This Is Our Blog

He was up at 7:51. Pretty much a repeat of yesterday, with us sitting on the couch together. After he was up, we made a smoothie and then oatmeal for breakfast. At one point he was trying to hop more on his own – he’s starting to be interested in jumping. We listened to Basho for awhile, then read Donde Esta Spot and Max’s Easter Surprise. We skyped with my dad for a few minutes (my mom was gone). When August saw him, August said “Say ‘Dear oh dear.’” After that we got ready to go to class. I made a peanut butter sandwich and talking up a storm: “Oh my gosh” “What you doing with the peanut butter.” “Oh my gosh is crazy.” I got the Osprey drinking thing out for the backpack. August saw it and said: “This is the nursing one…Don’t like the raining part…like the nursing one better.” By “raining part” he was referring to the spray bottle that was nearby, which he also tries to drink out of from time to time.

We headed to class. In the elevator he saw some Hangeul that looked like handwriting and said “This is a tricky Hanfeul to read.” Class was great. It was all about jumping, and thus frogs, rabbits, and kangaroo. There was a walking path with numbers on it and it squeaked – August just kept going around and around on it, ignoring other activities – although he did allow me to put the kangaroo thing on him for a little while. Near the end of class, the walking path was made even longer, with a drop at the end that they could jump/slide off from.

After class we were walking to the subway and saw Jihong and his mom rushing the other direction as they were late for class. We took the train north to Dobongsan. As we left the train he repeated the phrase “terminates here” when he heard it on the intercom.

We walked up to the stream and got out the picnic mat and sat on the side of the path and ate some lunch. Across from us a guy in full biking clothes, smoking, drinking makoli, listening to music from the radio on his bike, and eating fried chicken from a bag. About as Korean as you can get. He offered August a sausage, and we ate that. He offered me some makoli, but it didn’t seem like a great time to start drinking at noon.

When we were done eating, we climbed down to the stream. This was a bit downstream from where we used to play, as there is a sandy, flat area. He spent some time scooping sand/gravel, then wanted to walk across and then up the stream. We worked our way up, and stepped from rock to rock, going under the bridge, until we got to the top of the first waterfall-esque area. He was pretty cavalier going up, stepping from rock to rock, and talking constantly about which rock he wanted to go to next: “Go to the rock with wawa on it” “This one is covered by wawa” When he wanted some water, he said “Dada go get it to me.” It was only when we were at the top and he was walking across the stream that he had a bit of a slip – just enough to put him on guard a bit, but he recovered on his own. We went across the stream, then back down on the rocks on the side. We went up to our picnic mat and got ready to go. He was looking through the trees and said “Hard to see the sky.” As we went to go change him on the grass, we watched a school group of teenagers playing in the pool area we had just left: “Want to see them having fun.” “Hear them being messy.” We discussed what to do after his nap, and he was most excited about “Go in the Iris Garden.”

So we walked down to the Iris Garden and took a few more minutes for him to fall asleep. A nice long nap on the deck of the cafe upstairs, from 1:44 ro 3:19. Didn’t notice the music playing until “Eternal Flame”, a song I haven’t heard in forever, came on.

After he was awake we decided to find a picnic table and read. The usual tables were full, but we found a nice one in the corner. We read a few books, saw some ants and pigeons, then he said “Hear the backhoe” from the noise across the street. We were getting ready to leave, but he remembered throwing rocks in the stream, so we went and did that for a little while.

We headed home and got home a little after Carly. It was kind of a tough evening, as he wanted his mama, and didn’t want to let her get up to get food or do anything else. We talked about what we had done today, but everything he remembered made him “Sad about…” it because he wanted to do it now. He cheered up for awhile, and he and I happily did some flopping and hopping on the reading area and were working on “Happy about…” But then he was back to mama. She gave him a bath. After that, he seemed back to normal, and let her go take a shower.

We did some art: “Dada’s coloring it in pink” “Dada use this to make nonagon.” I had to go hang laundry, and he did more reading with Carly. They went in to put him to sleep about 8:20. Carly said it took quite awhile for him to fall asleep, but doesn’t know how long, as she fell asleep as well.

New words/phrases: Iris Garden

Cuddling:

Class: 

On our way to the stream. He keeps asking what these are. Ideas? 

The guy that gave us sausage: 

Eating it: 

Stream: 

At the bottom, saying he wants to go up the waterfally area: 

Pointing out his next rock: 

At the top. We started in the sandy place to the right of his head:

A little slip:

Some random talking: 

Iris Garden: 

Walking to recycling:

Throwing rocks: 

On the train: 

Home: 

At 5:30 he woke up just enough to say “Nurse and read” a few times. They nursed and nodded off until we all got up at 6. Once he woke up he was full of energy and ready to go; while Carly was still here he pointed up at the Ergo and said “Get in this”. And right after she left, he wanted to get in the backpack at 7. He got his Double Dare book and put it in the backpack on his own for us to take. I was able to postpone leaving until 8, as we needed to get ready. We sang “Warm Kitty” and he changed ‘kitty’ to ‘kitties’, ‘fur’ to ‘furry’, and ‘purr’ to ‘purring’. He ate some grapes as I cut them for a snack, and he would point to the top of the grape and say “Dada eat this part.”

So we left at 8. Trains were packed, so we waited for a second train and made it on, getting a seat after two stops. Got to the park about 8:45 after stopping for kimbap, eggs, and a mango yogurt drink to try. Checked the hours on the children’s museum but it opened at 10. So I took us to the old playground, but he decided he wanted to new one. So we walked over the hill, which took us by the outdoor theater. He pointed across the theater to where we ate on Friday and said “Ate squash salad over here.” As we got down to the playground he spotted the drinking fountains and said “Want to turn on the water, sir.”

We ate an early lunch of the kimbap and some egg. He was ready to do everything at the park. First he was talking about what to do in the playground: “Do play on the sand. Do play on the funny shapes. Do play on the swings. Do play on the slide.” There was a loud bird above us, and he was pointing up at the trees, trying to see it. He changed his mind about the playground, as first he wanted to see the frog fountains. We walked over and saw those, then he wanted to go in the conservatory and see the fish. We startled a cat inside, which we watched for a minute before it disappeared in the plants. Kind of a cool place to live as a cat. We saw the fish and the water outside. We heard a loud bird – the donkey sounding one – and I said it might be the storks or pelicans, and he wanted to go see those. We went in and first watched the penguins for several minutes, with him standing on the railing. He apparently saw a zookeeper open the door in the exhibit and set down a penguin, as he suddenly started talking about it, and the penguins had moved over towards that door. I was looking at him though and missed it. We then went over to the rest of the birds, first looking at the black swan which was right by the glass and looking at us. We went upstairs, and figured out that the storks make a sort of clicking sound, but the donkey sound wasn’t repeated while we were there. I said we should ask Oma, so we recorded a little video message to her where he asked “What sound do pelicans make?”

Now we went to the playground. He let me put on the “sun cream” and then he found bottle and played in the sand and watched some teenagers on the swings. We walked across to the faucets and dumped water on plants and found a little car in the drinking fountain. He wanted to throw rocks in water, so we walked to the fountains by the robots and threw little rocks in those, then walked up to the rectangle pond and had a snack. He wanted me to ID more songs using Shazam, and still wanted me to eat the stem end of the grapes: “Dada get the stem out.” He was listening to the music and sort of dancing, and said he was writing names as he drew in the air.

Changed him, walked, and he went quickly to sleep. He slept from 11:55 to 12:53. He woke up, I got him out, and he said a couple things, but then he put his head on my arm and fell back to sleep to 1:43. He woke up a bit, but his feet up on the table, then dozed off for another 3 or 4 minutes before waking up for good.

From there we went to the faucets by the foot paths. We played there for over an hour – we were in the shade by the time we left, but were in the sun to begin with. Thought his cheeks were turning red and put sun screen on – he did a good job of letting me. We used both the coffee cup and his water bottle, mainly splashing water on the ground and pouring it down the wall.

I remembered the books we had brought and asked if he wanted to read. We found a bench and read Double Dare. I then said it was about time to go. He said “Read Bob Books for a minute.” I started to respond, saying “You are just-” and he said “Thinking. Thinking about Bob books.” So we read another new Bob Book, changed him on the bench, then he played with the bushes for a few minutes while I got ready to go. We headed home little before 4.

Went to the grocery store next door and got some shopping done. His find was some coconut peanuts, so we got those . He also remembered the letter crackers he found with Carly, but I said we still had some at home. We played at home for a little while after he ate 3 pieces of crab and some coconut peanuts. At 5:30 we went down to the elevators and surprised Carly pretty well when she got off 5 minutes later.

They nursed and read Frog on a Log. Carly fed him, and I gave him a bath. Later we read The Jet (not getting sad this time, but playing with the plane) and As Big As with me. He sat up against the pillows, then bonked his head backwards, thinking it was pillow, but hit his head instead. He managed to say “Sad about this” before he started to cry. Carly consoled him, and a bit later took him in to bed and he fell asleep right away, about 8:50.

New words/phrases: stem, sesame seeds 

 

Pointing at the bird: 

Penguins: 

Looking at himself on the phone: 

Playground: 

Rocks: 

Bench: 

Asleep on me: 

Slightly awake: 

Feet on the table: 

Water: 

Reading: 

Studying the bushes: 

Home. In the cube: 

Reading with mama: 

7:22. His sweetest wakeup yet. Opened the door, looked at me, and said “Mama” in his cutest voice. When I said she was at work he stretched and yawned and I picked him up and we cuddled on the couch. Then he just laid on the couch for a bit. We then listened to Basho and he started to wake up. He saw a crumb on the table and said “Mesa has a crumb.” We did some ‘hopping’ on the table and couch, then he laid over the end of the couch and read the book signs (in the different languages). He then calmed down again and sat on the couch, quietly listening to the music, then got up and wrote Ks on the paper before switching to the umbrella and spray bottle. We ate the “twirly twirl” pastry and a smoothie, then he wanted to “Watch video from class. From yesterday.” and was singing along to a surprising amount of it. He climbed in the cube and wanted to sing our shapes song, then we ate some Cheerios and got ready to go.

We left around 9:30 and got to Ttukseom Resort a little after 10. Checked out the garbages and waters on our way to the little nature area to the west. There, we saw polliwogs and fish, and he threw little rocks in the water. And we saw two big spiderwebs on the bridge. We walked around on the little hills, then sat and had a snack. While eating the sandoo, we saw a homeless man picking up garbage from around the water area. I told August what he was doing, and we said thank you (in Korean) and August said it a few times and I gave him a few won.

We headed back towards the playground, but didn’t actually play there. He used his water bottle to pour water around the drinking fountains, and he was chanting a lot and singing, particularly the Onesy Twosey chant. And we sent a Skype video to Carly. He started standing on the bench and saying “annanghasaeyo” and bowing – to no one in particular. He saw a bunch of pigeons and said “See lots of pedulgi…Where is food for the pedulgi?” I asked “What do you think they eat?” and he replied “Little pieces of food like sagwa.” I changed him outside, and he pointed and said “Clouds up there.” There was a big puddle of water on the grass and he went stomping in it, first in his shoes, then without. He found a feather, looked at it a little, then threw it in the water. Finally, we sat and ate an egg. Out of seemingly nowhere he said “Joooo means? In video from class. Hana, dul, sat joooo” (it is the sound of someone going down a slide). Then he pointed, got excited, and said “놀이터 right there!” (playground)

We went for a walk and he fell asleep after pulling in his arms and putting down his head. He slept from 1:30 to 2:53, up on the top floor, and slept through the sirens of the civil defense drill and the noise of two jets screaming overhead. After he woke up, we looked around at the animals, then he wanted to go to the library. We read a book of Peter Rabbit songs, then Moo, Baa, La La La, then The Christmas Story, and finally spent most of our time with Tell Time with the Very Busy Spider. The spider builds a web, so I was able to remind him of the webs we saw a bit earlier.

From there we went to the eastern playground and played in the sand, then on the little climbing wall and play structure, then back, walking on the bench around the play structure. Had a snack of crackers and a “juicy” orange, of which he ate half. Spotted a little green bug walking on the bench and watched it intently. I found a broken marble, which he liked but then wanted to throw away. But on the walk over to the garbage cans he dropped it three times (I was carrying him). The first two times we found it, but the third it just vanished. I got to teach him “Oh, well.” We were about ready to leave, but he pointed farther east and said “See the vest(?) I thought he might mean ‘rest’ but that didn’t seem to be it. We walked that way, but we didn’t figure out what he meant – he said  “Word you’re talking bout has an F” (I was asking if he could spell it) but that didn’t help. Looked a bit more at water fountains, then he found a plastic spoon to throw away. That took us past the spot of the marble, so we looked some more. Found a button instead, which he declared was also glass, so we threw that away instead.

As we walked out of the park, we spotted two cats. August declared “Cats find the marble.”

We got home a little after Carly. He nursed then played with the spray bottle and ate some dinner. He started saying “‘What is the matter?’ said Jim.” and we tracked it to the Kittens Bob Book. He was trying to tell me something and I wasn’t getting it and he would say “No. Say again.” and then say it again until I got it. He did this with Carly a day or two ago.

Carly gave him a bath, then we were reading a new book on the iPad about the painter Mary Cassell. There was a picture of hot air balloons and he wanted to hold them, and got sad when he couldn’t, and went to Carly. They nursed and then read Picasso’s Trousers. Back to me, we read a new Bob Book called The Jet. In it, a character is playing with a toy plane. Again, August wanted to hold it. Luckily, we could go and get the plane that Vivian sent him. But at the end of the book the character can actually fly on a plane. He wanted to do it too. I told him he would in a month, but he wanted to do it now. He got super sad and said “Zinnie do it…sad about the flying.” and went to Carly again. She basically took him right in to bed and he was asleep just before 9.

New words/phrases: yesterday, 자동차 (car), cube, feather, 놀이터 (playground), reading ‘neigh’ and ‘oink’

Morning:

Trukseom: 

By the water faucets: 

Asleep: 

Library: 

Playground: 

Chinese: 

He was awake just after 8. He nursed and then they played with the hair dryer and did some reading. They made a smoothie and he was speaking some good nonsense. They had been reading the Berenstain Bears Double Dare book, which he really likes, and she had left it sitting open. He was looking at it and pointed out where it said “he followed” to Carly. He is fascinated by the jump rope in it, so yesterday there were some kids at the park with a jump rope and August really wanted to hold it. Today he talked about being sad that he couldn’t hold it. Carly made eggs for him for breakfast.

It was scheduled to rain a lot starting in the early afternoon, so we left in the morning for a walk. We walked up the stream to the Sanggye Station area, and went to the park kind of across the street from the Tayo kid cafe. On the way up he was initially frustrated when we didn’t stop at a couple of other places to play, but when we got to the art along the stream he really liked looking at it, and said “Remember this” a couple times, and “See the broken one”, remembering the one with broken tiles before we got to it.

At the park he went on the seesaw with Carly, then they got out the notebook and markers and were drawing on the bench. He spotted one of those bugs we keep seeing, so we have started to call them ‘xugglybugs’, after Kipper’s A to Z. A bunch of kids came and kind of just sat and looked at August. A bit odd, but one bright spot: August asked “What is your name?” and he got a response from one of the girls. We went back on the play structure and he went down the slide with me. He was then hiding from Carly who had gone away for a minute. He wanted Smokey and was slid him down the slide, and was then playing with him down on the ground. Set him aside when we started writing words with the stick and then August would trace them. He read ‘smokey’ when I wrote it, and we were working on words like ‘found’ and ‘sound’. He found a big stick and was writing letters with that, then Carly spotted a ladybug. August said “Ladybug from I. Looking for food. Where’s food?” Then watched it for a couple minutes. Not sure what he meant by the ‘I’ part, although he might be referring to an alphabet book or video that has a ladybug for ‘Insect’.

We walked around a bit, then he wanted to go in the library. August and I had been in once before. We chose some books from the English section and sat in the little reading room. At first he was fixated on the floor mats, which had letters and pictures on them, but he really liked the LMNO Peas alphabet book which Carly read to him a couple times. He was also picking up the book, waving it over his head, then setting it down. A few times i na row he actually turned in a circle as he did this.

We wanted to get home for his nap (and before the rain) so we took off. We stopped at the Julietta coffee place we’ve been wanting to go to, as it was actually open this time. August and I shared a strawberry smoothie on the way home. We walked home, and he fell asleep from 1:40 to 2:35, then spent a long time nursing and napping some more on Carly. 

Carly wanted to go to the store, and August liked the idea of going in the Ergo, so the two of them went. He wanted down as soon as they got there, but he did a good job of walking with her in the store and they were able to get their shopping done. He was fascinated by boiled peanuts or something like that, probably because of the texture of the packaging. He also spotted letter crackers, so she bought those and he was happily eating those when he got home. They came home and Carly started to do some cooking, making more fried rice. I took August down to the little store and bakery to get milk and bread. At the Tous les Jours he wanted to try new things: we got a danish sort of thing because it looked like a “twirly twirl”, and a sesame bun thing. Came back up and we all shared the sesame thing, then ate dinner.

I gave him a bath. At the end, he wanted to see the frog at the corner of his towel, and started saying “Ribbit A, ribbit B, ribbit C…” Carly put her umbrella up to dry it, and he was playing with it, lifting it over his head. Carly got the spray bottle to do rain, and he was playing with that as well – it takes two hands, but he can now spray it, although is still working on direction. Carly took a shower and he played more with the hair dryer, then played Todo Math on the iPad. Back to the spray bottle: he was spraying it and counting “14 times, 15 times…” He and Carly were sitting on the reading area, reading Wild About Books, and I was in the rocking chair. He told me to get down on the floor with him, then climbed in the chair himself – he stole it from me. Carly said something about “kicking Dada out of the chair” and he took it literally, scooting forward so he could kick me with his foot.

We made the bed – Carly wanted to sleep out on the reading area to hear the rain at night.  We then played in a ‘fort’ on the regular bed before Carly took him off to sleep about 9:15.

New words/phrases:  reading ‘Smokey’, spelling ‘penguin’, loopty loops,

Looking at art:

Playground: 

Asking ‘What is your name?”: 

Spying mama: 

Library: 

Home: 

On the chair: 

And in the ‘fort’: 

He got up with me at 7:00. They Skyped with Cassie. Then I had to deal with a phone/computer issue to recover some videos, so Carly took August out to the park while I did that. They played in the dinosaur footprints and had a snack there, then climbed on the rocks at the petrified forest area. When I came out they were sitting on the walking path, looking down through the grate. August said he saw sand, and was grabbing Carly’s head and pulling it down to look as well. He was doing that for quite awhile.

We all walked over to the museum. He went to the play area for a minute with Carly and I started looking at the new exhibit. He then said he wanted to go look at art, so they came in. There was a big stair step piece on the main floor that you could climb on, so they climbed up that. We all looked around the first floor a bit more, then August and I walked up to the second floor. There was a piece that had reflective silver on the floor, and it reflected rainbow from the lights above. August loved that, and we talked about “blue and yellow make…” There were a lot of videos, and there was one with 7 people wearing mascot heads, dancing to “So Happy Together”. We watched that one for a few minutes. He heard a ripping sort of noise coming from a video and he wanted to find it. It was from downstairs so we made our way down and found it – it involved people ripping fabric.

We all went to Home Plus, Carly getting ingredients for salsa. We got a couple fruit samples and caught up with her, then came home. August had seen the potato chips, so he got some sour cream and onion chips. At home we opened a new set of Bob Books – Sight Words, read the first book, and were singing The Ants Go Marching. And Carly made delicious salsa. He fell asleep a little after 12 and slept until 2:06. A nice, long nap. We did a lot of flopping and hopping before we left for a walk to Nowon.

We walked to Nowon, August singing nonsense songs on the way. We stopped at Starbucks on the way (Carly has a new gift card to use thanks to Teacher’s Day on Friday). As we walked in, August said “Starbuck’s in a book” – referring to his picture book version of Moby Dick. August had wanted out of the backpack so we got out in Starbucks. He then wanted to walk outside but didn’t want to hold our hands, but I got him going by holding both his hands and doing “Wheeee!” We would end up doing a lot of that the rest of the trip. From there we first went to the grocery store in Lotte, getting cilantro, thanks to intel from Torrey. We then went to Nowon Stationary and August and I waited outside, him climbing and standing on the little ledge outside the window. He stood there and ate crackers and strawberries. Carly came out and August had a little scary moment where he lost his balance and started to tip forward, but Carly caught him.

We headed to the playground, going to 신기루어린이겅원, the first of three adjacent parks that run east/west south of there. They climbed on the play structure and August wanted Smokey and was throwing him down the slide and I was tossing him back up. August was saying “Super whee!” I went to check out the rest of the parks, and they played a little more, then got out the markers and notebooks and were drawing letters when I came back. He also ate some of the raviolis we had brought along. A group of girls came up and were talking to us. Thanks to some Google Translate, I figured out that one of the girls was in the group that had talked to us at the playground by the youth center back on Children’s Day (May 5th).

We left there, and didn’t feel like changing him, so I just carried him the entire way home. As we walked downtime main road a fire truck went by and August started saying “W W W W W W W”, imitating the noise. I also realized this was where he started saying “W W W W” the other day and did so all the way home. So maybe he had heard a siren that day as well, and I didn’t make the connection.

At home Carly made fried rice using a recipe from Cassie. We watched the video from class and brushed his teeth. He then took a long bath, and we did a lot of “Eeny meeny” with his toes. We ate dinner, then read the Korean Elephant on a Wire book, translating a lot more of it. He nursed and read, then Carly took a shower. He played in the sink and dumped one cup of water on the floor. We got a towel and he reluctantly helped clean it up. He went to bed about 9:30.

New words/phrases: yesterday, reading ‘pizza’

Grate in the park:

Art museum: 

Home: 

Nowon: 

At the stationary store: 

Playground: 

He was up at 7:53. Pretty much a repeat of yesterday, with him sitting in my lap when I told him that mama was at work. We went to the reading area and read some of the wordplay book and played with the sponge letters. I then changed him and we were spelling an ‘-ed’ word, so I taught him the word ‘suffix’ and that ‘ing’ and ‘ed’ are suffixes. He then did some tracing on the iPad and watched some songs, then we were back to the reading area and playing with the sponges, putting them on his feet. For breakfast we had Cheerios. The new strawberries were really good, and we ate a bunch of strawberries first before putting more in the cereal.

As I was getting ready, he was spinning and getting dizzy and saying “bing-ul, bing-ul, bing-ul”. I changed him, and as I started to take off his shirt he said “Bye owls” and then requested his “cosmonaut shirt” before I had even asked. Unfortunately it was dirty. We were singing “The Ants Go Marching…” and he was requesting 14, and said “Like the ‘that’s enough’ part”. Finally, before we took off he wanted the water on: “Turn on the faucet please”

Got to class right at 10:10. He ran in and was totally engaged the entire time. The only thing he didn’t do was give the teacher a high five. He did 7 forward rolls with him though. At one point early in the class the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It” was playing and he stood in front of the whole class and played peek-a-boo. Class involved all sorts of walking paths and things involving small objects. Later in the day I would asking him what his favorite part of class had been, and he said “walking”. He really liked putting the toiletries in a basket with the right shapes, then filling a container with little foam shapes. Finally, there was a big ball pit sort of thing that they all got in and the teachers were dumping foam pieces on the kids’ heads. The kids helped move the ball pit thing at the end, and the teacher was chanting “young-chai” (pull) and August really liked that and was repeating it. At the end of class everyone got a ‘monster ball’ and the teacher gave away a couple of ‘jungle gym’ sets. August got one, so we had to go home first.

So we went home first and August wanted to “Open!” So we played with the new toys for awhile, then made a salmon sandwich for lunch and ate that.

We then headed out. We walked up and took the bus – August had chosen taking the bus because he wanted to see bus numbers. We took the 1139 up to Danggogye. He stayed in the backpack both directions, and enjoyed looking out the windows. We walked to the park and first went to the playground, after he first talked about wanting to go on the climbing wall. We sat and climbed on the slide, then had a snack and spent a lot of time playing ‘Smokey sees’. The waterfall fountain came on at 1 and we went to see it and we threw in a few rocks. I changed him, then he was writing things in the air and joked that it was “just a finger”. We went to a little hill area and he was walking up and down it saying “up here, down here…up, down” Finally, he was noting a lot of sounds again today, and at one point we heard a wheelchair. A bit later it was moving again and he said “where the wheelchair moving?”

We walked around the park and he fell asleep from 1:51 to 1:53. I sat on a bench near the climbing wall. When he woke up we first walked over and looked at the garbage cans and watched the climbers, then went to the low climbing wall and he tried climbing for a few seconds, but then focused on wondering what each shape looked like. A photographer was photographing the climbers and took our photo a few times. When he was done with this, we walked over and looked at the drinking fountains and while we were there the photographer came over and talked to me – he wanted to send me the photos via KakaoTalk. While I talked to him, August started pouring his water on the ground. After the photographer left, we spent quite some time pouring water on the ground.

We then went back to a hill area and he was walking around calling himself “Zinn Zinn”, saying “Zinn Zinn stands on this one.” We also saw a lot of ants and flies and bees and other insects today. After that, we sat and had a snack. We had an egg – he peeled most of it. We were singing the ants song, and now he wanted 15 over and over. He also had a “Where’s the climbing wall?” joke, saying it over and over.

We headed home, taking the bus again. We were home a little after Carly. He covered his eyes when we came in, and Carly was able to sneak up and stand right in front of him and surprise him. That kind of started the crazy – he was then going crazy with the cube we had made from the jungle gym set. We did some cleaning up, then Megan came over at 6 – she and Carly were making spring rolls for the new parents at APIS. August was going wild again, so I got him to read the bus Bob Book for Megan, then he was on the iPad for awhile. Megan then used a big piece of paper and she and August decorated it as a card. He and Carly nursed and read The Red Car. I then gave him a bath. We played with the squirt cars, and he wanted me to keep spelling ‘Megan’ in the water. He invented the word ‘qup’ and I was asking him what a ‘qup’ was. He said squares and rectangles, but changed his mind. Back out, he was a bit crazy again, then we were hopping (me holding his arms) on the table and the couch, and I was holding him up in the air to touch the ceiling. Megan was washing the dishes, and he wanted to play in the sink. He did that when she was done. She then left.

While Carly took a shower, he ate a bunch more strawberry, then banana. He bit his tongue while eating the banana and wanted Carly. I held him for a couple minutes and we went to the reading area and were reading the Richard Scarry Things on Wheels book. We had been listening to Radiohead all evening, and at one point he made a “ha ha hoo hoo” imitating a sound in a remix of Radiohead’s “Bloom”.

Carly took him in and he was asleep 9:15ish.

New words/phrases: cosmonaut, suffix, faucets, flutes, cube

Awake:

Class: 

His new toy: 

Danggogye Park: 

Walking home from the bus stop. We were singing The Ants Go Marching when suddenly he started chanting ‘W’. This lasted for two blocks until we got home. I don’t know why: 

Home: 

Decorating with Megan: 

He was up bright and early at 6:20. Carly stayed a little later in the morning and played with him. He was asking her to pick up a couple door magnets that were on the floor (funny, because they were right in his reach). Carly picked one up and was hiding it in her hands and having him choose which hand. He really liked that game. When it was time for her to leave he initially didn’t like that idea. But then Carly said he gets to stay with the Captain and he said “Captain!” and came to me. After she left I asked what he wanted to do and he used ‘sir’ again, saying “Read Bob Books, sir.” We played with the letter sponges and bath letters, then skyped with my parents. When it was first ringing he was saying “Maybe outside”, since yesterday when they didn’t answer I said they were maybe outside. After we hung up he said “They’re inside”.  He did some letter tracing on the iPad, then we watched the 5-Touch video as he had been requesting it while we were skyping. He was singing along to parts of the caterpillar eating song, which we had just heard in class last week. We watched the new Teuni Teuni video while we brushed his teeth, then headed out at 9:30.

On the train he was doing letter tracing on the Montessorium app. The app has always had a little bit of a glitch where completing the last half inch of a letter usually requires a second attempt. Not big, but he was noticing it today, and letters that he could finish in one stroke were frustrating him. For each letter that didn’t work he would say “Don’t like the V” etc.

We transferred at Gangnam-gu Station and while we were waiting he read some Hangeul and then heard a buzzing electrical sound behind a door. He also read the Korean word for ‘garbage’ on a door in a sentence on a door.

At Seoul Forest he wanted to go feed the deer. In fact, as we came out of the station he saw a mural on the wall with a deer and said “Go feed the deer!” We walked that way, and he was in full look-at-the-garbages mode. He had noticed that the garbages had orange bags for the garbage and white bags for recycling. So he liked seeing that pattern. At one point, he saw a set off the path and we went to see those. I realized it was the rabbit area, with the rabbits a little farther away. I then asked if he wanted to see the rabbits. “No.” He then spotted some water faucets. “See wawa!” I signed, then he said “Fine!”

We went to the deer, and sat on a bench and ate some lunch. There was a school group walking by and a kid yelled something that sounded like ‘agua’. August liked that and was repeating “Ah GWA!” A dog barked and he said “Doggie says R R R.”

We decided to come back to the deer later, and go find rocks to throw in water now instead. So we walked over to the little stream area by the playground. We had loaded up a bag with rocks so we had a supply. He spent several minutes playing with the screw-like water pump thing, watching it drain and trying to figure out how to do it. I then got him over to the bridge, where he threw the rocks into the water. We then got ready for a nap and went walking. He slept from 12:38 to 1:35 on a bench in the shade.

We walked back over to the deer area. There was a worker using a weed eater and he said it sounded like “V!” and did some writing in the air while watching it. We feed the deer for close to a half hour. Took a while as a couple of school groups came and ‘stole’ our deer. He would throw the food in (preferring to get out the pieces of corn) for the deer and say nonsense words while doing so, like with the rocks and water. When the deer or pigeons would walk away he would say “Come back here!” When we were done, I told him to say “Bye”. He did that, then said “See you later deer.”

We walked back towards the floor fountain, which was to turn on at 3. He wanted to stop short of that, as he saw a bunch of school groups on picnic mats. We got down and he walked around and one kid gave him a star-shaped cracker thing. He found a water fountain and we played with that. The fountain turned on and we went over to it and watched. He was making up all sorts of Z-words, like ‘zonga’. We watched the fountains and got the picnic mat out and ate the rest of our sandwich and the orange, which he kept calling “juicy”. We went back over to the fountain, with shoes off. He was stomping in the little puddle around the fountain. Everything was fine until near the end when a boy came close to us and stepped on a nozzle and sprayed us a bit. August was not happy about that. The fountain turned off a minute later anyway at 3:30.

I changed him and we headed home. Easy trip home, mainly doing Art Maker. We also sang The Ants Go Marching. He was asking for new lines for 20, 30, and 40.

We got home at 5 and he had talked about meeting mama at the elevator. In fact, she had called as we were walking home, and we could have gone and met her before she went to the store, but August chose heading home. He really liked surprising her at the elevator. But at home he wanted to make a banana and mango smoothie, so we were drinking our smoothie when Carly got home. He hung out with Carly for awhile, then she was in the kitchen and he started spinning around and getting dizzy. He was then lying on the floor and I was sliding him back and forth. He was laughing like crazy. He got up and went towards the parlor and said “Dada come. Mama come too.” Carly gave him a bath. A bit later Carly went to take a shower and told August to stay with the Captain and that worked again. We did more Duplo letters with Peter Rabbit, then read the Kittens Bob Book. Carly came back out and we were on the reading area and he was stuffing sponge letters behind pillows and under things to hide them. He was off to sleep about 8:40.

New words/phrases: don’t like the…, too, that’s enough of rectangle crackers

Snacking by the deer: 

By the water: 

By the water: 

Watching the fountain: 

Feeding deer: 

Exploring by the kids and water: 

This is actually looking up. That is a hose he is holding: 

Floor fountain: 

Home: 

He was up at 6:40. He nursed for awhile, then happily went to the iPad and said “Bye!” to Carly. He was tracing letters and asking “What is a K made of?” (because when you trace it uses stars, etc. to make the letter). He also sang along to “Hasta Mañana” again. We did more hopping in my arms, doing it on the couch this time. We then made more Duplo letters and had Peter Rabbit sitting on them. Carly asked me a question via email and I needed to respond. August got upset that he couldn’t hold the phone. But he ended up cuddling in my arms for a few minutes.

I made eggs and crab and toast for breakfast. I haven’t felt like eggs recently, so we haven’t been eating them, so he was excited by them. After that, I asked “Want to do some art?” and he replied “Yeah! Do some arte abstracto letters.” He ended up drawing random letters together, like “V and a Q”. He then played in the sink, which went fine until I went to grab a diaper. I came back to find him dumping water on the floor. We cleaned it up, then he played a little more. When he wanted to dry his hands he was saying “Wash your handy hands”, which I assume he got from Carly.

We got ready and left. We first went to the doctor to get an immunization shot. He did pretty awesome at the doctor. Hid behind his hands from the time I said we were going until a minute into waiting. It was a different doctor – a guy who doesn’t speak English. Went fine though. When he started the exam August started crying but reached out and said “Hold this one” and picked up the stuffed toy on the desk. When the exam was over he said “All done this” and put it back. He cried for the shot, but didn’t fight either the exam or shot too much. When he got the treat he said “Yes!” He then said “Kamsamneda” and “bye bye” when I asked him to.

We then went to the subway and made our way to Children’s Grand Park. We got a couple rolls of kimbap from a different place. It was raining again – only hard enough to have the cover up on the way to the subway, but now pouring enough to require full rain gear. Put that on and we went to the children’s museum and up to the cafeteria for lunch. We ate, then went down to read books. Grabbed several of the Luk books and read those (Shapes, I Hear…, I See, Oh No!). Put full rain gear back on for his nap walk and walked our usual ridge, but finished the last few minutes walking around the usual building. He fell asleep and had a rather short nap from 12:46 to 1:34.

He woke up and read words on the floor (we were on the first floor) and really liked the blue light above one of the tables, standing and staring up at it, and looking at his arms. He walked up and down the one step by the counter and said nonsense words. He then got Smokey out and showed him around. We left, with him walking, and he kind of explored the Gammaru building before deciding he was ready to leave.

He wasn’t excited by the zoo or children’s museum, then I suggested the water museum and he wanted to go there. We went there and played with the little dams, then the pumps. I noticed that he’s getting better at them. He was definitely in “Zinnie do it.” mode. A machine turned on somewhere, and he liked the noise “V V V”. He was then hearing a ’Ts’ noise and kept doing it – I finally figured out he was hearing the kind of hissing noise of someone talking – it was coming out of cheap TV speakers that made it sound hissy. He climbed in this little sitting area/climbing area, but needed use my hand as a step to make it up to the next level.

He wanted a snack, so we went out to the pagoda in front of the children’s museum and ate. They were setting up for a concert at the stage, and he liked the mic test, saying what letter it sounded like when the technician was making noises in the mic. A band then started doing sound check and playing, and he particularly liked the drumming. We walked over and watched them for a few minutes, then headed home.

On the walk home from the subway we extended our version of “The ants go marching”. It has to now gone up to 14, with the little one saying “That’s enough!” He thinks the last line is really funny and had me singing it over and over. He then asked for 15… and 16. So now it goes on with the ant saying things like “You’re still going?” “This is driving me crazy” and “Why are you doing this?”

We were home a little after 5. We shared an orange and listened to his music from class. He then started getting a bit antsy that mama wasn’t home, asking “Where’s M A? Where’s M A?” He wasn’t upset, but wanted to go wait at the elevators for her. We walked out, and stood in the corner. A few minutes later she came out of an elevator and started to walk away. He called “Mama!” and startled her pretty good.

Back in the house he was nursing and I snapped for some reason. He wanted more, so I kept snapping, and then moving my head towards the snap. He thought this was hilarious and (thanks to Carly) started saying “Silly dada.” He played in the sink, then was doing art but drew on the floor again. But he did a good job of wiping it up when we gave him a wipe.  He shared my dinner with me – left over mandu and then the soup that Carly made.

He and Carly read the Bed Bugs Bob Book and then she gave him a bath. Lots of peeing, some in the toilet. I had gotten Sesame Street Art Maker working on the iPad (it hadn’t worked for a couple days) and he was very excited by this, so played that for awhile. He then did word tracing on it with Carly. He was choosing ‘lynx’ over and over, so Carly wanted a new word. He chose giraffe and said “Giraffe is a good word”.

He went to sleep about 8:40.

New words/phrases: just, Elevator “sitting on” a floor, kind of, diagonal lines

Morning: 

Children’s Museum: 

After his nap: 

Water museum: 

Pagod:

Home: 

It was a day full of describing sounds for him. Also, he saw a lot of animals (like a gorilla and brown bear) for the first time. And he had his first lollipop thanks to a woman on the bus and his ability to remember things.

He got up at 7:15. Came out looking for mama, and got upset when I told him mama was at work. He stood in the doorway to the parlor, and I sat on the floor. He came over to me and climbed into my lap and cuddled. First time he has ever done that. He covered his eyes like he was hiding for a couple minutes, then sat for a few more before popping up and requesting the iPad.

He played Hat Monkey for a few minutes, then started watching songs. He was singing along to Hasta Mañana by Basho and Friends. He also started describing sounds, his first of many today. He was hitting his leg on the couch and said “Hear D D D”. He was then describing a noise he heard in the music of Wheels on the Bus, although I don’t remember what letter he used.

We were headed to the big zoo, so were in a hurry to get out. Left the house just before 8:30. Straightforward trip and we got off the subway around 10. As we walked to the zoo he heard a noise off in the distance: “V V V V hear vvvvvvv” Then there were workers sweeping the walk. This he described as an “S” sound, but when we stopped to watch I think he was describing it as “C C C” or “Ch ch ch”. He saw a sandwich board and said “See ‘A’”, describing it from the side. He then kept asking “This is an?” and pointing. He was referring to the wing nuts holding it together and was very curious about them.

In the zoo we first walked up to the primates house – the first of many places we had never been to before. He saw his first gorilla, which was cool. Although it wasn’t doing much. August instead spotted the many caterpillars crawling on the glass. We would end up spotting caterpillars all over the park. We also saw chimps, then his first orangutans, although they were hard to see inside. By the way, the exhibits we saw today aren’t perfect, but they are so much better than the equivalents at Children’s Grand Park: the chimps and bears, for example, actually have water and vegetation. Also inside, we saw both De Brazza’s monkeys and grieve monkeys, which we’d never seen before and were both really cool.

While looking at the De Brazza’s monkeys, he heard a noise of machinery. He said “Hear ch, ch, ch.” We tracked it to a locked door and listened to it. He kept saying “Hear! Hear!” He then started playing with the lock and said that made a “D D D” noise.

From the primates he wanted to go to the stream and playground, but on the way there he spotted the Insectarium and wanted to go back there to find the “S S S S S S” sound. We first walked through the insects, but no S S S S S. The path to the amphibian/reptile area was open today, so we went and walked through there. August liked some of the frogs and turtles, but mainly liked the waterfalls and stream. We tracked down the noise in the nocturnal building: it was the noise of the fruit bats. We stood there for a few minutes listening and watching the bats with August copying their noise. We spent a few more minutes in the nocturnal building then walked towards the playground.

We passed one more set of faucets before getting there – we had already turned on several. I said something like “Alright” then August said “Fine…sigh” as if he was mocking me. We walked down into the playground and August said “This is open”, noting the part of the playground that had been closed off the last couple visits. We sat and ate a little lunch. He saw a big school group putting down picnic mats and wanted to see the picnic mat (he is interested every time he sees one now) and walked over with his sandwich and seemed to be be saying hi. We took off his shoes and played in the water for a few minutes. Then went up to play in the sand. He took the shovel and poured some out of sand area and said “This is…arte abstracto.” He wanted more rectangle crackers but had already eaten them all, so turned it into a joke. He settled for grapes and crab. He then went back to the sand and said “more make a castle like with mama”. By now we had had several people say hi to him, and he was doing a pretty good job of saying hi and waving back when I asked him.

Changed him and got ready for his nap and started walking up to the botanical garden area where we’d never been before. He fell asleep after that and I got a water and sat outside at the food court area near the wolves. He slept from 12:55 to 1:33. A short nap. He wanted out and we walked around a bit. We headed across and up the hill and saw the tigers. We then found the otters, where he got down to see them. He then said “Take smokey out to see the otters.” He then ate the rest of his sandwich “Dada’s. No, this is Zinnie’s.” He had his water bottle and started spilling it on the ground, so I took it away. He got down and I thought he was looking at a rock or an insect in the water and was getting really close. I took a photo, then he licked the water on the ground.

We were walking from there when we heard a loud bird down the hill. He got excited and said “Heard the Q!… Squawk, squawk.” He wanted to find the bird, but we couldn’t. We kept walking, and he started talking about going to the playground. But then he saw a peacock, and wanted to go in the fowl area. The fowl tent is huge and full of dozens and dozens of birds, walking around your feet. We both really liked it. He described the calls of the peacocks as “C C C….E E E Hear the E E E.”

From there we saw the bears, watching the Eurasian brown bears play in the water for a few minutes. He also saw his first bison, although didn’t seem to impressed, as he wanted to get back to the water.

We went to the playground again. This time, he squatted by the edge of the water and I found little rocks for him to throw in. He was doing that and making up nonsense words. We then changed him again and headed out. We paused to watch the rhinos, as they were up and rolling in the mud, then scraping their heads and backs on the brushes. He liked the messy rhinos. We then stopped at the giraffes for a minute, because we can’t visit without seeing the giraffes, then ended by stopping at the flamingos. As we left I suggested he say bye to the zoo, so he waved to the flamingoes and said “Bye bye.”

We stopped at a CU to get drinks and a bag of veggie trips for the ride home. As we walked along the platform, I heard him sayingg “It’s open, it’s closed…” over and over and realized he was referring to the fencing along the platform, and the gaps for the doors. He drank his mango soy milk while we waited for a train.

The entire way home he didn’t even ask for the iPad. We were singing songs, playing “I Spy”, eating the veggie chips (I was surprised when he really liked the onions, since they tasted quite strong), and looking out the window. It took a few stops before we could have a seat, and he was fine with that. He kind of touched one guy on the shoulder, then gave him a high five. As we were about to get to the river, he was standing on my lap and leaning on me to look out the window behind. He said “leaking”, and he did – all over himself and my shirt. Surprisingly the first time that has ever happened. There wasn’t much for it, and we just managed until we got to Changdong to transfer for the bus. At one point he was drinking from his water bottle and had a little conversation with himself: “Do you like wawa? Yes I do. ‘I do’…mama says that.”

At Changdong I changed him in the little park/stage area by the station. He was happily playing around and found a big rock that he was carrying around. As we left, he was walking, and I asked if he could leave the rock in the park. He said “Yes!” and went back and set it on the ground. He really wanted to walk, and did a good job of holding my hand. He wanted to read
a lot of Hangeul, so it took us some time to get to the bus stop. As he walked, he kind of stomped and high stepped as he walked. At the bus stop we had about 10 minutes to wait. There is one of those toy machines nearby, and he liked looking in that. In particular, he liked these little Hello Kitty toys in which the cat keeps nodding its head. I started doing it and he thought it was hilarious, then he was doing it.

On the bus ride home, a woman handed him a lollipop. He really knows what a lollipop is now from that Bob book, and he doesn’t forget things. So after he nursed, he wanted the lollipop. So he got to eat his first lollipop. He was very intent while he ate it, and crunched it up in bites, repeatedly calling it “crunchy”.  He had some dinner, then Carly gave him a bath and he watched Basho videos. He was then reading Berenstain Bears with Carly, and wanted Peter Rabbit to do the reading, so Carly was doing that. He fell asleep about 8:15. Carly had started by nursing him out here. As he was falling asleep she carried him into the bedroom. He covered his eyes and kept them covered until he was fast asleep.

New words/phrases: spelling penguin, same thing, cross (v – as in cross the stream)

 

Waking up: 

The ants go marching 4 by 4: 

Lunch and stream: 

After his nap: 

Licking the ground: 

Back to the stream: 

Headed out: 

Changdong: 

Home: 

Oh, and here’s a decent habitat for bears: 

Watching the hippos: 

One of his photos as we walked from the park: 

He woke up at 3am, apparently saying “Turn on light. Dada sleeping.” Carly got up with him for an hour before going back to sleep. He was then awake at 7 with a lot of energy. He nursed and read with Carly, then Carly went down to get a coffee, and then went back out to sit in the park and read while she drank it. While she was gone, he looked out the window and said “hear D D D” – I couldn’t quite tell what sound he was talking about. He also joked “Still raining”. He was drawing on Paper on the iPad and pulled up the photo of him playing in the sand yesterday. He started talking about the kids there: “Sad about the kids in the sand…too close.” We did a lot of captain voice, playing on the picnic mat, and Peter Rabbit this morning. We were then watching Timmy Time (trip to the beach episode – he really liked when they acted like crabs) and was hyper on the couch. A lot of nursing requests as well. We did hold-it Duplo letters with Peter Rabbit again, finishing the rest of the alphabet and starting over again, and doing some numbers. We watched Basho and Friends and ate banana. We watched the Hasta Mañana song to figure out who the names applied to – he was very happy to find out that “Luc is a frog.” He then played in the bathroom sink, then was hopping in my arms again. He lost his balance when he walked away once and bumped his head on the refrigerator, so wanted to nurse. Finally, before going out he put the fox button in his shorts pocket, and found that if he ran he could hear it rating.

We went out, just to the park across the street. No backpack for once. We went over to the fake stream area. Still not on, but we played with rocks. He then checked out where the puddle had been yesterday but it was gone. We walked over to the playground and got out the soccer ball for a second, but then he was off to the dinosaur foot prints. Most of them had puddles in them and he stepped in one. We took off his shoes, but then he just was dropping rocks in them. Lasted quite awhile, then we returned home where he slept from 12:30ish to a little before 2.

He woke up and was making Duplo letters with Carly. He was stuffy, so Carly got the snot sucker out and had a little success with that, although we both had to hold him. He decorated a card for Thatcher, and really got into using stickers: “That’s a good one.” “Where should I put it?”

I took him out in the backpack and Carly stayed home to do some work. We walked south, and ended up at 중현어린이공원, a small children’s park we’ve played at a few times before, but not for several months. There, a girl came over to him and August asked her “What is your name?” – totally on his own volition, and without me suggesting it. He tried to ask her a couple times. We took his shoes off and he first played in the sand, then went and walked on the walking path (where he asked her again), then back to the sand where we played with the shovel. There were several big ants nearby and he was trying to pick them up. Later, he would say he was sad because he couldn’t pick up the ants.

He showed a little interest in going up on the structure, but then changed his mind. We had just decided to head over to Hagye Children’s Park (which looks like a tree) a block away when I got a message from Derek saying he was in the area with his two kids. So we met him at Hagye Station and walked them to the park.

There, August and I followed Logan around on the play structure for a few minutes while Derek fed Rosie. The two boys then shared some snacks. August remembered playing in the park with Carly, and in our little clearing area wanted to first sing BINGO and then take a couple photos – he took photos of a bottle and then one of the mushrooms. August and I hung out with Rosie while Derek changed Logan, and we all went over to the sand for a bit. They then left, and August and I continued in the sand. He really liked a sand castle that another kid had built – it had a big moat and a tunnel. Luckily, that family left at that point, leaving August and a couple of other kids to play with it. August threw little rocks in the water, and used cups lying around to scoop up some of the water. That lasted 10 or 15 minutes until some bigger kids came and started playing there too. They started by drowning an ant – August wanted to see what they were doing but I told him they were being mean to the ant and we went away for a couple minutes. They were then all playing with the castle okay until the biggest kid decided to step on the bridge part. It then became a race to destroy it, and at that point we headed home.

We were home sometime after 6. He ate dinner, was really interested in the ‘sp’ sound, and read Bob books with Carly. They were doing art on the paper and August really got into covering a page in stickers – they were puffy stickers and he could easily take them off the sheet himself. He kept pulling off candy stickers and saying “Mama likes this.” But then he said he was leaking. In fact, his diaper seemed to barely hold anything in, as it soaked through the half of the pad of paper he was sitting on. I had to throw that part of the pad away but saved the side he had been stickering.

He was asleep by 9:30.

New words/phrases: vet, insectarium, now let’s sing faster

Outside. Showing Carly a rock: 

Site of yesterday’s puddle: 

Home. Decorating a card: 

Afternoon outing. First park: 

Hagye Children’s Park: 

Couple of his photos: 

Sand: