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He was up at 7:22. Pretty calm, and he laid on the floor for a minute. Then started talking about spiders that fell from webs and needed to be taken care of. We spent a long time writing Hangeul and Korean words on paper. A bit later he found his Korean class videos on the iPad and was watching them for the first time in a long time, then a Kipper story. Banana bread for breakfast. Before we left we read Frog on a Log, then headed out to the subway at 9:15.

On the subway we read three new Peppa Pig books…Bedtime, Swimming, and Ballet Lesson. We also read a book called What Would You Feed a Monkey? He then did the Hangeul app and magnet board thing, and had an audience of a couple of people.

We got off the subway and bought some kimbap and another sandwich (same kind as yesterday). We walked over and sat at a picnic table by the playground and ate our lunch. The wind picked up and we finished up and headed in. August was running in the wind, and stopped to smell (and pick) some flowers. We got a ticket and I handed it to him. He ran into the museum and handed over the ticket and we went on in. Busy, full of school kids. We ended up in the children’s area, and then in the room with foam building blocks. Played there for awhile: I was making cylinder towers and he was knocking them down, and we worked on a couple of random towers together. He also just had fun climbing over the terrain of loose pieces.

From there, we wandered around the rest of the children’s area. He really wanted to go in the big climbing part, but it said for ages 7 and up, and was packed with kids. Got him in a little ball area for a little while, then he turned a crank handle, and eventually we were able to climb up through the structure after a school group left. That got us upstairs, where there were optical illusion things. He looked through tube things, and saw the ‘hole’ in my hand during one optical illusion. We also felt the coils that have the illusion of being different temperatures. We heard a loud mystery noise that we tried to track down – got us close to the water area, but then it didn’t happen again. He really liked the noise though, and noticed when we heard a similar noise later in the day. After the crank thing, he wanted me to carry him much of the time. We went through the tilted room a few times, and when he didn’t want back down at all we headed outside.

We went to the insect building, which we had been talking about since before we got there. As we went to the building he talked about taking care of the beetles. And, indeed, when we started looking at beetles we played that game. Had fun looking at beetles, and then he was quite excited to touch the super worms. We went and saw the bee hive, then waited to touch the big black beetles and the larva. A woman that worked there helped him touch the beetle, and she was trying to let him hold it, but he found it tickly. We looked at the spiders for a bit, and decided to save the butterflies for next time. The building was quite busy with screaming middle school students (I had to tell a couple to stop screaming, or stepping on my foot).

We went out near the pond area and had a second lunch. He was joking about feeding a monkey. As we finished, I walked a few feet to the garbage can. I heard the water bottle fall and looked up to see August had fallen off the bench and was sort of wedged between the two benches. Comforted him, got our stuff together, changed him, and got walking at 1:40. He was talking about me not remembering a tune to a song he made up (happened a couple days ago), then was singing a song with the line “that can not float”. Now sure what ‘that’ was. He fell asleep and slept from 1:56 to 3:15. We went into the coffee place and sat there. The place was starting to clear out before his nap, and by the end the museum was pretty empty – all the school groups having left to go back to school.

Put the backpack back on and we went out to the space building. Went down into it and walked around. Some potential, but pretty underwhelming, and August didn’t want to get out of the backpack. We went back outside and walked around the building – the space building is built as a octodecagon (18 sides), which we thought was pretty cool. He saw a big map and we spent time looking at that. He pointed to the Delta rocket and asked how many sides it had. We walked around it, counting the engines, and realized it was a nonagon (9 sides). He was ready to leave, so we left out the side entrance and walked around to the front, stopping (him still in the backpack) to do the water pumps.

As I stepped up to the train station there are two very short steps. I missed one of them and tripped on it. Took a couple steps and thought I caught myself, but then felt the weight of him still going forward. Took another couple steps and went down on my left knee. He sort of fell to the left. Scared both of us. Got him out of the backpack and we sat and held him for awhile. He was holding his right hand funny. Stopped crying after a couple minutes though, so I didn’t think it was too hurt. He wouldn’t talk about it though, just saying “No” to any of my questions. I held him and stood on the subway. He had his arms around my neck but was still holding the right hand as a fist. But eventually I felt him opening and closing it. We got a seat and got out the iPad. For a few minutes he only played left handed, but then started grabbing my finger with his right hand when he wanted me to do something. Then he was using both. Only once he felt better would he talk about it. In fact, he then said “Want to play that game” (meaning me falling down).

After awhile we were playing with the Hangeul magnet app and he was spelling words on his own. A Korean woman asked how old he was and then said that August was better with Korean than her 5 year old.

Got off at Changdong. Drizzling. 14 minutes until the next 1144. So we walked up and caught the Nowon 15. Construction and traffic though meant we took about 10 minutes just to go a block. Would have been faster to take the 1144 (which takes a different route). Oh well. Raining a bit more as we walked across the park, but made it okay.

Home at 5:30. Nursing and Winnie the Pooh. Carly was surprised to find him talking about Eeyore, Kanga, etc. He was then climbing on back of couch. Wanted me to play the oops game, then when I said I was out of ideas he reached to my head and said “I put ideas in there.” Always cute when he does that. Playing the iPad later it froze. He didn’t much like that and got upset. Spent sometime with Carly, then he and I played with Loopimal and he did some good dancing. We went to the parlor and were making shapes out of the crayons and picking out triangles and quadrilaterals and trapezoids in them, like in the geometry app. We were then writing words on the paper. He was spelling ‘cat’ and ‘stop’ on his own.

He had some soup with Carly and joked “No superworms in there…there was in the banana bread.” Don’t know if I’ve mentioned how he doesn’t like to use utensils. Carly was trying to get him to use the spoon, and it seems like he doesn’t want to do it because he doesn’t want to drip (indeed, when we do spill something he wants it back in the bottle, etc.) Carly said it is okay to drip, then he wanted her to drip. Said “Fine. Mama will drip.”

He saw my Korean textbook and wanted to write in it and I got his workbooks out (which we haven’t used since we’ve been back) instead. He was excited about that, and did a lot of tracing of words in those.

It was bath time, so I did the Sophie voice and she said she was getting in the water. He didn’t want Sophie to get in the bath, saying “No! No!” And getting upset when we suggested she was about to jump in. Eventually though he changed his mind, and went running in so he could help put her in. I gave him his bath. Letters on the door, as usual, but then he was putting them all on the door, and he looked at the shape and called it a volcano.

Got out, then ended up going
in and making a nest. Pretty easy after that, and he was asleep about 9:30.

Videos:

Photos: 

Wind: 

Inside: 

Beetles and worms: 

Eating. He’s laying across the spot he would later fall into:

18 sides: 

9 sides: 

Home: 

Volcano: 

Tons of word-related activities today and music. And realized that he is suddenly writing the letters of words in pretty straight lines, drawing all his letters lower case, and writing Korean words pretty easily.

He was up at 5:55 to nurse. Fell back to sleep a little, but was back up at 6:20. Fine with Carly leaving today. He was looking at the pronunciation guide on the Hangeul app, and really getting into the complex vowels like ㅞ. He said “Want to write that crazy Hangeul.” So we went and got the paper and crayons and started writing all the complex vowels. Then writing other things. He invented “ㄷ turns to ㅁ turns to popsicle” by drawing a stick on it. We wrote other Korean words, then he was getting hungry. We decided to make French toast again. At first he was frustrated it wasn’t already done, but then he went and got his stool and helped make it. Ate that, then we read the Daniel Tiger doctor book and retold Biscuit Steps on a Mooka Mookasa. He played Metamorphabet as I showered, then we did more Hangeul pronunciation together.

He decided he wanted to go outside, so we started to head that direction: put a diaper on him and his new dinosaur hoodie shirt. But then he started playing Endless Wordplay for the first time in months. They are in lowercase – I think that is where the lowercase writing later came from. Also, the robot in the game sneezes, and he really liked that. He also wanted me to explain the line “I must be allergic to something.” He would repeat that throughout the day.

He had some maximum silly time, confusing Sophie and talking about letters on the door. He then wanted to play Figure. We did that, and he had another long silly session where he was talking about the names of the sounds and making up new ones. He was then getting into the temp setting and counting beats when I showed him how to do that. And he was reading and spelling the words in the app: shuffle, tempo, and sound names. Without me asking, he said “Your chin is feeling better…your chin is feeling good.” Finally, he spent a few minutes typing nonsense stuff into the Wikipedia search bar, finding it funny to get the ‘No articles available’ message each time.

Headed out about 10:50. Went to Home Plus to get some lunch. Again, planned to eat in the park. He spent some time writing Hangeul with his finger on his favorite spot on the floor, then looked at the little plant jars and touched them gently. Went to kimbap and sandwiches and told him we could get two total. He kept trying to convince me to get some combination of 3 as he couldn’t make up his mind. Ended up with our usual kimbap pack and a ham and potato sandwich which was surprisingly good. He decided it would be fun to hang on the side of the stroller and have me push him. Did that through much of the store.

Went out and sat on the side of the building again and ate. At the end made jokes about being allergic to the benches, post, etc. Went back in at 11:50 and got up to class as they were doing the forward rolls. He said “skip it” to the forward rolls, but walked the path once, which is progress. Class was about spiders. He put on the “spider backamapack”, as he called it, and kept it on until the big walking path at the end. He asked me “what’s in there?”, and then he said things like “Larabar, water bottle, iPad…” Spider-related activities, so we learned the words for ‘spider’ and ‘fly’. The teacher was playing with the fly, making an “Aaaaa!” sound for the buzzing. August was confused at first and had to ask me what the teacher was doing – we make a “buzzzz” sound in English. But then he understood, and one time when the teacher stopped, August said “Aaaaa!” at the same pitch. The teacher thought that was pretty funny. They crawled around like spiders, then there were two activities picking up flies and putting them on webs with velcro. Then we put the flies in silk, also with velcro. The final activity was a walking path. The teacher lay under the rope net bridge like a spider. August walked over it 4 times – 3 with the teacher under. The first time, when he tried tickling August’s feet, August got smart and balance barred it along the frame. The second time he walked right over the teacher, then he balance barred it again. August got his treat, did a good bow, and got a handstamp at the end of class.

We took the stroller so we could head right out for nap time, since he had woken early. But he was amped up after class. He requested the A Ah Apples song, and we spent 13 minutes explaining all the lines to the song. I tried to move on to a different song at some point, but he wanted to go all the way to Z. We walked south, past the hospital. By the park we spotted a little caterpillar crawling on the ground. Watched that for a couple minutes. Said bye to it after I assured August it would find its way to the plants. Walked to the trail entrance to the university across from Comma Cafe, up to campus, and wandered about. August would put his head down for a minute, then sit up and start singing. I talked to him a couple times about taking a nap, and he would put his head back down. But when I did that in the university he said “No”. That was actually a good sign, and soon after that he nodded off as we wandered some streets SE of Comma Cafe and the park. Took 57 minutes and 2.15 miles. Hadn’t paid attention to my coffee choices, but now realized that the first three were too full or had multiple steps up to them. Luckily, a lot of choices, and found Cafe Geuneul.

He slept 1:25 to 2:35ish. He woke up once in there and just stared at the white brick wall for a minute then went back to sleep. A slow wake up at the end, then we headed out. Went to 국화어린이공원, which I today decided we would henceforth call ‘the writing park’, since this is where the letter writing and C to O to Q really started, and today we wrote letters and words for over an hour.

Met a guy who was picking up his kids from the kindergarten across the street. Talked to him for a minute. His wife is a nurse at the hospital. August and I started drawing letters, and I wrote his name in Korean: 아그스트. So August would step on in and say “Step 아그스트!” We took a break to eat the rest of our lunch. He was doing counting math on his fingers (and mine). Then he was down on the ground and talking about making a beetle’s nest. A little frustration there, as he wanted me to help, but it wasn’t clear what he wanted to be ‘real’ and what was ‘pretend’. Back to the sand, he wanted me to write ‘ Uidong’ in Korean, so did that. He was making little noises and said “my sound is a beetle noise.” (I guess after the teacher did the fly noise earlier.) He was again big on me making ‘Oops!’ things, so I wrote ‘namu’, Korean for ‘tree’ in combinations mixing up the Korean characters and English letters. He thought that was funny. I asked if he wanted to know how to spell 우유 (milk), and he just went and did it on his first try. I realized that he is spelling Korean words on his own with little problem as it is so phonetic. With him writing, he then wanted to spell ‘Zinnie’ and ‘quest’ I helped him sound out the letters, and he wrote them – lower case and in straight lines. Starting with the ‘e’s he began giving the letters eyes. Not sure where that came from – possibly the YouTube videos.

More with me writing, but him helping sound out and figure out letters and then tracing, we wrote (all at his request) ‘question’ and ‘photography’ and ‘slide’ and ‘paper’. But then came ‘pine needle’. Lots of laughing until we got to the ‘d’. We’d had a lot of fun making mistakes, but then he got his ‘d’ and ‘b’ mixed up. I tried to show him the difference, but he drew a ‘b’ again, and when I told him to try again he suddenly got sad. I picked him up and held him. He just cuddled on my shoulder, and wouldn’t talk. So I started singing the A Makes Ah song and making mistakes, and getting stuck on letter sounds and he started laughing. When I got stuck he would have to ta
p me to get me to go on to the next letter.

Went over to the center of the park to change him, and he spotted the other side of the park, which is just a round sand area with an almost flat (horizontally, that is), circular climbing wall area around it. Rather odd. August was excited by it, and went and walked on it, but then rather confused when he couldn’t really climb on it since he could just…stand on it. He sat down, and I sat next to him, and he finally talked about why he was sad, first saying he was sad about “b and g” then changing to “b and d”. He started picking up pine needles and was putting them down the cracks between the boards. He wanted to keep cleaning up the park instead of heading home. Then he said “want to write pine cone…there’s no b in pine cone”, which was pretty clever.

We walked home, getting home a bit past 5. Carly got home a couple minutes later. August had just gotten the iPad out and was starting to play. He said “mama found you” and was then torn between going to nurse or iPad. Started to go to Carly, then turned back to the iPad and said “Want to do this.” Eventually nursed, then ate pasta for dinner. He told Carly why he had been sad. They nursed and read Winnie the Pooh. He requested banana bread, so I started to make it. He of course wanted it ready right away, but then decided to help with it, and that worked pretty well. I had New Order playing, and he was dancing to it – it reminds him of Figure. He was impatient for the bread to cook, but was appeased a bit by licking the spatula. But after that kept saying “the banana bread’s done”, especially if he heard the rice cooker beep.

He was nursing and said “Raspberry banana bread tart… that would be yummy.” Carly gave him a bath, and he confused her by saying “Maybe I’m allergic to…” until I explained the reference to her. He played iPad for awhile and had some banana bread when it was done. Carly asked him to say good night, and he said “Night night iPad. Have a good sleep.” And he turned it off. He then ran around a bit, tagging both of us, and said “Mama, Zinnie, and dada…all together.” The last bit coming as he lay his head down on the couch.

He went in with me to make a nest at 8:35. Got out my iPad to read books, but he wanted to read Dada’s books. He was interested in a table of contents, and learned the word ‘Contents’. He then wanted to confuse both Sophie and me. We read the Peppa Pig fall day book, then he cuddled in his nest, and we did a lot of taking care of animals. He went to sleep about 9:30

 

Home Plus: 

Teuni Teuni: 

Playground: 

Home: 

Photos: 

Home Plus: 

Teuni Teuni. Spider backamapack: 

Park: 

Writing ‘Zinnie’: 

Home: 

Hood: 

He was up at 5:55. He was on the iPad when Carly left, doing Sago Mini Monsters, when Carly left and was fine with that. But at 7:20 it sunk in that mama had left and he got upset. He kept trying to go out in the hall, and was upset with me when I wouldn’t let him go out. Eventually, he started pulling my backpack off the stroller so he could get in that. When I agreed to go for a walk he calmed down. We grabbed a couple things and headed out, and took a walk along the stream. After a few minutes he started the “Ingredients…oops!” game, where I list ingredients in the Larabars or banana bread and include things like beetle spit, say “Oops!” and he laughs. We paused to watch an egret in the stream, then came home – a 20 to 30 minute walk.

He played on the iPad while I showered, and was lying on the floor when I came out. A couple times through the morning he asked “Where mama go?…Can you find her?” but didn’t get upset again. We tried to skype with my mom to see how my dad was doing, but she wasn’t online. August left a video message instead, then left messages for oma and mama.

August wanted to read Winnie the Pooh, and we were reading the first story, about the bees, when we realized that August was wearing his bee pajamas. Then, I noticed that he was wearing a Winnie the Pooh diaper. Next, he got up and was playing with the balloon from the park, the blue balloon, when we got to the part about Christopher Robin giving Pooh a blue balloon.

Cherie then called us back and we talked to her for a few minutes. We stopped so we could get ready to go, and Cherie sent one of the video emojis. August loved that, and was thrilled when he figured out how to send them back. Kept him busy sending her emoji after emoji (and then Carly), while I got ready. I don’t think she realized what she would unleash. A bit later, my mom was online, and we skyped with her and Paul. Dad is doing okay; sleeping a lot.

Back to Winnie the Pooh, I sung a few lines from the song. He wanted to know more about it, so I looked up Winnie the Pooh episodes on YouTube. We watched the song, and parts of a couple episodes. There is a Winnie the Pooh special about letters and numbers, and we watched a portion where Christopher Robin teachers Pooh about rhyming words. August was interested in that. We watched one full short video, and as it was about to end, August said “Want another one”. That was interesting, as there was no obvious clue that the video was ending – rather, he could tell that the plot was ending. I also noticed this when we were making up Kipper stories. When I get to the end of the story, whether it be because the plot is resolved, or clues in the tone of my voice, August would often then say “The end.” Interesting understanding of storytelling and/or plot.

Eventually we headed out, sometime after 11. We were taking the 1137 bus up a couple stops north of Nowon (he chose bus over subway). He started to fall asleep on the bus, but managed to keep him awake. He perked up as we looked at some music-related murals as we went under the roadway to get to the west side. Spotted one nice coffee shop for later reference, then walked over to 용화어린이공원. Didn’t expect much, just a spot for lunch, but it turned out to be a nice spot and a well-equipped playground. I had just brought sandwich, banana, string cheese, etc. today and we ate on some covered benches. He rebounded and had us joking about throwing up on beetle and grasshopper nests. I have no idea where he gets his sense of humor. He kept asking if he could climb the brick wall around the park. Answer: No. Got him over to the play structure, where he went back and forth over the short rope bridge a few times. He wanted to go on the long one, but I eventually talked him out of that. Went down a slide together, and he climbed up a climbing wall with a slight slope to it. About 6 feet tall. He was saying “I can do it” to himself, then switched to “I can’t do it.” but kept climbing. Near the top, he started singing “…with your hands in your pockets, and your pockets in your pants…” and when he got to the top he stood up and finished “all the little fishies do the hootchie cootchie dance.” Finally, he wanted me to make mistakes with words, and his favorite was when I ‘accidentally’ called him Colin, Thatcher, or Vivian.

He’s been doing more whispering, and as we walked to put him to sleep he was incorporating it into his singing. Then, I told him it was time to sleep and I was singing to him, but he would randomly whisper “seven”. He fell asleep and we went to another coffee shop we found called Cafe Teapot. He slept from 12:46 to 2:02. He popped awake, sort of, and immediately said “dada do oops word in Korean.” But then he sort of stared out the door and stretched. Staring at the door, he started saying things like “if you walk through there and it is closed, a grasshopper will bite you…”

He wanted to go outside, so I got on the backpack and we got going. Checked out another park (온곡어린이공원), but pretty dull and he wanted to skip it. Got to the big neighborhood park (온수그린공원) I’ve been to once (I remember reading Crow Planet while sitting there) and we walked around. Found a big library building at the end of the park. Went in and found the children’s library area. Walked around, and he liked looking around for a few minutes (numbers on shelves, letters on the walls, pictures, etc.) I found the English section and it was pretty impressive, but August wanted to leave. Tried to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn’t listen to it.

Went back to the entrance and sat down on a bench so I could have a break and get some food. He got out. A grandmother brought a little boy over and they gave August a couple of rice cake things. He ate those, then some of our other food. We took some selfies, and he was asking about the buttons, particularly ‘slo-mo’. So I showed him what it does by taking video of him dancing. He liked that. He then was making up Biscuit books he wanted to ‘read’: Biscuit Steps on a Mooka Mook, Biscuit Spills the Juice, Biscuit Spills the Crackers, Biscuit Steps on a Mooka Mooksa (it’s a sequel to the first one).

We headed out, cutting through Nowon proper this time. He was singing songs, and after each wanted to know how long it was: “how many seconds that is?…the mooka mook song.” That was a result of Skyping: at the end of the call with Cherie and then with my mom he noticed the timer and wanted to know more about how they told you how long the call was. He was also singing his usual ABC songs, which he now ends with a different “won’t you sing with…” One today was “next time won’t you sing with blood?”

We stoped at 엄지어린이공원 and he wanted to play. But first he just got out and lay on hits stomach on the bench for awhile. The bench was around a square grass area and tree stump. We discussed the difference between the words ‘stomp’ and ‘stump’ and he stomped on the stump. He then wanted to weed, mainly picking out dry pieces of grass. Another boy had collected acorns, and August looked at one for a minute, then gave it back. We learned that acorn is ‘도토리’. We got a lot of other kids talking to us in the short time we were there: a couple of girls as he climbed the climbing wall, then an older boy, in some English, up on the structure.

We left at 4:30 and walked the rest of the way home. He was singing songs in his languages, and at the end would end with a word and say “…that means ‘the end’…that means ‘start’.” He was also making up new words and odd definitions: “’doadoado’…that’s a boring name for chalk…that’s another name for kitty.”

Got home and he played on the iPad for a few minutes. But then he noticed that Carly wasn’t home yet (she had stopped to do fingerprinting on the way home) and went and opened the door and stood looking out for a couple minutes until she showed up. A bit later he pulled up the calculator app on the iPad and was playing
with that. He was trying to do multiplication and called me over to explain multiplication. He had a bit to eat, and a bit later said “Your tummy feels better.” Didn’t know it hurt, so asked if he had just felt hungry, or if it hurt. He said “hurt”. Wasn’t entirely sure if he was just pretending or serious, so asked, and he said “real.”

I gave him a bath, which went well. Back out, he went straight for the table and wanted the iPad. When I said it was asleep he got upset. Clearly a tired boy. Carly took him and he wanted to go into the bedroom. He was asleep about 8:40.

Morning:

Park 1: 

Nap: 

Park 2: 

Park 3: 

Photos. Morning walk: 

Typing and emojis: 

Watching Winnie the Pooh: 

Laughing at lunch: 

Rope bridge: 

Nap: 

Park 2: 

Park 3: 

Stomping on the stump: 

Waiting for mama: 

8:52. He was a little sad, but let me pick him up. He was wet, so took of his diaper, but the bed was dry. He played with th fan, reading the levels in Korean, and said the fan made a “W noise”. He hasn’t described sounds as letters much recently, but does it from time to time. Then smiled and asked for the iPad and said he wanted to do the puzzles. Played the Hangeul app and then some Todo Math. Ate cereal, banana, and crab for breakfast. Some milk dripped down on his bandage and I took it off. He didn’t like that and said he wanted a new one on. I said to wait until we were done eating. When we were, I wiped off his chin. He was scared of that, but then said  “What it not hurt about?”

We played Art Maker together, and he was doing the Oscar the Grouch one and painting in mayonnaise and putting worms on it: “The worm is eating the mayonnaise.” He was then climbing on the back of the couch while I did it. We did a little writing of letters on the paper, then he wanted to read Froggy’s Day with Dad so we did that. We read much of one of his  Hangeul posters, then was back to the Hangeul app together. We guessed what one of them said, and he said “Maybe! We’ll find out.” Back down on the paper he was using a broken crayon and asked what color it was. I said I didn’t know, and he started saying ‘Got me, brown tree’ jokes: “Got me eeyore…got me moray eel.”  “Got me, …” had been a running series of jokes yesterday (purple slug, brown potato, etc,) Also, a random sentence he said, then ran around, but I didn’t understand: “That makes me slippery fast.”

We headed out and down to Children’s Grand Park. We got kimbap and little eggs. Lot of little changes at the park: figures by the entryway, food trucks by the big fountain, the I SEOUL U letters gone, paintings on the ground…think they had a big festival for the weekend or something. We ate lunch by the pond. I responded to an email from Paul saying that my dad’s surgery had gone well, and then August wanted to type to Paul. I had already hit ‘send’ on my email though, and August was upset that he couldn’t type on my message. He typed a little on a separate email to Paul, but it wasn’t the same, and he kept deleting what he typed. We did send a video message to my dad though. I was feeding him kimbap, which he was eating all of, if I took off the seaweed, and he accidentally chomped down on my thumb, hard. Luckily, he got it sort of sideways and the nail protected me. Hurt, but no breaking of skin. I yelped pretty well though. Randomly, he asked “what does vegemil C have?” This was a joke from a few days back: The soy milk we buy comes in two varieties, A and B, so he started asking about different letters, like Vegemil W. We then come up with weird combinations (like beetle-flavored soy milk).

Finally, he wanted to “Take care of the D with the blood on it.” We ended up doing this a lot today, and each letter got hurt because “It was not going down the purple slide…it got got hurt on the red steps.” With the colors of the slide and steps changing each time, or course.

We went to do sidewalk chalk, and had a lot of fun with that for 20 or 30 minutes. A couple other people joined us. One girl started writing in Korean, and August wanted to copy it. They left a minute later, and I realized that the girl had actually been copying what we had already written: Kwangwoon University (in Korean), which August had asked me to write. After that, August saw people playing in the sand and wanted to play there. He was disappointed to hear that we didn’t have all our sand toys with us. He saw an older girl making shapes with a jello cup thing, and kept saying “Can we make that shape?” Suddenly, he looked incredibly tired and sad.

We packed up and changed him and headed out. I hadn’t planned on a nap – in fact, hadn’t brought my iPad. But just when I was sure he was asleep, and he had had his head down for quite awhile, he popped up and said “No sleep today.”

Not sure if that was because he wasn’t actually sleepy enough, or because me talking about him not taking a nap today got him thinking about it. Because he was Tired (capital T) for the rest of the day.

He was then singing the ABC song, and talking about the letters: “A B C D…there’s no blood on the G’s face…there’s blood on the E’s cheek.”

We went to the children’s museum. We first went to the new area that has replaced the ball area. It is called ‘Idea Transformer’. August knows what ‘ideas’ are, but was confused by the name, and kept asking what it meant. Tried several explanations, but he didn’t seem totally satisfied. There, he played with a lie detector thing (rather pointless), a tools/building area that was pretty cool, and then was fascinated by a display on symbols/signs. He then played with the shape magnets you could use to make your own signs.

He was then done with that, and headed off. He wanted to go up to the space area. Looked around there for a bit, but mainly he wanted to go in the play structure, which he isn’t big enough for. He didn’t get upset, but got sad, and tired. I picked him up and he cuddled. We watched some kids in the spaceship area for awhile while I held him, but he didn’t want to play there. I finally suggested the building area, and he wanted to go there. There, he ended up playing with the floor tiles for a long time. And rubbing his eyes. He was counting them, and laying them all out, then really got into putting them away before we left. Before that, he had climbed into the box for a minute.

I picked him up, and we headed upstairs. He jumped on the ball pad thing a bit, but then wanted to continue on. We went to the reading area, but he remembered the bead game, and sadly kept asking for that, but they don’t have it anymore. I suggested the little kids area next door, and said he could make tea in the kitchen area. That brightened him up, and we went in there, and he went straight up to the kitchen area. We found cups and a teapot, and he was initially frustrated because he wanted to put the teapot on the stove, but couldn’t get to it. It opened up though, and we were able to play with the tea. He put pots on the stove to cook, then was putting corn, steak, and other food in the oven to cook. He totally remembered about ovens being hot (from this summer, since we don’t have one). Then suddenly, he curled up on the floor. Then got up and curled up on the little couch. Then crawled in a corner and curled up. We headed out, but first he went down the slide twice, and curled up under the slide. He was really trying hard to play.

Took awhile to get down the stairs, as he was analyzing the different levels of handrailings and calling them ‘medium’ or ‘high’. On the subway he made up the shape “Quadrilatadecagon”. And on the walk he was singing a lot and having me name the language he was singing in. He was also using his hands, like he was reading the words out of a book.

We were home a bit before Carly. I heated soup, and we were doing the ‘oops’ game, listing ingredients in the soup and including things like ‘rocks’ and ‘beetles’ etc. as accidents. Carly got home and he went and greeted her, then told me “Mama is here!” Later, I swear he was looking at the Cat book and reading ‘photography’ on his own, repeating it several times, but when we asked him to read it, he was unsure about it and back to sounding it out. He and Carly read a book, and he called the end the “endymcnickerton”. He did some more reading with her, and she gave him a bath. He then fell asleep while nursing, and naked, on the reading area at 7:20. We took him in on the bed and put clothes on him. He got up once to nurse an hour later or so, but otherwise was fast asleep after managing to stay up for a long time.

On the couch

Chin and knee and mosquito bites

Counting the ants

Trying out the new Idea Transformer area

Figuring out signs

Floor tiles

Drinking tea

Second spot to curl up

Curling up
yet again

Sidewalk chalk:  

Children’s museum: 

Home: 

Photos: 

Children’s Grand Park:  

Ants Go Marching: 

Children’s museum: 

Sleepy boy: 

He was up at 7:05. Lots of nursing and reading with Carly, then they skyped with Cherie, who is now in Mexico. Out with me, we read Biscuit and Biscuit Goes Camping. He and Carly did Art Maker and did a lot of laughing covering the pictures and each other with tricycle slime and paw print slime. He had me make up more nonsense Biscuit books, then colored with Carly, before doing more Art Maker with me.

We got out for a walk in the sun – a very different day from yesterday. Out in the hall, he read ‘소화기’ (fire extinguisher) on his own. Walked up the stream and went to 가재울근린공원. Carly went on the swings, and August and I got out the towel and started drying off the slides. August really got into this, and we did a very thorough job of drying the two slides next to each other. August also remembered the ghost who plays with us at playgrounds. He was just about to finally go down the slide, and had just told Carly to go on the one next to him, when he backed up and fell off the step. He fell and hit his chin on the step. Got a cut on his chin. Carly nursed him and we put a bandaid on it. He fell asleep nursing, but woke back up when we put him in the stroller. A bit later he talked about the ghost having blood on his cheek as well.

Got home and made a salmon sandwich and Carly’s bisque for lunch, and August and I shared that. He ate a lot today. He was then really sounding out syllables in the Hangeul magnets. He slept from 1:30 to 2:33, nursed, then fell back to sleep on the reading area until 3:27. He was high energy and really into reading when he woke up. He was doing the Hangeul app and really pronouncing words and excitedly talking about them. We then were writing English words on the paper, and he continued to excitedly sound things out and talk about them. I was trying to take him outside, but we ended up with him sitting/climbing on the rocking chair, more talking, and pretending to take care of animals. Eventually, we took one of the Duplo zookeepers with us, and he carried it as we took the stroller to the park. Oh, and we washed August’s chin and put a new bandaid on it. He held my thumb with one hand, while I held his other hand down. But he did pretty well in letting Carly clean it.

We went to 중평어린이공원, the small, and usually busy, park by the pink building. The last time here was when he bumped his head a couple times on the rocky toys sometime in the spring. The rocky toys were replaced with new ones that have more of a gliding motion to them. August got up on them a couple times, but not much. We then sat and had a snack (Larabar, crackers, cranberries) and read some books: A Pet for Pete and Biscuit Plays Ball. We also found some beads, and an older girl gave him a gummy bear. I sat on one of the rocky things and he came and climbed up on me. He said they were too high. We were talking like that for a few minutes when Carly showed up. They spent several minutes looking for more beads, as there were lots around.

We mentioned going for a walk and getting coffee for mama. August lit up, and said “What they have for Zinnie to drink?” Said we’d have to see. We walked southeast, past the hospital, and found yet another new place called Cafe Mare. August and Carly read the English printed on the wall why we waited. August was happy getting a poppyseed bread thing instead of a drink. We then walked east, down the street that August and I had come the other way on in the dark on Saturday. Showed Carly the Comma Cafe, etc. We went to 국화어린이공원 for a few minutes. This was the park where we first did letter drawing in the sand, and did C turns to O turns to Q. I had told August this as we walked by on Saturday. He remembered, as before we got him out of the stroller he said “want step P, step W…want to play that game.” Then, once we were in the sand I drew one letter and he stepped on it, then he drew in the sand “C turns to O turns to Q.” The mosquitos were coming out, and the bug spray I had put on didn’t seem to be helping much. Carly started the mosquito dance, brushing them away, and August really liked that.

We walked home. Outside the building we separated and they went on up and I went to Lucky Mart and got some groceries. When I got home they had been reading Winnie the Pooh. He ate a good amount of soup for dinner. He and I read Daniel Visits the Doctor and the Peppa Pig book. He looked through our list of books in iBooks, and surprised me by reading a lot of the titles, including ones we haven’t read for a long time, or haven’t read at all, like Whisper and Biscuit’s Snowy Day. Got the bath ready for him, but before going in he read the entire Hangeul puzzle next to the door.

During his bath he almost totally sat down – like 95% there. Played with the letters, and we put them on the side of the tub this time, encouraging him to sit. Putting them away for the night, he said “K said he’s going to watch a video of race cars going by.” A reference to me watching the Formula 1 race in the morning. He did some reading with Carly and they were talking about 17 something (reading for 17 seconds or 17 lines or something). When they finished he claimed they had done 18 and said “18 is just fine.” And gave a big thumbs up. While she showered he did more practice Hangeul pronunciation in the app.

I took him in to bed with a bunch of books. We read Kipper’s Birthday. He was looking tired, and I asked if he was, and he was saying “a smidgen” and “a smudgen” (got those from Carly). He got hyper, as usual, and we played a slime game, pretending slime was coming from different places (which started because he was making up names for different kinds of slime and asking where they were). Slime was coming out of the books and dripping on the ceiling to get on us. He calmed down and seemed worn out and tired when I left them at 9:50, but at 10:20 he was out, requesting a tissue. He silently played with blocks for awhile, stacking a wall of them, then we went back in at 10:40. We stood in the dark, looking at the clock for a few minutes. I was holding him and his forehead was against mine and I was holding his head with my hand. Very calm for a few minutes, then he said it was time for bed. I left him with Carly and thought he was asleep. Nope. He was back out 20 minutes later. I read some Pooh and he played with blocks. He was acting tired, lying on the floor, etc. Tried to get him to cuddle with me on the reading area while I sang but he got upset. Carly came and we took him back in bed. She refused to nurse for awhile and he got upset and cried. That finally did the trick, and he was asleep at 11:45.

Earlier, walking home, I had been carrying him and we talked about Carly going to work tomorrow, and we talked about the fun we would have at Children’s Grand Park. He was really excited by sidewalk chalk, etc. and gave me high fives. Carly speculated he couldn’t get to sleep because he was stressed about her going back to work – the last time he was up late like this was at the end of Chuseok break. Hard to tell for sure though, as his chin could have still been bothering him a bit (he was also pulling at his lip a lot and being messy when he ate, suggesting his teeth/jaw felt a bit funny), and he napped for about two hours.

Morning: 

Along the stream: 

Park: 

Home; 

After his nap: 

More talking: 

Park. New rocky toys: 

Looking for beads: 

Park #3:  

Home: 

95% sitting: 

Thumbs up: 

Bed: 

Back up and stacking blocks: 

At 7:38 he walked out of the bedroom, holding Sophie. They nursed and read some Winnie the Pooh and probably others. Eventually out in the living room with me, and playing with the door magnets. He said “KB is a bank.” as he pointed to two magnets. Presumably he and Carly had talked about this.

With rain, and lots of it on the way, we headed outside at 8:40 to try to get some outside time before it hit. It had already started to drizzle. We went over to the playground, and August found a bead. Looked around for a couple minutes, but he decided it was too wet to play and wanted to go home. We talked him into walking to the center of the park, and he spotted the coffee machines. Carly got a tea, and they wanted it dispense that. Then spent quite awhile playing in the center of the park: pretended to play badminton, he did some dancing, pretended to feed us strange things and pretend animals then said things like “It tastes like pufferfish”, then had us spitting them out, and the spit moving, and also pretended there was slime on things. All was good until he started dancing and running and fell. Carly was carrying him home and I suggested we see the statue with the blue paint on it and that cheered him up a bit.

Went home and they nursed and read Bob Books. He typed on Carly’s computer, then looked at Google Maps on mine. He was pointing at different cities/countries and talking about transferring at one ‘stop’ and going to another ‘stop’. He really wants to go to Siberia, apparently. He stacked wooden blocks with Carly.

We all headed out again, going to Home Plus. He walked on the way over, not wanting to get in the stroller. At Home Plus we played the ‘wrong ingredients’ game (his invention), where I list the ingredients of the Larabar or banana bread and accidentally include wrong ingredients – like pufferfish. He was singing the ABC song and changing the end, one time saying “Next time won’t you sing with boring stuff.” And he spent some time smelling the candies. We paid and went up to the second floor so I could have them process the refund for the class that was cancelled. August was lying on the floor, and sat at a table with a couple other people. Carly got August in the stroller and headed home while I did that. Got the refund, and caught up with them as they entered Brownstone.

We were home about 1:30. He played a confusing game, which came up once before, called ‘Confusing Sophie’, in which we (he) say confusing things to confuse Sophie. But mainly it confuses me. I’m sure it came from something, but I don’t know what. He says things like “Dada and Zinnie go to the carpet when Sophie goes to work.” He got sleepy and slept from 2:20 to 3:50. I was in the parlor and didn’t hear him until 4:10, when he finished nursing. I colored and wrote ‘oops’ Ks (where we make mistakes) with him on the paper. He then wrote ‘kit’, starting to spell ‘kitten’ on his own. We started to play with play dough, then Carly and I switched. I did the dishes after Carly finished making tomato bisque and a pasta dish. They nursed and played around. Carly started to go “Ahh!” anytime August said the word ‘nurse’, and he found that funny.

We then went out for a short walk. Raining rather hard. Carly had put pants on August for the first time and they didn’t seem to bother him – earlier in the day he had opposed the long-sleeved shirt, but eventually gotten okay with it. But as we were leaving he kept grabbing at the back of his diaper and asking ‘what is it’. In the hallway, I checked, and there was one of his zoo magnets in his diaper. Not clear how it got there. When asked, he said he did it, but had seemed awfully surprised it was there. Anyway, got downstairs and put August in the stroller, pulling the cover on over him. That had worked for Carly coming home from Home Plus, and worked for awhile this time. We just about got to the bridge over the stream, and he decided he wanted out. Let him out on the bridge, and he played in puddles for a couple minutes, but quickly decide he wanted to go home. Got upset and wasn’t too happy with the ride home. Back in Brownstone we let him out, and he was happy again. Spent a few minutes tracing Hangeul and sounding it out on a sign.

At home, he wanted the iPad and played with the geometry app, then one of the shape apps. He ate vegetables that Carly put out, and just kept eating them. Ended up eating a ton of broccoli. He wanted to type, and we typed Korean words (mama, tree, etc.) together. A bit later he typed 나무 (tree) entirely on his own. We looked at Reading Rainbow, and watched part of a video on alligators. Oh, and he played some instruments on the newest music app. As Carly took him in to his bath, he took a pretend spider with him, saying “spider says we need to take off the clothes.” After his bath, he wanted to nurse on the bed, claiming he would fall asleep. He did not, and as he noted himself a bit later, looking at the clock, “It’s only 8:20.” He then played on the bed with me for quite awhile. We read Mr. Gumpy twice, read some Curious George, built a nest, played the sleeping elephant game, and he chanted “emergency equipment” as he marched around on the bed, and later chanted “equilateral triangle”. I left him and Carly about 9:15, and he was asleep about 9:30.

Morning:

Fixing the fence: 

Home: 

Pants: 

Walking in the rain: 

Home Plus: 

Taking a seat: 

Later walk: 

Home: 

He was up at 6:54 and very excited to see Carly when he found her. A bit later they skyped with Vivian, and skyped for an hour or so. Vivian was trying to ‘teach’ August his numbers. After that, they skyped with Chuck and Cherie. August was then on the iPad and working on subtraction in TodoMath. Carly mixed up spinach pancakes and started cooking them, then we switched and I finished the rest. August liked those for breakfast. I took a shower, then he was climbing on the couch around Carly this time. We were talking about me taking August out so Carly could do some work, but August got upset and clingy every time that was mentioned. They nursed and read Biscuit books, then spent a long time pretending to read the ‘beauty’ bag that our kimbap came in yesterday. At one point he joked “Mama is a giant pacific octopus…mama has a giant pacific octopus as a friend.” Another time they read some Winnie the Pooh. Made one attempt for a nap sometime before noon. Early, but he was wanting to nurse on the bed. That didn’t work, and he came out and was playing with the magnets. They had been talking about chicks for some reason, and he was saying “The chicks are spelling words…I’m helping the chicks spelling words.” Finally, he did go to sleep, and slept from roughly 12:20 to 2:20, but woke up once in there and nursed.

It was a hard wake up. Nursing on the couch he fell back to sleep and Carly had to wake him up. Used the iPad to wake him up. Later, he started playing with the balloons from yesterday, and we were throwing them around the parlor. I was trying to get him outside, but he wanted mama to go and was getting upset. Finally, we kind of just had to force it, and we left a little before 4. He calmed down for Mama Juice, though, and we got a blueberry one to share. The park was pretty packed, and we found a bench over near the bridge. He stayed in the backpack and drank the juice.

We walked to Golmaeul Neighborhood Park (골마을근린공원). This is a park to the southeast. I don’t think I’ve been there since my very first walk alone in Seoul, the first week we lived here. Along the way, he was singing and naming alphabets. Didn’t know if there was a playground, but there was. At the park he pretended to save a penguin that fell in the water and took care of it. He went on the slide and tried to claim “this is second”. He was then saying “twenty-fifth” etc. when it was only the third or fourth time. He was talking about letters: “F can swim. But G cannot swim.” And saving the ones that can’t swim and drying them off. We spent a lot of time writing Ks, and intentionally making mistakes, saying “Oops!” We played on the teeter totter a few times, and he stood on it. More slide and more writing, then we went up to a bench to have a snack.

We ate most of the food we had with us – pancake, crackers (putting mushrooms on them), Larabar, and apple – and he asked “What ‘mechanical arm’ start with?” I asked “Where did you learn mechanical arm??” And he said “Ocean!” Referring to the Oceans iPad app. He also wanted to spell ‘badger’, which I also think comes from an iPad app, but from quite awhile ago. Finally, we read the Biscuit books we brought, and then were making up nonsense Biscuit stories and telling them.

We left about 6:20 as it was getting dark. He was making up more languages, and using names from Figure in naming them, like “Wobblylead language”. We walked a little south, then along a road I like, past the park where we first traced letters in the sand (that had been our backup destination today). Found an Italian restaurant, and a coffee shop called Cafe Comma. We will be back. Also two new coffee shops on that street from when we were there last. I was dictating Skype messages to Carly, and August wanted to as well. He kept saying “What is it then?” to Carly, and Siri understood him most of the time. Confused why he was saying it though, so I asked him and he reminded me it was a line from the book Not a Box. He was singing, and being really loud by the hospital where it was quiet, so I was asking him to be quieter. A few minutes later, as we were along the busy street, he was then including some whispering in his songs. We stopped and picked up bread, and I let him pick something out, which he was very excited about.

We got home at 7, and he had a minute for craziness when he got out, running around the house and saying “Hang in museum, tummy, stroller, door, shoes, water…” and listing about ten other things. Played a little iPad, then typed on Carly’s computer and was changing fonts. He said “Zinnie’s favorite color is yellow.” On his iPad we read the patterns book and a new book called Blue in Skybrary (Reading Rainbow). Carly gave him a bath. On my iPad, he was looking at books in the iBooks store and said “maybe Zinnie can read it when he’s 77 billion years old.” He did some Korean in the Dabong app. At some point, he and Carly made a big game of smelling all the spices. He would carry each one over to me so I could smell. Eventually, we headed in on the bed. He said “Want to build you a nest…Want to take Sophie with us.” Apparently he had built a nest for Carly earlier. He was asleep a little before 10.

Climbing on the chair:

Mama Juice makes it better:

Park: 

Home: 

Spelling words with Carly: 

Back to being sad when he wakes up. 7:43. Wouldn’t let me hold him and just kept saying “No, dada.”. But when I stared reading Winnie the Pooh he came and sat next to me and put his head on my shoulder. He then laid on the floor and started singing the 1 2 3 song. Then on to Duplos.

Took care of a couple animals and I looked up images of whales as we were talking about fins. He then wanted to search for his funny words. I asked if he wanted to search for real animals and he replied. “No. funny words. Again.”

He spotted the magnetic letter set that we got from someone but had never used. Started making words, and I had to show him the silent ‘e’ rule (like in ‘can’ to ‘cane’). He liked that and said “More tricks.” I mentioned the YouTube video we’d seen before on this, and that led us to pulling up YouTube to find it. Found that, and ended up watching more spelling and grammar videos from the same channel, mostly. We also watched the “A makes ah” song, and when it got to U August interjected “U also makes U…” (as the video just says “U makes uh”).

I was getting ready to go and making our lunch. He wanted some peanut butter. Then back to more songs and words. He said “What letter ‘swim’ start with? ‘Swim’, ‘start’…same letter…’start’ begins with S.” Back on the magnet board he made up words: “That is a music group from sumanoo.” At some point he said the word “disgusting” and I was trying to remember where he learned that. Seems like we used it in the last couple days – perhaps in a book? Finally, before we left we read the Peppa Pig and Rain books on the iPad.

Left and went across to the fair going on in the park. There was a guy that makes ornaments out of geometric shapes. We looked at those, and he showed us how they can spin and make other shapes. He stayed in the backpack for the 3 stops north to Madeul. Lots of singing along the way. We bought two rolls of mystery kimbap in the subway. Unlike yesterday, he ate a lot today. Going through all the kimbap, much of the apple, etc. through the day. Walked past one park and ended up at 개나리어린이공원. Ate our lunch. He dropped some carrot and rice and at one point asked if he could pick it up. I said no, and he started to get sad. Turned out he wanted to clean up. I let him pick it all up so we could throw it away. Second roll of kimbap turned out to be slightly spicy. He wasn’t happy about that, but ate parts of it.

After eating, he climbed the wooden climbing thing onto the structure. Went down a slide a few times and sat at the top of the wall. He wanted to fix it, and I happened to have his fixing spoon. He sat there talking about the park he was making and naming it: “I built a climbing wall…I built a bench.” He walked cross the metal bridge. The first time he was telling himself “I’m safe, I’m safe”. A running joke today was telling me I stepped in slime/had it on my feet – that comes from silent E song, where it says “I can turn slim to slime”. And he was pretending to wash his feet and said: “I can’t wait to get the dirt off my feet.”

Also based on that song, he made up a game where we pretended to jump over letters. We then pretended to build a bench together. He was asking the name of the park and he decided to name it Slime Namu Park. The game of pretending to take care of hurt animals also continued apace today. Finally, he wanted to spell ‘exploding’ for some reason, and as we worked on it he said “it’s not just X by itself; its E X.”

Changed him and got walking for a nap. I know we have talked about points and lines in all of our shape stuff, but he surprised me when he started singing something like “One line makes a point, two points make a line…” He fell asleep and I found a place called Madeul Cafe. He slept from 1:52 to 3:05 and awoke with a squeal. His left arm had come out and fallen asleep.

We got walking, again passing through one park where he didn’t want to stop. Walked up some stairs to get to 종달새어린이공원 and found a pretty cool park. It had a big main structure, a little kids structure, and then a slide that went from an upper level, through the ground, and came out by the main structure. We had a bit of a snack, then he climbed up a rope ladder thing and went down slides a couple times. I went up and went down the long slide, then he wanted to go with me. Kind of fast, and we only did it once, but he was fine with it. We took a break for a snack. The park was now pretty full with loud older kids. One older boy was waving in August’s face and interrupting us as we tried to read Biscuit and I had to tell him to go away. August wasn’t amused by him at all, and ignored him like I’ve never seen him ignore someone – and August is pretty good at ignoring the ajummas when he wants to. We read two of the new Biscuit books, with August sounding out and identifying several words when I asked.

We were getting ready to go, when he decided to start playing on the small structure. He would go down the little slide, run around and do it again. He started counting them…“First, second, third…” He said all of them up to nine, then also knew tenth, eleventh… Helped him a bit after that, and we lost track in the mid-20s. He started going down the slide in different styles: One time he would curl up like he was in his nest and slide down sideways, another time he would put his hands up. That started after the second or third time he went down when he tripped and sort of went down the slide backwards but discovered he liked it. We had talked about why the slide was smaller than the others (for smaller kids) and a smaller girl walked close and he said “she’s not old enough to go on it.”

Eventually, a little after 4, we headed out. He was singing, and would finish a song and say “That is all my letters…What is that language called?” I would then make up a name of the language, which he would then change.

After the subway, we walked through the park again. There was loud music and dancing going on at the stage. Tried to stop, but he didn’t want to. Looked around a little at the booths, but he still wanted to leave. A person gave us a balloon on a stick, but he didn’t want it, so I held it. Then a clown mime started making a balloon thing for him. August wasn’t interested, but later liked the balloon grapes he made. As we walked out, yet another group of people tried to foist balloons on us. One handed August a flower made from balloons. Said thank you, then we got about a step and he dropped it saying “Want someone else to do it.” I picked it up, saying it was rude to reject a present.

We got home a couple minutes before Carly. He was just getting the iPad out when she came in. He totally ignored her for 3 or 4 minutes, even after she tried to say hi to him. Very odd. He did tracing – the 5 star thing – and eventually they did that together and nursed, then did Art Maker together. They would draw something, then he would fill it in with “slime” and laugh hysterically. I took over and did some art with him as well. At one point he randomly said “It’s quiet now, what do YOU say?”, from Boynton’s Moo Baa La La La. We hadn’t read that in a couple weeks, I think. So we read it a bit later.

He and I then read more Biscuit books and he made laps around me, climbing on the back of the couch, then off again, etc. He was looking at the pictures of the other Biscuit books and then making up names: “Biscuit goes to eat. Biscuit wants to try the teeter totter.” He wanted to type on my phone, and was doing that for awhile. He was doing fine, but when I talked about changing him he got sad and looked really tired. Carly agreed to nurse, and he said “no counting” – something he’s said a few times when he doesn’t want her to use the counting trick to limit the time he nurses. She gave him a bath, and he was still acting tired and wanted to nurse on bed. She tried to put him to sleep a little after 8, but it didn’t work.

Up, he played with
Duplos and the magnet letters/board on his own for quite awhile. I then got some books and he came into the bed with me. We read The Hungry Little Caterpillar for the first time in months, and ended up reading it 3 times. He then wanted a cocoon, so we made him a cocoon out of pillows and a blanket. We then took care of an injured slug and a worm. We read Hop on Pop once, then he was ready for sleep. He was asleep about 9:40.

Waking up:

Letter magnets: 

Park 1: 

Fixing the bench together: 

Some graffiti art: 

Walking: 

Park 2:  

Slide loop: 

Walking: 

Mime: 

Home: 

Pronouncing his word: 

Taking care of a worm: 

8:16. He came out and silently walked past me and to the Duplos. Stood there a couple minutes, then got the shark and wanted to take care of its dorsal fin. We took care of it and other animals. I asked about one “How’d it get hurt?” “It climbed up there and was sleeping (something) and fell.” “Up where?” “Up there. I point.” A bit later, he was saying the Korean name of that TVXQ group and throughout the day was saying congratulations and/or a couple of the other ones in Korean. We read the Peppa Pig book, which would happen several times today, then I took a shower. After that, we discovered ‘5 Star Mode’ in the tracing app – you trace a word 5 times, and it gets more difficult (by the end, you don’t see the outlines of the letters). He did 4 or 5 words that way (zookeeper, whale, rabbit, etc.). A couple times today he wanted to take care of me. The first time I had cut myself cooking (I think like the owl in the Animal Doctor app). At one point he went into the parlor and decided he’d move the rolling unit around. Finally, his big game of the morning involved pretending that I had spilled too many vitamins. It was a subtraction game, as I’d spill 19 and then tell him how many I had to pickup to get to 6. He was playing on the arm of the couch when this started, then eventually climbed on the back of it. At one point he curled up like an animal on the back of the couch.

We got going and got to class right at 11:50. The teacher learned and just gave August a high five at the beginning. Class was about bowling – learning to roll a ball underhand was the primary skill. August did well, but it was really loud in there, and August wanted me to pick him up a couple times. But he got into rolling the balls down the ramps, and then took a turn in the big bowling ball carts, with the teacher pushing him around. He got his treat and frog handstamp at the end, and bowed to the teacher.

We went straight to the bus and took the Nowon 15 north (which actually heads west) and in 40 minutes were in Uidong – the place August has been wanting to go. He first got excited about it because he realized the first sound (‘oo’ as in ‘moo’) of it is his favorite Hangeul character in the Hangeul app – as it makes a loud ‘oo’ sound he says sounds like a balloon. On the bus he was looking outside a lot, and he said of the people outside that they “get tired, go to a coffee shop and wake up.”

We got to Salbot Park a little before 1. We were last here August 26th of last year. So over a year.  That time, I was trying to teach him to say ‘pine needles’ and he was calling them ‘hoo-has’ – his word for noodles. Anyway, we ate lunch by the south playground, although he didn’t eat much. We then played on the play structure. He climbed up and went down the slides several times – mainly the tube one, but the spiral one once. Around 2 I simply mentioned taking a nap and he got cranky – clearly tired. Changed him, and he climbed on a little fence for a bit, then we got going for a walk.

He put his head down a couple times, but eventually started singing and never napped. He was also more interested in the address signs on buildings than napping. We walked southwest to 4.19 Park. It is a memorial park and cemetery commemorating the April Revolution of 1960 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Revolution). August stayed in the backpack the entire time, and did some singing and enjoyed some of the statues we looked at. We walked around there, then headed back to Salbot Park via the main streets this time, checking out some coffee shops and restaurants for later use.

On the way back he did a lot of singing and pretended to put insects on me. We got to Salbot and went to the north playground. He was also pretending to shake the trees to hard, like the Mummy Pig in the Peppa Pig book, and have leaves or needles fall on us. He continued to put things on me – mainly insects, but also a Hangeul M – and joked “There are chimpanzees in dada’s ear.” We played there and ate a little more – although he still wouldn’t eat the apple, sandwich, or quesadilla. He mainly played on a spider web sort of climbing thing, wanting to climb it like a girl that was there. He then played with the low faucets, like he did last time we were here: http://youtu.be/RF17QNhKUxc

A little after 4 we headed home. On the bus we were sounding out the signs in Korean, but intentionally getting them wrong so we could say “Oops!” That was his game, not mine. I asked “Are you hungry?” And he replied “No! I’m just tired.” After awhile he asked for his iPad. Said “Want to do the puzzles that dada doesn’t like. Music groups.”

We got home a few minutes before Carly, who had stopped at the store. When she got home we were all on the couch and he said “Mama’s home. Zinnie’s home. Dada’s home. Someone else is home.” Didn’t explain who the someone else was. Awhile nursing he was falling asleep, so I pretended to but insects on him, then got out the iPad to wake him up. Finally ate a good meal today as he had a good amount of stir fry. We read the Peppa Pig book a couple more times, Swirl by Swirl, and got a cheap Elmo book about going potty. It was funny though, as it doesn’t even use the words ‘pee’ or ‘poop’, nor does it show either of them. Very different from the books here in Korea. We played a bit more of the geometry app, and he learned what an isosceles triangle is. When I took him in to his bath, he started drawing them in the water. Played with the letters. At one point he started kneeling in the bath. But that hurt his knees (which he asked why about), so I suggested he sit. He almost did it a couple times. Seemed very close.

Carly took a shower, and we played on the bed. One of the things we had been doing on our walk to 4.19 Park was talking to the robot (in our heads…) August told it to go to sleep, and it “initiated sleep sequence” and made a shutting down noise. He would then repeatedly wake it up and put it back to sleep. He also needed to learn what ‘initiate’ and ‘sequence’ mean. Anyway, once in on the bed he started saying it, and would collapse on the bed and curl up as he made the noise. We read Peppa Pig again. Carly came in to put him to sleep, and I joked about stealing him from her. He then wanted me to steal him a couple times. He went straight to sleep about 8:10: 

Moving furniture: 

On the couch:

Teuni Teuni: 

Salbot Park – south: 

4.19 Park: 

Walking: 

Salbot Park – north: 

Home: 

He was up at 7:07. No crying at all. Silently walked to Duplos and stood by them, then lay his head on the rocking chair and simply said “Yellow” once. We then took care of the animals, and the E we had built from Duplos. It was hurt as well: “It was hiking and slipped and hurt its knee.” The hiking and slipping part he had taken from me telling him about breaking my arm. I had told Carly about the yellow comment in an email (it was the only word he had said for the first several minutes) and she had replied, commenting on it. I read the email to August and he said “Want to lie down.” He got out of the rocking chair, grabbed a yellow brick, and laid on the floor with the yellow brick.

A bit later, after banana bread and more playing, we skyped with my parents. They had had to have Celeste put to sleep after she was hit by a car a couple days ago. And it was my dad’s birthday. Not a very happy birthday. Talked to them for a half hour or so, then got ready to head to Children’s Grand Park. August was playing on the iPad and did the digital letter magnets app. He was thrilled when he discovered he could he could change the colors of the magnets by tapping them. He came to me asking why the Korean characters changed color. He was using the actual Korean names of a couple of the characters. Definitely at a tipping point where he’s about to start learning Korean that I don’t know.

Before we left, we spent some time playing xylophone together. I believe he had mentioned something about ‘tune’. Yesterday, he had made up a new tune while singing and I had commented on it. He had then wanted me to sing the tune, but was confused when I couldn’t remember it. He had brought back up the ‘tune’ incident again today. I was trying to explain that every song has a tune, and he wanted me to play the Are You Sleeping tune. I started playing, and then he played the “Brother John” notes. We played for awhile and he was trying to imitate me, getting the rhythm pretty good, if not the notes.

Got ready to go and was getting him in the backpack and told him I love him a ton of Qs. He said “Dada loves you a ton of Vs and Qs…and soy milk and Vegemil A and snakes.” Then “Why they put an A on that soymilk?…what is Vegemil C?” He then talked about how some soymilk was white and some brown and said the Vegemil was “kind of brown.”

Played Animal Doctor on the way down. More people watching him, but not as bad. We stopped and got kimbap and eggs. Grey and about 68. Could have eaten outside, but gave him a choice and he chose the children’s museum. We went up and ate in the family lounge. He was getting silly in there, pretending to have me eat things and throw up (earlier he’d done the same with the little birds as we crossed the pond area) and saying “Sorry”. I finally convinced him it was time to actually go play in the children’s museum. He looked across the (always) closed sky bridge thing and wanted to go to the construction site, so we walked around.

Got distracted by the third floor. Did some of the matching puzzle stuff in the cultural area, and sang a song on the fashion runway. Then did a lot of stomping and singing the ball thing activation pad. Got on the bike pedal one and really wanted to pedal, but he needs another inch or two on his legs. Then continued down the ramp to the construction area. No one else there, so after playing with some of the bricks (he was making a house for us), we got to play with the rolling cart and crane for the first time. Sent one basket of bricks up to the second floor, then went up and got them out. But most of the time was spent on the conveyor belt, putting bricks on it and sending them up to the second floor. Also did the magnetic tiles up there, and counted them in various ways (at his request).

Changed him and headed out, now a little after 1 and time for a nap. We played on the round bench for awhile, both walking around it. He did some crawling as well. He saw a baby and asked why it was crying and I said it was just making noise because it couldn’t talk yet. I had to explain that babies couldn’t talk, and he said “The babies don’t say I love you.”

We got walking, but it took him quite awhile to fall asleep. He fought it a bit: We now walking in a sort of circle start at the children’s museum and around the north side of the central path, then walk back and forth on the south side – our regular napping path this whole time. Anyway, I turned back part way and then walked a slightly different route back through the outdoor theater because there was a large group of school kids coming on the path. August picked up on the change of route and said something like “Done with that pattern” and tried to convince me to go to the coffee shop. I kept walking and he fell asleep about 5 minutes later.

He slept from 2:02 to 3:28. He woke up and wanted out. I asked if he wanted to do sidewalk chalk and he said yes. We headed over. Playground wasn’t as busy. We had a couple people join in, but just a little. He wanted me to write ‘Konkuk university’ in Korean. He was then pretending to write my name. He drew a sort of face, and also pizza, which he then drew a cranberry on. He had some energy and ran around in circles and was singing. He wanted me to spell ‘sand’ and we were sounding out the ‘a’. He sounded out the whole word on his own, and said “Ends in a D!” He was fully sounding out words on his own today, and Carly saw more of that at home. We were also counting syllables, and he would randomly ask how many syllables a word had. He was doing pretty well with counting 2 and 3 syllable words if I just pronounced them.

And at one point he asked me what color the chalk he was holding was: “What color that is?” I said “Pink”. He matter-of-factly replied “red”.

We left at 4. He was fine with going. We went to Costco, stopping to change him in the bathroom at Sangbong Station. He stayed in the backpack as we shopped. Found a little set of early reader Biscuit books and got those, then went downstairs for our cheese supplies. He got 3 samples: grapes, a smoked gouda cheese, and cheddar on toast. We paid, then got food for dinner in the restaurant part, and headed out. He was patient through the whole thing. We stopped by the statue for a snack. He tried to convince me to eat the calzone there, but settled for the last of the banana bread. He played around a bit, tracing and trying to pronounce the name of the statue in English and Korean.

We headed home, doing a lot of counting and singing numbers. He was having me sing our number song long past 30 – up to 120 at one point. His favorite sentence today was “What comes after that?”

Stood up on the subway, and when we left through the turnstiles he joked about “We sneak!” again. He had seen the little Larva cartoon again.

Got him at 6. He wanted to nurse and read with Carly and they opened the Biscuit books and read a little, but he didn’t nurse. He then did the Hangeul app for awhile, then he and I drew in Art Maker. He wanted to draw homes again, and I made a rectangle. He then divided it into quarters, and said “That a present. That’s not a home.”

He needed to be changed and when I tried to do so, he remembered he had yet to nurse. So Carly changed him, and he finally nursed at 7:15. A bit later Carly gave him a bath, and he was doing a lot of sounding out words. He came into the parlor and dropped his towel on the ground. He looked at the shape it made and said “What’s that shape? Maybe it’s a donkey.” He and I did some cleaning up of the Duplos and bricks, and made one tower that he knocked over.

He wanted pajamas on, then wanted to go in on the bed and make a nest, so we did that, and read Peppa Pig and the Fall Day again, and Harold and the Purple Crayon for the first time. He played in the nest, and Carly came in and he wanted to nurse. Looked really tired as I left at 9. But at 10 he suddenly came into the parlor, wanting a tissue. He sat with me for awhile. We typed out
some math problems (working on typing + and =), then read the Peppa Pig book again, and ended by reading Rain! He can read/recite most of the book now. Took him back in at a quarter past 10 and he was soon asleep.

Yellow boy and yellow brick:

Subway: 

Children’s museum: 

Almost: 

Building area: 

Outside and chalk: 

Chalk: 

Costco: