Sunday: Madeul and 중평어린이공원

He slept until 7:50. I was up a bit before, but stayed in bed until he woke up, so walked out with him. I think he thought that Carly was gone, because he went straight to the couch and sat on it instead of looking for her. Once he did know she was home though he nursed and the read books for more than 30 minutes. He came out and watched our videos from yesterday on my phone – he particularly liked the video of him dropping sand on me. Carly made herself a sandwich, and he ate some with her. I changed him, and he counted to ten in Korean using the counting numbers. I knew he knew most of them, but we haven’t made a point of saying them in order for quite some time. He had told me he had pooped, but he hadn’t, so I asked if he had been fooling me. He liked that, and started saying “Fooling dada!” We watched some of his Korean videos together – he sings along to more and more of them – and then he and Carly read Sir Cedric. Carly had made beans for our nachos and burritos later on, and August got up at the sink and was playing with the bubbles in the pot that was soaking, using a big spoon: “More bubbles…scooping them…Zinnie looking at bubbles…scooping out bubbles…want to touch them.”

We got read and left about 10:30. We walked up to Madeul. He was a little frustrated when we walked past Chrysanthemum Park, but we assured him we were going to play in water. We walked to the faucets and he played in them for a few minutes. He then had the idea of taking water over to the sand around the horse sculptures. He would scoop the water out of the bucket and dump it on the sand or the bowling ball statue, etc. I hauled a few bucket loads over, then Carly took over and I went and read a short story (the second one in Breakfast at Tiffany’s). I finished, and they were packing up – time to find some shade.

We walked around the stadium, past the dog park (he remembered the dog licking him) and down to the little Sejong Park display, where there are the metal statues of Hanguel characters and shapes. He ran around tracing them. He then wanted to write in his Hangeul workbook, so we walked to a bench and sat and had a snack and did that. From there we went to the playground for awhile – we went on the swings – first with Carly, then with me. Carly was singing the “Ladybug, ladybug” song and he said “Sad about the end.” – I figured out it was because he was sad the ladybug flies away at the end of the song. He then he wanted to trace ‘gargantuan’ again. A little harder, as there were plants growing all over the dirt now. We did that, then ‘zookeeper’, then we changed him and headed out. We walked home, but went straight to the grocery store in the pink building.

Once in the store he wanted out, and he took off through the store, me following. We looked around, and he found these fruit jello things. We got three – kiwi, peach, and something else. Finished our grocery shopping and headed home. We didn’t know if he would take a nap, since he had slept so long, but he nursed quite a bit, and Carly took him in and he slept from 2:15 to 3:14.

After he woke up and nursed, Carly got out the sponges and they painted. He did some sponge painting, learning the phrase “sponge painting”, and was really into mixing colors. At first he was asking for reasonable mixes, like “Yellow and blue make?” But then he got creative: “Yellow and blue and blue and green and green and green and turquoise and red and yellow make?” This went on for a long time. I took over at some point, painting with him, while Carly worked on nachos stuff. We then switched and I finished that, and she took August downstairs to get bread. We ate nachos for dinner, then watched a little more of his Korean videos.

Then, I took him outside. He jumped up, excited to go out, once I said iPad was going to sleep. We went to the park (중평어린이공원 ) a block from the pink building. It’s been a long time since we’ve played there. It ended up being a tough trip: He got down, excited to go sit on the horse things. He chose one and I helped him climb on it. He sat on it a bit, but one of the handles was broken, so he wanted to go to the next one over. I helped him on it, and he excitedly started rocking, only to hit his head on the horse’s. He was really sad about this, and I had to hold him for a few minutes and walk around the park. He was feeling better, and counting to 10 in Korean again. He went back on the horse that hand bonked him, and was enjoying it. I looked up, as there was  a woman failing to control her little dog, even though it was on one of those leashes you can pull in. It was barking and jumping on another dog, quite loudly. August suddenly got sad again – I never quite figured out why: at one point he answered “doggies” when I asked him why he was sad, another time he said “bonked again”. I THINK he might have been frightened by the barking and bonked his head trying to get off.

So another walk around the park. He got down again, and was walking around, watching all the other kids. Two older boys had cars and were rolling them down the slide. He watched for a minute, then loudly said “Zinnie can do this!” I said we couldn’t use their cars, but I could get his ball, and he lost it. So, so sad. We walked around, and I sang to him, and he would calm down for a bit, then start crying again. So we headed home. That was around 8 or a little after.

At home Carly gave him a bath and there was the usual reading. He chose his pajamas: the red owls pants and his Minions shirt. I suggested books to him as he took them in to the bed and lined them up. They read Suddenly! and he loved it. He didn’t much notice it when we first got it, but now different story. He was asleep at 9:15.

New words/phrases: turquoise, finger painting

Sink:

Madeul: 










This went on for some time: 


Park: 


Books ready: 

Saturday: Hongik University area

He was up just after 7. Carly was already up, but I had woken up around 5 coughing and didn’t sleep well after that. I slept until close to 8. They skyped with Cherie, and August did some of his nonsense conversation. After that he came out and got his wooden giraffe, then we went in and played with the Duplo giraffe and had them eating different things. Carly made oatmeal and made it kind of runny – August liked the drips and tried to make it drip more. They then did some reading while I took recycling down. Or tried – once it came time to take it down August wanted me to do flopping and wouldn’t let me leave. Finally I told him I needed to go and he said “Dada doing recycling.” Later, Carly took him in to change him before we left, and he requested “super baby” as they went.

We left at 10:20. In the subway station I asked him what it said on the side of the vending machine and he said “Pepsi…Name of a mama drinks.” We made our way across the city to Hongik University Station. Carly went up to her hair appointment. August initially wanted to go up as well, but once he saw it he changed his mind. We went to the park right up the street (윗잔다리공원) – the last time we did this was in early winter, and I made him wear his hat for the first time. Carly found us that time by the sound of him crying about the hat. No such problem this time. We sat on a round bench and ate lunch, washed our hands in the bathroom (he is suddenly really into washing his hands), and wrote in his Hangeul book. When Carly found us with her nice new haircut, the two of them ate some sagwa and went on the teeter totter. Before we left, there were some guys practicing their rapping across the park and August really liked it.

We started walking, headed towards the park (홍익어린이공원) with the art fair we went to our first year here (where I bought my wallet). August rested his head, but by the park he decided he wasn’t going to nap – we weren’t surprised since he slept for so long during the night. We looked around all the booths, then went to find a park and coffee shop. August knew we were looking for a coffee shop and said “Coffee shop. Where are you?” Walked across the big street and looked in the university. Not a decent park area, but there was an interesting sculpture of 40 or so humans. August like them, and said “That looks like a woman.” (Although they were all men.)

We headed south, remembering that we had seen some interesting places the last time we walked down this street. We found a coffee and dessert place called Snob. Carly got a latte and August and I shared a slice of Earl Grey cake. Very nice.

From there we headed to a children’s park (와우어린이공원) I spotted on the map. Across the street we saw a sculpture outside a building that was a bunch of colorful spheres. August spotted it first and liked it. I asked if he wanted to take a photo of it, but he wanted to first take photos of the lines and arrow on the street, then a lamppost. Then the sculpture. The park we found was really a nice find: a cool play structure, lots of sand, faucets that August could play with, etc. We played quite awhile. Carly and I both took turns reading, and August mainly played with his water bottle, pouring water on the ground and sand. There was an older girl doing the same (5 years old) that August was really watching. He and I went over to the sand for awhile and he poured sand on his feet, then on my leg and shorts. And we watched ants in the sand. We ended up at the little sand area, where he climbed the short steps to the top of the little slide. Never went down it, but played “What does dada see?” for several minutes. We changed him, then headed out.

Carly needed food, and we found a Subway near the station. We both got sandwiches, and Carly and August ate a little before we left. Made our way home, then shared our sandwiches with him for dinner. I gave him a bath, after which he wore his froggy towel again. He nursed, and was falling asleep at 6:30. I went in and woke him up by hiding behind doors, etc., then he wanted “Bingul bingul bingul superbaby”. Did a lot of that, then he knocked the blocks off the table and we cleaned that up, song and robot style, then he drew on the floor and helped clean it up. We did some art, then he grabbed Carly’s carbonated water bottle and shook it for a second. He was a bit of a handful in his hyper state. He saw the cover of one of his books from class that has a penguin on a sled in the snow. It reminded him of the Pororo story we watched a week or two ago about Pororo and Loopy in the snow and Loopy being sad and he was talking about that a lot. We listened to Basho, and he was walking around in the cube. Finally, we went in for reading books and nursing. I was messing around with Green Monster, and set them up in between the beds, looking at Carly and August. I did it to annoy Carly (she finds them a bit creepy), but August thought it was hilarious. He was asleep just around 8.

New words/phrases: reading ‘Pepsi’, woman, superbaby (he’s said this before, but was really using it today), recycling (he at least knew this word, but used it in a sentence today)

On the subway:


First park: 

Snob: 


One of August’s photos: 

Park:  




Home: 



Watching: 

Friday: Uijeongbu redux – 5 parks this time

He was up at 7:05. Silently sat for 6 or 7 minutes, then wanted the iPad. He wanted Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast, but we were out of strawberries, so he wanted mango instead. I thawed some mango in a separate bowl, but we both agreed it wasn’t too good with the mango. He saw the Cheerio box and wanted me to write ABCs on it. He then wanted to get Cheerios out, and I figured out that he wanted the Cheerio book out. We found it, and he played with that while sitting on the table. We read some Bob Books and played with Marshy, then he was watching his Korean videos and singing to the songs. At some point, he got down on the floor and decorated one of his Korean workbooks with stickers on his own.

The pollution was bad for a third day in a row, so we headed up to Uijeongbu again. On the way to the station he wanted me to hop, then run. We did some running, but was upset when we got to the stairs and I couldn’t run anymore. He was talking about something as we walked, but I’m not sure what: “Go past 14. Stop at 16. Find 14 names.” While we waited for a train he played with Smokey, then was chanting and working on jumping, using the benches.

We planned on ending up in the same coffee shop and park behind city hall, but started out with a different plan. We first went to the man street, hoping the little stream down the middle we have played in in the past was on. It wasn’t we sat next to it though and ate our kimbap which we had bought at the Storyway in the station – he was eating more radish and cucumber. He heard a motorbike that startled him, then was saying “That was a motorbike” when he heard them. We could hear music blasting from a store, and he was dancing to it a few times. And he pulled up his pigeon shirt and hid behind it for fun.

From there we left to walk west. But first we stopped at a little park (Park #1, 중앙어린이공원). This was just to change him, and he was sad there wasn’t a playground. A woman gave us one of those little yellow melons while we were there. From there we headed west. We came across the park area NE of the department store, which I believe used to be an old U.S. base. We found a monument there that included big pieces from the Berlin Wall. That was a nice random find.

We kept walking, then turned left from the main road, short of the stream. Down there were two parks we hadn’t been to. I told August we would check out one, and if he didn’t like it we could try the other. He saw the first one (Park #2, 달님어린이공원) and liked it, but wanted sand to play in. There was no sand. He started pointing and saying “Other park.” We walked to that one (Park #3, 만남어린이공원), still no sand. But we had a snack and hung out for awhile. Suddenly, he got sad, and said “Want Camel.” I put him in the backpack and he put his head down on Camel and fell asleep after a few minutes. We walked to the same book cafe (아름드리카페) as last time and he slept from 12:45 to 1:56. He woke up and we read a couple books, including Everyone Poops a couple times. This time, he was reading much of it.

We then went to the park behind City Hall (park #4, 직동근린공원). We stopped and played on the platform again, then headed on. There, he played with the water and cup for a few minutes, then we went to a covered bench and drew in the Hangeul workbook. He wrote ‘in’ on his leg twice before I stopped him. He then started a third time and write ‘i’ before I stopped him. I got the notebook out for him to write in, and he wrote ‘n’ on that. He then pointed back and forth from the letter on his leg to the one on paper, spelling “in”. Twice we lost a marker and it bounced down into the grates and I had to lift it up and get the marker out of the water. There was what appeared to be a piece of cheese on the ground and we watched the ants crawling on that. And he worked on his jumping, putting his hands on the benches to do so. Finally, we were working on the workbook and came across ‘mirror’. I reminded him we had a mirror at home (labelled in Korean) and he got sad – he wanted a mirror outside. I put him in the backpack and he cuddled with Camel again.

We had a little time left, so I suggested we check out one more park on our way back. This was 의서어린이공원 and park #5. There, we had a little more snack, went on the teeter totter, and climbed the hill at the base of the sculpture thing. There was a truck going by with a speaker on it. August didn’t like it and said “Don’t like the sound.”

On our walk to the subway station we saw a boy walking the other direction and I pointed out his hat. August asked what the boy had been carrying, and I told him it was a corndog. August was sad because he wanted to hold the corndog.

Pretty easy trip back. As we transferred, August was talking about Os, although I’m not sure why as I was navigating the crowd: “That’s not O, that’s O right there.” We got home a few minutes before Carly. When I went to get him out of the backpack he would let me, and kept repeating something. Then I figured out it was “Would you like out, sir?” Apparently I say it enough that he has learned it. I said, it, he laughed, and I could take him out. I changed August and we were putting on our shoes to go wait for her when she came in.

They nursed, then we played with Marshy (more counting lines). He ate dinner with Carly. He remembered being sad about the mirror “Sad about the mirror outside in the workbook.” Carly gave him a bath, and when he was done he was wearing the towel. He then liked having the frog part on his head and walked around as Froggy Boy. Some reading after that, then he was asleep a little after 8.

New words/phrases: workbooks, wait a minute, no garbage around here (he said this when we were at a park and had some garbage to throw away)

 Waking up:





Uijeongbu: 



Park #1: 

Berlin Wall: 


Park #3: 

Cafe: 


Platform: 


Park #4: 

Proud of having written on his leg: 


Park #5: 


Home. Froggy boy: 

Thursday: Last Teuni Teuni class and Children’s Grand Park

He was up nice and early at 6:09. He had a lot of energy in the morning. He traced and wrote in his Hangeul books, then was marking on his fingers again and wanting me to blow on two fingers at once: “Blow on two.” He was sitting on the table doing this, then started throwing all the markers on the couch. I said “You are…” and he said “Crazy!” I got him to clean up by singing the clean up song and kind of moving him like a robot, with him grabbing the markers and putting them in the container. He kept saying “More!” We cleaned up, then he was banging the marker container on the table and liking the sound. We did some of the stickers and tracing in the Hangeul 1 book. He watched some videos, then we made oatmeal with mango. After that, he was sitting on my chest on the couch and chanting letters and numbers, and hid behind his shirt. We then spent quite awhile looking at the family photos on the walls. He was really into learning the names, and had me repeat them over and over – he also liked finding all of the grandpa photos, all the Paul photos, etc. He particularly liked the Heaton photo with the whole family lined up, ming over the names again and again, and spelling Bill. We then read some books with Baby Q. We had a whole stack of the Bob Books out that we hadn’t read, and August was having Baby Q choose: “Baby Q wants to read all of them…Baby Q is telling you…Baby Q is telling you to read…Want to hold lots of them.” We read Little Bug and Play Ball, but August got sad that he couldn’t hold the ball, and responded by putting his head down on Baby Q and cuddling.

 

We got ready to go, and headed out. Class went well, being the last of the session. The teacher handed out the photos of the kids with him, and August’s turned out really well. Today was about crabs, and they used crab hands things to pick up fish, and they walked sideways through tight spaces. There was also a dressing like a lizard thing, which August didn’t do, and a fun toy giraffe that you stood on, then pulled up on the head to make the neck longer. August had a couple good playing with the teacher moments, with a lot of laughing, although he came running to me each time wanting up. At the end of class we did a group photo, and August didn’t like that, but it was much better than last session.

 

Because of the high pollution again today, I decided to go to the children’s museum again. So we basically did a repeat of Tuesday, playing in the children’s museum, then going to the coffee shop. But today he took a nap, and then we went back to the children’s museum in the afternoon. By the time we were heading down it was getting close to his nap time. He actually spent several stops in the backpack on the floor, and asked for Camel and put his head down. Eventually he got up and wanted out on my lap. We bought a couple rolls of kimbap, then headed to the children’s museum. He wanted to look at the boards painted by children near the entrance to the park, then we went in and went straight up to eat. At lunch, he tried the radish yet again (although he passed on it the last few times) and he was quite excited to find he liked it: “Radish. Like it.” And then he found he liked the cucumber, too.

 

From there we got ready for a nap and went outside. He tried to play for a few minutes around the round benches. He saw a set of kid backpacks and wanted one – this was the second time he has been intrigues by other kids’ backpacks: “Zinnie want a little one.” I let him play a couple minutes ( he played on the grate and found a couple insects) then suddenly he wanted Camel and got really sad; it was clear that was really tired, and wanted “Camel as a pillow”. I told him “Want Camel” could be his signal for when he is tired. He fell asleep quite quickly. Went upstairs and he slept in the cafe from 12:41 to 2:06.

 

After he woke up (when I asked if he had had a good nap, he again replied with “Yeah!”), there was a slightly younger boy that was carrying 4 straws. On his shirt was a circle with a star in it. I asked what shape was on the boy’s shirt, and August said “dongilrami” (circle). I hadn’t expected him to answer that in Korean. August was also counting the straws in the boy’s hands, and when they left I told August he should say goodbye. He did. To the straws: “Bye 1 2 3 4!” We heard a nice instrumental version of “Country Roads” by (Shazam tells me) Robert Anderson as August ate some ice. Will have to look it up. August dipped his fingers in the water, then wanted me to blow on them.

 

We looked at National Geographic (an article on ants) for a minute, then headed back to the children’s museum. We played on the first floor, and the big thing was the “bee backpack”. He was intrigued by it, then wore it around for several minutes, going up into the tree house area, then back down. He set it down at one point and I hung it back up, but then he wanted it back and was sad when someone else was using it. I got him to go write on the blackboard instead, and he was drawing single and double Korean characters and having me say them: “Dada say the single ㄱ,  dada say the double ㄲ”. He also played with the minerals and the little tunnel thing behind them. Before we finished he was able to try on the two butterfly backpack things. When done there, we went up to the reading area and did some reading. He was hungry, so we went back up to the cafeteria and ate some more lunch. There was a woman with a daughter born the same month as August. She was asking August a lot of questions, then August was picking up crumbs of some Bugle-type snack and asking me what they were. He was really into this mystery, and when I went to grab the backpack, he got down on the floor under the table and was looking at more crumbs. She told him either to not touch the crumbs or eat them – I didn’t exactly see what happened – but when I came back over a couple seconds later and picked him up he got really, really sad. She asked if he had bumped his head and I said yes, although I didn’t think that was it.

 

He cuddled on me, and I didn’t change him in the children’s museum as he just kept being sad. In trying to figure out why he was sad I gave him several options: me, his head, the woman, or the snack, and he said “woman”. I then figured out that he didn’t like her telling him “No”. Eventually he calmed down and I changed him standing up in the grass near the front bathrooms. He played on the Little Prince snake/elephant statue thing, trying to climb it: “No se puede.”

 

We headed home and got home a little after Carly. Nursing time in the reading area, then dinner. Carly was feeding him spaghetti and he was being silly. I baited him with “Zinnie you are…” and he said “Crazy!” But then he added “Crazy bout mushrooms!” Carly gave him a bath, then they nursed. We went to write in his Hangeul book and said “I don’t have a marker.” Later, he wrote on the floor, but then helped clean it. He took books in to bed and lined them up, and we read Frog on a Log? and did some more Hangeul book in bed. He wanted Green Monster or Bluie and went out to the couch to get them. I was still in the bedroom, but Carly saw him ponder which one to take back to the bedroom. Back in the bedroom with Green Monster, I said that Green Monster was lonely without Bluie, and we went out and got Bluie. We played with the two of them, then he was ready to nurse and fall asleep, and was asleep at 9:20.

 

He has transitioned to saying “Translate it” when wanting a word in Spanish or Korean, where he used to say “Look it up!”

New words/phrases: 동그라미 (circle), 별 (star), slippery, ZonePerfect Bar, translate

 


Reading and being sad with Baby Q: 


Class: 



What he wouldn’t do: 




On the subway: 

Children’s Museum: 









The Little Prince thing: 

Home: 


Knocking them off her head: 



Wednesday: 3 parks in Uijeongbu

A bad pollution day, so we escaped to Uijeongbu, just north enough to escape the bad air.

He was up at 6:50. Cuddled a little, then we played with Marshy, counting the shapes and tracing them on the back of a book. He was hungry pretty quickly, and said “Want guhahguhs with rectangle crackers…Try it! Try it with rectangle crackers.” I didn’t actually let him put rectangle crackers in the cereal, but he had a couple crackers while I did cut strawberries to put in. I changed him, and he was rubbing his eyes: “Green and yellow and pink. See yellow in there!” He would do this again in the evening when Carly changed him. We watched videos from class and brushed his teeth, and drew on paper. We played hide and seek, with me running around the house and him chasing me. We read a Korean English book called What I Need, which we haven’t read before, and I was surprised when he read ‘weather’ right away and was able to sound out ‘snowy’. He then wanted “More hide and seek.” I was then asking him what he wanted to do today, and he said “Want to play with Marshy today.”

We had played with Marshy earlier, and played with him some more. The big game today was “Want Marshy count all the lines.” as August had noticed that there are lines in the texture of the rug. But Marshy never finishes, either distracted by August or confused when August gives him a wrong number, and he has to start over.

And when drawing with markers he came up with a random game where he would mark his hand, then want me to blow on it: “Use this one to make dot. Blow on the dot.”

We left at 10. As we walked out he said “Look for messy. More find messy things.” Then said he wanted to find “100 messy things.” I pointed out that the sidewalk was messy and he asked what it was. I listed some things, including that people spill things, and he asked “What is it people spill?”

Subway ride north he was very happy. A woman across from us talked to him and said goodbye and August responded. A couple stops later a guy a couple seats down from August left. We hadn’t talked to him at all, but August waved and loudly said “Bye bye!”

Up in Uijeongbu we transferred to the U-Line, which is an elevated line that goes around much of the city. We rode it all the way to the end, looking out the windows as we went. There was a child care group that got off a couple stops before the end. At the end of the line we rode the train back three stops to where we had seen a promising park. We got out, and I put him in the backpack on a bench. A woman came up and wanted to take his photo. We walked the trail back to the park (곤제근린공원) we saw and scouted it out. The play structure I had seen from the train actually wasn’t too impressive. Then I saw that there was another children’s park a couple blocks away. So we went to check that out. As we did, we saw a group of kids – the same group from the train. One of the teachers was singing a song and waving her finger in the air. August liked the song and started waving his hand too. They went into a building right before the park, and we said good bye to them as they did.

This park (중보뜰어린이공원) was quite nice. A man handed us some church tissues, then we pretty much had the park to ourselves. We sat and ate lunch on a bench, and played there. Randomly, he remembered a lesson I had given him yesterday or Monday on the word ‘but’: “Say again. Zinnie wanted hardtack crackers, but we were out… B U T but.” We played a lot of the game where he touches my chin to make me open my mouth while I am eating and say “Ahhh” and he does it too. Then, while eating watermelon he was talking about the size of the pieces and repeating “Big subak, little subak, big one, little one.” There was a broken balloon behind the bench and he started chasing “Broken balloon”. And he showed he knows the word ‘chose’ when I gave him a choice of foods, he took crab, and said “Chose crab”. Finally, he got up and we did some playing. He sat on the alligator thing and rocked on it, trying to take his hands off the handles, then roamed the dirt area, putting rocks in the bushes as we sang “Bingo”.

Finally, I changed him and we walked towards the closest train station. It was getting close to 6 hours since he woke up, and he was tired. We had a few minutes to wait, and looked at a Korean children’s book about a sheep in the little library boxes they have in the stations. Then, on the train he fell asleep right before we got to the city hall stop. I got off, and went to the book cafe (아름드리카페) we had seen before, but hadn’t been it. He slept from 1:04 to 2:04. They had a surprising collection of English picture books, so when he woke up we read a bunch of them, including a book by Pat Hutchins, who I like, and Everyone Poops, which August liked and we read 6 times. He also ate my ice.

From there we left and walked the short path back to the park behind city hall (직동근린공원). As we walked up, he used ‘because’ again: “Hard to see the sky cuz trees.” Halfway up he wanted down to walk on the roots: “Big sticks…Zinnie can do it.” And then he spotted a concrete platform that he climbed on and spent the next 15 minutes playing on. He heard an ambulance, but couldn’t hear it, then said “A A A A (the sound of the ambulance) hiding in the trees.” He asked what I saw in the trees. He chanted “D double dare you”. He spotted insects, and had me translate the Korean on the cover of the hatch (Korean Water Corporation, or similar). And he spun around in circles and almost fell off.

Finally we headed on our way and made it to the playground. Which we didn’t actually play in, of course. We threw little rocks into the waterfall, then played with the one faucet which was cool because he could both reach it AND turn it on and off. Then we went to ANOTHER faucet and he used my cup to play in the water for quite awhile, pouring it on my foot and saying “A badrillion drinks.”

We then went and sat on a bench and I got out his first Hangeul/Korean book and he got to draw in it. He loved this. I changed him, and he stood behind me, holding my shirt, and shaking his head and rocking back and forth. At some point today, I said “You are…” and he finished with “Crazy!”

Finally, we headed out. On the way to the train he talked about nursing and said “Nurse with dada. Try it. Want to try it.” On the train, he said “back and forth” as I rocked him hack and forth and “What’s he doing?” when he saw a guy tapping his foot. On line 7 we sat and he traced more in his Hangeul book.

We got home a little after Carly. We played more with Marshy and did the dot thing on his hand again. He and Marshy (voiced by Carly) had a very long nonsense conversation, where August was apparently remembering the phrases he was saying – I then showed him the videos of himself, and he was chanting along to himself, over and over. I gave him a bath, then Carly read books with him on the bed – he had lined them up, as usual. He had said he wanted to nurse before she took a shower, but he didn’t fall asleep. He came out and we were tracing Hangeul some more until he intentionally marked on my shorts (he had done it on accident before). He was asleep about 9.

New words/phrases:  reading weather and snowy, hide and seek, reading Nowon, chose, moss, just kidding

Counting shapes with Marshy: 



Off the train and ready for some parks. This is just after a woman took his photo: 

Fun at park #2. “Aaaah!”: 






Everyone Poops: 

The books we read: 

Three platform: 




Playground and faucets: 




Workbook: 


Home: 






Tuesday: Children’s Grand Park

He slept until 7:55 – a long sleep. He nursed at 5, but that was a long time before nursing. He was cuddling on his knees on my chest on the couch, but wanted the iPad when he heard me reach for the phone. Wanted “A ah apple” song, but I pulled up the wrong song and he said “That’s not A Ah Apple!” Got the correct song (the tongue twister one) and watched a few more, then we made oatmeal and ate that. He gave me the last bite, which he often does. He then watched the video from class, and at 9 we went down to meet Atsuko and get the tart she made me for my birthday. I told him we were going down to meet Atsuko and he said “Atsuko is…? Atsuko is a…?” We ate some of the tart (he really liked it) and then brushed his teeth and finished getting ready to go and left at 9:45.

He got impatient on the train – was fine until two stops were left, then wanted the iPad, but was frustrated I wouldn’t get it out, so did a little screaming. The rain was still holding on, despite forecasts saying it should be ending. We looked at some boards with art on them near the entrance to the park, then walked to the children’s museum.

It was the first time in a couple months that he has played on the first floor or in the basement. He kept saying “Remember this!” Started with the chalk, then went and made letters and shapes on the floor out of the magnet strips (“Make an A…Zinn Zinn do it.”), and wandered around to the major things around there: cotton balls in the glass, the minerals, the insect sounds. He was wandering on his own, but would occasionally want to make sure I was coming along:  “Want dada to come.” We went downstairs and had it to ourselves. He stomped on the circles that light up, then wandered around, with him directing me as I carried him: “Go past here.” We played with the blue blocks, starting to make a tunnel, but then using them to make numbers on the ground. He was trying to complete the 4, but got frustrated when he couldn’t push a block. We payed around there, then went up to the cafeteria and ate lunch. From there, we went down to the book room. He chose the Oh No! and I see… books and we took ours up to reading loft. He wanted to read with the dinosaurs. Did that for awhile. He heard a baby crying and said “Hear the sad baby.” He went down and found a big book about insects and got excited: “Read this! Read this!” He was starting to get energetic though, and started waling around, repeating a Korean phrase from the video, and crawling along the floor saying “ganchum” (crawling or inching, sort of). He was trying to look at a little window which was a little over his head, saying “Hard to get up here” and repeating “rectangle” (the shape of the window). I changed him, and he wanted to see the faucet. It is one with a sensor that doesn’t work very well, and he said “More buggy faucet” and “Look at all the bubbles.”

We went outside and he played on a grate and dropped down rocks. Then he wanted up and cuddled with me, covering his eyes. Clearly tired. I tried putting him in the backpack, but he said “More cuddling”. That happened twice, then I said “How about Camel as a pillow?” He thought about that, then pointed and said “More camel” and I was able to put him in. He immediately covered his eyes with Camel and put down his head. Seemed like he was asleep after just a minute, but I walked over to check on the wading pool (no change). I went to the first floor coffee shop, and he popped up his head when I ordered. Seemed like he would just fall to sleep easily, but he kept putting his head down for a few minutes, then lifting it up. Walked around outside for a total of 40 minutes, to 2, at which point I was going to give up, and he started talking anyway. Went back to the coffee shop and hung out there, since I had already bought my maple latte. He traced words and letters, and I did some reading. He tried using one of our recent Korean app purchases, one part of which doesn’t work. He declared “It’s a buggy app.” After a half hour or so he got up and started playing around, going on tippy toes and running around, and then stomping. He wanted some water, and enjoyed drinking the cold water from a cup. He started spinning and reciting a line from a song (“bingul, bingul, bingul, jak, jak, jak” spin, spin, spin, clap, clap, clap), and wanted to hop. We did that a little – he wanted to hop on specific words on the floor, like ‘ice cream’ and ‘delicious’. His lack of a nap showed though when he started to get loud. He had wanted up and then started shouting “A!” I just shushed him and he screamed and started pinching me and bit my hand. Very brief – like 10 seconds – then I was able to quiet him down, get our stuff, and leave. He was fine after that, and said “Sorry Dada for screaming and biting” once we were on the train.

At home, we read with Peter Rabbit. He went through another new Bob Book, word for word, only stumbling on ‘soft’. He was hungry, so we had a Larabar. He bit his tongue or lip and was balled up on my chest when Carly and Megan got home just after 5:30. He popped up and had fun with Megan for a few minutes. After she left he nursed, and kept wanting to fall asleep. We kept him awake, and started his bath. Carly gave him his bath, then I left for the store. I got groceries, then went to the little book store and bought a couple of Hangeul/Korean workbooks for August. I came home and he was still awake – curled up on Carly, hiding behind Where the Wild Things Are, which they had been reading. Carly took him in to bed a little before 8. He lined up books again, they read a little, and he was asleep at 8.

New words/phrases: buggy, all the, reading ‘delicious’ ‘ice cream’

Watching:

Trying some tart: 

What an escalator looks like when it is delivered: 

Children’s Museum: 

Superman: 





Reading with the dinosaur: 

Playing on the grate: 

Cuddling: 

After his nap: 




Home: 



Monday: Seoul Grand Zoo

Seoul Grand Zoo

He woke up at 7:07 and came out and we cuddled on the couch for 7 minutes before he got up and sat on the couch chanting A A A A A A A A A. We ate Cheerios for breakfast and he spent some time tracing Hangeul on the iPad. We left the house at 8:20 and made the long trek to Seoul Grand Park. On the long walk into the park we watched a huge group of people doing calisthenics – had never done that before. We did our usual turning on of faucets on the walk in, and stopped to trace the Chinese written on the bridge with our fingers. The new glass bridge panels have drawings by kids on them, and he wanted to see the “Funny M” – I think it was something we saw last time looking at the drawings, but the drawings have changed since them.

We had stopped at the CU and bought some kimbap, eggs, veggie chips, and a mango soy milk. Once in the zoo we walked to the giraffes and sat at a picnic table, under blue-green glass, where we could watch the giraffes. We ate an early lunch, and played under the blue-green glass for awhile, then went and looked at the giraffes, then he got interested in the springboks to the left and we looked at them. I then changed him in the changing room for the first time, since we were close to the entrance – usually we are farther in the park. He is not at all fond of changing tables nowadays, worried about falling, although he never has. In fact, Carly says he woke up at 4 or so saying “falling, falling” to nurse (breaking his 3 night streak). But he doesn’t mind sitting on the changing table. Kind of changed that around as I started a “sit…lie down” game, making him do one, then the other. He thought this was pretty funny, and requested the game again as I packed up.

We were talking about what to do next – as usual, there is so much to do that our plans change from minute to minute. We were talking about going to the stream, but I told him we had to first walk to the playground, as we couldn’t go down to the stream where we were. He thought about this and said “Go up to the playground, THEN go to the stream.” Of course, on our way things caught our attention. He had mentioned going to see bats, so we did that along the way. We say the bats, kinkajous, and porcupines, and spotted the civet before we headed on. He had been carrying a gingko leaf since we left the changing room that he wanted to drop in the water, so when we got to the pedestrian bridge by the playground he dropped it in. We were able to see it on the other side of the bridge and watched it go downstream. He spent a few minutes looking at things from the bridge, then we headed down to the playground (turning on faucets on the way).

In the playground he played by himself with the shovel in the sand for several minutes and I read. He then wanted to go down to the water. We went down and climbed around on the rocks and scooped water, then stood/sat on the edge and dropped rocks in the stream. Trice he used “pretty please” on his own – which I assume he learned from Carly, as I don’t think I use it. Once when wanting help to step from one rock to another, and once when asking me to go find more rocks. We did that for quite awhile, then went up to change him again and get ready for a nap. Up there, there was a school group eating lunch. August wanted to go up to them and sing ABC. He wasn’t clear on who he wanted to sing ABC. I think he wanted to do it, but then when he walked up to them, I heard him saying a few things, but was too shy to sing.

We got walking, and first ate a Larabar, then he fell asleep quite quickly. I bought a cheap latte from a little stand and went into the cafeteria by the dolphin show and sat down. He slept from 12:57 to 2:18. He woke up and when I asked if he had had a good nap, he said “Yeah!” He really liked the flies on the window, and a kind of scary yellow and black insect that kind of looked like a mantis, and I saw grab a little fly and eat it. He wanted to read, so we went right outside on the other side of the glass and read Double Dare and Curious George. He drank water from my ice and remembered Double Dare, reciting “‘Onesie twosie’ he said in a mocking tone.” We looked more at the yellow insect before we left.

We made our way out of the park, stoping to see the elands, sable antelopes, lions for the first time, oryx, ostriches, and hippos. We went through the little animal sculpture area and played Smokey Sees. He had been saying things like “See the D” for dolphin, and at one point he said “See a K…This is funny.” As we walked, we heard a weed eater, and August was making the humming noise. And he imitated the squawking noise of the water birds. Before we left the park, we stopped and watched the flamingos. He made their noise as well, and watched them intently. He was then trying to count them. When we went to leave he said on his own “Bye flamingos!” As we walked out, a girl about his age ran around by my feet and he looked at her and said “She’s looking for food.” That’s what he says for all the animals he sees now too.

We made our way home. A guy on the subway was very impressed with August reading a Bob Book and talked to August quite a bit. We transferred to the 1144 bus – August wanted to see the Hello Kitty things in the vending machines, but they weren’t in there anymore. We got home about 5:30. Spent much of the evening with mama, and Carly gave him a bath. He read the Mat Hid Bob Book with me, but wanted to play hide-and-seek too: “Want to help in the book like Sam. Want a real one…helping Dot. Sad bout it.”

He lined up books to read in bed, and when he was ready to turn out the lights came out and said “Happy Birthday, Dada.” He was asleep about 8:20.

New words/phrases: plugged (referring to the faucets), more use of ‘then’, pretty please, 기린(giraffe), hay (pointing to what the giraffes were eating – not sure where he learned that)

 

Chanting “A A A…” 

Lunch by the giraffes: 


Looking at the giraffes: 


Standing on the bridge on tippy toes:





Reading after lunch: 

Walking through the zoo: 

Flamingos: 


Headed home: 

Oh and we saw this on our way into the park: 

Home. Hiding behind Mat Hid: 

Sunday: Madeul with mama; art for me

He was up at 7:10. He didn’t nurse during the night, making it three nights in a row. He nursed and read Walking the Bridge of Your Nose with Carly. A bit later he and I were doing stickers, finishing up the stickers from his class that just ended, and putting shapes stickers on the drawer unit: “Mama is sitting by the stars.” (He had put the sticker of the mother on the camping trip up by the sky.) “Square is like a cube.” For the shape stickers he was at first stacking them on the side of the drawer unit, then making lines of them. He also tried climbing on top of it, but couldn’t really get started on that. He also thought it was funny putting one on my forehead: “Put it on dada’s cheek!”

Carly made French Toast for breakfast, and I got ready to leave. Meg is moving to Moscow, so is only in Seoul for 3 more weeks, and we were going to the Heyri Art Village northwest of Seoul, near the DMZ and the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

While I was gone they went to the store (we actually walked out at the same time). They bought some watermelon and he ended up eating a lot of it. He took a two and a half hour nap, waking up in the middle from a bad dream and saying “Want to hold it.” After the nap, Carly bribed him into the stroller with the letter crackers, telling him they were stroller crackers. But once in it he loved the stroller. They went up to Madeul and he played in the water with a cup and pail and shovel. They played by the piano sculpture for a few minutes, then went to the ‘new’ playground in the apartment complex, played on the spider web, then played in the sand with his toys. There was a girl there about his age, and Carly asked him to share the cup, and he handed it to her. Later, the girl’s mom left for a few minutes and came back with some juices and gave August one. He said “Thank you!” without being prompted.

Meg and I had a good outing. We first had lunch, having a caprese sandwich and macchiato at a place called Farmer’s Table, supposedly slightly famous because some K-Drama was filmed there. We then went to the modern history museum, which is a building full of stuff from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Just packed with stuff, and comically undersized mannequins. Really cool though. Meg had borrowed my camera for AP Art portfolios and returned it, so I had fun shooting in the museum – mannequins are amazingly easier to shoot than a two-year-old. We then stopped at the ice cream bus and had ice cream, then walked around a bit more. We found a couple galleries and a handmade toys shop – interesting stuff, but not overwhelming. Before we left we walked around a last couple of buildings and found an African goods shop. I bought a kalimba and little wooden giraffe for August.

When I came home, August said “Happy birthday dada!” Carly had made a berry thing in the rice cooker and they had made a card together. Very nice of them, and a good surprise. He wanted me to say letters, and I started hiding and then popping out and saying them, and he was laughing hysterically. He had been hyper since they got back from their walk. We shared our dinner (spaghetti), then I was holding him while he did ‘Rocky like a chimpanzee’. We did more stickers from class, then I pulled him around in the laundry basket (now he wanted to hear the “ssss” sound). He wanted me to keep taking him to touch the Teuni ball, mama, etc. I hung up laundry, and he went reading with Carly, but then showed up to me with a Korean book to read. We sat in the changing room and read it a couple times. We had blown up a butterfly thing from his class, and he got the idea to trace it. We did that on paper, then he and I were drawing shapes. August said something to Carly and she said “uhh” in response. August started laughing, and wanted her to say it again. To him it sounded like the ㅡ character in Hangeul, so he started drawing it on the paper. Our phones kept getting notifications in Kakao for a conversation that was happening, and August kept copying the notification sound.

Finally, about 9 he went on his own and lined up books to read at the end of the bed, then he went and found a shirt that he wanted to wear for pajamas. He was ready for bed. He was asleep about 9:20. Sometime after 11 he sat up and said a few words. I saw Carly get up and lay him back down, and he fell back asleep without nursing.

In the morning they had been drawing on the paper and he was drawing shapes. Carly had drawn a line that he didn’t like, and he was explaining he was sad “because” of what she had done. Wasn’t all grammatically correct, but he was using ‘because’ in a nice complex sentence.

New words/phrases: because

Morning:






Wih mama:


Evening: 






Books and shirt, ready for bed: 

Saturday: 3 parks

He didn’t nurse again during the night. But it was kind of short, as he was up at 5:50. I had woken up sneezing at 4, and didn’t sleep well after that, but got up a little after 7. He played the Daniel Tiger game for the first time a little this morning, liking the flushing toilet. At one point, Carly saw August about to close the window and said “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.” and sighed. August closed the window and copied what she had said,  including the sigh. Also, for some reason I taught August to say “Meat is murder” and he enjoyed saying that. Oh, and he had a great, and long, conversation in gibberish with Marshy, with Carly voicing.

We went outside, just to the park across the street, around 9:30. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast sandwiches. I waited for those, as it was slow, and they went on to the park. I caught up to them, and they were listening to a microphone test for a stage that was being set up for some festival thing that was happening today. We sat and ate our sandwiches, and August saw an ant he said was looking for food. He liked it when they were soundchecking a piano, but then walked the other way towards the playground when we got up. He did the shaky bridge, Carly following him, and was repeating “Look at this” as he went outside. We played around a bit more, then he was hungry and it was time to go in and change him anyway. He wanted apple, but it was inside, which made him sad, because he “want to eat sagwa outside.”

We came in and skyped with my parents, then he took his nap. He slept from 11:20 to 12:10, came out, then fell back asleep in the reading area and slept until 1:50. We watched the video from class and brushed his teeth, then I took him outside for awhile. I had offered him some choice on where to go. One was the playground by the youth center, and we don’t really have a name for it, so I described it as where we play ‘Smokey sees’ and where we lost the fuzzy. He seemed to get that, and chose that one. So we walked over, touching the “Gingko tree…eunhang namu” as we walked down the sidewalk. At the park we played with Smokey and dropped little rocks down through the grates. We got out our books and did some reading of Bob Books and Marvin K. Mooney. He heard all the noise coming from the pool downstairs, and kept asking what the whistle sound was. I explained it was someone blowing a whistle and what it could mean, and he seemed to get it – before we left he was hearing it and said  “Says time to get out of the pool.” a few times.

We went home. While we were gone, Carly had gone to the grocery store and made spaghetti. We had spaghetti for dinner, then all went out for a walk, north to Starbucks. Along the way we were touching more gingko trees, but couldn’t reach all of them, so he was saying “Too far away.” I told him to touch Carly, which he loved to do, so she was saying “I’m not a tree” and he kept repeating that. Over the stream, we saw a broom floating in it. I pointed it out, but he said “someone lost a broom” – the ‘lost’ part was, I think, his touch. He had wanted to stop at the parks we saw along the way, but I said we were walking up to Starbucks, then coming back. To which he responded “Mama get her tea.” And as we walked in he once again said “Starbuck in a book” (referring to Moby Dick).

We got drinks and walked back to the 어린이교통공원 – Poli Park. We sort of played there for a couple minutes once, maybe more than a year ago. Otherwise, we’ve walked through a dozen times as it is access to the stream, but that is it. But it is where we once saw a cookie in a garbage can, back near the beginning of his garbage can obsession, and he remembered that when we went to throw our cups away, asking “Where’s the cookie?”

He climbed on the poles, wanting to do the high ones first. I pointed out the low ones and that he should practice on those first, so he started down on those, and was saying “Look at this…Practicing.”

We headed home as it got dark. On the walk home I was singing songs and he was singing along with “A A A A A A A” even when he knew the words. And along the stream he spent a good time quacking and squawking. We thought we’d go to that festival thing in the park but it was entirely gone. Not a sign of it remained. Kind of crazy – it wasn’t even up and running at 10, and by 6 or 7 it had vanished. We went home and he and I read Triceratops for Lunch, which has words like ‘herbivores’ in it that he kept wanting to see in the text. He then wanted the spray bottle and was playing with that, and managed to spray me in the face as he crawled over me on the couch. He was counting drinks he was taking from it, then jumped to “a bajillion drinks”. Carly was vacuuming, and he started humming along to it, matching the tone. I asked “Does that sound have a color?” and he immediately responded “Red!” I gave him a bath, then we were doing art, mainly drawing letters. He was drawing tildas and double Hangeul characters like ㅆ. He got books and we read them in bed. We read Max’s Easter Surprise 3 times and The Hole in the King’s Sock. He then read Hop with Carly, and they went to sleep at 9:50.

New words/phrases: ginkgo tree, Eunhang namu, squirt, bajillion,

Reading with Marshy:

Park in the morning: 

Back asleep: 


Dada and Zinnie outing:






Starbucks and Poli Park: 



Smog moon: 

Writing: 

Friday: Last 5-Touch class and Children’s Grand Park

Final 5-Touch class and Children’s Grand Park

A big day for a couple of reasons: for the first time ever, he didn’t nurse during night. And, after 5 sessions, today was his final 5-Touch class.

He woke up at 7:51. Again. He was very quiet and we cuddled on the couch, then he kind of got off me, but lay back down with his head on my leg. A bit later he wanted to put on his shoes and go wait for mama at the elevator. He made this request a couple times through the morning, but didn’t get upset when I reminded him it was only morning. He ended up doing art on the iPad, mainly in Art Maker. We then watched one of the older videos from class and brushed his teeth, and then sent some video Skype messages. He also worked more on his hopping. He wanted to leave early, and we were out the door by 9:15.

On our way out, he heard a noise that he described as V and W. It was workers trimming the hedges around the building. We watched them for a minute, then went across to the park. He found a few pieces of garbage, which we threw away, then he climbed up on the rocks and explored the bushes. He said “See bushes. What he’s doing.” and hit the bushes with his hands, referring to what the man with the hedge trimmers had been doing.

Changed him at the art museum before class. He got extra anxious about falling and pretty upset. Not sure why. He definitely prefers standing up nowadays. Got to class and he had a great last class. He was singing to much of the opening songs – both actual words, and “A A A A B B A…” which he likes to do quite a bit now, both with songs he knows and doesn’t. I took two videos of his last bubbles time, but missed the moment when he leaned against the wall, looked up, and said “Bubbles are fun.” Class was all about frogs today. He let me put the frog hat on him a few times, but would take it right off. There was a hopping on lily pads activity, then a swatting flies with a flyswatter and feeding them to frogs activity, then she got out frog-shaped percussion instruments. August loved these, and stood right in front of her, kind of hopping, for her demonstration. We played with those, sang the closing song, then got his frog hand stamps before we said goodbye.

I had told him last week that we could eat in one of the food courts, where they have the “yummy” plastic food, sometime this week. So we went down to the second basement and looked at the selections. We chose the Japanese curry and dongatsu. We had a to wait a few minutes, and he sat at the table and said “Zinnie is waiting.” Got the food and he liked everything, except the salad, which he refused to try. He ate a lot.

From there we headed to the subway, got to Children’s Grand Park, changed him, then walked to fall asleep. The park was busy, particularly with art students, so it took awhile – he kept wanting to look at the paintings, and he wanted to kick trees from the backpack. He fell asleep and slept from  1:17 to 2:35 in the upstairs cafe. We did Art Maker for awhile, and talked about our options. I mentioned the children’s museum and he remembered it being closed on Tuesday morning: “Children’s museum open. No be open at 9.” In art maker, he was doing the Abby Cadabby picture and said “Zinnie like those.” while referring to one of the objects. He liked Abby’s like “I feel totally magical.” and wanted me to say it over and over. Before we left, we found a collection of National Geographic magazines on the bottom shelf, and looked at a few, looking for animal articles. We saw bears, elephants, and his favorite was an article about hummingbirds.

From there we decided to go to the faucets by the walking path. Walked over there and played from 3:20 to 4 or so. A lot of the same splashing as last time – he liked me splashing water into the corner and he would say some nonsense each time. But then he was also using the plastic cup to pour water into his water bottle and onto the seats for quite awhile (and I was able to read).

Before we left he wanted to sit and read. I initially chose a different bench from Tuesday, but then he saw that bench and got excited, so we changed benches. We read some Bob Books, and he remembered The Jet and talked about it (even though we didn’t have it with us): “Sad about th jet cuz Zinnie want to do it.” He was then looking for insects after he saw a green bug (his words) go in the bushes somewhere. He got up and said “Zinnie take a look.” He didn’t find that one, but he found a bug we couldn’t identify on the ground, then a little beetle, then a big fly walking across the bench. And ants, of course. He kept talking about them looking for food and he tried to give the fly something to eat: “Now it’s on the book. Looking for food…maybe this.”

He was having a hard time leaving – he didn’t want to leave the insects, then he wanted to play in the sand. As we walked out he wanted to read all the Hangeul, turn on water, etc. I had forgotten there was the Agricultural Expo going on as well. We had seen it a bit on the way in, but it meant there were all sorts of things to try to look at on the way out. On the subway home he started singing “ABC…” and the woman next to us joined in. She confused August when she switched a couple of the letters around, then was singing “Twinkle twinkle little star” instead of “Now I know…” In the stations he spotted the “Dwaje masayo” (do not run) and was repeating that pretty well by the time we left Hagye.

We got home awhile after Carly. He didn’t really eat much dinner, but I wasn’t surprised as he had eaten a huge lunch. And when we had gotten to Children’s Grand Park he insisted on eating since we always do, and he had eaten most of a LaraBar. Also, having not nursed since the previous evening, he nursed a lot. He and Carly did a lot of reading (they’ve also been reading the Curious George Spanish books) and I gave him a bath: “Want the squirty car please.”

Sometime after that, I was reading Bob Books with him and he was being funny: “Dot say BAZABAZABAZABAZAPENQUIN…Mat say Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q .” We read a book about Dot running up a hill and falling, and August was sad both because he wanted to run up a hill and because hewanted to fall like Dot: “Zinnie want to fall like Dot in the book. Sad bout that.” And he remembered being sad when the fly disappeared at the park: “Sad bout the fly.” Finally, we read Where the Wild Things Are three times. It was about 9, and I suggested he take books in to read on the bed with mama. He took 4 books (one at a time) in to the bedroom and lined them up neatly at the end of the bed. They read Frida together and played a bit with Baby Q (August remembered that  girl at class today also had a Baby Q doll). We read the Jane Eyre book a couple times. Carly had a fan on, and it started to make a bit of a rattling noise. At first August seemed concerned by it, so I tried to make it stop. I couldn’t, but when I went back to him he had decided he liked the noise. He and Carly were both asleep 9:20ish.

New words/phrases: hedge trimmers, curry, pointing this way, kind of, 빵 (bread), “This one, no this one…”

Yawn: 

Exploring the bushes: 

Last 5-Touch class:  





Lunch. Waiting:


Asleep: 

Coffee shop: 


Water: 



Reading and insects: 




Trying to feed the ant: 

Headed home: 

Home. Books ready for bed: 

Fan and Baby Q: