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He was awake 7:48. Upset, but quiet as soon as I picked him up and we walked in the bedroom. Let me hold him for about 8 minutes, then he got down and played with the fan and talked into it. After a couple minutes I heard “Do workbooks Dada” so we got the markers and did workbooks. He also lined up random letters and numbers magnets on the door to make crazy words again. Getting ready to leave the house is quite a process with him now, as he gets interested in/distracted by everything, and wants to do everything himself. But we were out the door at 9:30.

He did a little iPad on the way down, choosing to read Oh, The Places You’ll Go, notable because he hasn’t been too interested in the iPad lately, and we also haven’t done any Dr. Seuss in quite awhile. We stopped and got a roll of kimbap and he chose a grape juice drink. At the park he wanted to eat first, even though it was only 10. He wanted to eat in the children’s museum. But once we got there he wanted to play. I reminded him what was upstairs and he wanted to go to the water area; but once he saw it he didn’t want to play there. Instead, he walked the runway a couple times, played with the pneumatic ball things, then headed down the ramp. Spent quite awhile in the house area: he did some laundry, prepared food for me and him, then we heated up the tea pot several times and drank tea. He also sat in the car and pushed the radio buttons. Had no problem just letting other kids play with the steering wheel. We then went into the house building area and went up the stairs and played with the bricks a bit. Then continued on down the ramp to the second floor, and the space area. As we got there he asked about the ‘hopping’ area and the ‘numbers’ area, showing that he remembered those two things. He played on that floor for several minutes, hopping/stomping on a video game thing, and then being concerned about a boy who was crying.

From there we went up to the family lounge and ate lunch. He scarfed down most of the kimbap and his juice. Before we left, we went down to the ball area and played there, roaming around to all the various things.

We headed out, and August immediately acted tired. Or just hot and not liking the sun. Hard to tell. It was early for a nap, but he said he wanted to go to sleep, and he didn’t want to do anything except walk – when I tried to stop by the stream he got upset and was clawing at my neck. We sort of walked through the zoo, seeing an elephant, then walked our usual route. After I turned back a couple times though he got upset and just wanted to go to the coffee shop. So no nap, and we went to the new old coffee shop. Under new management, apparently, but pretty much looks the same. Shared a strawberry smoothie, then played together on the iPad. I did a little reading, but he was wanting to collaborate. At one point, I had my phone out and he grabbed at the lanyard. I said something like “Didn’t we talk about grabbing the phone?” and he replied with “Yesterday. When we get home Zinnie grabbed.”

After awhile we left, changed his diaper in the bathroom, then played on the piano for a few minutes. He played and sang. We then headed out. He wanted to go to Costco, but I insisted that dada at least have an opportunity to walk in the stream. So we went there and I set him down, but then he said he wanted me to hold him while I walked in. Then he said he could go in, as long as he kept his shoes on. We ended up playing in the water for a long time, and he got wetter than he had ever gotten before, with my help as I kept pouring water on him using the bucket. He ended up playing a milkshake game, a la the baths with Thatcher and Vivian. He would give me the milkshake, I’d say “That’s a pretty good milkshake”, then he’d dump it out and say “We’re all out of milkshake!” I’d then ask if he could find fresh raspberries or whatever to make a milkshake and he’d say yes and make another one.

It started raining, so it was a good time to go. We packed up and headed out – he sang a little Costco song as we left the stream – and stopped at the drinking fountains that spray a long ways and played with those for a few minutes before we took the subway up to Sangbong. We made a quick trip of it, getting cheddar and feta cheese and naan, then two chicken bakes. We walked back, and at one point started singing “A is for…” He turned it into a joke, saying lines like “Q is for B” and the “T is for Q” etc.

We got home, and Carly walked in right after we did. Had dinner and a quick bath, and their was no keeping him up, and he was asleep at 6:24.

Children’s museum:

Smoothie: 

Piano: 

Crazy drinking fountain: 

Home. Coloring with mama: 

He woke up at 7:05. He was just sad a minute then calmed down and let me hold him for 10. He first played with the stethoscope, then watched Zinnie videos on my iPad. He weighed himself on the scale and is now 12.6kg (about 28 pounds). He wanted the little fan plugged in, and then he learned how to use the nob and what all the settings are. In the living room, he slipped on one of the yellow plastic tubes and sort of fell down. I asked “Are you okay?” “No” “Do you want a hug?” “No” “kiss?” “No” “just want to sit?” “Yes…Just sit.” We then got ready to leave and headed north, to Dobongsan. On the way to the station he talked about wanting a seat to himself, not standing. Easy to promise this time because we were headed north.

On the way up, then through the station, he was asking what every single sign meant. There are a lot of them. We exited the station and walked through the bus area then the back streets, then came out at the main street to the park entrance. He immediately asked “Where the candy go?” He was referring to a candy stand that used to be there, but was closed today. He never actually had candy there, but would look at the candy in the big bowls. Then, as we got to the stream he said “Just wanna go to a coffee shop.” His second surprise memory was when we got up to the stream and pointed to a waterfall-ish section and said “That’s where you played with Oma and Opa.”

Got him down on the rocks along the stream and spent several minutes gathering rocks for him to throw in, practicing his overhand throwing. He didn’t want to touch the water, so eventually I just set him in. He wasn’t really upset about it, but went pretty cat like as I did, keeping his feet out of the water as long as possible. But once his feet were in he was fine and we played for the next 30 minutes or so, scooping sand and dumping it. First on an old corn cob in the stream, then on rocks. We sat and ate one of our new carrot cake Larabars, and we watched dragonflies flying. He started talking about flying: “You can do the flying. You can. Zinnie can.“ He wanted more food, so we went up to the big backpack and ate crackers. A man came over and leaned over the glass and touched his head. August then played with him a bit, and thought it was hilarious to spray him with the spray bottle. The guy hid behind the fence, then picked a piece of grass and blew on it.

August had been asking what was at each stop again today (even asking what the transfers were), so we had talked about the Iris Garden also being at Dobongsan. So he eventually wanted to leave and go there. As we walked he sang a little choosing song: “I choose this one…no no no no no….I changed my mind…”

At the Iris Garden we filled up our water bottles. At the sink he had a third memory: “Mama says you can NOT play with it.” Outside, he sprayed towards some birds and said “the pigeons might like it.” He then wanted to head home, and started a “no air conditioning” chant.

On the way home he was really fixated on the ‘no hand’ and ‘no leaning’ (as pictures) signs on the subway doors. I explained that if you leaned on the doors you could get hurt. It was interesting to see him interpret signs through his world. He thought about it and a minute later said “hurt your knee…the leaning one.” Then, as we walked through the park he saw ‘no smoking’ signs. I explained you shouldn’t smoke, and he started speculating on why: “Maybe the bedulgi (pigeons) fly away…Maybe a bee comes if you smoke.”

At home we took off his diaper and he didn’t want to put one on. So he had some naked time. He really enjoyed standing in front of the little fan, having it blow first on his penis, then butt. He ate a bunch of nutty noodles for lunch, then wanted to watch Zinnie videos on his iPad. Only watched one, of him and Carly playing with stuffed animals yesterday, and he wanted to do it again. So we went and did it again, mainly playing with Baby Q. He really liked Baby Q falling asleep, then waking Baby Q up to ask for more ploopa ploppa. Then, he was touching Baby Q in the eye and we were role playing me telling him not to poke, and he would apologize to Baby Q.

He wasn’t acting tired, but he was getting kind of frantic in playing with Baby Q, so I figured it was worth trying for a nap. Got him in the stroller and went for a walk, and he fell asleep after 10 minutes or so, by Madeul Stadium. Before we left, they had been testing the fire alarms and lights in the building. Scared him the first time, then he was really interested and wanted to see it, so we went out in the hall where we saw the sirens and flashing lights. Anyway, would have taken him home, but was afraid they were still testing. So we went to the cafe and the women’s business center. He slept from 2:50 to 4:05. Woke up very groggy and quiet. We walked home, him not saying a word.

Carly came home and he was still quiet for some time. They nursed, then had some dinner, then spent quite awhile building a Duplo zoo together. He kept asking “Where mama go?” Then would ask ”How you doing?” As we left to go get ice cream celebrating our fifth anniversary, he said “’That’s an idea.’ Oma said that.”

He wore his sunglasses down to Baskin Robbins and until we were to the park. He was very excited about choosing ice cream and he and I decided on a Choco Tree Forest scoop on a cone. He loved the ice cream, and kept asking what all was in it. We sat on a bench and ate our ice cream and took a good family selfie with him with ice cream on his face. He wanted me to do the slow snail nursery rhyme and he started running around fast, like the mouse, and fell down. Just a slight scrape. He sat on Carly for a minute and went back to running – this time in circles – then fell again. Got back up again, then asked if Carly wanted to go to the playground. Then ran off, stopping every few feet to turn around and say “Bye!” to me.

We all went to the playground. He played on the exercise equipment, teeter totters with both me and Carly, and climbed up on the bridge. We did some Wheels on the Bus, with me holding him in the air, and he ended by singing the song to bigger kids on the teeter totter. As we headed home, Carly was carrying him and he was singing the song as loud as he could as we entered the building.

At home, he and I played with the alphabet blocks, putting them in order. I had music playing and when the Eels song “Hey Man” came on he said “This is my favorite song.” That came out of nowhere, as we have never discussed favorite songs. Not 100% sure he was talking about himself, and not me though, as he still gets the pronouns mixed up. But either way, an interesting thought.

Carly gave him a bath, and tried to get him to sleep around 9. He got up and we left the bedroom at 9:30 and Carly fell asleep. I read Bob Books to him as he played in the parlor. He had a ball that he held under his chin, then he was dancing, swinging around on one foot. We also talked about the Bob Books, but he wasn’t actually sitting down with me. Finally, he wanted to “Read a book then sleep.” He laid down and I laid next to him, and he wanted to read Me and My Dad – actually the first time we’ve really read it together. Then his final shocker of the day: He pointed to the dad and cub on the cover and said “That’s me. That’s you.” Had him repeat it several time, so pretty sure he had the pronouns down. Also, I may have made the connection once, but as I said, we hadn’t actually read the book together before. We read the book, then he got up to go into the bedroom. I said “I love you Zinnie.” He ended with one more joke, and a kind of abstract one at that: “Guess what? Next stop.” That’s a play on Carly’s line (“Guess what? I love you soooo much.”) that I’d inadvertently started saying on the subway when we were getting off at the next stop. It had surprised him, thinking I was going to say “I love you soooo much.” after the first line, but that was months
ago.

He went in and got up and started poking Carly, saying “You want to nurse…nurse mama.” I tried to get him to be quiet, but I guess it didn’t matter, as in the morning she didn’t remember him coming in at all. He was asleep by 10:10.: 

Awake: 

Dobongsan stream: 

Spraying birds: 

Home. Fan on his bottom:

A look he kept giving me after every bite: 

Zoo: 

Ice cream. Pointing to a sign:

Playground: 

Dancing at 10: 

He got up once and went out with Carly to the parlor and fell back to sleep on the reading area, where he slept until 8:45. We made oatmeal together and watched nursery rhymes on YouTube while Carly sorted clothes. He found some old cream that Carly was going to throw away and wanted to smell it. I asked him what it smelled like and he said “peppery smell…that animals eat.” I took a shower, and he was pretty clingy with Carly in the morning. In fact, he helped pack up the stroller to go, but once we left he was very upset that Carly wasn’t coming with. It took until close to women’s business center for him to calm down. Had to do the “slowly, slowly…” garden snail thing, then give him the water bottle to make him happy. 

We got to the park north of Madeul at about 12:10. There were about 20 minutes of the fountain left, but August didn’t want to get out of the stroller. So we got food out and ate instead, and watched. After it turned off, he noted a mom and baby leaving:  “Maybe they’re going to a different park that has the fountains off.” “The woman’s right there.” We went over and played with the sand and the faucet, using a plastic cup left on the ground. He totally figured out how to turn the water on and off. Then, from 1 to 1:30 we played in the fountain when it turned back on. He didn’t want to go in at first, but I did, and was using the plastic cup. He came in to play with that, and by the end he was putting his foot on the little fountain and getting quite wet. Oh, and he stood over the fountain so it got his diaper and shorts all wet.

At 1:30 we packed up and went across the street to the Caffe d’ate. We hadn’t been to this one before. Left the stroller outside because of the stairs. Got a fruit and veggie juice pack for him and a fresh lemonade. He liked his juice and tried the lemonade but wasn’t overly impressed. We did some writing of words in the notebook, ate ice, and looked out the window behind us.

We walked home, then he nursed, but wasn’t taking a nap. He came out and the fan was making a noise and he asked “what’s vibrating?” They did some of the small puzzles (from Costco), then he laid on the floor with her. At one point he said “Want to huggle” and rolled over and hugged her. They then did the wooden shapes puzzle, and Carly was teaching him to sort them by color and height and he was really into that. He also let her give him an actual piggy back ride, at least for a short time.

Carly then took him shopping to the pink building. Came home, but they didn’t have oranges so she wanted to go to Home Plus. So we all went. Good we were all there, as it was busy and August wanted to wander around. As we left, we stopped at the little plant store where he always stops to look at the different pots, plants, and little water fall thing. We then stopped at the playground on the way back, and he mainly played with the exercise equipment, going on it with me or Carly. At one point I suggested he actually go play with all the stuff for kids, and he did wander off towards the climbing wall, then turned around and ran back to us. Finally, he went up on the little hill, and tripped on a big metal rod randomly sticking out of it. Went into his shoe, and slightly scraped him, but no blood.

Came home and ate nutty noodles for dinner (Carly had made them while August and I were at the park earlier). August did not want to take a bath; he was tired and just wanted to nurse. So I made it a quick one and he went in and fell asleep around 6:30. He woke up once a little later, but was back to sleep in 10 minutes or so.

Also, at some point he was referring to the backpack and called it the “backamapack”.

Morning:

Sarang Children’s Park: 

Coffee shop: 

Mama time: 

Home Plus and park: 

New Thatcher pajamas: 

He was up at 7:50. He kept playing with the fan, and finally he managed to run over it and put his finger in it. Kind of perfect as it hurt just enough to really scare him, and he didn’t do it again all day. He went to Carly and cuddled for a few minutes, but didn’t think about nursing for several minutes. When he did she distracted him with a “No ploopa ploppa” game with the stuffed animals. She and I were going to trade off with him so we could both get some work done. She took him outside to the park, but they came back after just a few minutes – he complained it was too sunny. They then did some sponge painting and he mainly liked the squirting but painted a little. They then skyped with Vivian and were typing back and forth.

About 10:30 Carly took him to the Namu play area. He really liked jumping in the trampoline area, which is what I expected, and the three push cars. They were back about 12:15. He then spent some time with me, tracing in the Hangeul workbooks. Carly had started doing some cleaning, and there were a bunch of books to be moved from the living room to the parlor. He made several trips to bring them all in to me so I could organize them on the shelves. We also played with the wooden toolbox again and he worked on turning the screwdriver. He fell asleep from about 2 to 3:30. He was then typing on Carly’s computer, and asking what each of the buttons did. Carly was teaching him how to change the background color, font size, do strike through, etc. Then he and I did some music time, playing on the xylophone and drum and singing our Wheels on the Bus song about people and making up some new verses.

In the afternoon he and I went to Home Plus, mainly to get ingredients for nutty noodles. It was busy, so I asked him to stay in the stroller and he did awesome. As we shopped, I would let him choose the low stuff, like broccoli, and I’d hand him everything and he’d reach underneath and put it in the basket area under the stroller. I rolled him next to the candy area so he could smell it for a minute, then let him out at checkout so he could put groceries on the conveyor belt, then put them back underneath the stroller. He got back in once we were outside. As we walked home, we were singing wheels on the bus and started doing the hand motions again – for time in a long time. Stopped in the park to do those for a few minutes, then continued home.

We ate hot dogs and some other stuff for dinner, then he asked what the door intercom screen was for. So Carly went out in the hall and pushed the button and he saw her on the screen. It turned into a big game, with both of them going out and pushing the button, then me going out to him and calling in to Carly. I was then picking him up and we were singing wheels on the bus. For “Go round and round” I spun him in circles, etc. He also remembered the horn line, which we hadn’t sung in forever, and he wanted to recite the “Hey You forgot this!” Line from the end of the book.

Finally, we headed out for an evening walk up to Starbucks. He got a mango juice, and as we walked, him in the stroller, he was spitting it on the ground. We walked back along the stream, and when we walked under the bridges he would loudly sing Wheels on the Bus. It was getting dark, and we walked down to the river and then back up the stream. We went through the last tunnel, and he pointed up at the lights lighting up the ceiling and said “background color”, making a connection to changing the background color of the text on the computer earlier.

At home he asked me to cut a nectarine but then didn’t eat any of it. He nursed, then Carly gave him a bath that he wasn’t too happy about. He and I then got our toothbrushes out and brushed our teeth together. I read a little of Horton Hatches an Egg and he worked on the shapes puzzle and we ended up singing Yellow Submarine into the fan together. Carly got ready for bed and they were both asleep by about 9:30.

He was saying “actually” a lot today

Morning. Playing with the fan:

Screwdriver: 

Drumming: 

Coming back from Home Plus: 

Home. Playing with the doorbell: 

Evening walk: 

Saw it up to 97 degrees when we were outside this afternoon. Only 95 when walking around the park to see if he would take a nap.

Today was the first day that Carly went to work before August woke up. He was not ready for that transition. He woke up at 7:32 and spent 10 minutes mostly saying “Want to go outside” and crying before he calmed down. About 5 minutes in I decided to distract him by making a smoothie. But because he wanted to go outside he fought me on that: he was trying to shove the freezer closed when I was getting out fruit, and once I had the bags on the counter he was trying to take them and put them back in the freezer. Finally, when I actually started to put things in the blender he calmed down and things turned around. He turned the blender on today himself. Once. After that he let me do it. Once the smoothie was made, we sat down and watched Zinnie videos. He actually wanted to see one of himself sad, so I’ll have to take a video of him upset sometime. While I was drinking my smoothie, he pointed to my glass and said “This is glass”. I took a shower and he watched YouTube videos – mainly Wheels on the Bus. I changed him, but he got up before putting on a diaper. He took the diaper in to the reading area and was lying on the reading area, naked, playing around with the diaper for several minutes, hugging it and what not.

Eventually, we headed out in the stroller. Tried to stick to the shade as we headed north and went to the park north of Madeul with the broken fountain. Was pretty sure we’d be too early for the fountain, but thought it would be a nice place to play anyway. We got there, and August immediately noted that the fountain wasn’t on. I pointed out we could play there anyway, but then he said “There’s no kids here.” We talked about heading to the spider web playground where there might be kids, and he got back in the stroller. It took me a minute to get going though, and he changed his mind and decided he wanted to play here anyway. He got down and played with a cup in the water fountain a bit, then went over and picked some green berries off the bushes. He asked for food, and we sat on the ground and ate a snack. He started eating crackers (the sweet potato crackers left over from Centralia) and asked for cheese and ate cheese and crackers on his own: clearly something he picked up from us as we do it all the time, but I’ve never had him do it.

We headed home, and made a teriyaki salmon sandwich for lunch. Twice during the day he told me he needed to pee in the toilet and did it. We were watching Yellow Submarine and developed a game where he would turn the volume down, I’d protest and turn it back up, and he’d laugh. He had a toenail coming off, and wanted the clippers, so I got them, but then he wouldn’t let me clip his toenail. He just kept saying “Zinnie can do it.” but doesn’t really know how to use them. He ended up joking about pinching me with them and I had to take them away. He then got interested in his wooden tool set, and really got into hammering – some good hand/eye coordination practice there. Also worked on using the wrench. Randomly, he asked where the “crunchy sprouts” went. I didn’t know what he was talking about and he said something about mama. I emailed Carly and mentioned it and she said they went in her pho. Several times in the day, August sang the first verse of “Yellow Submarine” by himself. He’s got the words down pretty well. We read The Wind Blew. I was sitting in the reading area and he was standing up when suddenly a drilling noise came from next door; he shouted “What is it?” and jumped onto the reading area and into my arms.

We went out in the stroller to see about a nap. We stopped at Mama Juice, the new juice place we went to the other day, and August got an apple juice and I got an iced cappuccino. We went over by the fountain and watched as we drank our drinks. We Then did three laps around our side of the park but no luck. So we went over to the art museum. First to the play area, where he went on the trampoline with a couple other kids and basically just jumped for ten solid minutes. We then went and saw some of the art, going upstairs. He liked one video piece that had text scrolling across the ground that you could stand on, and headphones you could listen to. Then went to the library and checked out three books. But you can only check them out to read out in the cafe. So we did that for a few minutes, but didn’t last long. Then we went to Home Plus. August got down to do the moving walkways and help with shopping. Got broccoli and onion for dinner, and August picked out a grapefruit. He spent several minutes smelling can’t in the bins. He was asking what each was (“What is this one?”), and I would say “I do not know”. So he started saying that himself after smelling each one. Finally had to drag him away from that.

At home, he helped clean and put food away and we started making the broccoli and onion for dinner. Carly got home, and then August was playing with his cube thing and sat in it. He kept playing with the fan and we were trying to dissuade him of that one. He wanted to watch more Zinnie videos, and he discovered the thumbs up/down buttons and liked pushing them and wanted to understand them. Carly gave him a bath, and he was sitting in the reading area with Carly and saw the light switch for the hall, and asked “What this light switch for?” That is something he is asking everywhere we go; in the art museum in particular he was noting all the switches around the building. Carly tried to get him to go to sleep starting sometime before 8, but he kept getting up. I took him out a couple times, and she fell asleep. He finally fell asleep with her sometime before 8:30.

Morning:

Park: 

Home: 

Art museum and Home Plus. Apple juice by the fountain:

Play area: 

Art museum: 

Home Plus: 

Home: 

He was up a little before 6. I’d tried to distract him with videos as Carly got ready, but that wore off before she left and it was a clingy goodbye. But he calmed down pretty quickly when we got cereal out. Before I took a shower, he wanted to pee in the toilet, so we went into Carly’s bathroom for that. I took a shower, then he played with the handheld one, wanting the water cold and spraying his feet. A bit later, we were in the parlor and he started rolling around on the floor and said “soft is a yes, yes”, referring to the rules for what can be thrown. He wanted Spanish videos, and we watched some Elmo in Spanish, then found a Spanish version of Wheels on the Bus that he really liked.

I was in the kitchen, getting snacks for the day and cutting an apple. He wanted toast, and I asked “How about starting with an apple?” and offered him a slice. He slowly shook his head and seriously said “Bread. Bread, not apple.”

We skyped with my parents, and he traced letters Carly had written on the paper. He also pretended to throw a ball back and forth with my mom. And he sucked water out of the spray bottle, swished it around, and spit it out in the sink. He was imitating me with mouthwash, I think.

He also started putting things away that he found around the house: crayons, stickers, magnets, detergent, spray bottle, his shorts. That was fun to see. He tripped on the little step running out of the bathroom, but he checked and realized he hadn’t scraped his knee. We then talked about how the floor was smooth, and not like concrete or asphalt, and he he remembered the road where he scraped his knee. We did some silly walking around the house before leaving to go to Dream Forest.

As we left, he put his sunglasses on upside down. I stopped by the pink building to check the backpack, and put them right side up for him, but he switched them back to upside down, saying “you’re wearing them upside down.” We sang “Yellow Submarine” on the way to the bus, and he turned it into a chant, saying something after every repetition of “yellow submarine”.

Out of the bus, he didn’t like the light and put his head down. Tried to give him his sunglasses, but he acted like he just wanted to take a nap (it was about 11:30) so I put the top up. He kind of rested on the way, but didn’t fall asleep. In the cover of the art center, we got down and ate lunch (sandwich, apple, string cheese) at a table. He then played with the swinging lids of three garbage cans, and talked to and made faces at a little girl through the doors of the GS 25.

The water in the wading pools came on, and it took some work to get him in, but I lured him in with the ball. He got in and we threw that around a lot, him working on overhand (eventually over hand dropping the ball, which I think helped got him to focus on the hand above his head), and he played with the spray bottle. He was spinning the bottle around in the water as it floated and said “This is a dream catcher”. At one point, a boy started splashing him and I thought he was going to get upset, but he decided he liked it. After that, he got splashed quite a bit and did just fine, and even splashed another mom. Finally, we were working on kicking water, one of many skills he is quickly developing.

Now around 1, we changed him out of his wet swimsuit had a good plan for a nap: walking around the circle area (he said it would take two turns, I said three) to put him to sleep, and going to Cafe Dream then having juice when he woke up. But after 15 minutes of walking he wasn’t acting sleepy, and I wasn’t going to keep walking in 93 degree heat. So we went in and I got coffee and he had orange juice and we sat at a table. He did the Cookie Monster game, but we kept trading off on decorating cookies, so I didn’t get much else done.

When we were done there we headed home. As we walked down the stairs in the building he was looking at all of the photos of spots around the park and said he wanted to go to each of them – kind of like looking at the map yesterday and wanting to go to all the parks. Anyway, he sang about covering something up, poop, etc. as we walked through the park, then touched the water plants near the information center on our way out. We took the bus home, then of course he fell asleep on the walk home, at 2:55. He slept until 3:33 and wasn’t ready to wake up. I got him out, then put him in the stroller. He calmed down, and I started walking the hall to see if he’d fall back to sleep. He was okay with that but then figured out we were just walking in circles and got upset. Went home, but then he wanted to go outside. So we headed out again and then walked a loop up towards Chrysanthemum Park, then back along the road by the stream. As we went out he started yelling for his sunglasses, which I luckily had in my pocket. Back by the building, he wanted water, which I didn’t have, so we went up and got wanted, then headed back out and went to the pink building and bought banana chips and milk and a few other things.

We came home, then went back out and surprised Carly at the elevators. Back in the apartment, he had some good mama time on the reading area. He kept asking her “how was the water?”, referring to her rafting trip today. They watched some videos together, and I put Yellow Submarine (the movie) on his iPad. We had bought tangerines, so I cut up one of those and we ate it, and we had bought mushrooms, so I cooked those, and he ate 3 or 4 mushrooms. He also finished off a string cheese from earlier.

I wanted to go register him for classes at Home Plus (one Teuni Teuni class and one English class) so August went with me. He played in the bus/plane toys while I filled out the form, then he helped me pay by handing over the card and signing the credit card thing. We went downstairs and he helped me shop, choosing soy milk, then wipes.

We paid and went through the park. We stopped at the skateboarding ramps and he played on those. He scooted down one a few times, then was running down it. He said “That’s a thatcher one.”, referring to Thatcher running down the gravel pile by Chuck and Cherie’s. It was now dark, but he wasn’t done: he wanted to go to the art museum, then wanted the playground. I said no. Instead we went to Tous Les Jours to get bread, talking to Sarah along the way for a minute. August wasn’t upset by seeing her, and said hi. After a little while he wanted to go, but was asking nicely: “Go home, please.” We got bread and I let him choose one thing. He chose a little pack of 3 donut holes, one for each of us.

Carly called as we left the bakery and we went up. I gave him a bath, washing his hair. He wanted to do all the washing himself, and with a lot of coaching managed to clean his neck with the washcloth – his neck gets filthy every day now. He and Carly were asleep by 9.

Since returning to this full time parent thing, I’ve noticed just how many skills August is currently developing. I’ve mentioned a few above, but he’s also been focusing on the following:

The door code and buttons, typing in the code to unlock it, then pushing the lever up to lock the door after we are inside.

Kicking, specifically the water.

Twisting the toothpaste lid (and other things) on and off. He does ‘off’ quite well, and is clumsier with ‘on’.

Overhand throwing, and throwing in general.

Tracing.

Telling time and understanding signs – he keeps asking what all the symbols mean on changing stations, stairways, etc.

New words/phrases: noon (I’ve pretty much given up on this list, but this one was pretty notable today, as I use ‘noon’ quite a bit (it is when the fountains turn on), and he used it on his own today.)

Morning: 

To Dream Forest: 

Water: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

Home Plus: 

Home: 

He and Carly, both asleep last a night at 8, were up at 5:30. She took him out to the park at 6:10. He mainly played on the teeter totter, and they were back at 7 as I got up. He ate some spaghetti for breakfast, then was watching our Zinnie videos in Day One on my iPad. He was very happily doing this when Carly left for work, and he said a nice goodbye to her, waving a few times, and she was able to leave without any tears. Such a change from two days ago. We had some cereal together, then I took a shower. He had the door cracked open and was feeling the water: “It’s a bit chilly…it’s a little hot.” as I turned the temperature up and down a little for him. I then spun him on the chair again, and then he got my deodorant and was playing with it. He of course wanted to wipe it on things, and kept wanting to wipe it on me. I kept telling him I had enough, so then he was saying  “dada has enough”. A bit later we were out in the living room and there was a random counting card on the floor. He slid his foot on top of it and said “it’s a skateboard”. Pretty creative there. We watched some more videos, then he got the popsicle things out of the drawer and was singing/humming into them then saying  “something like that”. Not sure where he got that phrase from. We brushed his teeth. That’s an activity that he insists on mainly doing himself nowadays, then finished getting ready to go. I got our old stick for writing in sand out of the closet and put it in the backpack. August immediately asked “Where’s the little stick? Oma and Opa’s house…maybe mama took it for work.”

We left for Children’s Grand Park at 9. I was a little worried about how it would feel with the backpack on now in the heat and with August heavier (and two iPads in the back) after the summer, but it was fine. August wore his sunglasses on the way to the subway station, and sang about this and that and everything on our way there. On the subway today he kept asking what was at each stop – so I would tell him which parks, or which trains we transfer to at each stop. Heading out, we tried to stop at our usual spot to get kimbap, but they only had spicy kinds. So we got a fruit and veggie juice box thing and smoky eggs there, then went to another shop and got kimbap. Oh, and they have finished the set of escalators at the exit, but they still aren’t on; there is a big sign explaining it is waiting for a safety inspection. Hurray for safety inspections, but it is now going on two years to put in this one small set of escalators. We went up to the park and walked over by the stream area and sat on a bench and ate an early lunch. He was actually taking bites out of the kimbap, seaweed and all. As we sat there, he walked around behind me and put his head on my back, then pretended he was a bumblebee landing on me. He also listened to the cicadas and said “Where the cicadas at? They’re all mixed in.”

There was just a trickle in the stream, but it would turn on at noon, so we decided to go to the children’s museum. He threw our garbage, and some other garbage he found on the ground, away, then we headed over there. We first stopped to change him. I pointed to one spot, a sort of bench area, to change him outside and he said “No. It is too dirty.” So we ended up in the bathroom, but with him standing on the changing pad. When we got to the children’s museum I was reminded that most childcares in the city are closed this week when we entered the children’s museum. Luckily, it wasn’t too bad once we got inside. And I’ve found all the parents inside to be pushier than school groups, but we didn’t have any problems with that today. Anyway, he played around on the first floor, spending a lot of time in the percussion room. He also was really interested when he heard other babies crying and wanted to go find them. He was talking about taking a nap, but then wanted to see what was downstairs. So we walked down and he was asking what was down there. I mentioned the big blue blocks and he remembered them, saying something about having to take his shoes off. Downstairs, he jumped on the circle things, then went and played with the blue blocks. A lot of other kids there, so August watched them, and he climbed over blocks and turned them over, etc.

We headed out, and he fell asleep pretty quickly, at 12:05. But then a wrench in the system: the coffee shops are changing ownership, and they only offer a few items right now. That was fine, but it was cash only, and I didn’t have any cash. Went to the coffee shop at the children’s museum, but it was packed. Went to the food court area, but no tables. Ended up outside on a platform, at least in the shade, but he woke up just before 12:50 – a short nap. He tried going back to sleep (“More.” “More what?” “More sleep.” I told him to put his head back down and close his eyes. He tried, but after a minute or two got upset) but couldn’t, so I got him out. He cuddled in my arms for awhile, but he had leaked, so eventually I changed him standing on the platform. He then played with the spray bottle, spraying me. After a little while he saw the botanical garden building and said he wanted to go to the “fishy place”. We went in, and he spent a couple minutes spraying water in at the fish. Then headed out and to the stream. But at the stream area he refused to get in, and just stood on the edge, playing with the spray bottle. I played in the water for a minute but couldn’t coax him in. He had been saying “Go home” for awhile, and started saying it again, so we headed home.

Spent the subway ride back picking broken pieces out of the remains of the alphabet letter crackers, and guessing what they may have once been a part of. Off the train, he spotted the three dimensional map of the station and we talked through it. He decided he wanted to exit through exit 1. When I asked why, he said he wanted to go to Home Plus (I had told him what was out each exit) and when I asked what we would do at Home Plus he said “Get tomatoes”. Seemed random at the time, but it turns out that when we had gone shopping the other day Carly had let him help choose which container of tomatoes to get. I was still planning to go out 6, our usual, when he spotted the map of the area near the exit. He said “Do this” referring to looking at the map. He started pointing out different parks, and I told him what they were. He pointed to the art museum and I told him what it was, and he decided that was what he really wanted to do.

So we went out exit 1 and walked to the art museum. There, he wanted to first go to the play area. As we went to it he said “mama says no, you cannot scream in there.” In the busy play area he climbed up into it, but then was kind of stuck as he wanted to come down the same way, but there were a bunch of other kids. Eventually he made it down, then went on the trampoline, where he jumped a bit, but then sat down and enjoyed bouncing when another girl jumped. Eventually, he had three other girls jumping with him, and they sat down in sort of a circle with him and were talking to him. He lasted another minute, then wanted to go. As we left he said goodbye to them.

He then wanted to see art, and the most exciting thing was a circle of those dancing blowup figures they often have at used car lots. They would come on for 20 or 30 seconds, then be off for a few minutes. We watched them 5 or 6 times. We walked around looking at other art as well, and made it to the second floor, but he started to leak. Went downstairs and got stuff out of the backpack (in the stroller area), and changed him on the first floor. Then went back up and to the library. Knew they had children’s art books in English, but we’d never actually made it in to see them. Turns out they have quite a few, and a very impressive collection of general art books in English. We grabbed a shapes book, an Andy Warhol children’s book (So Many Stars) and a couple others and sat down. We only lasted a couple minutes though (and August was really interested in the
big books, so we were looking at those as well) before the librarian to exception to anyone talking in her library with children’s books in it and told us there was someone reading so we needed to be quiet. Sigh. We were being quiet already (I was whispering; August wasn’t loud), so not much to do. I did ask if we could check out books and she said we could register for a card. Didn’t want to the take the time, and don’t know how long we can check them out for, but might be worth it. Of course, we didn’t even have time to decide what we would want to check out.

Anyway, we headed home, and August walked up to the door and punched in the door code all on his own. I then open the door, and he is able to lock it behind us. He helped me make my drink mix and then drank some with a straw. I was sitting on the couch and he got behind me and put his arms around my neck and said “Piggy back ride!” But then he wouldn’t let me actually pick him up. He doesn’t quite have the concept of the piggy back ride down.

Carly came home, and a little before 5:30 we headed next door to Todai for the APIS staff dinner, stopping at the bank on the way. He was excited about going out for dinner, but things changed when we entered the restaurant. He just kept repeating “Go outside, go outside.” We hung out in a corner of the restaurant away from the banquet room with everyone in it for about 15 minutes. They nursed, and I brought him juice and a plate of desserts to tempt him, but he knocked the juice away and only nibbled the food. We have up, and headed home.

At home he seemed really tired at first, but then I got him through a bath okay, he ate spaghetti for dinner (after a bath being a parenting mistake, but we kept it clean), played with the cherry tomatoes (and actually ate one after Carly cut it up for him – and got me to eat a couple), flushed the toilet for Carly, thought about peeing standing up (but Carly was helping him, and he made a bit of a mess and went back to sitting down) and managed to stay awake until 8. But when Carly took him in he fell asleep right away.

Drying off by rolling on the floor:

He was up just before 7. At 8 we walked Carly out to her bus stop. He got sad when the bus came and I held onto him, but after the bus left and we started to walk back into the park he calmed down right away. In the park I got out the new spray bottle and he played with that. He did keep talking about “Mama coming home” but he wasn’t acting upset. Sprayed with that by the floor fountain, then went over to the playground and helped him on the climbing wall. Then we went over past the dinosaurs so he could push the buttons on one of the signs. That was by the rock garden, so he ended up climbing on the rocks for awhile before we headed home.

At home I took a shower. He played outside the shower and did just fine. I came out and he went and grabbed a USB drive out of the little box under my laptop and brought it to me. I said “Thank you”. He walked away saying “Mama said ‘No, you can’t play with dada’s things.”

We got ready to go, and headed to the water park up by Madeul Stadium, him in the stroller. Along the way we stopped and watched a couple of cicadas low down on trees. We got to the water park and headed in. There, he didn’t want to put on a swimsuit or swim diaper, and barely touched the water. It was really crowded though, and the wading pool area is full of spraying things and big kids bumping into you and splashing all the time. Eventually though he did stand one step into the big pool area, and jumped in the water at the edge of the wading pool. But the big thing for us was the new spray bottle; he walked around sucking water from it and spitting on the ground, and by the end of our time we were both using it to spray each other quite well.

Eventually, he decided it was time to head home. We got home just after noon, and right before Carly walked in the door. He was happy to see her. On the way up, I had been asking him what he wanted for lunch, and he said “cereal”. So he and Carly had cereal. Then she tried to put him down for a nap. But he was just too excited. He kept popping back up and talking. I tried to help a couple times, and took him out of the room so Carly could rest. He would try to sleep, laying down and closing his eyes, but then would start talking again. So, no nap. It was funny though seeing how attached he was to Carly; at one point she got up and went and got a Pepsi. He got up, followed her to the kitchen, grabbed his water when she got her Pepsi, then followed her back to the bedroom.

I was working on an online class for recertification of my teaching certificate, and August was helping Carly clean and kept wanting to find more crumbs. We then did some art on the iPad, and watched some video. I was then spinning him on the office chair, getting him really dizzy. He nursed, and we were talking about going for a walk to the park. He said “Go to the park and nurse.”

We went for a walk just around the park, and to show Carly the stream area that is on. We looked at that, then ran into a woman who is the new 5th grade teacher at APIS. We talked to her for a few minutes, and August found little rocks and threw them in the water. We went to Home Plus, and he was really into stepping on and off the moving walkways all on his own. As we entered the second basement we passed all the plastic food at the food court and I asked him  “which should we try next?” His answer: “Anything!” He was holding up his pants a bit as we did our shopping, as they were a new pair of shorts. Reminded me of when he used to do that all the time. Before we left, we headed up to the second floor so I could get a flyer with class times on it. August saw the airplane ride things, and sat in all of them, and pretended to drive/pilot. That entertained him for a good 5 to 10 minutes.

We finished our shopping, then headed home. Carly was carrying the big box of diapers and walked ahead, as August was going slowly. August and I then got stopped by a total of 6 different people on our way home: two people handing out flyers for things, a mother with two kids on the bridge who wanted to know where we were from, a couple women on the bridge who said he was cute, Preacher by Dunkin Donuts, and a guy that said August looked like a doll. Very strange.

At home, he had some spaghetti for dinner. Carly took a shower, and August really cried. When Carly got out she took him right in and he was asleep before 7.

Morning outing: 

To water park: 

Water park: 

In the park: 

Home Plus: 

August and Carly were up at 5:30. I was up at 7. He remembered the ‘ssss’ sound in the piano and asked “Where is the S sound?” and wanted to open the piano. He remembered the Wheels on the Bus book, and we spent a long time reading and playing with that. He likes to make up crazy names for the babies that are crying on the bus.

Then we had to say bye to mama as she headed to work for a few hours. This was a tough one. We decided to walk to the bus with her, thinking it might make it a little easier, and be easier to distract him with the playground afterwards. But we got downstairs and outside and Carly realized she had forgotten to pack any food. So we said goodbye there, and I took August off to the north, intending to go to the playground. We made it there, but August was having none of it, and wanted to go home. We walked around part of the building and I was hoping Carly had left, but as we approached the elevator lobby, she walked out. I quickly covered August’s eyes and ducked out the side doors. He hadn’t seen her. At this point he had calmed down enough to where he was only having a little sniffle every few seconds. But he was disappointed when we got home and started crying again. He wanted me to put my shoes back on, and we went outside. He calmed again, then cried a bit more when we got out of the elevators. As we walked out of the building, I said “Cuddle with dada?” And he put his arms around my neck and cuddled against my neck. Did that for awhile, then covered his eyes and put his head down on my shoulder. We walked over to the park and to the fake stream area, which is on. We looked at the pond, stream, and waterfall and he slowly improved. On the way back, we saw someone had put blue paint on the ‘mama statue’ and looked at that. Before we went back inside I took a photo of August. Even though he had calmed pretty well down, he still looked so sad in the photo.

I had been talking about things we could do when we went home (part of the ‘Zinnie and dada have fun’ part of the day) and he had come up with the idea of watching Zinnie videos on my phone. So we did that for awhile. When he was done with that, he played some iPad – watching Kipper and trying some other things. He then put the iPad away on the table (I had cleared the table of my laptop, so we now have a nice clear table for eating on, and is home to our iPads) and a bit later found the tongs in a drawer. I taught him how to use them – another skill learned pretty well by the end of the day – and we used them to pick up shapes and plastic fruit/veggies. He then started playing more with the fruit and veggies, and was holding them in his mouth and then ‘patooieing’ them into the container. All was fine until 10:30 when suddenly he got sad again and wanted to go outside. Seemed pretty tired, and it had been 5 hours. At about the same time, I got an email from Carly saying she was on her way home in a few minutes.

So August got in the stroller and we went walking around the park. We stopped at the mama statue and he got out and stood on it and inspected the paint. His favorite is the big glob of it on one of the eyes that has a drop of paint hanging down. We continued to walk around the park, stopping to push buttons on the signs. He then got mellow and we just walked around on the opposite of the park. He covered his eyes at one point, and I got out his sunglasses and he wore those for several minutes, and was still wearing them when we saw Carly get off a bus.

Back at home, he ended up on the bed, nursing, and doing a sort of remembering game, talking about things he remembered. In particular, he talked about the bus ride from the airport: “lights in tunnel on distance part…neighborhood part it makes stops” We thought he would go to sleep soon, but he just kept getting up; seemed really excited to have mama home. Eventually, she was falling asleep, so I took him out and he had to cry for a couple minutes. Let him go back in, and he fell right asleep at 2:20.

I did a bunch of catching up on the blog and other stuff, then left at 4:15, leaving a note for Carly. I was headed to Hoegi to deal with our phones: I had lost my SIM card, and Carly’s SIM needed to change from the old size to the new smaller sizes due to us upgrading phones this summer. Took what seemed like way too long to get there (just about an hour – the entire length of Pearl Jam’s Vs., it turns out) to get there, only to find out the the ‘global’ store didn’t have anyone that spoke English. So I could have just walked up to Nowon. Got half accomplished: I got my replacement SIM, but in order to transfer the phones for Carly I needed her ARC card. The number, and a photo of her card, just wouldn’t work, as they need to photocopy everything. So headed home. Stopped at Daiso and got August a new spray bottle to replace the one we lost in June, and took a look at the board game cafe called the Dice Latte.

Carly and August had slept to 5, and when I got home were making fried rice. August had really helped with the sauce, and when I got there was ‘washing’ dishes over and over. We ate the delicious fried rice for dinner, and then in an evening all went for a walk, with August in the stroller. Walked up to the spider web playground and played there for a few minutes. August talked about wanting to play with other kids. But there weren’t really kids to play with, and there were mosquitos. We headed back, and stopped again at the playground by the youth center. August mainly walked on the ledges, and watched a bigger girl climbing a tree and tried it himself.

We walked home, and August and Carly fell asleep at 10.

Sad boy: 

Skyping with gramma and grampa: 

After watching videos and remembering the ‘Other hand’ song: 

Patooie: 

Park. Blue paint on the statue: 

Buttons: 

Sunglasses: 

Back home: 

Evening walk: 

Tree climbing: 

He woke up sometime after 1 and Carly got up with him. I got up at 4:30 and Carly went to bed. He and I mainly did tracing in his Hangeul workbooks, focusing on one with shapes in it. He called the spiral in the shape of a triangle “abstracto triangles”. Around 5:30 he wanted to go back to mama, so we went back into bed. I fell asleep, and I’m not sure if he just nursed for a long time, or if they both slept more. Regardless, at some point later Carly got up with him and took him outside. He once again jumped in the stroller. They walked to Madeul and back, then played a little in the playground: on the swings and teeter totter. Carly noticed that the teeter totter actually looked like it was his size now, and not some big toy he was trying to play on. They also found a cicada they could see.

They were back at 7, and they  fell asleep at 7:20. I got up and did some reading in the reading area, then fell asleep there until 9. I kept reading and typing, and they got up a little before 11. Carly had made spaghetti, and August ate spaghetti with me. He then saw one of my new sticks of deodorant, and really liked smelling it and walking around with it. That lasted until he wanted to wipe it on things. We then tried to skype with my parents, but they weren’t online (later I would find out that a fire in Chelan had knocked out phone and Internet). So we got into sending video messages. August sent several of those, saying nonsense things, then ‘Bye, hi, bye bye’ etc. at the end. By the end he was pressing the Skype buttons himself. He climbed on the desk chair and I started spinning him. He loved that, and kept asking for “More dizzy”. He seemed a bit stressed about the possibility of me or Carly leaving, saying multiple times “Mama going to work.” and “Where dada go?” We had to keep assuring him that Carly wasn’t going to work today and I had just gone in the other room.

Eventually, we went to Home Plus. August rode in the stroller over there, then wanted out. He raced around the store, and when we got to the grocery floor he wanted to help. Basically, he and I would go and find one item (soy milk, cereal, etc.) and then he would search through the store to find Carly and put the item under the stroller. When Carly got something he would want to put it under there as well. The last item was the cereal and it was full underneath, so I tried to set it in the seat. He didn’t like that, so he handed it to Carly to carry. We paid and headed home, August insisting on walking much of the way.

We got home and he wanted the bubbles. Carly did bubbles with him, and he was pretty successful at blowing bubbles. The first time, and he was excited about it. Also exciting at some point was when he ate oatmeal with Carly and it was hotter than usual, and he did his fist pumps in the air thing, as if he was excited that he was eating something hot. Anyway, Carly tried reading to him at some point, and he wanted to “Nurse and read”. Perhaps a flaw in that combo, because now he never wants to just read with her.

In the evening we went for a walk up to Starbucks. August insisted on walking much of the way, so it was a rather slow walk. Finally got him back in the stroller so we could make it there. Got a drink, then headed home. Walked along the stream on the way back, and he was touching the flowers from the stroller, then wanted out. Got out and at first he wanted to pick flowers. But then Carly pointed out all the weeds along the edge and he spent several minutes pulling weeds. He was getting sleepy as we got home, but made it. At home Carly nursed him while I got his bath ready. She gave him a quick bath, then we went in to bed. I read the little Winnie the Pooh book we bought used sometime last year called A Blustery Day. He was excited when he saw it, shoving it in Carly’s face and saying “A new book!” Made it just to the end and he wanted the lights out and they both fell asleep around 8.

4:30am:

Morning: 

Home Plus: 

Walking to Starbucks: 

Apple and kale drink: 

Weeding: