and he liked that idea: “I want to go to work…NOW! Fine.” Of course, this meant he also wanted to go play in Carly’s classroom now. This came up a couple times during the weekend, and I assured him we would go visit again soon.

There was a booth selling food: a rice thing, and a cabbage and meat thing. August wanted some, so we bought it, letting him pay. We went by the playground and ate it. He liked the rice, and said he liked the seaweed in it. He liked the sweet potato from the other dish, but got a couple of bites that were too spicy for him.

We played the nervous game, then he played on the play structure. He did the tube slide several times. He figured out how to get on it on his own, and was sliding himself down. A few times I let him do the last several feet all on his own. He was done with that and playing in the dinosaur footprints when Jill showed up. Logan brought a ball and was throwing it around, then when the swings opened up went on them. August wanted his gloves on, so we put them on, then he went on the swing by himself. Carly pushed him a little. He really hasn’t been interested in swings the last few months. He wanted to go up to the sky, he said, so he sat on Carly’s lap and they did more swinging.

We headed inside. Inside, everyone played in the parlor at first, with blocks and the train and Duplos. Then out to the living room for play dough. August used the play dough knife to cut up the yellow, and said he was making bones. Carly asked how he knew about bones, and I started listing all the ways bones have come up: skeletons at the zoo and aquarium, my arm, playing vet with the animals, all of his ‘What happens if you break…? questions, feeling his own bones, the anatomy app… I didn’t realize there were so many ways. Carly asked what kind of bones they were, and he said ‘jellyfish’. Which is funny, and wrong, but also made sense, since we have talked about jellyfish in regards to bones, only saying they DON’T have bones.

Finally, the last big activity was bubbles in the sink in the bathroom. Logan went in and the two of them played in the sink for 15 minutes or so, spraying bubbles, scooping them up, etc. Previously, August had been careful about not touching them. Logan, however, dives right in to things. August saw this and started dipping his hands and arms in. Of course, August doesn’t like to roll up his sleeves, so they were quickly soaked, and we took off his shirt.

They had eaten the last of the pancakes and strawberries and some other fruit as a snack. It was now time to go, and August wanted to walk out with them. So I carried him down to the elevators and we said goodbye as they got in.

Back in the apartment, he ate some letter pasta for dinner, and shared some soup with me while Carly took a shower. I gave him a bath, washing his hair. He wasn’t thrilled by it, so it was a short bath. We did some typing and then Musyc on my iPad. I had photographed Everyone Poops the last time we were in Uijeongbu, and today I had turned it into a pdf document (it isn’t available to buy digitally). We had read it sometime earlier, and now we read it again. And again. And again. And then he wanted to go on the big toilet again. And he pooped.

We then went into bed for the first time. He was looking tired. We read Goodnight Gorilla. Then he went back in and pooped on the toilet again. A few minutes later he was peeing on the toilet. He was very excited by this development, and his ability to climb up by himself, as Carly had put the stool there and he was now practicing. He kept talking about being a big kid: “What you big kid now about?” He sat on the toilet by himself about a dozen times. He had also requested footsie pajamas. He let Carly put them on all the way before he changed his mind and wanted them off. Out of no where he asked “What APIS stand for?…Where mama works.” He was seeming pretty hyper, but it was already 9:30, so Carly tried for sleep. Awhile later he was insisting on a banana, so Carly had me bring one in and eat it in there. She was keeping him in the room. I sang to him for a bit. She tried again, and I went and got ready for bed. It was 10:30. He was still upset and claiming he wasn’t sleepy. He got up and insisted “Want to fall asleep on the carpet…dada come.” I let him get out the door. As he got to the parlor he celebrated “I was sneaking! Ha ha ha!” After three big laughs – I hadn’t touched him or said anything – he instantly turned to sobbing and he headed back to bed. He climbed up with Carly to nurse and finally fell asleep a few minutes later at 10:45.

 

Photos. Painting: 

Park: 

Playing inside: 

At about 5:30 I awoke to a popping in my neck. And pain. A lot of pain. I’ve had back spasms before, but not one like this for a long time. I was up an hour before I got back to sleep. August was up at 8. I woke up a couple more times after getting back to sleep, but when I woke up close to 9 my neck was much better. Good news, as when it happened I didn’t know if I’d make it to the party. While I was still asleep, August had heard the refrigerator turn on and said to Carly “That’s the refrigerator noise.” And Carly gave him his vitamins. She gave him 6, but he miscounted them as 7 and claimed they were 7. I’m pretty sure he knew he was counting wrong, as that is what he does with me all the time. It started with him wanting me to make a mistake in my counting, so we could say ‘oops’. I asked him how many vitamins mama gave him, and he said 7, then counted to 7 on his fingers. I wasn’t surprised that he could count to 7, or that he used his fingers, but I can’t say I’ve actually seen him use two hands and hold up the fingers to get beyond 5. Huh.

We hurried, doing recycling and getting ready to go, and left a little before 10. We got to Tayo at 10:20 or so. Jill was there with her kids. August first played with the wooden beads. He tried throwing beads at two kids, and we had him say sorry. He asked what ‘sorry’ was in Korean, and Carly didn’t know. So he turned to me and said “hey dada. Teach mama.” It was funny though, because the last time he played with kids he didn’t know was on Thursday for his class, and half of class involved throwing styrofoam balls (snowballs) at each other. So it totally made sense that he would throw the light beads as well.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun the next two hours. Carly and I sort of took turns with him, got coffee drinks, and visited with the other parents (I mainly talked to Sophie, Cora’s mom). August loved all the fried foods: potato balls, wedge fries, and chicken nuggets, mainly. It was either while eating those, or the cupcake later, that he said “This is so yummy.” He also spent time climbing in the structure (once with Carly, once with me), bouncing on one of the trampolines (he and I both pretending to fall down and get hurt), playing with the keyboard baby toy, playing with the bus toys, and coloring on paper. And he was back to those beads multiple times. Oh, and we filled a basket of balls in the ball pit, but never took them up to the cannons.

When it came time for the singing and cupcakes, he was standing next to me. When Jill took out a lighter to light the candles though, he backed away and went and watched from the doorway. I think with all of his questioning about fire extinguishers and Smokey and types of fires that he is kind of nervous of fire now – kind of like the signs on the escalators and subway doors and notices about the gaps as you step off the subways.

He came back in the room when singing was over and the candles were out and there were cupcakes to eat. Not wanting to get messy, he set the cupcake on the table and bent down to bite it with his mouth. He really liked that cupcake (and ate half of mine), and when I asked later what his favorite part was he said “Eating the cupcake.”

As we were thinking about going, he said he was ready to leave, but then said “Im going to do something real quick.” We left just after 1, and thought he might fall asleep on the walk home. He was having too much fun though. Singing at first, but then as we walked along the stream he looked over at it and started doing his erasing motion. I asked what he was erasing and he said “Everything…what happens if you erase everything?” That was quite a philosophical question. After that, we were joking about just erasing the water and how the ducks would be taking a bath and floating in dirt. We stopped to watch ducks float and swim a couple times. He was starting to doze off, it seemed, a bit as we got close to home, but he made it.

He got Smokey out and played with him, joking that Smokey was playing in the cords. I reminded him of going to sleep the night before and he said “You said you wanted to sleep on the carpet.”

He fell asleep from 2:15 or so to 3:38. Walked out and saw me and said “No” and threw his arms out in front of Jim and crouched on the ground. Got back up and walked to Carly and whispered “Come”. Took her to the parlor and he closed the door.

Carly talked about making the pancakes again. He wanted to do it right now. He walked to the corner and said to her “You stay right there. I’m going to get the stool.” He and I ended up writing music notes on paper. He talked about wanting to go to Carly’s classroom again, and got upset when we said we couldn’t go today. He wanted to type on the big screen again. Carly made him alphabet pasta and broccoli and cheese. August said, excitedly, I should add, “Tastes like pufferfish!” He had some snot and said “Oh no. It’s slimy.” He then laid on the floor and Carly asked why. He said he was doing it to make him hungrier.

We all went to the pink building to do grocery shopping. He helped a bit, but was also in a mischievous mood. I wouldn’t let him get a slurpy thing, so he had fun instead by taking one and putting it in the wrong refrigerated box section. He did this twice and said “I messed up two things.” I snuck them back. He was looking at the meat, which is in plastic, but then talking about touching the fishy stuff, which isn’t. He made his way back over there a second time, and I was trying to make him just look. He twisted around and his coat slightly grazed the tail of an eel. I told him this and he took it as a victory: “I touched the fish. I smell like fish now.” He would keep talking about smelling like fish through the evening. I told him he had to be careful, as the puffins and seagulls would think he was a fish. I would then have them chomp on him.

Before heading to the pink building, he and I had been talking about peeing on the toilet, and I had mentioned that he could start trying it when we are out about places – a lot of places have little toilets for kids. He liked this idea, and we were going to try at the pink building. After we got back though, I mentioned we’d forgot to do it, and he got sad.

A little later we ate our fruit: we had gotten a little pineapple, and a thing of strawberries. I cut up the pineapple, and at one point he decided to pick up the fork and use it to feed both me and him pineapple.

Carly made the batter for the pancakes, and he helped. He then came over to me and took over typing on my iPad. We were typing words, and it reminded me that earlier he had said to Carly that “Sky is a ‘k’ word.” Meaning it had a k in it. Then while playing in Pages he figured out how to put charts in a document, and was excited about that.

Carly had cooked some pancakes, and he wanted some more. He asked what it sizzled in the pan, then wanted to write ‘sizzle’ on paper. But he insisted it only had one ‘z’: “You said just one Z. Dada did it wrong. You should try it again.” We moved from that to writing musical notes.

He then asked me to read Snoozers. I got it and sat on the couch to read. He stood a few feet away. But when I got close to the part where the elephant goes SNORE he backed away several more feet.

I got his bath ready, and he got in. “I smell like fish.” He sat down, and made waves to get my had wet. He then gently washed the back of my hand. He got the letters out, and we made sculptures of them. We were then talking about smells, and smells we like. He said he likes fish and seeds. I mentioned lavender and he said “I like snap flowers…and dandelions.” The ‘snap flowers’, I believe, go back to my dad showing him snapdragons in Wenatchee by the river. And he seemed to Remember shooting dandelions with the spray bottle at Children’s Grand Park last spring.

They went in to bed at 9:30. He came back out several minutes later. He said he wanted a banana, but went straight to playing and asked me
to join. So Carly took him back in. But he was out again a few minutes later. He ate a banana (all but a bite) and we read the monkey book and Peppa Swims. Back in again right after 10. After awhile though he had some crying time. I went in, and did some singing. But after a couple minutes he told me to stop and wanted to go out. It was now 10:30. We went out to the reading area and he lay on the floor for a few minutes, just making tired noises. He said he wanted to sleep on the carpet again. After awhile he got up and wanted me to read. I read Mother Goose, and he made some little towers out of Duplos. He then came and cuddle with me and we read much of a Pooh story. He was really rubbing his eyes now. He asked for soy milk and I said no and kept reading. A couple minutes later, at 11:20, he silently got up and walked to the bedroom and got up with Carly and went to sleep.

 

Morning: 

Tayo Cafe: 

Watching the candles from the doorway: 

Smokey: 

Helping make pancakes: 

Letter sculpture: 

Dream Forest, delivering groceries, visiting Carly, and putting him to (almost) sleep

Carly had the middle school lock-in until 9pm tonight, so she wasn’t going to be home until late.

August was up at 6:52. I heard him laughing a lot and maybe talking in his sleep before he came out. He looked around a bit but didn’t say anything. I asked if he wanted alone time and he said yes. But he stood in the hallway for a bit then came and sat on the floor by my feet by the couch. A little later he took over typing on my iPad. I typed some sentences to him and then he started changing font colors, spacing etc. He played at that for several minutes, humming to himself.

We then watched some Puffin Rock and had the last of the banana bread for breakfast. I then got the train set out from under the bed and we had fun putting it together and playing with the train for a bit. We then went in and were writing musical notes on paper. We listened to Basho and Friends through the morning. He was joking around, chomping things and me, then playing with the Duplo alligator. He wanted the zookeeper to take care of the alligator, and the zookeeper fixed a broken tooth and told the alligator it could only chomp on soft things. So August went around finding all the soft things that the alligator could chomp on. We then went back to paper and were writing ñ words and musical notes. He drew a bit on the floor, and said “look what I did.” “Was it an accident?” “No, it was on purpose.”

We were in the bathroom and he wanted to make bubbles in the sink. We did that for quite awhile and had a nice sink full of bubbles. He used the spray bottle on the bubbles and we found we could spray tunnels in the bubbles. We said the bubbles were coral and the tunnels had eels and fish in them. He found a hair in the bubbles and took it out and dropped it on the floor, saying “You go down there.”

He played more Musyc, and discovered on his own that you can attach shapes to other shapes. I took a shower, then we cuddled in the nest together and watched Puffin Rock. We then got ready to go, and he was saying “No one messes with my brother.” A line from Puffin Rock. He was also rocking on the board from the top of the piano. He calls it his skateboard. He used my toothbrush to carefully brush my teeth. Finally, he saw me taking my vitamins and wanted to make shapes from them: something we haven’t done in a long, long time. So I agreed and we spent a few minutes doing that, making a nonagon and others.

We got going around 11. He was singing as we walked south to catch the 100 or 111. He was using clicks of his tongue as notes sometimes. On the bus, as we went through the short tunnel he chanted “tunnel, tunnel…”

At Dream Forest we walked up to GS25 and got some triangle kimbap, a thing of peaches, and a blueberry yogurt. He wanted to sit at the tables outside, in the shade, so we did that and ate for a few minutes. But he was getting cold, so wanted to go inside. We went in and sat on a bench on the second floor and ate some more. He was joking around and started chomping me, but chomped through my jeans and got skin. It hurt and I had to push him away to stop him from doing more. He got sad at this, and sat on the ground and put his head against my leg. I explained what he did, and he said sorry. He rebounded, and got Smokey out of the backpack and was throwing him around. We went up and changed him, then on the way out I stopped in the bathroom to blow my nose. I heard him say “Dada’s snot is glorious.” So funny. I didn’t understand where that came from, then a bit later he said “Bernie’s shell is glorious.” That’s the hermit crab on Puffin Rock and it is a line from the show.

As we had been sitting inside eating lunch, I looked at my phone to find a message from Derek, saying he had food poisoning and was wondering if I could pick up some groceries for him. At the same time I saw an email from Carly saying we could come visit her before the lock-in from 3:30 to 4:30 now – we had planned on 4:30 or 5. So our plans dramatically changed. No nap at Cafe Dream, or going to the children’s art museum show. We headed out the north entrance of the park and walked to the stream. As we waited to cross at the light, two women were next to us. The older woman was blind, and fawned over August, touch his arm and pulling his coat over his hand. We crossed the stream and paused to look at the deer mosaic. As we got close to APIS, there are pictures of animals on the wall, and August was naming them off. A penguin was missing its back half, and August called it an ‘alien bird’. He saw a monkey one and said “maybe a wangsimni.”

We went to the grocery store across from GS25. I made him stay in while I got most of the groceries. He then wanted out to look at the meat. He was doing a good job of not touching it too much, but didn’t like my hovering. He grabbed my finger and moved me several feet away and said “I moved him away. You stay.” I was a little incredulous that he referred to me in the third person. Played there a bit more, then he got two samples of mandu. I mentioned paying for the groceries, and he asked what would happen if we didn’t pay. I mentioned the police coming, and he kept asking about that: “Why the police would come?” We paid and went across the street to the park. On the way over he saw phone booths and pointed at the buttons and said “I want to mess with those.” In the park he said “This is my playground.” I went to put him in the backpack and he said “My poop is stuck.” I’d forgotten he had pooped at the grocery store. I decided to just carry him until we got to Derek’s house and change him there, so I put the groceries in the backpack. We hopped the bus, got of at Wolgye Station, and went to their house.

Dropped off the groceries and changed August. We washed our hands in the sink. August wanted to fill it with bubbles. I made the mistake of giving him a choice between bubbles or going to visit mama. He chose bubbles. Thought it would be the other. Got him out of the bathroom though, but then he wanted to play with the other toys. When we first went in, August asked why it was so quiet in there – he’s never been there without Logan and Rosie there. Derek held him upside down for a bit, then we headed out. Derek also gave him a pack of gummi bears. I’d let August get a apple juice at the store, so he drank that on the way to the bus; saved the gummi bears for some other time.

Took the bus back to APIS and went to Carly’s room. He was just starting to fall asleep as we got up to it. August sat in the back pack for a few minutes, looking around the room. Carly helped him read “The power” and “in defiance of” in the Howard Zinn quote she has on her windows. He got out, and they spent some time writing and drawing together. He made a shape, and Carly turned it into a duck. He was impressed with this, and kept asking “What you draw a duck about?” A bit later, he surprised us by suddenly drawing figure 8s – something I haven’t seen him practice and I haven’t really shown him. A student, Louisa, came in and he said “I like that student.” He then asked what her name starts with: “What that start with?” He saw two more students and said hi to them. He was typing on her computer, and excited that it showed up on the big screen. He did his game of typing a word and then having you come and read it. He directed Carly to stand on one of the mats, then ordered her to stay there when she sort of stepped off. Finally, he was asking why her computer and a different key on the keyboard, and I said there were Apple computers and Windows computers, and this was a Windows computer. He said “Apple computer. Like mama and dada.” “And Derek! Derek!” He had wanted to type on Derek’s computer when we were there, and must have realized it looked like our computers. Oh, and Carly sighed and then called herself a professional sigher. He said “You cannot sigh…I’m a professional sigher too.”

We left
a little after 5. Took the bus home – a bit of a struggle, as he kept wanting to stand on the seat. We made it to Brownstone about 5:45, and stopped at the guard station to get our iHerb order box. This was August’s most difficult 3 minutes of the day. The security guard opened the door and bonked August in the head. August didn’t get upset right away, but was kind of rubbing his head and dazed as we walked to the elevators. At Mama Juice he stopped and started pointing in and saying “I’m gonna do this.” But when I said we weren’t getting Mama Juice today, he wanted me to pick him up, which I couldn’t, because of the box. So he was sort of hugging my legs as I scooted to the elevators. Got in the elevator room, and in the process of pushing the elevator buttons, he then hit his head on the back of the backpack. Upset, he ran around my right side, and right into the corner of the box I was carrying. Three bumps to the head in as many minutes.

When we got to the apartment he remembered that mama wasn’t home, and wanted to sit in the hall. He was doing that for a couple minutes with the door propped open. He then came in. He looked out the window and asked what season it is. The answer nowadays is “late autumn”. He then made up his first little poem:

“I was sitting on my bottom

I went to autumn”

Very Winnie the Pooh like. He was looking tired, so when he asked for Puffin Rock we went and cuddled together and watched for awhile. Then got his bath ready and gave him a short bath. We were listening to Hozier for the first time in quite awhile. After getting out of the bath he spent a long time playing with bubbles in the sink again. He was complaining about his lower back hurting/itching in the bath and it was quite dry, so I suggested lotion. We got the lotion, and he put some on himself, but mainly on my arms. I got it on his dry area, but he said it made it itch. After that, he wanted a nest in the reading area, and we put his pajamas on. We then went in to the bed and read Mr. Gumpy. He pooped, again, for the fourth time today. Back to the reading area, and we read the Nursery Rhymes book. He ran out of the room, saying he was getting another book. It was Biscuit Wins a Prize, and he took it in to the bed.

So we read that in bed, but then he said he was hungry. We had already finished the Tospia sandwiches that Carly had got soon after we got home. Now, he ate some of the crackers (we had to try the new ones from the iHerb order) and finished off the kimbap from lunch. He was obviously tired now, and ready for sleep.. Back to bed, he was chanting rhythms/notes and singing, but then got down and was lining up the books on the ground. Then was hungry again, and ate almost an entire banana.

In the reading area, he got out Opuestos. We read it once in there, then took it in on the bed and read it there. Through this time there would be stretches where we’d be quiet and try to get him to sleep. A couple times he talked about falling asleep on the carpet, and would lie on the carpet, generally on his stomach while I sang to him or was just silent. On the bed he was lying on his back and whisper sang the “Mama loves you so much” song. One more time out to the reading area to try to fall asleep. He made me sit on the reading area, while he lay on the floor for several minutes. Rolling around at first, then on his stomach, kicking the floor with his foot.

It was now around 9:30 and I knew Carly was on her way home. Back in to the bed. He lay on his stomach, facing my wall, and I sang the Big Numbers song. After a couple minutes he told me to stop singing and was quiet for a couple minutes. Then closed his eyes.

And then Carly got home at 9:42. He sat up. They nursed and he fell right to sleep. A few times I’d told him that mama would be home after he closed his eyes and fell asleep. So that pretty much worked. Also, the fact that he didn’t get upset through any of it was pretty impressive.

 

Children’s Grand Park: 

Walking: 

Grocery store: 

Carly’s classroom: 

Home: 

Photos: 

Vitamin shape: 

Sad after chomping me: 

The alien bird: 

Carly’s classroom. Hanging out in the backpack: 

Art: 

Typing: 

He commented on the moon, and I pointed out the planet. He had a lot of questions of why it was a planet: 

Home. Playing in the clean sheet: 

Watching Puffin Rock together: 

8:11. Laid on the floor for several minutes. Then I asked if he wanted banana bread. We went out to the kitchen, got banana bread, and ate it on the couch. I then asked if he wanted a banana. He did, and wanted to read the monkey book at the same time. We did that. He was then typing on a document when we got an email from Carly. She included a smiley face: :-). August then typed it on the keyboard. He was then typing rhythms out, and little words like ‘and’ and ‘is’. I then gave him ‘Zinn is’ and he wrote ‘cat’. I added the ‘a’ in. Then he wrote ‘Dada is a book’. Initially without the ‘a’ but he added himself, and a period. He then typed ‘Mama is a book’ on his own. We did some more typing and sentences, then he switched to the Smokey Bear story and we read most of that.

We then did some painting. He is really into wasting paint by mixing it straight into the water. Trying to let him do it for the experimenting. But then I was painting a tree and flowers, and he started to paint over it with brown, and didn’t stop when I asked him to. Lesson time. So I said I was sad and went to the reading area. He came in. At first he just wanted me to go back and paint, but then he was cuddling with me. A good discussion. At first when I was asking him to say sorry he would just say “I’ll just hide.” and hide his head or go behind a pillow. But then he was saying things like “I don’t understand.” and “What guilty mean?” I explained multiple ways, including talking about how he would feel if Logan or me knocked down a tower he had just built. Eventually he said “Sorry dada”.

He turned that into a game as we then made towers and knocked them down and acted it out. We then just made a big tower together before he wanted the zookeeper and girl to take care of animals. Did a few of those, then he said “I want jump rope song.” I put those on, and he jumped around to them. He then wanted his iPad to play Musyc – I think the rhythm reminded him of it.

Brushed his teeth, changed him, etc. Back on my iPad, we play with a music app called SoundPrism, then he found a story app called  Tap Story. We read the Ten Birds story and he surprised me with some of the words he could read. He then played around with that while I got ready to go.

Had intended to leave early enough to get lunch before his class as he is now in the later class, with older kids, and it starts at 12:40. However, we only made it out the door early enough to be a few minutes early to class. Walking over, he was singing ABC songs. He was really playing with the rhythms, and at one point singing “A and uh, B and uh, C and uh” in a triplets pattern like he’s learned as I’ve taught him musical notes. As we got to the other side of the park, he spotted a stroller with a cover on it and he said “They have a cover!” Then the wind really picked up and blew really hard for 20 seconds or so as we hurried to Home Plus.

As we got to class a few minutes early, I suggested he could go in and say a few things to the teacher: “Hi, teacher”, etc. August said  “I don’t want to say any of those words.” There was at least one kid there that we sort of know from his last class – the boy that often sat next to us and his mom. August was having fun from the start, popping bubbles and hopping around and spinning in circles on the floor. But when I asked about a forward roll, he said “I’m not gonna do a forward roll…I’m gonna skip it.” Class was about snow and ice. They had a big snowball fight to begin with styrofoam balls. August mainly liked rolling them on the ground, but the teacher came over and threw them at August a couple times and August liked that. He really liked the game where we used foam pick axes to get cubes of ice and put them in a 3 by 3 grid. After that, the teacher wore the polar bear hat and mittens and growled at August a couple times. August did a lot of squealing, said “No, no” and hid behind me. The polar bear paws had velcro on them and you could pick up fish, walk across a walkway, and put them in a bear’s mouth. August did this a bit, but didn’t liked the crowd at the bear’s mouth, so walked around to the back and pushed his through the other way. Creative thinking.

After class, we headed downstairs. August once again was pulling me away from the edge of the moving walkways. He knows all the rules, thanks to all the signs, and knows you’re not supposed to step on the part painted yellow. Mind you, I was still several inches away from the yellow, but too close for his taste, so he reaches over and pulls my pant leg at the knee to make me scoot to the middle. This is the second time at least that he’s done it.

Downstairs, I had thought to get kimbap, but wasn’t sure where we would eat. Had thought park, but was afraid it would be too windy. Problem solved when August wanted to go in the food court. We looked at the options for a couple minutes, but then he was certain he wanted the salad dongatsu. It is basically dongatsu, a cup of fruit salad, an omelette with rice, peas, and carrots and ham in it, and a few french fries. Oh, and the little salad with the sweet cream dressing. August liked it all – including the first 3 bites of salad he has ever eaten.

As we left and exited the front doors of Home Plus, he saw the weather stripping curling off the bottom of the moving doors and said, dramatically, “Oh dada. Look at those doors.”

As we got to our side of the park, we saw the police horses being taken out of a trailer. We watched as they saddled two large horses and two small horses. He wondered what they were doing and asked “What they working so much on the horses about?” I told him they need to make sure the saddles are on properly, etc. You don’t want someone falling off. Then I mentioned that Gramma had once fallen off a horse. He really picked up on that, and kept asking about it. I said we could Skype them tomorrow, and he wanted to right away. I realized they would still be up when we got home and told him we could Skype soon. As we followed the horses to the playground, he said “I want a video of it…gramma falling off a horse.”

There was one other girl there, and she got to ride one of the small horses. They said August could ride the other one, but August said no. We petted the horse though, and August had a lot of questions about its eyes and fur and head. They then walked the horses around the park, and August wanted to play the Nervous Game. We did that. I was positive they told the mom of the other girl that they were going to walk around and come back to the playground. I was hoping August could get another chance to get on the horse – it was only an offer the first seconds we got to the horses, and he wasn’t comfortable with them yet. But unfortunately they walked the horses around the park once and then straight to the trailers. By the time we got over there they were already taking saddles off.

So we headed home and skyped with my parents. August remembered why he wanted to talk to gramma and asked her to tell the falling off the horse story. So she did. While skyping, I mentioned going to Mama Juice when we left, and asked what kind he wanted today. He said “I don’t know. Let’s look at the menu outside.” When it came time to say goodbye, August sang them a song first.

Between hanging up and leaving, he randomly said both “What’s wrong with my finger?” and “Hey dada, do ballet.” We took a few minutes to hang up one string of Christmas lights. When he saw them on, he kept saying, dramatically, “Oh my goodness.” But then he struggled to understand WHY we put them up. He kept asking “Why the lights hanging up dada?” One time I explained (for funsies, I think I said) and asked if that made sense. He said “No. I want a better reason.”

We got going, and stopped at Mama Juice. He looked at the menu for a minute and decided on blueberry. I tried to sell him on blueberry and banana, but he insisted on just blueberry.

We wer
e heading up to the Nowon Health Center to meet Carly so she and I could get Typhoid shots. When explaining this to August, I told him he didn’t need one because he already had it. He was really trying to understand this too, so kept asking me why he already had it.

I wanted to take the bus home, so that meant no stroller. But that meant it was difficult to share the Mama Juice with him. So I carried him all the way to Sarang Children’s Park (the one with the fountain and where August first got fascinated by a map). As we walked, I would hold him in my right, and the juice in the left, but occasionally I would use my left arm to help hold him, which meant the juice was behind him. He would twist back and forth (not helping) saying “Where the blueberry go?”

At the park we stopped for a few minutes for a break and to finish off the juice. He said he was cold I told him we had more pants and a sweatshirt. He replied “Oh no. Thank you though.” He was then counting and stomping on the platform, and said he wanted to look for beads. Told him we didn’t have time for that, got him in the backpack, and headed out.

Got the the health center a few minutes before Carly. August had been asking a lot of ‘what if’ questions today (like “What happens if you fall off the horse?” And “What happens if we not meet mama?”). When I told him we had to wait a few minutes, he said “I don’t want to wait…What happen if we not wait?” The process was pretty quick. August watched us get our shots. We then headed across the street and caught the 15 bus home.

August hadn’t had a nap and had done marvelously all day. But this was the breaking point. He wanted to sit with Carly, but the bus started moving, and two people got up to get off at the next stop and stood between me holding August and the empty seat next to Carly. He couldn’t handle that. Got him to Carly and she had to coax him the rest of the way.

Made it though and he calmed down. Carly was running around getting some stuff ready before sitting down to nurse, and August joked “We lost my nursing; Where’d it go?” We ate burritos for dinner, then Carly gave him a bath and I did the dishes. His bath went well enough until the end when he was rather distressed. He then insisted on hiding his pajamas. We were then playing with Duplos. He was making towers and having me destroy them. He was acting out the being sad/ apologizing scenario from earlier in the day. But he was really being dramatic about it. After I broke a tower he would make a sad noise and say “I’ll just sleep…I’ll just build another tower on my own.” He was ready for sleep pretty soon after that and was asleep at 7:50.

 

On our way: 

Class: 

On the way to the health center:

Photos: 

Class: 

Sneaking around to the back: 

Lunch: 

Horses: 

Walking in the park: 

Mama Juice: 

Counting on the platform: 

Health center. Looking at boxes: 

Watching me get my shot: 

He came out at 7:23. Stood near the entrance to the parlor. I asked if he wanted alone time, or to cuddle with me. He waved me into the parlor and we cuddled in the nest for several minutes with him in my right arm. Then we read the Mother Goose books. He liked the back of the book and asked what it was. I told him it was a list of the artists and which poem they illustrated. He picked up the book and said “I want to do the artists on paper.” What that meant was we went in and he copied words onto paper using a marker. He started with ‘Mix’. He had been intrigued that the ‘M’ was a lot bigger in the book. He then copied ‘feet’ and ‘I’m’. And wrote ‘book’ on his own. He kept writing ‘I’m’ so I said he could write his first sentence. I asked what he was, and he wrote ‘I’m sad’. A sad first sentence!” He then wrote ‘no’ a few times. Then he and I both wrote ‘owl’. He then drew a line connecting them. “You attached them…so they can hang on ropes together.”

While we were playing on the floor he suddenly got up and said “I’m going to do sugar in it…the tea!” He then actually walked over and wanted to carry the sugar over to me. “I’m going to do too much sugar in it. What happens if you do too much sugar in it?” It was actually my coffee he was referring to, but I said I could make tea and he could put the sugar in that. He was then watching as I heated the water and he asked, referring to the flame, “What happens if you touch the periwinkle?…you go to the hospital.”

We did banana bread and strawberries for breakfast, watched Puffin Rock, played Musyc, and I took a shower in there as well.

We got ready – a more streamlined process than yesterday, and he said he wanted to to go to Children’s Grand Park – but then I couldn’t find the cap for the brown marker. We ended up doing a lot of straightening and putting away, and cleaning under the couch. I got his flashlight out to look under it, and when he saw it he got a worried sort of look on his face. I think he considers it HIS flashlight and didn’t like seeing me use it. He said “Don’t use the flashlight. I’m gonna take it. I’m using it.” I made him ask politely before I actually gave it to him, and that was a bit of a struggle for him. So he helped look behind and under the couch: “I found two socks though…I found the puffy letter stickers we lost.”

We found it, then needed to change him. He was playing on the changing pad, using it as a gap: “I try to not step in the gap…I’m stuck in the gap…it wasn’t a big deal.” I then tied to put the green striped shirt on him, and he rejected that. So we went back in and I started to choose another shirt: “I want a soft one.” So I gave him some options, and he chose the same shirt we had started with, the green stripes, because he said it was soft.

And he’s still asking his ‘What happens if you break…’ questions. Today one was “What happens if you break your palm?” Yesterday was penis.

We headed to Children’s Grand Park at 10:30 or so. Got some kimbap, which was good. I’d brought plenty of food, I thought. But he kept eating and we were pretty out by the time we got home. He first wanted sidewalk chalk. So we wend and did that for awhile. His style was different today, as he spent the first few minutes writing one long line on the ground, which he hasn’t done before. After that he sort of just played around for awhile. Wanted to wash his hands, but the water is now off. And he made a couple jokes. He said “I want to eat dada.” Which I thought meant he wanted lunch, but then he pretended to bite my leg. And while looking at the hopscotch outline, he asked “What it not called walkscotch about?”

He then wanted to go up on the play structure, and wanted to go out on the rope floor area. We had done it once, then after that he was frightened of it. Haven’t really been by it in many months. We ended up taking the backpack up their to eat lunch. He climbed out on it, and was climbing on my legs. Randomly, he said “I want to sound like dada.” and repeated it a few times. He then was pretending to be a spider – and said he sounded like a spider. While being a spider he then oinked. I said he was a spider pig. He replied “A spider pig? I haven’t seen that.” Eventually we were done and wanted to head to the children’s museum. But by recycling we played on a hopscotch outline. He was telling me what number to jump on and I would jump on it. I did the same with him, but he often made up his own mind.

At the children’s museum he handed over the tickets and walked into the chaos of the first floor. He looked around a bit. I asked him where he wanted to go and he decided on book room. But on the way up he saw the signs for the space area and wanted to go there. We played there for 15 minutes or so. He mainly did the running game, where you see how fast you can run.

We then went to the book room. He got one of the bead puzzles and we took it up to the loft area to play. We played with it a bit, then realized it had a wrong piece in it. I went down and got another one and we straightened them out. Needed to change him, and getting towards nap time, so we did that. He was silly on the changing pad. He was asking what a sign said, but when I tried translating it for him his head was in the way and I told him. He responded by putting his cheek on the sign so I really couldn’t see it. Then, he took a sock of while I changed him and was playing with it – rubbing it across his eyes, etc. and hiding from me. When done, he crawled under the changing table and pretended to sleep.

We went back in the book room and read Oh No! a few times, then I Taste. He was playing around, so I went around and recovered all their English books from around the room. They’ve been in disarray since the summer.

We got going and walked for a half hour. He was quiet for a long time, but no nap. He said he was hungry, so I walked down by the rectangle pond. Ate the rest of our food. We ate a mandarin and he asked again what the white part was called. I told him ‘pith’ and he said I was pronouncing it wrong. “No. P H. P I P H.” Second time he’s argued a TH word is PH. Although I don’t remember what the first one was. It would be convenient for him, since ‘th’ is his most difficult sound.

He walked over and was looking in the now empty pond and started dancing to the music on the PA. He then stepped up on the edge of the pond and I told him that would make mama (and me) nervous. We played a few minutes more, then changed him in the bathroom. He didn’t want to go, but remembered the flushing in this bathroom was quiet. He still held his hands up in front of his eyes a bit, but was fine. There’s also classical music playing in this bathroom, and there was flute music we listened to. Back outside, I remembered the Ants Go Marching book. We found that, and read/sang it together. I also found The Hungry Little Catepillar in Korean and looked at that. Was surprised to find that it starts and ends with the sun talking, which the English version does not. Huh.

No nap, but we had filled our day and he was ready to head home. It was after 3:30. A little earlier than usual, but we needed to go register him for his new Teuni Teuni class. We headed out to head home. As I was carrying him, he almost knocked my glasses off. I said ‘careful’ or something like that. He said “Don’t say ‘careful’…say ‘okie dokie’.” I asserted that I had the parental right to tell him to be careful. He was doing a lot of the walking, so it was a slow trip to the subway as he kept stopping to look at signs and things on the ground.

A few times he had started to chew on his coat sleeve. Which I told him not to do, as I didn’t want holes in his brand new coat. On the train we got a seat and I got him out of the backpack and he chewed on the strap to the backpack instead. He said “It’s nectar…bee nectar.” He has been pretending to be a bee a lot (mainly to wake us
up when he has us pretend sleep). Not sure if that came from Puffin Rock, the bee video he’s watched with Vivian, Winn-the-Pooh, or me just talking about flowers. Or a combination.

Anyway, he did Sketchbook and Art Maker on the subway down and back up today.

We walked to Home Plus and I got two registration forms so he had one to write on. At first it worked to share a pen. I’d translate something, write the answer, then hand it back to him. But then he didn’t want to give up the pen. I went to get a second pen and came back to find that he scribbled on my form. He did really well though, considering he hadn’t had a nap. He scribbled in the class brochure, putting boxes around the classes. Went up to pay, it was right about 5, and I was holding him. He started to majorly yawn and rub his eyes. But when I was done he said he wanted to go to his class. I said class wasn’t until tomorrow, but he wanted to go look in his classroom. We went down and looked through the window and it was a ballet class for kids up to 5. We watched for a couple minutes. I asked a couple times if he wanted to go home to mama, but he wanted to keep watching. Eventually I made the decision to head home. I don’t know how much longer he would have watched. I told him we could watch videos of ballet at home, and he watched some with Carly later.

We were home before Carly. I started on cooking everything for burritos. She came home and they nursed. He had been playing Musyc and did more after they nursed. He excitedly got me from the kitchen to show me that he can now attach the objects to the walls. He has always had me do that in the tutorial, as it is slightly tricky, but he’s literally been practicing the maneuver with his fingers. He has it figured out, and he would attach one and get really excited, then do another.

I finished the burritos. He ate some of the seasoned tofu. He randomly said “Hey dada. Do a slant rhyme.” And a bit later said “I had a fun day.” Earlier he wasn’t answering my questions, as usual, about what we did today, or if he had fun. Carly gave him a bath. There was a lot of laughing again, and August was eager to get in at the beginning. He kept calling her ‘dada’, both before that and during the bath. He does that from time-to-time, but it was a lot today.

Carly took a shower and we were hiding August Jr.He grind his teeth a couple times, something he started, I think, just yesterday, and which I told him is very, very bad for his teeth. Mainly because I can’t stand the sound. I suddenly understand how people that don’t like chalkboard sounds (remember those?) feel like. That’s never bothered me, really, but this does.

He was being a bee to wake me up and then we played in the nest, hiding the zoo keeper. Before bed I got us a couple slices of banana bread and made it an extra special treat by putting honey on one slice. We all went down to bed, and he had a massive hyper 5 or so minutes in bed. But Carly got his pajamas on just fine and he went straight to sleep at 8:10.

 

Photos. Cuddling: 

I’m sad: 

Play structure: 

Children’s museum: 

Acting cold: 

Tasting the railing: 

Hiding from mama: 

8:57. Several minutes of alone time as he quietly lay and then sat on the floor. Then came to me and wanted a document on my iPad, but first told me to type funny words. I started by typing real words, then made up ‘blingomorph’. He then deleted my ‘ph’ and typed an ‘f’ instead and said “It ends with ‘f’.” I cut up strawberries and made cereal and strawberries for breakfast. He then wanted books, and we read Peppa Goes to the Pool and Would You Feed It to the Monkey? He wanted to play Musyc, so I said I would take a shower. But right before I turned on the shower he came in and cheerfully said “Hey dada! Come!…To do tutorial.” Couldn’t resist, so went and did that with him for a few minutes. He really likes getting the shapes “stuck” in small spaces, which means they vibrate quickly and make a lot of noise.

I finally got a shower, and after that, we watched some Puffin Rock, then hid the animals, then went back to Puffin Rock. I got all of our stuff ready to go to Children’s Grand Park, but then he didn’t want to leave. At first it was just that he had more and more things he wanted to do at home. First it was doing vet checkups of several of the animals, so we did that. Then he wanted a nest, and more hiding of August Jr and Turkey. We brushed our teeth, but he didn’t want to brush his, just suck. Eventually, he started brushing my teeth, and did a very careful job of it. But kept going and going and going. Spent several minutes on it. He spent some time loudly spelling random madeup words, and peed on the toilet a couple times.

But then he was fighting putting on clothes. He kept wanting to play duplos or hide the animals. We were getting frustrated with each other, so I said I was going to go read my book on the couch, and I was telling him he could play on his own until he was ready to go, but I wasn’t going to play anymore. He ended up coming out to the couch where I was, lying on it, and saying “I’ll just stay at home.” So I was talking about other things we could do, and I said Ppippi House, where the trains were. He said liked that idea, then asked “Is it far?” I explained and said we could walk or take a bus. “Let’s take a bus. How we do that?” A little later I said “Maybe we’ll do Children’s Grand Park tomorrow.” He said “When it’s WARM.” Sometime later, I asked if he was cold in Uijeongbu and he said he was. So it kind of sounded like that was why he didn’t want to go outside today. On the other hand, he was the one choosing to be outside in the colder cold on Sunday. But at any rate we put two pairs of pants on him today. And I kept reminding him of what we could do to keep him warm. Finally, he got his flashlight out, and as I changed him one last time, he was playing in the dark in the changing room. More of the possessive ‘my’ coming out, as he was saying “This is MY toy. This is MY flashlight.”

We walked over to the art museum and caught the Nowon 15 bus. I could have taken a more direct bus, but wanted to walk a couple blocks at the other end. We walked to the department store, and went up to the sixth floor. I tried going outside on the roof, but they just closed it for the winter. So I found a nice lounge area, but he didn’t want to get out. He said he wanted to eat outside. We were looking out the big windows overlooking the main intersection, and could look down and spot benches below. There were some in the sun right below us, so he agreed to that. Took the elevator down.

Ate lunch warm in the sun. At one point he rubbed his hands on the ground and I made him wipe his hands with a wipe before he could eat more. We went back up to the Ppippi House. They charged me 11000 won – for the play time and the drink. At the end I would question this, but she insisted that was right. Not how I read the sign (one hour free if you get a drink), or how I thought I was charged in the past. So won’t be quick to come back. Unfortunately, didn’t get a great video for Colin. A boy was hogging the trains the whole time. August tried to play with them twice: The first time, the boy had left. August played with a couple trains, but then the boy came back and grabbed one right out of August’s hand. I made him give it back to August, but August was put off by that, and just wanted to throw it up in the air. A half hour later, the boy left again, and August played with them, sort of, for a couple minutes. Then August was done, the boy came back, and that was it.

August was more into the magnet letters for one. When we came in, they were all on the floor. A tabla rasa. So he had fun putting them up. Came back to them a few times. We also played with a couple of wooden puzzles. The animal one didn’t make noise, but I supplied the sound effects, which he thought was funny. The other one had musical instruments and did work – when you put a piece in it played a little music. We then put a dinosaur floor puzzle together. He climbed on the turtle a bit, briefly played with the doll house a couple times (put the doll in to take a bath at one point, and then up to sleep, I think). And at the end he was pushing one of the baby walker things out onto the regular floor to “Get more dirt”. Sigh.

We changed him, then headed out. We first went down to the grocery store to look for good butter and sour cream. No for both. August got several fruit samples, so it was worth it. Back outside, we had some crackers and got in the backpack, then took a look at the small presidential protest (in fact, she had jus agreed to step down). I gave August the option of the back roads or the main street, and he chose the latter. As we stood at the intersection, Derek came up and stood beside us. He had been at Starbucks across the street and spotted us.

Derek walked with us all the way back to our place. August was singing the entire way – first ABC songs, then made up alphabets, then mostly-fake Korean (with some from signs). Derek came up for a few minutes, then had to take off. August found his new letter stickers (from Daiso yesterday) and he did some marker art and letter decorating, then a few minutes of Musyc. We talked about Logan’s birthday party this Saturday, and I asked what we should get him for his birthday, knowing the are about to move away. August said “Balloons…a bunch of balloons.”

Then we headed to Home Plus. Kept him in the stroller while grocery shopping. Facilitate by a lot of fruit samples: strawberries, kiwi, apples. A good day for fruit samples. He rejected mandarin samples today though. I think he’s already tired of them. Paid then let him out. We went up to the first basement floor and left the stroller at the entrance. Went in to look for Christmas light hooks. August, walking around, first found knifes (in a package) and was requesting I get them: “More knives please, dada.” We got hooks in one spot, but then I was looking at some other things. First he was looking at a vacuum cleaner, then in another spot he started grabbing random stuff for me: tire cleaner, more tire cleaner, another bottle of something from automotive, an air freshener, etc.

On the way out, at the top of the walkways, is a new little booth, with tons of humidifiers going. He played with those for a few minutes, putting his hand in front of them. Finally got him headed home and we got there at 5:45. He likes to call in on the door bell first before we actually open the door. They nursed, etc. He was saying “See. Works every time.” today – he says that Mossy says it on Puffin Rock. I got ingredients together and he helped make banana bread. He liked the spatula when we were finished, as usual. He helped the whole time, though he finds it difficult to not keep touching the dough. But he will pour everything in, and stir in between each ingredient.

Carly gave him a bath. A lot of laughing. He requested songs in Chinese, so she got her computer and they put on videos. Back out on the couch he watched some more, then did some Musyc. Took him in to bed and we had fun hiding Green Monster. He was
asleep about 8, but woke up a couple times before we went to bed, as he was rather stuffy this evening.

Photos: 

Flashlight: 

Lunch spot: 

Ppippi House. Magnets: 

President protest: 

“More knives please dada”: 

Humidifiers: 

I was getting ready to go and he requested peanut butter. He looked at the jar and calmly said, with a smile, his old joke: “The zookeeper’s in there.” He peed on the toilet multiple times this morning. He was then jumping over gaps and needing me to yank him out. Went to the nest and brushed his teeth, then he wanted to do a slo-mo video, and started doing his slo-mo dance. He then wanted some soy milk, and drank a lot. We were a long time in getting out the door. Randomly, in a singsong voice, he said “My favorite is white today…and punctuation is ummmm parenthesis.” Had to change him again, and he found a Hangeul sticker that he kept ‘hiding’ on our way.

Finally, made it out the door. Still thought there was a chance that we could make it to Uijeongbu, eat lunch, and get to the play area about 12:30 for an hour of play. But then at Dobongson it seemed like it took forever for the train to come. Made longer by a guy who kept talking to us. Nice enough, but just prolonged the wait. I had asked him not to touch August the first time he tried it. The second time he did respond. A few minutes later he tried a third time, touching August’s hand, then said (rather late) “No touching?” I said “I’d prefer not”. And then he asked why. So had to explain because of germs, etc. August did at one point reach out and touch the guy while playing though. Funniest moment was when August was down and playing around and turned back to ask to be picked up, but was asking the guy, and not me. He thought it was me.

Train came, and we made it to the department store at Uijeongbu. August was walking as we went up all the escalators. Testing the rules and asking a lot of why questions – tried kneeling, not stepping off, etc. Around 12:30 when we got up to the roof and started having lunch. Nice and sunny, so it was fine to sit outside and eat. We played on the rubbery hills and explored parts of the roof he hasn’t played on yet – going through the tunnel-ish thing and playing on hills in the back and stepping on my shadow. He was saying “Up you go, Baba!” from Puffin Rock. He also sat on the hills and said to me “This is my spot…you cannot climb here.” Later he said “This is all my space.” Trying out a sense of personal space/property. A result, I think, of both when I wouldn’t let him erase my typing and the blocks with Logan.

He talked about not taking a nap, but looked tired. And he would then talk about going home to nap instead: “Want to go home. And take a nap in the nest.” To change him you have to walk past the toy store, and he said he wanted to play there, but didn’t put up a defense when I said not now. Changed him, got him in the backpack, and he fell asleep on the walk west. He was sleep from 1:49 to 3:25 at the book cafe with all the English children’s books. On the second train earlier a woman had also reached out and touched August. Now, as he slept in the backpack, and my back turned to the rest of the cafe, I sensed one of the workers kneeling down and looking at August sleeping. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him reach up on a table and grab some napkins. I turned around to find him reaching to wipe August’s face. Not a word to me. I reached out and stopped his hand. That was a new one.

August was making funny noises when he woke up. Got him out, and held him for awhile, still making funny noises. I mentioned the Everyone Poops book, and he wanted to read it. We went over to the books. Ended up reading it four times, then a book about snails/spirals that was pretty cool, another Mr. Gumpy book (about his Motor Car), and George Shrinks a couple times.

He was ready to head home, but we were first stopping for more paint at Daiso. We walked out to the concrete benches to get in the backpack. August was looking at signs as I carried him, and asked what ‘city hall’ was. He was then singing, and using Korean words, like for city hall, in his song. When we stopped he was standing on the bench and pointing around, I think primarily at the words he was singing. Got a video of him singing, although he stopped most of his pointing then. Once in the backpack, we got walking, him doing a lot more singing.

At Daiso we quickly grabbed paint. He asked why we were getting paint, and I said that mama had said they were going through the new paint quickly and we should get more. He was trying to understand this, and kept asking “Why mama say get more paint about?” On the way home we just missed a train for line 1, then another train for line 7. So we had time to have a snack and eat our cheese peanuts from Home Plus. On one of the trains too a woman gave him a black bean soy drink we’ll use later. August spent his time both ways doing art on the iPad.

We were home at 5:30. They nursed and then painted, then we played around hiding August Jr. He played with Musyc, then tried out different art apps, then went back to nursing. He got his hands on the soap in the bathroom, and got a squirt, and made bubbles in the sink. He had fun with that. Carly took a shower, and we did more Musyc together. Carly gave him a bath, and then we briefly played with Duplos.

Carly had bought a Melogold at the store. Turns out it is a mix of grapefruit and pomelo. August even just liked the sound of it: “That sounds AMAZING” He kept saying. He had some and said “I like grapefruit now.” Also funny because he already likes grapefruit. We were discussing the flavor, and he said “It has spices…maybe it has anise.”

A running joke this evening was that he wouldn’t answer my question “Did we have fun today?” Did his trick of totally ignoring me. Funnier when he does it to strangers that try to talk to him. He was being a cat on the back of the couch and continuing to not answer it.

He got down and said “Hey dada! Come and play!” and led me into the parlor. He wanted animals to go to the vet and have exams. This lasted a long time, and turned into what I called veterinary theater, as the zookeeper examined each animal. We then read the monkey book, Peppa Pig, and 123 Peas. Carly took him in to try to sleep, but he came back out. We ate a banana together, and Carly went back to bed. After eating the banana he whispered “You’re Zinnie now.” Apparently he had been the monkey. He wanted to go back in with Carly, but she came out a few minutes later to get socks with him. But he was being hyper again, so stayed out with me: “I found a bead. I hid it FYI. What FYI mean?” We read Pooh – random story parts and most of the poems. He went back in about 10:30. Asleep probably around 10:45.

Photos: 

Reading George Shrinks: 

Sitting: 

Painting: 

Bubbles: 

We got up at the same time at 8:07. Right before that, he had really been laughing in his sleep. He and Carly nursed and then Skyped with Chuck and Cherie. August typed ‘bug’ and Carly asked why. He got serious, furrowed his brow, and said ‘Beat Bugs’. He then typed ‘j bug’ – the name of the building down at Ttukseom Resort.

He did some painting and ate cereal from both of us. Carly finished her costume for dress up day tomorrow. He was pretending to be stuck in gaps and I was yanking him out, then put him in the blankets. He then said he wanted to change his diaper. I took it off him, then just put the pajama pants back on. A few times over the next hour he said “The tag is bothering you”, but he wasn’t ready for us to cut it out.

August got out his flashlight and was shining it everywhere, saying he found something that mama lost and investigating the cupboards. And he shined the light on the little scraps of paper as I picked them up. He was asking constant questions as he did that and Carly made mango oatmeal: “What if mama not cook it? What there tea in there about?” What you following mama about? What happen if mama not clean up the floor? What it frozen about?”

He played on the couch as a monkey, swinging his feet off of it. He then started going over to the stroller, grabbing beads out of it, and putting them in the couch. This surprised me, because he can’t actually see into where the beads are on the stroller. Anyway, we have several beads ‘hiding’ in the couch now. He then wanted me to hold him upside down, so we did a lot of that before he moved to playing with Musyc. A bit later we Skyped with my parents. He showed them how he swings on the end of the couch as a monkey. Next was nursing with Carly and they read two Biscuit books. He and I then made a tower of cardboard blocks. He was balancing blocks pretty well now. I finally took a shower, and when I came out he was helping Carly finish her beard and tried it on.

He randomly said “There’s no crying in tennis ball.” At some point earlier he had said “You’re Zinnie now.” I asked who he had been, and he said “A monkey.” I hadn’t realized he’d been a monkey for the whole last hour.

We did the flying snake game after yanking him out of the gaps, then Carly heated up the leftover food from Thanksgiving. Carly had a little, but August and I ate most of it, as Carly was feeling queasy just remembering the experience. He wanted to make a nest, so we did that, and we read most of Biscuit Meets the Class Pet before he wanted more food. Carly gave him some, and he said “We’re talking with our mouths full.” Earlier, when I asked what we should do tomorrow, he said “We can talk with our mouths full.”

Carly tried to put him down for a nap, but he decided it was a no nap day. She took him to the store instead. They were back about 3:10. He had gotten a slurpy thing, but conveniently forgot about it back home. At home, he just wanted to hang out in the hallway and so I got ready while he did that and we headed back outside.

We didn’t take the stroller, and didn’t really have a plan. I followed him, and we headed out the west side of the building. He did some hopping over cracks, then we talked about our plan. Named several local parks and he settled on Madeul Stadium. We never made it that far. On the road to the stream he hopped in some puddles, saying “Ribbit!” We crossed the bridge, then north of the youth center he stopped and hung on the railing, looking down at the stream and people and ducks. Stayed there for several minutes, enjoying the sun. We continued on, and as we went by the new apartment complex he wanted to go to the spiderweb playground.

The playground was in the shade and breezy, so rather cold. But August found two of those push cars – the kind you actually sit in and can drive around – and he drove and and I pushed him around in those. He also climbed on the spider web and went across the bridge. He wanted to build sand castles, but we didn’t have tools with us, and it was too cold. He had me ‘drive’ him over where two older boys were sitting on a bench. He got out and watched them playing video games on their phones.

On the way back, he noticed that the electrical box that he always noticed was making noise, now isn’t – because it doesn’t need to cool down, I presume. He stopped at the same spot above the stream for several minutes. At the bye fuzzy playground we stopped and he had some banana chips. We then climbed up on the play structure and went down the twisty slide together four times. He kept calling it a fast one. He also stood at the top and watched the kids playing basketball.

Before we left, he walked the ledge, which starts low, but gets about 3 feet tall. He didn’t want me to help him, but I insisted on spotting him. Walking across the bridge, he said something in a high voice and said “That’s a chipmunk voice.” I’d made reference to the Chipmunks recently. We got across the bridge, but he turned and decided he wanted to go back to the playground. I said no to that, and reminded him that I’d mentioned trying cocoa when we were at home.

We got home about 4:50. He did painting with mama, then ate some strawberries before having rice casserole with me. He picked up a wipe, and was going around the house cleaning, saying “oh dear, I need to clean here.” He ate a banana and he wanted to read the monkey book while he did it, so we did that. I then made some cocoa and he loved the sips I gave him. Big smiles.

Carly gave him a bath, and when she washed him he made his random non-English frustrated noises. She commented that he has his own ‘frustrated’ language, and asked what it was. He told her, and the name was something complex – I think it had a comma and something else in it. It is true though – when he is frustrated but not fully upset, he says random noises that almost sound like words. 

After his bath, he asked Carly why you get wrinkly in the bath. She looked it up. Complex, but he accepted ‘your skin is filling up with water’. He did some writing on paper, then we went in the parlor while Carly took a shower. He typed on my phone, and told me “This is my work. You cannot delete it. If you try, I will tell you ‘No’.”

When she was out he went in the nest with Carly. Wanted the lotion. Carly was trying to put it on him and he said “anneyo”. But he put it on her legs and told her he was giving her a massage.

Sleep happened pretty easily after that, just after 8.

 

Cozy: 

Stacking: 

Trying on the beard, sort of: 

On our walk. Looking down: 

Playground: 

Again: 

Second playground. Watching the basketball players before we went down the slide again: 

Ledge: 

Cocoa: 

He was up at 7:20. Nice enough to turn the light on on me again. They had oatmeal for breakfast (August was asking all of his ‘what if’ questions, like “What happen if you not use the microwave?”) and did more painting. Carly Skyped with Cassie to discuss kindergarten questions. I distracted August for awhile – he was decorating his painting with stickers – but then needed to do recycling. While I was doing that, he took off his pants and went pee on his toilet. I took down recycling and when I came back Carly and Cassie were finishing up. Vivian had never watched Puffin Rock, so Carly put that on the iPad and she and August watched it together. Carly was messing with Vivian by putting her finger in front of the screen until she got a reaction.

At the end of the episode Carly turned it off. They said goodbye and hung up. August then played with Musyc, and wanted to work through the tutorial. We did that twice and then he just played. His musical art pieces are pretty elaborate now.

He helped me make chocolate chip banana bread, then later helped with the dishes, doing the rinsing after I washed. While doing both he kept saying “I like knives.” While rinsing (I didn’t let him rinse the knives) he added “cuz they’re very sharp.” We did a lot of hiding August Jr., and joking about August Jr. going to close to the cords. Twice during the morning August went and pooped on his toilet. He also used his flashlight to find a very old piece of popcorn under the counter.

It started snowing around noon, and was snowing pretty heavily by 1. He was ready for a nap and slept from 1:15 to 2:22. He got up and nursed and we got ready to go. We headed out about 3:30. Just a little snow/rain on our walk over. We stopped at the Tous les Jour and Mainz Dom to get rolls and a baguette on the way, walked through the secret path, and made it there a little after 4.

Our job at first was to help watch the kids while Jill and Derek finished cooking. We weren’t doing so well on this though as their kids kept wanting or needing their attention. After a few minutes though Logan wanted to build a tower with his big Leg–like blocks. Started off well, but then August wanted to put a block on his tower, and he took it off. August was devastated and just stood there, in my arms, wanting to put it on. I tried to build a separate tower for August, but he wasn’t interested. We figured it was a good experience for August though. But after a few minutes, Logan left and Jill took him outside. August got his revenge by putting the block on the tower like he wanted to. He still then went to Carly for consoling, but it obviously made him feel better – he would talk about it and laugh about putting the block on his tower later, before bed.

Other people started showing up, and one of the women brought some finger puppets. Carly and August played with those with her for a few minutes. Otherwise, August kind of floated around, playing with random things and grabbing the cheesy rice crackers we brought. We read one book. And Derek held August upside down at one point. Missed a video of that. August was laughing pretty hard.

All went well until the food was ready for the kids. Carly got a plate for August and they started eating. Carly was tasting everything, and she ate a bite of something that had cashews in it that another guest brought. It was enough. August didn’t want Carly to leave on her own – he wanted to go with – and she was afraid he’d get upset if she slipped out. So they headed home with the stroller. I waited a few more minutes until all the food was ready, ate, and made up a plate of food to take home for Carly for later. I called to see how she was doing, and she said August was helping encourage her to throw up. On the way home I stopped for bread and Pepsis for her.

Got home and they were both relaxing in the parlor, him watching Puffin Rock. So I read for awhile. I gave him a bath, but he was not interested. It was a very short bath, against his will. Carly tried to take him in to sleep – it was close to 9 – but he got back up. He and I read a bunch of books – the monkey book and all the Peppa Pig books, and maybe others – and I had to change him. Then in on the bed I talked to him about the party and the blocks and whatnot. That’s when he kept talking about putting the block on, and he was getting his big grins. Carly came in, and this time it worked. He was asleep about 10:20. 

Saying hi to a neighbor: 

Walking to dinner: 

Playing at Logan’s house: