This Is Our Blog

He slept in until 8:32. Held him for a minute, then when he wanted down we took care of the animals. After awhile with that, I showed him a new iPad app – Animal Hospital, in which you get to take care of seven different animals. August’s range of knowledge was limited, so the animals we take care of either throw up or have a hurt leg. Playing this app for awhile helped increase that range. We ate banana bread for breakfast, then some special flakes later. We then skyped with my dad. My mom was out at dinner with some friends. We talked for about half an hour. August was playing Oceans on the ipad for awhile, but was then acting like an elephant, and then showed grampa how he takes care of the Duplo animals.

We got off Skype at 10, and turned on the debate just as the candidates came out. August was asking what they were doing. I watched the debate, and August played with the Hangeul and number magnets, and we made letters out of play dough. Thrice he picked up on things Clinton said: “what does business mean?” “What does ‘at the same time’ mean?” “facing…facing it. What way you going.” At some point he also said “business…closed for business…went to the aquarium and it was closed.” Not clear that that was entirely related to the debate. I’m not sure where he learned ‘closed for business’ though.

After the debate we got ready to head out only to realize it was raining. Using the umbrella and the sun cover we walked to Toys R Us. Looked around there. Got four boxes of chalk, and a Smurfs storybook/play mat thing that I’ll save for later. August looked at the animal figurines for awhile, and we helped straighten them out. He was hungry, so we went into the baby lounge and ate in there. Our game was counting syllables on his big long made up words. Changed him then back out in the main hall he climbed on the metal guide rail along the wall. We walked home. Still didn’t put on the full rain gear, but it was now raining harder, so got a bit more wet. August was acting a bit tired, and put down his head for awhile, but was then up and singing the rest of the way home.

At home he talked more about Uidong and said “transfer at Uidong. Maybe it’s the end of the line.” He went in the parlor and played by himself for a few minutes, then suddenly he came out and climbed up on the couch with me and cuddled a little. We ate some crackers, and were eating the crumbs. He was asking what kind each crumb was, and I said one was a cheese-it. He replied “Sorry dada, it was a wheat thin.” A bit later, out of nowhere, he got up, walked over and picked up the Q magnet on the other end of the couch and said “I love you Q.” And kissed it.

We headed out one more time to see if he might want a nap, but I didn’t really think so. Before we left I had to change him again. By the time we left it was getting pretty late for a nap, so I was kind of hoping no. I put the yellow cover on this time, and expected him to get upset, but he didn’t. Totally fine with it. We headed out, and decided to go to the library. At the library, we sat down on the benches in the hall to get him out and I said I needed to take off the cover first. He asked “How do we take off the cover?” We went in and started looking at the English books. He grabbed a Halloween book off the shelf and said “Zinnie’s read it on his own.” He then climbed up in a chair and started turning the pages. He was working on his whispering, and would say things loudly, then sometimes catch himself and whisper it. We got five or six books and headed upstairs and read four of them. We read Pooh and Eeyore, How to Massage Your Cat, and Quinn’s Q Book.

He wanted a snack, so we headed out, and sat next to the backpack and had some crackers. We then headed out. Given the choice of art museum play area or coffee shop, he chose the latter. We walked back through Brownstone and headed over across the stream and to Cafe Tolerance. Along the way he remembered taking care of animals yesterday and said “want to take care of the cybisters.” So we pretended to do that as we walked. August chose a grape juice pack and I got my macchiato. We sat in chairs looking out over the stream. He played on the iPad and I did some reading. He spilled just a little out of his juice pack and was sad when we couldn’t put it back in and sort of cuddled for a bit. Acting tired, but got over it. We spent the last few minutes there with him spinning in the chair and verbally doing the Cookie Monster Is it a word? game.

Left about 5:40, and he walked the entire way home. Just light rain. He stomped in the first puddle and said “Blasted puddle!” Then he started jumping in the puddles and saying “Ribbit!” He also stopped to watch the water going down a drain in the street. A very fun walk home, and took about 20 minutes.

We got home just after 6. They nursed. He then was playing on his own, drawing on the paper and talking to himself: “…go to work period.” (As if he was writing it) “Its NOT NOT NOT NOT a box. Now you’re wearing a box?” And for a couple minutes he just drew Ks. He went into the parlor and asked if we could read Not a Box and Swirl By Swirl. He read Not a Box with Carly, as she hadn’t yet read it. He was then typing things in the search field in iBooks, and seemed to be doing fine until it was bath time. He wasn’t happy about that at all, and it ended up being a quick bath. Did a little talking in bed, but not much. He said he wanted to nurse, but Carly didn’t know if he was ready. She nursed him though and he fell immediately to sleep, right at 8.

 

Toys R Us: 

Home: 

Library: 

Korean poop book: 

Q: 

To Cafe Tolerance: 

Cafe: 

Puddles: 

Home: 

7:13. Wanted to nurse, so a little sad, but not too bad. Sat in the parlor for a minute, then remembered the iPad and wanted to play. On the Hangeul app he was asking what the words like ‘onset’, ‘coda’, ‘vowels’, and ‘syllables’ meant. So I taught him what syllables were and he seemed to get it, and was thinking of words for us to count the syllables of: computer, spatula, Althauser, water bottle, clothes. We ate banana bread and the leftover eggs for breakfast, and tried to get going a little earlier as we had our long trip to the zoo. Brushed our teeth, and when we were done he said “I’ll put mine away. I’ll be back soon.” At one point he was playing with the door magnets and had one stuck to his face and didn’t realize it. We left a little after 9.

On the train down he was saying “Spiralshipper”. He made clear he was talking about the Not a Box book, so we got that out and read it. He was trying to say ‘pirate ship’. Got off at the park and began our walk. August started saying “Dada is cute. Dada is pretty. Dada is beautiful.” Based on the ‘You are pretty’ etc. sentences in the Hangeul app. We stopped and got a sandwich and a rice ball thing and his mango soy milk (he asked for it on the subway, I think), then walked into the zoo and ate in our usual blue-green light area by the giraffes. Ate a good lunch, then was playing around: “What is cockroaches in Espanol?” “Dada speak Korean.” He ran around the table and and was pretending to write things like “Dada is pretty” and saying “I wrote that for dada.”

We changed him in the changing rooms, and talked about how he had gotten upset the last time (or maybe time before) we had changed him there. He remembered the spot, and said something like “I’m okay now.”

We got walking, intending to go to the tropical birds (one place we haven’t gone) or to the water birds or the beast pavilion, as those were the two areas he talked about when we looked at the map on the subway. But he pointed over towards the Insectarium (he had also been pointing off in the direction of the Australian Pavilion – don’t know if he was simply remembering location, as we couldn’t really see it, or if he was spotting signs) and wanted to go there. We went in and he got out of the backpack and played with the button thing and we identified several insects. I realized that the video they have repeating on several screens through the insect house has a song called “Sex Bomb“ as the soundtrack. We got in to the room with the turtles and water bugs and spent a lot of time there: he played the pretending to take care of the animals game several times with the turtles and then the cybisters (the round water bugs), and really wanted to know the names of all the water bugs. We went upstairs and quickly went through the spider area. Oh, and he had really liked the ‘super worms’ downstairs and would mention them later. We went out back to the area with all the frogs and toads and whatnot and read some tank temperatures. He spotted a gnome statue in the pond with water coming out of its mouth and was wondering why it was doing that.

You come out on the side closest to the Australian Pavilion and he wanted to go see if it was open. It wasn’t. But we saw the cassowary and saw kangaroos sort of hopping. He also saw the signs that tell you not to feed the animals and talked about those a few times through the day. Went to the butterfly garden area and changed him, then got walking. He was singing, and sang the ABC song, ending with “…x, y, Zinnias…” Then said he was going to sing a song about beetle and zinnias. He did. He sang songs mentioning zinnias and cockroaches a lot after that.

He fell asleep and slept from 1:30 to 2:39. Went to the Cafe Tiamo near the entrance and ate in the food area there. Nicer seating than at the usual spot, and wasn’t busy. However, I was startled about 5 times as other families kept dropping metal bowls on the floor or having kids knock over chairs. Luckily, August slept through it.

Walked to the other end of the zoo and the South American Pavilion, which he had also mentioned a few times. He really liked the crocodiles, and wanted a snack. There was a good bench area by them, so we got down and watched the armadillos, then he ate a Larabar and almost all the banana bread we had. He ate a lot today. Then played at taking care of the crocodiles. Eventually got going, particularly after he was finding it tempting to pick at the flowers. Stopped at the coatis and took care of one of them, then headed out. He started to do a  lot of singing as we walked out of the building. He included ‘zinnias’ in a song a few times and asked “What was that song about?” I said “Sounds like it was about zinnias.” He said “Lots of Zinnias.” and laughed. Right outside he kept singing more songs, and was running around, literally running circles around me and singing songs about cockroaches and zinnias. He ended the ABC song with “next time won’t you cockroaches eating leaves.” Then had a series of them as we walked out of the zoo: “next time won’t you sing with…” elephants, cockroaches, ladybugs eating cockroaches, etc. He had me ask what the songs were about, and was adding things to his list of people going to work, saying things like “It’s about pampadoo, sopadoo, Gamle oct Havet, and Figure going to work. Lots of people going to work.” And laughing at his own joke again.

He had quite the audience of three older men watching him as he played iPad on the way home: Hangeul and Oceans, primarily. They were fine, although it was a little odd, although one time the guy who had gotten up from his seat to come and watched reached down and touched August’s hand as he was trying to play. I have him a ‘What the hell?’ look and said something like “Really?” One of the other guys told him not to touch August, although I didn’t understand the reason he said.

Anyway, we got home at 6. When August got in he immediately wanted to play iPad. A little addicted right now. But he wanted to play iPad instead of nursing, which has never happened, so there is that. He ate a good dinner, and a bit later Carly gave him a bath. He and I read Rain and Pete the Cat’s Old MacDonald. August read (or recited) much of the first several pages or Rain and did some singing of Old MacDonald. A little before 9 he wanted to play Figure, so we played that together for 15 minutes or so. We played with the animal magnets again, sorting them (or more like joking about putting the animals where they don’t belong). Went in on the bed for a little while, then he was ready to nurse. I left them a little before 10.

Morning:

Magnets: 

On his face: 

Walking: 

Zoo: 

 중현어린이공원

A pretty laid back Sunday. We went grocery shopping in the morning, and then all went for a walk to a playground in the late afternoon.

He was up at 7:40. Nursed, then was reading Winnie-the-Pooh with Carly. Nice that he is starting to get into that. He then came and played on the iPad with/next to me. He was playing the Hangeul app and wanted the ‘You’re the best’ sentence. Told him I didn’t remember what that one was, and he was able to tell me in Korean. Later, he told me I was wearing a box. That was a reference to the book Not a Box. He was singing songs and made ones up about sounds and fish: “all the sounds…parrot fish, yellow fish, butterfly fish…” Then making octopus jokes, and my favorite was when he said “Giant pacific octopus fish…that’s a silly joke.” I made scrambled eggs and broccoli for breakfast and we all ate together. While eating, a “gnat” was flying around and August told it to “Go away” He then joked about it going in my ear, which was a reference to when we were walking home from the playground yesterday and one actually tried to. He wanted to paint with Carly, so they did that while I took a shower.

We then got ready to head out and do our shopping. I asked August if he knew what grocery store we were going to, and he said “Lucky Mart”. It turned out that Carly had, in fact, told him. We did our grocery shopping, pretty uneventful except that I let him buy one of the pineapple jello things this time, and we came home.

He ate the pineapple thing, laughing much of the time just at the thought of it slurping, then I got out the paint brushes that he and I had bought up at Uijeongbu and we added to their painting. He got into the brush painting right away, and was painting Ks and triangles. He played the Korean app. Again. Then he was telling me “you’re the best, dada” and giving me a thumbs up, which is what the little monster in the picture for that one does in the app. After awhile I told him one more sentence, and when he was done with it he turned it off and put it away on the table without me saying anything. We went into the parlor and made a walking path for him out of blocks and the Teuni gym thing and the chairs. He was sort of swinging while sitting on the Teuni gym, then barely fell getting out of it. He did his “That’s a yes, yes” thing that he does when he’s hurt or something goes wrong. Think this was the first time I sort of got it on video. We were getting close to a nap, and when he suddenly wanted the ipad again we said no and he was a bit upset. But got him straightened out by suggesting we read Rain. We read that in bed, then talked about writing our own story. So that turned in to making a list of words in his language. He would type something, then tell me what it was in English and I would type that. We ended up with a long list. When he was ready for a nap he told me so, and I told him to call to mama, which he did: “Hey mama, I want to take a nap.” She came in and he napped from 1:50 to 3:15.

He had apparently woken up crying. I didn’t hear this because I was in the parlor and the door was closed because Carly had the air conditioner on. When he came in to me about 3:30 I asked him about his nap and if he had dreamed. He said yes, and when I asked him what he had dreamed about he said “About ‘No’”. I was surprised because he’s never acknowledged dreams before. But then Carly told me she had asked why he was crying and had asked if he had been dreaming about us saying “No” to something.

He and I spent a long time with one of the Duplo people as a vet, taking care of animals, then he typed more words on his list. He did the putting magnets in the xylophone game, and at one point said “I took them out. There’s no many left, okay?”

We headed out for a walk, August in the stroller. Got coffee and a pineapple juice for August at Mama Juice. We had seen people walking across the new rail-to-trail bridge across the river, so thought we would check it out. However, the park area on this end was still closed, so we couldn’t cross the river. We went to the children’s park near there instead. He and Carly immediately started finding the beads, and there were tons of them. So did quite a bit of that. He put them in Carly’s pocket, and a bunch more in the stroller. Then went and played on the play structure. Climbed up a couple of bar ladders and went down the slide, then I played the Jaws ‘duh-duh’ game again – like many months ago when Carly was last there – and he loved that. And after we changed him he went up the short actual climbing wall a couple times with our help. And he yelled into the bottom of the slide and said it was an echo on his own. After climbing he wandered off to the foot path, so we all tried that. We then saw five cats hanging out in the bench area, so watched them, then back to the walking path, then playing on the exercise equipment. August could do the spinning back and forth one by himself. We then went back to collecting beads for awhile. August found a piece of broken porcelain and was excited, saying “want to throw glass” and went and threw it in the bushes. We’ve done that a few times when we find glass and there are no garbage cans around.

It was 6 or so and we were hungry, so we headed home. We ate and he played some iPad. At one point he went to the refrigerator and saw the pear and prune juice and wanted to try that, and liked it. He was making octopus jokes, and said “giant pacific octoseven.” He played with the Hangeul magnets, making up things for us to pronounce. Carly gave him a bath, then switched and I played with him while he was in the bath. Got out and when he went out to the living room he immediately wanted the iPad and was upset. I reminded him that the plan was to do a puzzle or read books. They nursed and did some more reading. I made another loaf of banana bread. At some point, they got out some books to read, and one was the Junior Picture Dictionary, which we’ve had for a long time but haven’t much looked at. He was looking at the animals other things and saying “Let’s try (look for) this sometime”. Then, talking about us reading, he said “This is two people reading the book.” While Carly took a shower we ended up in the changing room playing with the animal magnet set. We took all the magnets off, and tried to put them in the logical spot on the zoo board. A good sorting activity. One of the magnets is a fox, and we put it in a cave. He then wanted to go in on the bed and we made a cave and he pretended to be a baby fox, sleeping. He wanted a photo of him going in the cave, but also wanted to take it. He did end up holding the phone and taking photos of the sheets and other things. Carly came in, and he was asleep by 10:10.

Tape measure: 

To the park: 

Park. Looking for beads:

Spiral: 

Home: 

He got up at 7:30, same time as me. Lot of nursing through the morning. Soon as he was done nursing he wanted the iPad and did the Hangeul app and then Oceans. We looked up photos on my iPad of the animals. Carly got him Cheerios for breakfast, and was trying to get him to use the spoon himself, but he didn’t want to do that. Then had some banana bread. He and Carly then skyped with Chuck and Cherie in Utah, after which he was cuddling with Carly on the reading area. Got him his vitamins and he remembered getting 7 yesterday, as I had dropped one and he found it later.

We headed to Dream Forest. On the bus, as we went under the underpass, he said “That was a kind of tunnel.” We walked up towards the playground and he wanted to get out of the backpack half way. He then sat down and played on the walkway, looking for bugs. He noticed people walking by: “two people went that way.” Busy at the playground. We sat in the shade and ate lunch. He sat in the corner between the post and the backpack, then in sort of a nest between Carly and me, before sitting in her lap. We did a little playing on the playground. Went up the stairs and tried to go on the shaky bridge, but it was busy and he never went. Back down I noted it had opened up and asked if he wanted to go back up: “Nah. It will be crowded.”

We went up and changed him, and they nursed up in the place with the metal chairs. We went for a walk on the trail along the hillside. He slept from 1:56 to 3:30 in Cafe Dream. He started to wake up a couple times but fell back to sleep. Changed him again, then we walked home around 4:20, leaving through the north entrance and walking over across the stream close to APIS and then home. I asked how he was doing, and he replied by joking that Smokey was mama. Had fun with that for awhile. Talking about Smokey reminded him of trees, and he was asking for the names of trees. He was also apologizing to pretend snails we were scaring, saying “sorry double huh snail.”

Along the way, we found a big playground in an apartment complex. We played there awhile, mainly with Carly going up on the structure with him and going down a slide a couple times. As he was climbing with her he said “thanks for talking to me…this is helpful.” He then climbed the big climbing wall a couple times with my help, and played at the top of it. Before going on the wall for the firs time he said “that makes Zinnie’s a little nervous, but not much.” Before we left he wanted to keep playing and I offered him one more climb and asked “is that a deal?” He replied “No. That’s not a deal.”

As we walked we saw a shirt: The Passion Ate Youth. Not sure if that was intentional or not. He was singing and added to his “…went to work and got some money and ate some food“ line by adding “and spilled some milk”.

At home he was singing, pretending to play the xylophone, saying the notes he was playing “1, 1, 3, 4…low, high, low, high, low, high…those are the notes.” We ate some dinner, then were playing on the iPad. He and I put a bunch of his made-up words in the tracing app for him to trace. He was playing with the new music app when Carly was taking a shower and it froze. He went and played with the magnets for awhile, but was then upset when it was still resetting. I had to keep him from going in the bathroom and he was still upset when she got out. He was also doing some more dancing to the Aphex Twins while he was playing the iPad. I gave him a bath. He was counting the digits in large numbers, and working on saying them (he has hundreds down, but has troubles with thousands), and counted to 30 on his own. Later, with Carly, he counted to 37. He also stuck letters to himself in the bath. Back in the parlor he wore his ducky towel on his back and curled up on the floor like a nautilus. He went to sleep about 9:30.

Morning: 

Dream Forest: 

Walking: 

Playground: 

Walking again: 

Home: 

Tracing his made up words: 

August’s choice today, and after listing several options for him, he chose Dobongsan. He was up nice and early, at 6:30. Nursed, and Carly tried to put him back to bed but then he was up. Played on the iPad and was fine saying goodbye to Carly when she left for work. We ate banana bread for breakfast and played with Duplos. Tried the new Discover Music app on my iPad, which is kind of an introduction classical music, and August liked that. He particularly liked the one that has 4 birds singing and introduces you to the 4 sections of a choir. When playing the piano, he joked about breaking it, but said that the guy in the app would be sad: “want to broke them…that guy will be sad.” When I changed him, he then just lay on the changing pad and was singing, then explaining the songs: “what that song about…go to work and get some money and have fun…” And got silly: “like the giving tree has apples…” “No no dada, it’s shambayapayo.” “How you doing quackamcnickerton?” He played with the magnets on the door and did more singing, then randomly said “arpeggiator”, which is a setting in Figure that we’ve never really figured out.

We headed out, and while walking he was doing nonsense math: “Double ㄱ plus double ㅁ equals…” And he was working on counting big numbers: “96, 97, 98, 99…200, 300…1500, 1600…” At the train he wanted to stay in the backpack. We saw a baby sitting down, and he kept asking it “How you doing baby?” He was also asking the train’s name in Korean, and pretending to save a baby penguin, a la Curious George.

We stopped and got a couple of rice burgers in the station, then went into the Iris Garden. We went to our usual log bench area, then had to go right to the changing room to change him. Back to the log bench and we ate lunch. When we were done, he started playing with the spoon from our rice burgers, pretending it was a tool. He was working on the bench and tree: “I’m building this park. This is a new bench.” “This park is new.” A smaller boy came over and totally watched him for awhile. A woman came by and for some reason wanted August to see a pigeon.  August turned to her and sort of pointed to her, saying “That’s not right, that’s not right…The woman said the wrong thing.” At least she couldn’t understand him.

He was getting tired, so we went and got water, then got in the backpack. Tried identifying some flowers we saw earlier, but the app still wasn’t working. Got walking and meandered around the little streets west of the main street, where all the little shops and restaurants are. Had planned to go to a coffee shop we hadn’t been in before, but when it took longer for him to fall asleep I headed to Cafe 553, right by the stream we play in. He slept from 12:49 to 2:29. A long nap.

He woke up and we walked around the stream area. He was chanting and pointing “70 zero right here, 70 zero right there…80 zero in the stream…” And he said “I’m a ladybug eating a beetle.” But he wasn’t ready to get out, and didn’t want to play in the stream. On his own he said “Next time we come back we can play in the stream. Maybe. That’s a deal like that.” I had mentioned we could go to a new park instead, and he liked that idea. When given a choice between walking along the stream or streets, he chose the latter. We made our way to the park, him singing much of the time. The park is 누원어린이공원, and is near where the Dobong stream meets the river at Suraksan.

The park had a really nice play structure. He started by climbing on the little fence around the sand area. Eventually we went to the slightly angled climbing wall. I went up first and he followed. He got stuck the first time, and I had to go help. Once he got to the top he was really excited, and kept talking about the yellow one where he got stuck. And then was pretending to eat bugs. At one point I asked what he was, and he said an elephant. That climbs. And eat bugs. He climbed up it twice after that. The second time he paused halfway and rested his chin on the yellow grip thing and pretended to eat bugs.

We went and played in the sand a bit. August used the rice burger spoon to pretend he was feeding me ice cream, and then we were dropping it everywhere – a repeat of that game at home. We also found a few beads. Back on the play structure, we went down the blue slides together a couple times. We ended by climbing over the play structure to the other end, where he was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him go on the shaky bridge. It was up high, 5+ feet, with big holes in it. Eventually he settled for climbing on the rope ladder part. He kept pointing from the rope ladder to the rope shaky bridge, and pointing out that one went horizontal and the other was vertical. He climbed up the ladder to where he could put his hands on the platform, but never tried to climb up on it.

Before we left we went and looked in at the library next door. Something to check out if we are in the area when it is cooler. We walked across the river to Suraksan Station and headed home.

Got here at 5:15. Carly home 10 minutes later. They nursed, then did Hangeul and some Dragonbox Numbers puzzles on the iPad. Ate stir fry for dinner and played in the living room. He wanted me to use the Cookie Monster voice for things, and played with the magnets. Carly went to take a shower. August asked me for a paper towel – a wet one – because he wanted to clean. Nothing in particular. He just went around rubbing things. Back on the iPad, he played Math Tree with Carly. Definitely getting the math now, and not just randomly choosing answers. He played some Figure, then back on the Hangeul app (which will disappear soon…) with Carly he told her “Good job trying mama; it actually goes there.” After she got one wrong.

Carly gave him a bath, then he did play dough letters with me. We switched, and he did play dough with Carly. She made a snake and had it dancing. I had put an Aphex Twins album on, and August liked that, asking what the sounds were (I think they reminded him of sounds in Figure). He started dancing around naked to the music, like the snake.

We did a little nest time before he went to sleep. They were both asleep about 10.

Don’t do a lot of ‘on this day’ things, but noted them today: Last year at this time we were at the palace with chuck and Cherie and August did yoga with her. And there was the great pineapple/bloody lip/tears/snot incident. Two years ago, we were at the other palaces with my parents. And 4 years ago my parents and brother were about to leave for Germany.

Morning:

Iris Garden: 

Park: 

Home: 

He was up at 7:15. Upset when he found Carly gone, and sat on the floor in the parlor. He didn’t want consoling today, so I just sat next to him. I started playing with the Duplos and he initially rejected the zookeeper. But then when I picked up the alligator and had it chomp something he said “Want alligator chomp dada.” He then made a joke, calling the zebra the “Giant Pacific zebra”, which is a play on ‘Giant Pacific octopus’, which we saw yesterday. Traded a couple messages with Carly – August found the letters for and typed one of them – and she liked the joke, so he made up a couple others like it.

He ended up on his iPad, playing the Hangeul app. On the one hand, he is starting to actually read some of them. On the other, the music group thing is bugging me. So I spent time looking for better Korean apps. Hadn’t found anything in the past, and today was no exception. Just horrible, horrible programs. Either ones that don’t teach anything, try to teach the wrong thing (one app started with ‘one piece’), or are so poorly programmed that they are basically unusable.

We skyped with my parents for awhile, but then Skype was having issues, so we gave up on that. My dad has a birthday next week, so I was telling August to ask him how old he will be. My mom was joking about how they didn’t have enough fingers to count that high. Anyway, I felt like a translator, as August kept asking what she said, and I had to explain. Of course, there is a lot of explaining the other direction as well. But later in the day, when I told Carly about it, he definitely remembered the discussion about not having enough fingers.

I eventually found one app that wasn’t a complete waste: it is a magnet board, where you can put up magnets with letters on it. Korean is included. Kind of redundant when we have the actual magnets a few feet away, but could be good on the subway.

Before we left he developed one big ice cream game, using the crayons that look like ice cream cones. It turned into something like this: “Let me make more ice cream for you then dada will be happy. Here you go dada. Mama will be sad about it if dada drops ice cream. Want dada to drop it on the carpet.“ I would then say I wasn’t going to drop it, then drop it, and he would laugh. He would then clean off the cone, wipe the floor (and sometimes me), and then make me some more ice cream. Repeat.

Also before we left he wanted to do some matching with the animal dominoes. And he wanted me to use the Cookie Monster voice to decide if the matches were correct.

We headed to Home Plus a little before 11. August had finished off the banana bread this morning, then was sad when he wanted more but it was gone. So we had talked about making more. He also hadn’t eaten much else, and as we left he started asking about food. So we did our shopping first, getting bananas and carrots for bread, and he picked out kimbap. We walked outside and sat on a bench on the south side of Home Plus and ate the kimbap. He was hungry, and we ate it all. When we had walked into Home Plus I was carrying him, and he started giggling. I asked what was funny and he said “Home Plus is funny”. In Home Plus he found one of those hopscotch-looking tape figures on the ground and wanted me to do hopscotch a few times. He then started pretending to write letters in them, like he did last year (from doing it with the stick in the actual hopscotch figures down at Children’s Grand Park). He switched to his language, then was totally walking and pointing around as he sang in the produce section for a few minutes.

Up to class just as it was starting. August clinging to me at the beginning. As the teacher came around to do the lifting thing, I told August he could tell the teacher ‘no’. As he came up, August said “No, no, no, no.” And it worked. I then congratulated August on using his words, and that made him smile. He still was afraid of the walking path/forward roll part, and that one is odd, since he loved that part last spring. Anyway, after that things were fine: August was sitting with the teacher, was fine with the teacher riding a camel toy with him, and got into a ball fight with him in the ball pit. August’s favorite part was the big jump down to the mat – about a 3 foot jump, or a bit higher. He did it several times, just holding one of my hands. At the end of class they got their first Teuni toy of the session: a Monster Cannon. You squeeze a ball to shoot a foam ball. And August said ‘kamsamnida’ really well when I asked him to after he got his treat at the end.

On our way home we started singing the Spanish ABC song, which reminded me of the backwards ABC song and the counting ones. So we brought those back through the day. A lot of songs were forgotten by both of us over the summer. Oh, and we invented a new ‘Sleepy little nautilus’ song today, starting in the morning when he was pretending to be a sleeping nautilus again (he had shown my parents some of the animals we had seen in the aquarium yesterday, using the Oceans app).

Anyway, we got home and dropped off groceries and the Monster Cannon, and were going to get in the stroller and go for a walk. He was clearly sleepy and started to get upset. But then he started to make actual syllables out of Hangeul and pronounce them using the door magnets and I let him do that for awhile. Missed my window to get him in the stroller though, as he then wanted something and got upset when we couldn’t do it. Wiping his eyes and yawning, but didn’t want to get in the stroller. So I had to force him in. We rarely have to force him to do anything, so this was a definite exception. But once he was buckled in he calmed down. Fell asleep after 10 or 15 minutes of walking.

Went to Sarang Bbang Cafe and he slept from 1:33 to 2:22. A short nap, and very slow to wake up. So I pushed him north, to an area with two parks, just southwest of Nowon Station. I believe they are the last two children’s parks within two stops any direction that we hadn’t been to and documented on Google Maps. Went to the east one first. He didn’t want to play, still waking up, but liked the idea of reading. We read Rain, Not a Box, and then a couple of Bob Books. Been awhile since he had done that, so it was like he needed reminding about how to sound out words. But then he was doing it on his own.

Eventually he wanted to head home, no playing at the park. We swung by the second park, but it was closed anyway, with backhoes and other trucks working on it. Watched them for a couple minutes and kept going. He started singing, and sang pretty much the entire way home. As we went past Madeul Stadium and through the apartment complex there, he was really singing, singing a “2, 1 and 0” song and then “That’s a funny diamond, that’s a funny rhombus…funny star right there, funny star right there…” The whole time he was drawing in the air. He would finish a song, and I would ask what the song was about, and he’d say something like “Sopadoo and chimamoo go to work…they get some money…mockamoo stayed home…”

We got home a little after 4 and I started making banana bread. Carly got home at 5:20 and they nursed, then did math with the zookeeper. He did more of the annoying Korean app, but when I told him it was time to put it away he did. I got out the monster cannon and we played with that. Carly made stir fry for dinner and he had some of that, then he had some banana bread when it was ready. Carly took a shower, and he and I read the Pete the Cat Old MacDonald book. He did a lot of reading and singing of that.

I gave him a bath, then he and Carly read Curious George Goes to the Aquarium. For some reason they got on the subject of our names, and he was saying “Carly Althauser”, which was fun to hear him say, and my name at least once.

We got him in to bed, and it went pretty smoothly. He had a big long monologue all about polygons before he settled down to nurse, and they were asleep about 10.

Morning:

Home Plus:

Class: 

Home: 

Park: 

Headed home: 

Home. The Monster Cannon:

He was up right at 8:00. Very sad for a couple minutes, but then he got down and started reading all of the word signs in his language (after actually reading ‘la ventana’) and then playing with the Duplos. Banana bread for breakfast, some iPad, and getting ready to go, and we left about 9:40.

He sang on the way to the subway. When we went through the turnstile he kept saying “We sneak”. He was referring to the little informational Larva videos that they show on the monitors in the stations and trains. In one, it shows the characters trying to sneak through a turnstile without paying. I assured him that we had paid.

We got to the mall about a quarter to 11. We went to Cheongdam and walked from there since the weather was good. Found a bench outside to eat on. It was a boat-shaped bench, and August was crouching on it and, I think, he forgot it got narrower and at one point fell off. A pretty hard fall, but no damage. As we went in towards the aquarium, he kept pronouncing ‘aquarium’, and we had been sitting near a sign that said ‘aquarium’ in both English and Korean (it sounds the same) so had been reading that.

At the aquarium, it became clear right away that he was much more into the fish names this time. That is because of the Marco Polo Oceans app he has been using, and all the looking up of butterfly fish, octopi, etc. So a lot of “What is this one called?” Near the beginning we saw pufferfish, butterfly fish, and clown fish, which he’s all seen in his app. Later we could see coral, giant pacific octopus, sea turtles, lion fish, and a few more that he knew. We also saw the random squirrels they have, and one was running on a wheel. We watched it and I explained what it was doing. It that stopped running and did two flips in the wheel. August said “Octobut” a couple times and I was confused as to what he meant. He then said “A for, A for…flip.” It was the ‘A ah apples act as acrobats’ song. He was trying to call the squirrel an acrobat.

We saw a lot of fish. Some of our other favorites were the blue tang, zebra eel, and electric eel. And we got to watch the beavers coating their fur with their oil. His favorite part, as he told both me and Carly later, was the touching area. And this time we got to touch an eel and he reached the spoon worms this time. In fact, later in the day I mentioned that, and couldn’t remember the name of them and he said “spoon worms!” We were in the aquarium for a couple hours. Like last time we were worn out by the end, so didn’t spend as much time on the big animals or mammals. Next time. It was because he was focused so much on the names. Oh, and we did the rubber stamp thing this time as we went through. So he was interested in knowing what each area was called and what was next. One of the stamps was broken though, and that left an impression. We did the penguin stamp twice to fill in the spot.

From there we went to the infant area and ate a second lunch. He had eaten all the crackers and most of a Larabar in the aquarium, so I was surprised when he ate a bunch more. Had a lot of fun speculating about all the other babies and parents going in and out, and why they were crying, what they were doing, and where they were going.

From there we went to the bookstore. He played with some lamps, then down in the toy area they had these cool little blocks that he played with for 10 minutes or so. We looked at books, but nothing caught our eyes. We headed out, and he fell asleep in due order.

Found a coffee shop attached to a hospital. GNG Cafe or something like that. A nice place, and cheap. Being right across from the Lamborghini dealership in Gangnam I was expecting someplace more expensive. We could have just as easily ended up in a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and paid 7 bucks for a latte, but instead found one for 2 bucks. Anyway, he slept from 2:05 to 3:18. A peaceful wake up, and he wanted me to walk again. So we got going and walked to 해주세요서비스, a little children’s park a couple minutes away, and about the only one anywhere close in that part of the city. Stopped to look at a sculpture in a housing area along the way.

At the park he was still waking up, so stood in the bench area for a few minutes, and finished the Larabar. Played for awhile, climbing on the shaky bridge and narrow bridges, and going down a couple slides. Both times he went down a slide he ended up getting shocked when he touched the structure again. Something clicked. I asked “Is that what happened at Ttukseom?” Last time there he had remembered hurting his finger on the play structure and I was thinking it was a pinch, but I couldn’t figure out where he would have gotten pinched. But I think he had been shocked. Anyway, he at least liked that explanation, and kept mentioned getting shocked at Ttukseom. In fact, on the train home we were looking out the window and saw the J-Bug building and I pointed out the playground. He said “Where you got shocked.” He finished playing at the playground by climbing and rocking on the little toy things. He was then singing “Rocky, rocky, rocky like a butterfly fish…rocky, rocky, rocky like a pufferfish…”

We headed home, and got here just after 5. Carly got home a few minutes later. As we walked today there was a lot of singing and talking about polygons, both real and imaginary. Real ones like ‘nonadecagon’ and ‘tridecagon’, and made up ones like ‘nonatripolygon’. They nursed, then he wanted to paint with her. So they did that, trying to figure out what each sponge print looked like. He then played Oceans on the iPad, then did the crazy sentences and Cookie Monster ABC app. He and I then played with Duplos, making a cage for the alligator and some letters. He and Carly then did math with the zookeeper, at his request. At one point he was drawing Ks on the paper with a crayon, and just giggling after each K. I was just watching from the kitchen, then he started quoting from Cookie Monster – he says a line about “That cookie should hang in a museum…or in my tummy”. We had talked about the line earlier in the day. He was finding it funny now, thinking of each of his Ks as a cookie for Cookie Monster.

Carly gave him a bath. After that, he was doing a Hangeul app with Carly. We had been doing it on the subway home. It is a decent app, but their word puzzles are stupid: a few useful words, but then three sentences for ‘You are pretty’, and then a couple dozen names of K-Pop groups and their songs. So he was excited when he could tell Carly that one was a musician, and he picked up the iPad and came out to me to confirm, saying “That’s a musician, Dada. Think so. That’s a musician.”

We took him in for bed a bit later. I had just eaten some sesame crackers and he smelled them, so I had to get him some. I asked if he wanted to read a book, and he said “Nope. That’s not my plan.” He wanted to build a nest instead. He was playing in his nest, and pretended to be a coconut octopus: “You get out of your coconut shell…you’re sleeping in your coconut.” He was asleep around 9:15.

After he woke up:

Train. His favorite map:

Aquarium:  

Looking at sardines: 

Jellyfish: 

Book store: 

Playground: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

8:29. No crying at all. Let me hold him for a couple minutes. When I put him down though he wanted to go open the door and look in the hall. Then wanted to press the doorbell. Then to Duplos and playing with the duck, ‘saving’ it when it fell over. We then had the zookeeper taking care of the animals. Next, he remembered butterfly fish for some reason, and wanted to see photos of them on my ipad. We did that, then I searched for photos of kinkajous. He then requested ‘slow loris’, another animal in the nocturnal pavilion at the zoo. We did some counting with the blue blocks, then he wanted more piano keys. We read Rain on the iPad, then he played on his iPad, doing more puzzles in Dragonbox Numbers and some funny sentences in the sentence app. I took a shower. We brushed our teeth, and he let me brush his teeth some more. He had a couple of random almost-sad moments, once when he wanted to flus the toilet but I already had. We did robot cleanup of the Pororo magnets, at his request, then he sat and sang all the letters on the side of the toy box. He had packed the xylophone full of magnets, and we counted and stacked them, getting up around 27.

We headed for Children’s Grand Park. As we left the building, he started to say “Dang…” and “Blasted…” This is what reading children’s books has taught him. First he was just doing it himself, saying “Dang tree, dang sidewalk, dang ‘g’ (Hangeul character on road)…” Then he said subway stops and wanted me to say it: “Dang Nowon…” etc.

We stopped and got kimbap, then headed up. As we went on the escalator he quietly chanted “It’s exciting”. We first played in the yellow Tayo bus, maybe 10 minutes or so. A smaller child cried, not wanting to leave, and August speculated on where they were going: “Maybe they’re going home to the 14566th (floor). Maybe. Maybe they’re going to the 15000th and take a nap. Maybe. “

We went by the rectangle pond for lunch. He had me identifying almost every song. From there, we went to the children’s museum. Took awhile getting there though, as we walked slowly. On the subway ride down he had started saying ‘Children’s Grand Park’ in Korean, 어린이대공원 (euleene dae gongwhan), and we talked about how it sounds similar to ‘What is your name?’ in Korean, 이름이 뭐예요? (ereume mwoyeyo?) After lunch, he wan’t to practice ‘What is your name?’ and was asking it of all of the trees and bushes and birds that we saw as we first looked for cats and then headed to the children’s museum. He also ‘helped’ me walk by pushing the back of the backpack again.

At the children’s museum we first went to the light area. Spent most of his time with the blocks, and on his own made a square, circle, square, circle… pattern. Then he went and played with several of the other light things for 5 or 10 minutes on his own, then wanted me back to help build towers and stuff with the blocks. From there he wanted to go play games in the book room. We worked on the little tetris-like puzzle thing, doing several of those together. He’s working on flipping the pieces, in addition to just turning them. We then grabbed several books and went up to read. He was reading (or at least identifying the covers) for all of them, and we started with ‘I eat…’ and he read much of the book. And it made him hungry, as he wanted a snack. We went up to the cafeteria and ate some more food. He had gotten quiet, and spent some time lying on the soft bench. So he was looking like he needed to rest. Didn’t really expect a nap, but I figure a walk in the middle of the day is always a good thing. Changed him, and got walking.

I asked how long we should walk, and he said “14 minutes”. He fell asleep after about 10. Went to the upstairs coffee shop and he slept 2:31 to 3:51. He was slow to wake up, just resting his head to the side in the backpack. When I asked if he wanted to get out, or whether he wanted me to put on the backpack and walk, he whispered “Put on the backpack”. We walked to the new playground, and got down to do sidewalk chalk.

Got out the chalk and got started. Just us for a few minutes, then another mom brought her kids over and they started using our chalk. Was happy to share, and it turned into a really cool thing, but odd that none of the first people even asked, or said thank you. August saw her writing her kids’ names in Hangeul, and he wanted me to write that. I tried to write something else, but he wanted me to copy their names. So I did, and the mom thought that was funny. They were then impressed though when I could write August’s, and we did other words in Korean. August was then interested in his own name, and tried writing it. He had me write it, and then he was tracing it. He then had me writing subway stops in Korean. He was drawing lots of shapes, and things we decided were boats, flags, and dragon and dinosaur footprints. He had me draw a crab, and then, in english: ’emergency equipment’ (from the train station), medicine, cough, and meditate. And some smiley faces after he saw someone else do one. We ended with a rainbow, after another girl was making one.

He didn’t want to leave, but I finally got him going about 5:10. He was hungry, so wanted the peanut butter and jelly Larabar. As we walked, he asked “What’s in there? In the ingredients?” (Something he was asking with the real banana bread we made.)

We got home at 6, and Carly was late, about 10 minutes later. They nursed, and August randomly said “More bad news.” It is another line from Rain. He then pretended to give carly and me newspapers and wanted us to say it. He shared some rice and soup (adding plenty of mushrooms for him) with me, and we read Spiral by Spiral and Elephants Swim. He then wanted to type, and we ended up pretending to play the Cookie Monster ABC game. He would type something, then I would either declare it was a word, and we’d pretend to eat a cookie, or I would say it wasn’t and pretend to wipe it away, like Cookie Monster does in the game.

I gave August a bath, and he made a pattern out of the letters on the door: horizontal, vertical, horizontal, vertical. I washed him, then Carly took over while he played. A lot of Duplos after that. Taking care of the animals, and the tiger had bit the chicken. So we made a cage for the tiger. Kept making it bigger, and rebuilt it a couple times. We took him in to bed around 9:30. He fought it a bit, but wasn’t horrible. They were asleep about 10:15.

Looking in the hall:

Saving the duck: 

Walking: 

Children’s Grand Park. Reading the Tayo barrels: 

Lunch: 

Walking: 

Children’s museum: 

Pattern: 

Book room: 

Sleepy: 

Slow wake up: 

Sidewalk chalk: 

‘August’ in Korean: 

Emergency equipment: 

Another pattern: 

Cage for the tiger: 

He came out at 7:07. Much too early, and he was sad to find mama gone. Still, didn’t last too long, and a minute later he wanted me to take him to the parlor: “You can play with Duplos when dada reads.” He ended up using all the regular pieces to build a big wall for the zoo. We then read books on the ipad – mainly Rain a couple times, then we got his iPad and he played the Ocean app. For every animal (moray eel, kinds of fish and octopi) he would want me to look up images of it in Google Images on my iPad. And we read Swirl By Swirl and he pretended to be a sleeping nautilus again on the parlor floor. I took a shower, then he wanted to go in on the bed. Made a nest, did some more reading, and then typed on the iPad. Back out in the living room, we did the piano keys, and he started playing patterns of notes he was making up, then trying to explain, using numbers, the pattern he was playing: “That was 1, 2, 2, 3…” We finally glued the broken piece with super glue and left it sitting until we got back. Played with some play dough, then brushed our teeth. He then let me brush his teeth, which was really cool. Usually he won’t let me touch the brush. But I did it today and he said it wasn’t tickly. Finally, before we left he was making monsters out of the Pororo magnets by putting several pieces together and asking what they were.

Headed to Bonghwasan Park. Bonghwasan Mountain is a little mountain (hill really) to the SW of us. August and I have been to Sinnae Park at the north end several times, and the first time walked up the hill to the top, where there is an old signal fire thing. There is another park on the south side, and that’s where we went today. A little harder to get to, as it takes train and bus. So we took the train to Junghwa and then the 1122 bus east. August sat in a seat of his own.

We walked around a few minutes until we found a coffee shop for future reference – Mancini’s Coffee. Then walked to the park. Spent a few minutes looking at the big map and telling him what the numbers were. Then we went and saw the waterfall that was off, and the big tile mural that is really cool. In the afternoon or evening I asked if he remembered what was on the mural, and he said “kimchi”, referring to the kimchi pots. Then headed into the park and got as far as the little playground (he had wanted to see the ‘rolling ball court’ (apparently Korean for croquet). Got down and sat on a platform and ate lunch. I had bought a crab and ham and cheese sandwich pack at GS25 last night, and he ate from both of those. Then played on the structure. He climbed up the rope ladders on his own, no problem, and went down the little slide a couple times.

He then wanted to read books on the iPad. Think this was because he was getting tired. Also, he really, really, really likes the book Rain. When he was asking to read it, we were on the play structure and he kept telling me what he wanted me to say: “Fine. I’ll do dada’s iPad.” We read Rain, and Pete the Cat’s Old MacDonald. He did a little more playing, and with my help climbed up the rocks to the exercise area. He had seen a barbell gently rocking in its spot after a guy used it, and wanted to inspect it. He stood up on the platform area, looking down and counting the rock steps for a couple minutes, then came back down. Got ready to go, and I agreed to read Rain one more time. His favorite lines are now: “Blasted overcoat.” “There goes my hair.” “It’s raining frogs and polliwogs.” “Hippity-hop.” Aand “Hardly. Dang puddle.” We got walking, and first went up and inspected the air compressor we kept hearing where people coming down from the trails clean off their shoes. August used it to blow air on the bushes, then I used it on his foot and leg. He was a bit scared of it at first, but then liked it. We got walking, and it took awhile. At first he wanted me to keep pretending to step in puddles and say “Dang puddles!” Then he spotted beautyberries – a lovely berry bush we first found at Olympic Park a few weeks back. And it was slightly windy, which really seemed to bother him as he was falling asleep.

Finally, he fell asleep and I want to the coffee place. He slept from 1:34 to 2:42. Which was definitely not long enough, and he woke up sad. He saw my iPad and wanted to draw, but that wouldn’t cheer him up. Eventually I was holding him and he just kept saying “No, dada. No, dada.” And asked “Can we go home?” And of course he asked to nurse a couple times. We headed home. He had calmed down right before the bus came, and he was fine after that, riding on his own again.

At some point I had realized and mentioned that we hadn’t listened to Basho (spanish songs) in a long time, so when we got back we got out his iPad and watched Basho videos. He kept saying  “you can watch as much as you want.” And wanted to me to confirm that. Not sure where he got that idea, or phrase. He played with the magnets on the door. We made the alphabet, then he made a line of all the Hangeul characters to make one crazy word for me to pronounce. We went to the Duplos, and made a big duck, and worked with making it balanced so it wouldn’t fall over (or unbalanced so it would). He then wanted to make the “Australian Pavilion” from the big zoo, but we didn’t get too far.

Carly came home and they nursed. He started playing with the Duplo animals, and was pretending to have the zookeeper try to eat the animals (part of the carnivore, herbivore, omnivore game) and I reminded him a zookeeper is supposed to take care of the animals. I was then teaching him how the zookeeper does that, and we were having the zookeeper feed, clean, and examine the animals. He would then get another animal, etc. He made a T out of Duplos that looked like the University of Texas logo. Then, out of nowhere, he requested the video of letters going down water slides. He was referring to an ABC video that he used to watch. I think it has been months. Watching the Basho videos today must have jogged his memory. We watched a few ABC videos and found both that one, and the one of letters on a playground. We then read Rain again and he was laughing a lot at the lines.

We then put the piano keys in. The broken key works well. He asked how the piano broke, and when I said I didn’t know, he did his “I put ideas in there” thing to my head and we speculated on how it broke. I made up funny ones, like Carly playing the piano in the middle of the night. He said  “Maybe Green Monster and Marshy were singing THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND. Maybe.” Where he sang the all caps part really loud and in a Green Monster voice. Got him to do some of it on video, but sadly not in the same voice. He was on a roll, and talking about everything, and also randomly throwing out random lines from Rain, like “Blasted overcoat.” Carly commented on how August and I have so many inside jokes and it is just going to get worse. When he sang The Wheels on the Bus really loudly, that was a reference to GM singing to him over the (pretend) telephone. August was then saying “I turned it up to 70…I turned it to ‘loud room’”, which were references to changing the voice settings in GarageBand and the volume and tempo settings in Figure.

Anyway, he took a good bath with Carly, then was of course hyper before bed. He wanted to pretend to iron, (which we also did this morning with the blanket), then was pretending to make me touch the iron. I then tried to put a stop to that game by explaining we don’t hurt people. He then tried to start a pillow fight. Carly tried to put him to sleep at 8, but no luck. She came out to do something, then took him back. Still no. So she took a shower and got ready for bed. With me, we did a little reading, including Swirl by Swirl, but I told him it seems like the reading doesn’t seem to calm him down, but just makes his brain run faster, so we were going to go in and try to relax on the bed in the dark and sing songs. We went in and watched the clock click to 9, then hung out on the bed for a little wh
ile. He wasn’t too happy about that, but Carly came in, and he was able to go to sleep about 9:15 or 20.

Morning:

Being a nautilus: 

Riding the bus: 

Park: 

Having difficulty getting to sleep: 

Home. Hangeul: 

Carly’s last day of Chuseok Break before going back to school tomorrow. And we tried to go find Taco Rico, where August once spilled soda on me and him, only to find it was closed. And he wouldn’t go to sleep…

He was up at 8. Nursed and sorted the Spanish cards with Carly. They then skyped with Chuck and Cherie. After that, he played Figure, then Sesame Street Art Maker with me. When doing the aliens, he got behind me and was climbing on my shoulders. He let me give him a piggy back ride for a bit. He did play dough with Carly while I showered. One of them suggested something and he said “That’s a good idea. Let’s make it.” He mixed up some of the new playdough – he wanted Carly to separate it later. They worked on the ocean puzzle, then nursed. He did a little ipad, doingshapes both in the math app and the sorting game, then we got ready to go out for a walk and lunch. Carly went to the bathroom, but August was ready to go. He said “Let me open the door and tell mama we can go outside.”

We got going and walked down to find Taco Rico. We had been there twice before. Once Carly and I went, back in the winter before he was born, then August and I went when my parents were here. He was on my lap, and threw an arm up and knocked Chilsing cider on both me and him. Anyway, we couldn’t find it. I was 99% sure we were in the right area, so I looked it up in our old photos, and indeed it was now gone. Also realized it was September 19th, 2014 when we did that – almost 2 years ago. So we found a burger place instead. But August wanted to nurse, so we first walked into the university and found a place and nursed. Mosquitoes or something were attacking so we got out of there, or tried – August sat on the ground and played with the stroller first.

On the walk, August started Qing things, starting with me. He was also ‘reading’ license plates in “Stopadoo language”. In the evening it would be signs in general. And it got off to a rough start when we went past a ginkgo tree with berries on the ground. August said he wanted to get some, but we were already by it when I realized what he had said. I told him we’d find another tree. He got really sad, and couldn’t recover, even when we did find another tree like 10 seconds later. We eventually stopped at a little apartment complex playground and nurse. He wanted to play at the playground, so did one slide. He then got a bonus thing when Carly bounced him once on the teeter totter. Back in the stroller, he was happy about doing two things, as I had said he could do one thing.

Went to the burger place and got food, then headed to a park. Spotted a couple coffee shops for later reference. Went to 씨알어린이공원, just a little children’s park, but it worked. Ate, then Carly went on the one swing and August played on the sculpture. A lot of singing and chanting – he had a good “Konkuk University“ chant going at one point. He wanted to write Hangeul in the said, so got a stick and we did some of that. Off the structure, there was a little sand area with a low metal slide. He said “Let me show you something” then went and walked around the sand area and walked down and back up the slide. We played maybe a half hour, then wanted to head home in case he got needed a nap. I changed him before we left, then headed out.

We got home, and he got sad at the door. He didn’t get out of the stroller, but then got upset when I did the door code. Indeed, it was nap time. For both of them. They took a nap together from about 2:30 to 3:30. Nursed, then they made towers out of the blocks and then he decided to sort them by color. He then had the Duplo animals eating with me – the whole carnivores and herbivores eating thing game. He and Carly then did some play dough.

In the late afternoon, I took him out and we went to the spiderweb playground so Carly could do some work for tomorrow. He was fine with that. On the way there, I was singing the “A ah apples act as acrobats…” song. Slow going, as he now wants to know what every word and phrase in the song means…acrobat, act, daisy bunch, Ed and Edna exercise with eggs… Slow going, since it is somewhat nonsensical too.

At the park, he first spotted the spirals on the stepping stone things. Climbed those, then went on the shaky bridge. He told himself “you’re okay” on it. Climbed on the fake rock for awhile, then was counting the steps he’d taken – ended up being 20. Went over to the sand area, and pointed at the grates outside it: “no, you can’t put sand down there. Mama said that. I remember.” In the sand, a girl about his age came over and started helping filling the bucket and patting down the sand. Filled and dumped out several buckets with her, and they both liked stomping on the piles of sand that we made. August was hungry and we ate a banana bread Larabar. I mentioned I should make real banana bread, and a few minutes later he came to me and said “Can we make real banana bread?” So we talked about going to the store for bananas. He wanted to leave right away, but then saw other kids on the teeter totters. When they got off, he wanted to go play. On the teeter totter, I let him take his hands off, telling him now that he’s steady on the teeter totter that he could. Before we left, I took the stroller over by the girl and had August say goodbye. Her dad had her give August a gummi bear.

We walked to the pink building and got bananas and a few other things. August saw the bracelets, and I let him choose a set to buy. He also wanted another jello thing, but I told him he still had one at home from last time. That worked, and later he forgot about it, just as he had last time.

At home, August said “dada count bats.” Earlier, we had watched a couple of Sesame Street videos of the Count, since he was on Art Maker, but August didn’t know who he was. He then played Dragonbox Numbers on the iPad, getting into the puzzles more than he has in the past, and I started banana bread. Carly gave him a bath. A nice long one, and a lot of fun. I came in and watched him sing. And then he almost sort of sat down, although he was still on his feet, and holding onto the side. After his bath, he asked Carly “how’s your sliver doing?” Remembering the sliver she had a couple weeks ago. Getting towards bedtime, we started to clean up, and August really helped clean up the blocks. We went into bed and read Elephants Swim and Swirl by Swirl on the iPad. He then pretended to curl up and sleep like a chipmunk, snake, and nautilus, using a blanket for his nautilus shell. He had a lot of energy, and was then trying to do forward rolls. Near 10, I tried to talk to him about calming down for sleep. We watched the clock switch to 10:00. Now time for attempt #1.

But 15 minutes or so later, he and Carly came out to get some books. He also saw that the banana bread was ready. So I got him a slice and we all read some books in bed, mainly the porridge pot and turnip stories, and Manana Iguana. When Carly started reading that one, he said “There’s a little Espanol and English.”

Try again. But a few minutes later, after 10:30, he came into the parlor, saying “There’s poop in there.” I changed him, but there was no poop. Took him to the parlor so Carly could sleep. We read Paddington, and a Biscuit book. Tried to take him in at 11:11, but he wasn’t ready. So I took him back out. We read Curious George Goes to the Zoo, then I got ready for bed. We both went in at 11:30. He was nursing, but then I heard him talking quietly, then getting louder: “The ___ got a big ___.” Then math: “7 plus 7 is 14.” Then something about Duplos and shapes. He was trying to climb to me. When Carly wouldn’t let him, he said “No grabbing.” I sang a song or two, he did some more nursing, and was finally asleep just before midnight…maybe 11:57.

 

Made up words:

On our walk: 

Park: 

Spiderweb Playground: 

Home: 

Singing: 

Spiraled up in his shell: