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He woke up at 7:04. Came out and said “Back to read” He chose A Wind Blew and Jane Eyre and read them with Carly. He also talked about the big bumblebee we had seen while waiting for Carly at the playground: “Sad about the bumblebee with mama…want to hold it.” I got ready for my book  club meeting and that started at 7:30. August kept coming in to the room and wanting to read or nurse in there, so eventually Carly just decided to take him outside. He let her put him in the ergo and they went out to the park. Outside, he walked across the shaky bridge by himself and stomped in a big puddle (he called it a “pond”) up on the stage. They came back when I was talking to Peter after the meeting. I told August it was just Peter, and that reminded him of Peter Rabbit who he went looking for.

After we were done talking, he asked me to “Do ABCD sir”. A bit later Carly was spelling 3 letter and other words and August was getting all of them, including “T O E” and  “H A N D”.

We then all went outside. We stopped on the second floor to see what the line was like at the doctor – August needs one of his vaccinations – but it was really crowded. August was a little concerned, but we assured him we were going outside. As we walked through the building he kept repeating “We’re going outside.” We walked up the stream, to the stretch with the displays for the lantern festival. We saw all the displays, then walked back to the little waterfall and stream. We ate the apple cookie that I had bought yesterday but we didn’t eat – he had spotted it in the morning and I told him we would save it for outside. He took off his shoes and walked in it a little, but wasn’t a big fan of the algae. We then threw some rocks in the water and floated leaves and flower petals down the stream. He went back and with Carly on the edge of the water. Carly had been watching ants carry off crumbs from the cookie, and we watched them climb up the wall behind us.

We headed home and he took a nap from 12:49 to 2:02. After his nap he was reading a book with Carly and read the word “bump” so he got up and bumped his head against the wall. August and I then made letters out of the Duplos and August wanted Peter Rabbit to sit on each of the letters. We stated at A and got through Q. Carly had been resting on the reading area and August got up on the chair and had fund throwing Peter Rabbit to/at Carly. He then said “Are you kidding me?” nice and clear. We didn’t know he knew that one. He claimed he learned it from me. Very funny.

We went for a for a second walk. Carly had his water, so I had fun keeping the water bottle from him, turning back and forth. I asked if he wanted to play his touching tree game and he said “Yeah!” and touched a few trees as we walked by – haven’t done that for months and months. As we got to the stream, he saw the fruit seller selling watermelons and excitedly pointed them out. Carly paused to look at the water from the bridge and August said “Mama likes the wawa.” We stopped at Cafe Tolerance and got drinks – we got a grape juice pack for him. August and I waited on the stairs, and Carly hid from him through the door, and he hid behind his hands.

August wanted to go to the new playground again, so we did that. We first sat on the benches and he drank his juice. He then played with Carly on the spiderweb and teeter totter, and spent the most time in the sand. We of course looked at the recycling on both the way in and out.

We headed home, and August wanted to get out of the backpack as we crossed the wooden bridge. He was then sad when we wouldn’t let him go down and play in the stream – he had seen kids doing it the other day and remembered. Carly was carrying him, and he recovered, but then as we got to the street he wanted to walk on the sidewalk by himself without holding hands, so he was sad about that.

We made it back though, and all headed to the pink building to do grocery shopping. We did that, then went up to Burger Ton for dinner. We sat outside with Megan and Torrey and a couple other people from work who were out there. August had a lot of fun with them, and got Smokey out and was playing with him. At one point I asked him what he loves and he pointed up to the signs on the building and said “Love Hangeul!”

Back at home he did some typing with Carly. He said his favorite letter is “Q” and that his favorite animal today was “dolphin”. I was then picking him up and flopping him down on the reading area. He wanted this over and over and over again. He and Carly did some sponge painting. He had been hyper before, but got very calm and focused as he put paint on the sponge. I then took him in to the bathroom and helped him wash out the sponges, and he was similarly focused doing that.

Carly gave him a bath, then they were reading more Bob books. He is working his way through collection 2. I read the I Spy letter book and we looked at the pictures on the wall next to the bed for several minutes, then Carly came in and he went to sleep about 9:10.

New words/phrases:  little prince, mermaid, are you kidding me?

 

Little stream:

Home: 

Second walk: 

Burger Ton: 

Home: 

Another rainy day. He was up at 6:30. Got on the iPad before Carly left. He found the Colors app, and I introduced him to color mixing (blue and yellow make green, etc.) and he liked that. We played with Peter Rabbit a lot, joking about him breaking the rule of stepping on the iPad. We used Garageband on the iPad to record our first song, the XYZ song. It was hard to get him to stay quiet long enough so I could record the piano track, but then he really liked singing along to it when I played it back, and then singing along with ourselves for a second vocal track. He got Smokey out of the backpack for a bit. Finally, we watched the video from class and brushed his teeth. At some point this morning he was listening to music and started “stepping to the music” in the living room.

We went to class, unsure if it was happening, since today had been declared a holiday just a week ago. There was class, and it went really well. August knows the songs really well now, and was into dancing around to the beginning songs. The biggest surprise was when she did the roll call thing and he actually let me stand him up, he took a couple steps forward, and let the teacher give him a hug. He liked the activity of pushing a caterpillar through holes in fruit (it was basically a Very Hungry Caterpillar thing), then crawling through tubes (which he has been hesitant to do before). At the end of class he got two Poby (a polar bear) stamps on his hands and said thank you (in Korean) and bowed when I asked him to. The teacher handed out free soy milk drinks – he drank one there and we saved the second for lunch.

We got in the backpack and headed to Children’s Grand Park. Hadn’t used the cover on the way to Home Plus, but put it up for the walk to the subway. Bought kimbap and eggs. Drizzling when we arrived about 11:30. Tried to go in the children’s museum, but August said “No!” as I walked in – he was getting tired and it was busy, so made sense. I suggested by the rectangle pond, where there is a covered picnic bench. When we got there he wanted me to keep walking – I think he was about ready to fall asleep. But I gave him the option of a table with chairs back under the cover of the building and he chose that one. We ate lunch, then got ready to go. While sitting at the table he started kicking it with his foot, making noise, and made up a little “Mooka Mooka” song. I changed him and took him to the picnic table to put him in the backpack. His shoes were wet from the ground, and as I put him in they made a squeaking sound. He asked what the noise was and he kept asking for more squeaking. He was looking at the wall and workers have patched the cracks in it. He saw the lines and asked “Who did that?” I told him it was the workers. He then thought all the lines looked like “Japanese.” – that has been his default now for letters/etc. that don’t look familiar. We walked around the cover of the building, much like Tuesday, until he fell asleep.

He fell asleep from 12:49 to 2:05. We were upstairs. When he woke up the first thing he said was “More shoes squeaking”. He did some drawing on Paper for iPad, then saw the bags of banana snacks. I said we could but them, and he pointed to the woman we know best, sitting behind the counter, and said “There she is.” We practiced saying “Please give me banana snacks” but he got shy. we walked over to the display case and he repeated me one word at a time: “바나나 스낵 추서요.”

He wanted to go see animals, so we headed out. Just barely drizzling. We got to the covered space by the primates and he was reading off all the labels on the garbage/recycling cans. It was raining harder, and he was the only person in the park in short sleeves and no hat. Eventually I put on his coat as he wanted to keep playing in the rain. He got very sad about this and was sad for a few minutes. “A long sad” I called it. Eventually he ate some banana and then was ready to get going towards home. But he spotted the conservatory and wanted to go in. We went in but he changed his mind about seeing the fish, but we did show Smokey the banana trees (we had talked about that before) and August wanted to see the mossy elephant sculpture. Back outside, we spent several minutes going back and forth between the little fountains by the entrance and the bigger fountains with the frogs. Eventually he wanted down and sort of stood close to the small fountains so he could throw little rocks in them. I let him do two, then said we should go to the stream by the robots to do more.

So we did that, but the stream wasn’t on. He did throw a couple rocks in the fountains at either end, then wanted to talk to his three favorite robots. We did that, then headed home. I had changed him after his nap, so didn’t do so now. As we left, we saw kids walk by blowing whistle things. He liked the sound, so we tracked down where they came from – you got them free by the entrance. There was still the children’s festival going on, although kind of a wet one. We got a butterfly whistle thing and some button pins – he particularly liked the one with a fox on it, and eventually put it in his coat pocket. You could get a free set of crayons if you first drew a picture, but when we went to that tent it was crowded, so August suggested we “draw at home”. We took one last look at some of the random/funny sculptures (August had liked the giraffes out of flowers, a robot-like dragonfly thing, and a few more) then headed home. This whole time we had been singing the Basho and Friends “Hasta Mañana” song over and over.

On the subway he played with the whistle/hand fan thing. It was shaped like a butterfly. One side was blue and the other pink. He started flipping it back and forth saying “blue fly, butterfly”.

Got home right at 5. Figured Carly wasn’t home yet, so on the first floor I gave him the options. He actually came up with the option of going up and then waiting at the elevators. So we did that. Two minutes and then Carly showed up. He nursed and they read (he is really into doing both at once – a bit later he would request “Nurse and type”), then we had pizza for dinner. I put on an album of clarinet and accordion klezmer music, as there was some music playing at the park that August liked that reminded me of it. August listened a bit, then excitedly said “Write numbers for the music!” He started writing on the paper, numbers at first, but then other things. He drew his first sun, making a circle and lines around it.

I gave him a bath, then he was back to Carly. They Skyped with Cherie. He and I read Frog on a Log while Carly and Cherie talked, then he went back and was having Oma make letters with her fingers. He was asleep about 9:20.

Oh, in the morning he had been doing art on the iPad and pulled up the photo of him by the art museum yesterday. He was asking where the ball was that he couldn’t play with, and I told him it was just off to the right. So he talked a couple times about taking photos of a “B A L L” today. Didn’t actually happen, but he remembered again in the evening. Also, this spelling things out thing is something he does from time to time.

New words/phrases: dada forgetting his phone, ask dada

 

Mixing colors: 

Class: 

Children’s Grand Park. Lunch: 

Looking at trees with Smokey after his nap: 

Sad about the coat: 

At the fountains: 

Home: 

Children’s Day – Home Plus and Madeul

He was up at 8:35. Nursed, did some drawing. I changed him and he played with the Pororo magnets in the changing room and found the Harry the Hummingbird magnet.  He asked what sound hummingbirds make, and I made a humming sound. He said “Hummingbirds make Vs…Ws…” I changed him, then we were back out with the piano. It was making a buzzing sound when you played it he said it sounded like a “Spider…snake” I shook the piano a little and it went away. “Where’d the double S go?” “Double S make this one: sss sss” He was then trying to shake the piano to make the sound come back. He then played with his etch-a-sketch and did some more art on paper. I then went and took a shower.

He was then looked at his door magnets. They are Pororo characters, so the hummingbird is also on some of the magnets, so he was finding them. He heard a loud car outside and said “Hear W W W W.” and said “Where it go?” after he couldn’t hear it anymore.

We all walked over to Home Plus a little after 10. The park was busy getting ready for the day’s Children’s Day celebration. August wanted to stop and pay on the benches (he remembered playing there with Carly before), so we did. There was another boy with a pink ball and August really wanted to play with it. We got out the tennis ball instead. Then, there was a girl blowing bubbles, and he got into those. She was very nice and let him try it a couple times. From there we went into the art museum. He and Carly went into the play area and he played there for awhile. I went and checked out one gallery, then went in. He was standing up by the trampoline, making up a numbers chant. Carly wanted to see the portrait gallery I had just looked at, so we went over there when he was done playing. He wanted to go downstairs instead. Tried going down without her, but he wanted to go back for mama. So we all went downstairs. They did the light switches together, then got stickers and put them on the wall. We were talking about going to Home Plus and he was excited to see the animals. He said “insects” and I said no, there weren’t insects at Home Plus. Not sure if that was what made him sad, but he suddenly got very sad, and they went and nursed for awhile. When he was better we looked at the paper mache animals in the community gallery, then headed to Home Plus. Walking through the park, he saw a lot of balloons today and wanted one himself. Never did get him one though.

At Home Plus he wanted to “look at shirts” and started by carrying the basket around. We looked at pillows and finally selected two for the new couch. He looked at the aquariums and seems to be understanding that you can take fish out of the tanks and home…I think we will be getting pet requests sooner than I would like. We headed downstairs – August shows Carly how he could walk off the end of the moving sidewalk by himself. He looked at the alphabet spices while Carly went and started grocery shopping. Eventually, we walked around a bit. We rain into Meg and her friend who is visiting. August happened to be wearing the shirt she got him in Myanmar. When we told him the shirt was from her, he was asking her what the letters are, as if she might know better than us. We then put him in the backpack, picked up the pizza, and grabbed diapers before heading out.

We went home and he slept from a little after 1 to around 2. In the afternoon we got ready and headed out for a walk. The two cafes we go to were closed. After the first one, he said “go to the one that’s open right here”. Alas, the second one (Cafe Tolerance) was also closed. So August and I stayed at the playground and started playing while Carly went and got coffee back at Brownstone. I had asked August if he wanted to go with her or stay and play and he agreed to this readily, saying “Bye bye” and waving to Carly. We played on the platform, then got Smokey out and played What do you see? When Carly came back we were sitting by the grate, dropping little sticks and rocks in the water below. When Carly got there he wanted the ice from her drink. She sat on the ground, and he tried to get her cup, which turned into a game. Finally, she finished, and he sat, eating her ice. A group of young teenagers came and were trying out there English with August. He said “Hi!” and waved a few times, then “Bye!” They were fine at first, but then kept hanging around, so we decided it was time to head out.

We walked up towards Madeul, but August wanted to go to the “new playground…spiderweb with mama.” So we walked over there and played there. He mainly played with her: on the spider web, in the tube, on the teeter totters, on the swings, and in the sand.  On the teeter totters he kept taking his hands off the handle and laughing. In the sand, Carly drew a big Q, but he didn’t like it for some reason: “No like mama’s Q.” We left, but had to stop to look at recycling because August asked really nicely – he had wanted to on the way in, but there were people in the way so I said we could on the way out. I almost took some English books out of recycling, but the set was too big. August got upset when we wouldn’t stop to turn on the water, but it was at a faucet that doesn’t work (we’ve tried every other time). He was still upset by the time we got home, and when Carly tried to continue on to the store he got really upset. So Carly came up to the apartment with us.

After I had some pizza I went to the store instead. When I came back August was hiding behind Carly on the couch – he does this all the time when Carly comes home, but I haven’t seen it myself much. From the couch he pointed to the Moo book and said “Funny M covered by baa baa”. I played with him on the couch, and we made a game out of counting his toes…incorrectly. So that he had a million toes, etc. He wanted the joke to keep going and going, asking “How many have this one?” I bought sesame crackers at the store and gave him a few. We called them ‘rectangle’ crackers, to differentiate from the square and circle crackers we’ve had in the past. He was still hungry so I offered him fruit, offering banana, orange, or grapes he was trying to still choose rectangle crackers, saying: “3 choices. Rectangle. That’s not a fruit!”

Carly gave him a bath. When he came out he saw me and said “Hi dada! How you doing?” A little later I asked if he wanted to read books in bed. He took several in on the bed and we read a little, then he nursed and fell right to sleep, about 8:30.

New words/phrases:  aquarium, I think this goes here, go to the one that’s open right here, okay let’s go,

Piano sound:

Park, art museum, and Home Plus: 

Playground 1 after his nap:

Playground 2: 

Home: 

Carly said he was going “ssssss” in his sleep last night. No rain today, but a lot of wind. He woke up at  6:56. Very happy again. Said ‘nurse’ a few times but no complaint when I said mama was at work. He then rolled around on the bed for a few minutes. When he popped up he headed straight to the kitchen, got his stool, and put it against the counter. He wanted to make a smoothie. We did that, then he was on the iPad. Didn’t last long, as then he wanted to color on paper. Did that, then back to the iPad for just a few minutes for Endless Reader. We did a few play dough letters, then he went down to the changing room and played with the magnets, focusing on the Pororo characters. He wanted to make music on a balloon, so did a little of that, then read At the Zoo. He then invented a brand new alphabet song going “It’s a B chk, chk…” as he walked back and forth on the couch. He wanted Korean words, so we looked at one of the little books, then watched the video from class and brushed his teeth. I changed him to get ready to go and he heard neighbors out in the hall. He speculated they were taking a bath: “Neighbors taking a bath.”

We left about 9:30. Uneventful trip to Olympic Park. It was really windy when we got to the park, and as we walked through the south entryway, he pointed to the trees and said “Making S. Sss sss sss.” He wanted to find a playground, which are at the north end of the park, so I started walked that way. He was wanting to look at every set of garbage cans (it was about 10 sets before his nap), then decided he wanted us to walk around to the right. So we wandered that way. He wanted to find a picnic bench and eat, so we found an odd-looking green building, which turned out to be a historical pit hut site. We sat on a bench outside and ate our sandoo in the wind. He got both Smokey and Camel out to play with them. He then started wandering down a path with Smokey, saying “Take photo…of trees.” I got the backpack and we headed out. Never did take a tree photo.

Got to the lake, where the skinny sculpture things in it were spinning nicely. He wanted to throw rocks in, so we went around to the right. Threw some rocks and pine cones in. He was mobbed by admiring teenage girls, and stomped around in a big puddle on the bricks. I “saved” a boy in a wheelchair when a big gust of wind came up and blew him across the bricks. I actually had to jump out of the way of him, then realized he wasn’t in control and went and grabbed him so he wouldn’t blow any further. August and I were heading back up the path, looking for more rocks, when his mom came up to us and gave us a pack of cookie things for helping her son.

Changed him outside by a set of restrooms (the only bad thing about Olympic Park is the almost complete lack of changing tables, at least in men’s rooms), then started walking. Walked north through the center of the park, on some paths we had never been on before. Wanted to walk the ridges, but tried to stay low to avoid the wind. He had some difficulty getting to sleep because of the wind, and I ended up walking around in circles in a little tree area near the Olympic Museum until he fell asleep, then went in the coffee place. He slept. And slept. I tried to wake him up twice after he was asleep 90 minutes but he fell back to sleep. Slept from 12:43 to 2:46. While he was sleeping, the wind was quite strong outside. At one point I went to the door, which kept blowing open, to have a look. There was a picnic mat on the ground. A minute later the wind picked up and it was blowing around in circles, and right into my hands. I folded it up and set it on the floor. When we left I took it, as I figured August would like the animals.

When we went out, August was fascinated by all the garbage on the ground. He picked up a bottle and wanted to recycle it. We took it to the bins and he read the signs. He was reading 일반쓰레기 (general waste) quite well all day, and was now figuring out  재활용품 (recyclables). From there we walked around the corner to the playground. He got out Smokey and had him looking at/talking about the trees. There was a yellow plastic climbing thing to the play structure, and he remembered it (actually from the playground by Logan’s house, which has an identical one). He initially wanted me to help him climb, but then I reminded him of using his hands and leaning forward. He climbed the top bit, then climbed down (needing my help at the end) and tried from the bottom. Made it a little ways, before his hand got dirty and he was done. He went down the slide once, then went over to a little rocking elephant toy and stood and climbed on that and shook it. Then took off, showing Smokey a couple pigeons, and walked around one of those “tricky” walking paths. We ended up on a bench, and stayed there for a long time. I got the food and we had a snack. There was work going on behind a wall and was identifying the sounds: “This is a saw…this is a hammer.” We ate a banana, and he was having Smokey look at the trees some more: “Smokey likes the trees.” Some boys were making some noise on the exercise equipment: “What’s going on?” He was trying to sing a song we haven’t really sung before and said “Remember the tune. How tune go?” A plane flew overhead and he called it a “jet”.

He was hungry, so we got out the egg. He peeled the whole thing by himself. Took a long time, but he got it done. He ate most of it, then was walking back and forth on the benches to and from me and the egg. He kept talking about the egg: “Walk to the egg…close to the egg…back to the egg.” He was getting pretty cavalier in his walking, despite stumbling a couple times. It was a pretty low bench though so I wasn’t too worried. Indeed, a minute later he missed his footing. He fell forward, then rolled off the side of the bench. He cried a little, but mainly in frustration. He cuddled with me for a few minutes. He was really quiet, so I pushed him back a bit to check on him and he started laughing. There was one bite of egg left, and he joked about who should eat it: “Zinnie do…Dada do…Zinnie do…” We cleaned up to leave, and he wanted to put the bag from the sandoo in his pocket – the first time he’s wanted to use a pocket (his pants generally haven’t had pockets – I thought he might be interested in the pockets in his winter coat, but he never was). In leaving, I asked if he wanted to walk or for me to carry him. He held up his fingers and said “Two choice!” Finally, there was a “funny crab” on the play structure which he called “Crab nake(d)”.

We went home a slightly different route as we got on a different line, at the north end of the park. On the second leg, an English-speaking white guy offered us a seat. As we sat there I told August he should thank  the guy for the seat. A stop before we got off, he was able to sit down again, next to us. So as we left I said “Thanks. Have a good one.” August then loudly said “Thank you!”

An active, active evening. He nursed with Carly once we got home, then wanted to nurse again. I was grabbing his leg and pulling him back to me so he couldn’t. He thought this was hilarious and kept wanting me to do it again and again. Eventually they did nurse, then wrote on the paper together. He surprised her by writing ‘write’ and ‘words’. He was copying words she had already written, but he wrote them nice and straight. Carly wrote a word and traced it, which he didn’t like, saying he was “sad about the ‘m’”. I then showed him our ‘new’ picnic mat and he spent several minutes looking at it. He spent a little time on the iPad, then moved to the sink. They read the 100 Palabres book. He got sad, something about the balloon again: “Sad about this one. Zinnie do it. Balloon in the book.” He played with his water pen books while Carly took a shower. I then changed him, and we played on the couch. He talked a lot about our routine for when I pick him up (“I saw I’ve got my dada. You say
I’ve got my Zinnie.”), his name preference (“Call me ZinnZinn”) and how we raise our call out his name when we want him to stop something, raising the pitch at the end of his name (“Dada all done ZinnZINN”).

He played in the sink, then Skyped with Oma from his own Skype account. He really liked Skyping on the iPad, and read her a lot of Bob books. While on the call we also started playing I Spy using the Wild About Books book. Finally, he went in with Carly and was asleep around 9:45.

New words/phrases: crumb, crust, spelling ‘fist’, our, tree stuff, reading 일반쓰레기, are you being uncouth?, reading 재활용품 (recyclables), jet

Waking up:

His new song: 

Following along: 

Olympic Park. Walking and seeing the garbage: 

Lunch in the wind with Smokey: 

Puddle: 

My reward: 

After his nap. Reading the garbage: 

Playground: 

Smokey looking at trees: 

Walking path: 

Peeling his egg: 

Hiding from the totems in front of the peace arch: 

Home. Writing ‘write’: 

New picnic mat: 

Writing letters for froggy:

A very rainy day.

Another happy wake up. 7:36. Opened the door and said “Yeah”. Then “Go find mama here” while pointing down the hall. He ran down the hall and I thought he was going to be upset. But instead he ran into the bedroom and said “Zinnie escape.” We went into the changing room and did one of the puzzles, played with the magnets, and then played with balloons. He remembered the balloons we hadn’t yet blown up, so I went and got them and blew up the green and pink. He wanted a yellow balloon, but we didn’t have one. He was on the iPad for a little while, but not long. He started coloring when I went to get breakfast but drew on the wall again, and also the ‘books’ sign. He helped wipe though. We had cheerios for breakfast, then he was typing on my computer. We played a little with is boots, then he found bubble wrap in the iHerb order box from yesterday. He remembered back to when he saw the woman with bubble wrap at Danggogye Park: “Sad about the bubble wrap outside. Say pleeease.” Remembering woman with bubble wrap at Danggogye.

Couple minutes later: “Hold the bubble wrap in the park. Take it with us.” So he put it in the backpack. He then said “Go outside.” and looked out the window: “Raining outside.”

We headed to Children’s Grand Park about 9:40. Raining hard, so I put on the rain gear down near where we do recycling. He was fine once we were up and moving, but not happy about putting it on. Headed down to the park. Not a lot of people out anywhere. Got food at GS25 then headed to the children’s museum.

At the museum we first walked up to the second floor and played in the space area. A lot of just wandering around and stepping on/pushing things. He spent the most time at the big video game thing where you stand on a tilting board reminiscent of a skate board. He stood on them a lot, and also counted down with the numbers on the screen. And he hung on the fence surrounding the area, looking out through the glass panels. We then went up to the family lounge to eat. A pretty straightforward lunch, then we went down to the book area. Grabbed the Oh No!, Opposites, Colors, Numbers, and Shapes books and took them up to the loft and read them. He took Smokey up to read with us. From there we walked to the little kids area. Not busy there. He mainly played with the puzzles and we went up to the kitchen area where he lounged in the little chair:“Want to cook. Want to make soup…have a seat.” He was even putting his feet on the little table and leaning back in the chair. Back down stairs he rode one of the ladybug scooters around – the first time he’s really done that.

He was getting sleepy, so I changed him and we got ready for a nap. It wasn’t raining hard out, but it was really windy. I made it all winter walking outside to put him to sleep at Children’s Grand Park, but today was a problem. I ended up walking in and around the covered areas at the Gammaru building (where the two coffee shops are) and that worked. He fell asleep after about 15 minutes. But as I ordered in Peace Coffee (first floor this time) the guy asked me a couple times if I wanted it iced. I then heard August say “iced” in his slurred voice. Then the woman lit up and started waving and saying “Good morning!” to him. I was like “No, no, no.” and quickly signed and took the vibrating thing. As I walked away, August started saying “Where’d it go? Where’d it go? Where’d it go?” Not sure what ‘it’ was. I went outside and walked around the little covered area for a minute and he fell back to sleep. Back in before my coffee was ready.

He was asleep 1:35 to 2:59. He woke up and played on the iPad a little. He’s had a runny nose the last couple of days, and as he was sitting there he said “Zinnie has crusty nose.”

We headed to the subway as I wanted to go shopping at Home Plus. On the subway he spelled ‘miss’ then said “Miss the one piece…Timmy Time…” He was also asking how to spell ‘hummingbird’ and working on that. We made it to Hagye and to Home Plus. A few drops and some wind, but didn’t put the cover up. In the first basement he wanted to get out of the backpack, but made it quickly through there and down to food. They have watermelon now and samples, so a few piece of that and a grape kept him happy. Paid and headed home. Raining a little more, but just had to make it home. As we came across our part of the park it suddenly started raining harder, so we hurried across to get home. Pretty wet by the time we got in, but it didn’t bother August.

At home he watched ABC songs until Carly got home, then drew with her. They were writing things like ‘here I am’ and ‘hummingbird’. He then started writing “Funny A. No line.” That is, the As he keeps spotting in logos that just look like upside down Vs. He drew again on the ‘Books’ sign so Carly took the markers away. He then wiped up the mess again. I changed him, then Carly gave him a bath. She had fun giving him a mohawk. He drew with me while she took a shower: he did dots for himself and wrote the alphabet and also more funny As. He wanted to get balloons and sing songs with them. When I asked which songs, he wanted Korean. So we sang one of the songs from class. He then went in to Carly in the parlor and they skyped with Cassie. He then typed on Carly’s computer – at one point he was typing the letters on the keyboard for the first time: ‘wertyuiopasdfg…’ He then climbed on the chair at the desk. I spun him around and he got dizzy. Lightly bumped his head on the arm and wanted to nurse. They did that, then read the lollypop Bob book. They then skyped with Cherie (who is now in Pennsylvania) and Vivi, and August was showing them one of his balloons. After that, August, for some reason, wanted presents: “Mama find presents.” Carly let him open the bag that had her shoes in it, and another bag that had the shirt that we had loaned to Derek for Rosie. August was happy with that, and wanted to put the shirt on. He was then climbing off the end of the couch into the basket with books – he wanted me to take all the books outs he could get in. I got the laundry basket instead. He was having fun getting pulled around in it, but then we were going fast, and it seems like he didn’t like the sound: “No S s s s s… no shshshshsh.” Holding on to my hands, he was then standing on it and sitting on it. When it came time to say goodbye on Skype, he very clearly said “Bye Oma. Bye Vivian.” He then got the stool so he could play with water in the sink. He went to sleep about 9:30.

New words/phrases:  spelling ‘hot’ ‘cold’ ‘love’, have a seat

Waking up:

Cleaning up: 

Rain gear: 

Children’s museum: 

New sign in the coffee shop. Think they need to work on the translation: 

In from the rain: 

Evening: 

Pink balloon: 

Showing it to Oma: 

Up at 7:40. Happiest wake up ever. Threw open the door, saw me, smiled and pointed and said “There’s dada!” He was then writing on the paper and wanted some mango. I was asking him how he wanted it, and he said “Want to eat it!” and turned that into a little chant.  I got up to get it, and ward him say “Aug-GUST” to himself. I turned around to find him scribbling all over the floor with a yellow glass crayon. He was rather proud of himself and was saying “Wipe! Fill in.” Uh-oh” “Who do that?” He wouldn’t agree to write on the paper, so I had to take away the crayons. He ate some cold mango, and wanted to hear “Spanish songs” so I put on Basho. We ate Cheerios for breakfast, then got ready to head out, earlier, for the long trek to the big zoo. He requested the “AWQ shirt”, which turned out to be the CWU shirt. As we got in the backpack he recalled the yellow crayon incident from the morning, entirely on his own:

“Sad about the yellow…dada picked it up….where do you color? On the paper. Mess here.”

On our walk to the subway he talked about what we were doing: “going to the big zoo.” “Giraffe…go to the bug.” The subway ride down went smoothly. As we made the long walk into the zoo, he hid behind his hands. When I asked what he was hiding from he joked “Hiding from the sss sss sss. Hiding from the th th. Hiding from the T H T H.” So yes, letter sounds/letters. Also, there are about a millions sets of garbage cans and faucets along the way. On the subway he had been tracing the word ‘bat’ so that was now what he wanted to see first. But we kept stopping. As we walked to the nocturnal animal building he pointed at another garbage can. Exasperated, I said that if we stopped at every one we would never see the bats. He responded with “See the bats. THEN see the garbage.”

I also pointed out some picnic tables that would be good for lunch. He then wants to eat right then, so we stopped, put the picnic mat on the table, and he sat on it and we had a little lunch. He spent a lot of the time nibbling the grains and seeds out of his bread. After that we finally made it to the nocturnal animals. I didn’t know how he would respond to the dark building, but he dis just fine with me holding him in my arms. We saw kinkajou, African porcupines, ural owl, civet, three-striped night monkey, bats, scops owl, slow loris, and a couple others. The kinkajou (because they were active) and porcupines (because they were huge) were our favorite.

From there we went in the Insectarium. That went fine for the most part, except when I wanted to rest my arms. He didn’t want to walk on his own, so I sat down and he wasn’t happy with that. He liked the stag beetles at the beginning, and the crickets made an impression on them as he would mention their noise later. They have an impressive collection of spiders, but we kind of hurried through that part as August was ready to go outside.

We walked up to the playground and went in the stream. Took his shoes off and sat on a rock. A leaf floated by, so I have it to him and he was dropping it in the water to go down a little waterfall area. I would then grab it and hand it back to him. That lasted a few minutes, but then he wanted his diaper changed: he had sat in a little puddle and his shorts were wet. We changed him, then he played in the sand. Kept seeing kids over on the climbing wall and wanted to do that. So we went over there. At first he just wanted me to help him climb. So I helped him up a few feet to where he could sit. He really likes the handholds on the walls and tries to figure out what they each look like. He wanted up in a different spot. This time, I was pointing out the other kids and telling him he needed to lean forward and use his hands, instead of just holding on to mine, which is what he always wants to do. It clicked this time. He said “lead forward” and did so, holding on to the wall. He didn’t really climb up, but he was on the wall by himself for a couple minutes, talking about the shapes of the handholds.

We walked about 15 minutes and he fell asleep. A couple minutes before drifting off we saw the water birds area, which we’ve never been to, and wanted to go in. He slept from 1:13 to 2:08 (in the cafeteria area by the Dolphins) and when he woke up his first words were “Go see water birds”. So I got in the backpack and we headed out. We had to walk through some of the outside birds to get there, and August wanted to see some of the condors and vultures on the way. As we approached he said “Hear the pelican”. We went in and saw the water birds. He liked that for a few minutes. Quite impressive compared to Children’s Grand Park.

Back outside, he wanted out of the backpack. So I got him out, but then he saw water faucets he wanted to see on and wanted right back up in my arms. Except for the playground he hadn’t done any walking on his own today and my arms were tired. So I was trying to get him to walk over there, but he wasn’t having it. He also didn’t want to get back in the backpack, so was quite upset by the time I got him back in. We got walking and calmed down, and we went and saw the elephants. We watched them for several minutes – also much nicer than Children’s Grand Park’s exhibit. Two of the elephants were linking trunks and playing. From there we saw the ostriches (we had seen emus on our way in earlier), hippos, and oryx, then walked over and saw the giraffes on the way out.

Outside the zoo we sat by the water faucets we played at last time and had a snack. He devoured the egg, but before he did he said “Don’t eat the egg! From E.” That’s a line from the E section of a YouTube ABC video he likes. We also ate an orange, then he used his water bottle to play in the faucets. Let him do that for several minutes, then coaxed him away and we headed home. First, we stopped to buy some orange juice to drink on the way.

On the subway we had to stand a few stops. He was being silly and pointing at people and saying things like “Mama, mama, mama, mama…That’s not mama, it’s a persons.” “That’s not an animal, it’s a stranger.” He played iPad for awhile, but then put it away. He was squirming around, and reached out and touched the woman next to us. I said “Nuh, uh, uh.” and he said “Not okay.” I’ve started teaching him what an acronym is, and he looked down at his shirt and asked “Stands for?” We sang the tongue twister song for the last few stops to Changdong, then took the 1144 bus home. He was simply going through the alphabet saying “A is for…, B is for…” A couple that I remember were “R is for rainbow…S is for snake…U is for under.”

At home he nursed, then we all ate spaghetti for dinner. He was coloring with me, but then reached out and drew on the cover of a book. Luckily, it wiped off, but that was the end of coloring for a time. Carly changed him, then gave him his bath. They then were writing words together. Carly was writing words (mainly from the Kipper ABC book) and he was able to read ‘elephant’, ‘picnic’, ‘happy’, ‘hill’, and ‘zebra’. She was drawing lines under the words, and he decided he didn’t like that: “Sad about the lines”. He was pretty upset by it, but because he was tired. He nursed and fell asleep at 7:40.

New words/phrases: porcupines, reading ‘snack’, fist

Awake:

A little too proud: 

On the subway: 

Fuzzy hair: 

Huge porcupine: 

Stream: 

Playground: 

Water birds: 

Looking at giraffes: 

Playing in the water: 

He was awake a little after 8. He nursed, then he and Carly were reading the word play poetry book. He was reading the cover and read “word play” and that reminded him of Endless Wordplay, which he hasn’t played for a long time, and he came out wanting to play it on the iPad. So he did that, and we listened to Basho and Friends. Carly made oatmeal and mango for breakfast. I was feeding him, and he was sitting on the table. But he wanted to stand up on it and dance to Basho. I wouldn’t let him stand on the table, so he was “sad about the standing on the floor”. He heard Carly making noise as she cleaned the bathroom, and I said it was a dragon. This turned into a dragon finding game, where he crept to bathroom and would spot mama and then laugh. We also got out Puff and used him. When Carly moved to the closet he heard her again, so now she was in another cave. One of the times he heard her he said “Hear dragon eating vitamins.”

A bunch (5 or 6) of his new puzzles were still a mess from yesterday, so he helped me put them together. We got to the elephant one and he was frustrated by the last piece. I was showing him to turn it by rotating his wrist, so then he was holding out his wrist and trying to copy me. Still couldn’t get it, so we moved on to the other puzzles and came back to it at the end and he got it. After that he played in the sink for awhile. We started getting ready to go outside, and he looked out the window and said “Look for the dragon outside.” Before we left, he was holding the ‘Q’ plastic toy we use with the play dough and he held it up and excitedly said “Q like a balloon!”, holding it by the Q part.

Carly was ready to go, but before we left I was holding August under his arms while he stood on the floor and he started bouncing, like in a bouncy chair, and singing and swaying back and forth. He kept asking for more of this, saying “More ABCDing!” Finally, I got him changed and we headed out.

We got coffees downstairs and a banana-shaped banana bread for August. August had said he wanted to play in water, so we headed up towards Madeul Stadium, headed for the faucets at the north end. On the walk he asked “How bout pleasing?” So I started to explain about dropping the ‘e’ and adding ‘-ing’. This would come up a couple more times, and we would later write it out on the paper with a couple words.

Up at Madeul, the little insect bouncy toys and the play area next to it were finally open. We played there. We ended up all sitting on the blue play floor while he first sat in my lap and ate my ice, then moved to Carly’s lap and ate hers. He got Smokey out and started playing “What do you see?” He took notice of ants several times. Another ‘drop the e’: asking for “moring”. He said we were “having a picnic on blue”

Eventually, he wanted to head down and play in the water. He did that, using our cups. He decided he didn’t want to wear his hat, so Carly put sunscreen on him, which he wasn’t happy about. “Play in the water some more.” He started pouring water on his feet and said it felt good. Eventually, it was time to head home for his nap. We first walked over to the dog area and he was really excited about seeing the dogs. A woman invited us in, so we went in, but then a little dog jumped up and licked him on the face and he got upset. Carly took him out and they nursed for a few minutes. He then went back to the dog area and just looked in. The woman brought a puppy over, so Carly picked up August and he sort of made peace.

We then walked down by the piano sculpture (he was excited to head down there) to change him and put him in the backpack. He spent a minute looking at the Hangeul sculptures first. We came home and he first ate some lunch of rice and zucchini, then fell asleep from roughly 2:20 to 3:20. After that he nursed and they read the Kipper books. They came out and he was doing art: “colored in” and was really into Bs. Carly made spaghetti, and I started to make more Spanish, Korean, and English signs to hang up around the house. August couldn’t handle that I wouldn’t let him write on my signs though as I made them, so there was a little more nursing and I stopped that short. We did more ABC on the paper, then he ate some cold mango.

A laundry basket was out, and I was pulling him around in it. He seemed to really like it, but then was “All done. No S S S. Sad about the S S S.” Seems he didn’t like the sound the basket makes. I cleaned the other bathroom, and he helped a bit, until he wanted to hold the window cleaner all alone and I wouldn’t let him. He ate spaghetti for dinner, then watched ABC songs on the iPad, before writing letters with me again. He got really into it, lying on the paper with his head just off it. I asked what he was drawing and he said “doing arte abstracto Qs.” Sadly, no photo of that as my phone decided to tell me it was out of space.

We read Puff the Magic Dragon together, and he actually started singing some of the words, and was trying to follow along with me with his finger in the book. I gave him a bath, then he nursed and read Frida with Carly. They headed off to sleep about 9:20.

New words/phrases:  colored in, recognize, spelling/writing ‘loves’, screen

 

Eating ice and playing: 

Water: 

Doggies: 

Home: 

A new sign: 

Bath: 

Before bed: 

He got up at 7. Woke up saying “Do letters”. He and Carly skyped with Cassie and Cherie, and I got up after that. He and Carly were looking at the Yoga book and having Peter Rabbit do yoga. Carly changed him, then he played with the animal magnets and he and I worked on the small puzzles in the changing room. Carly made him oatmeal, and we listened to Basho and Friends. He was standing on the couch and said “No, yes, undecided” as he looked at the table, floor and couch. Carly had said this yesterday as we discussed where he was allowed to stand. He and I got out his little bucket of play dough from Daiso and opened that. We used the little car shape in it to make cars, then used our letters to make letters out of play dough. I ate Cheerios for breakfast, and he had some as well. He then read and nursed with Carly, and came out and played in the sink. Morse nursing, then Carly had to leave a little before 11for her NHD meeting in Itaewon.

He watched some ABC songs as I got ready to go. One song has a pig using tools to make something as he sings and there is a cloud of dust. August thought this was funny and said “All the dust!”

We walked towards Dream Forest. I thought he would make it most of the way there, but as we walked under the tracks he hid behind his hands. On the other side he kept his eyes covered, put his head down, and fell asleep a few minutes later. So I turned off by Lotte Castle and went to Ediya Coffee, where he slept from 12:22 to 1:43. Carly was done with her meeting by then and heading home. So instead of continuing to Dream Forest, we walked back and went to 나팔꽃어린이공원 (Morning Glory Children’s Park). We’ve been here once before.

There was an older boy that was really interested in him and talking to us a bit. August wanted to play in the faucets, so we did that. He was getting his shoes wet so I took them off. A few minutes later a woman with a walker came up to us and kept telling me he should be wearing shoes. Sigh. From there we moved to the sand, where he did some digging and burying garbage and playing with a yellow ball that someone had left at the park. But he spent the most time sitting on/next to me and writing letters in the sand. Eventually, he wanted to “Go home, find Smokey.” I had mentioned that we had forgotten Smokey on our walk from home, and August wanted me to turn back for a second. I changed him, and he ate a bunch of strawberries before we got going.

Derek and messaged me, saying they were headed to Junggye Park, so we met him and Logan and Rosie at the bridge and walked with them. There was a little festival back at our park, so August and I grabbed some popcorn chicken, potatoes, and a mango juice and set up the picnic mat on top of a little hill by the playground. Logan really wanted a balloon, so they wandered around looking for the balloon man without luck until Derek needed to feed Rosie. Meanwhile, August and I enjoyed our food, and August did a little dance thing while eating chicken. As I packed up, he walked down the hill and there there was a girl that tried pulling his hair. I missed that, as he was down by Derek.

We all went up to the apartment (I’d warned Carly) so Derek could feed Rosie. August and Logan drew on the paper together, knocked down all the blocks and played in them, and played xylophone together. August was having a lot of fun having them over, and was crawling around like a baby. He also played around with Derek. Rosie had a nice throw up, so she got to borrow August’s old dinosaur shirt.

After they left, Carly gave August a bath, then he played in the sink for a long time. He and I played on the bed, reading Marvin K. Mooney and the Korean textbook, and with Bluie and GM (earlier he had thrown them down the side of the bed and figured out how to get down in the crack himself to get them – he did more of that and also put them in the crack between the beds). Back out on the paper, he wanted me to do dots and he wrote letters. He was giving them all little extra flourishing, and I started to call them ‘abstracto’ letters. He went through the alphabet a couple times, doing abstract letters. Then he wrote on the floor, but when I asked where he was supposed to draw he didn’t want to say “On paper”, he was trying to be funny and doing is “That’s not a K…” type of jokes. Finally, I said I needed to put the markers away and he immediately said “On paper”. He was then using two markers to write at once. A few weeks ago he was doing this, but really needed help to get the two markers in his hand correctly. Not a problem for him now.

I left at 8:30 to go hang out with Derek. August fell asleep not long after that, about 9.

New words/phrases:  hasta luego, spelling ‘ball’, ‘words’, sounding out ‘walking’

Derek and I went up to Nowon and to a makoli and korean pancake place he goes to a lot. Had a good time, talking about books, movies, crazy stuff at APIS, etc. We moved out to a table outside for the last half hour or so. I took off at 11:45 and he headed up to Metro.

I got an email from Paul telling me that our Grandma Niman had passed away today. Got it just as I met up with Derek, so didn’t get to tell Carly and August about it until later. Kind of weird to realize that all of our grandparents are now gone.

New play dough:

Hiding on our walk: 

Park: 

Walking home: 

Park: 

Home: 

Evening: 

Heard him talking at 7:02. He was sitting up and gave me a good grin. Just sat there for a couple minutes, then started spelling words. Then went out to the iPad and Writing Wizard. I had started to make a list of family names, so he was tracing things like ‘Tia Cassie’ and ‘Grampa’. He then remembered the new Korean video from class, so we watched that. We then switched to listening to the Korean music instead. He was dancing on the couch as I made oatmeal for breakfast. We also got out the Korean books to review the words and to see what class would be about this week. He wanted Spanish, so we switched to listening to Basho & Friends. We started playing “Donde esta bottes?” after the Bottes Perdido (lost boots) song. I actually got his (almost never used) snow boots out and we put them places and then searched for them. We then read books, and he wanted Frida. We read a few pages of that (he tolerated my Spanish) until we got to the page with a guitar on it. At that point he kept saying “Zinnie hold…Zinnie do it.” But he didn’t want to hold the book, and if I asked if he wanted a guitar he said “No”. Eventually we drifted from that, and he wanted to do Art Maker on the iPad. Did that for awhile, mainly shapes, then moved to the paper and wanted an actual pen. I let him draw with my pen, then he had the idea of erasing and he grabbed a nearby book and pretended to erase with it. It was the glass crayons (on paper) after that, and he kept saying “White doesn’t work” as he couldn’t see it on the paper.

Finally, we headed to Home Plus for his class. Class was kind of a bust, at least in terms of preparation. We were slowed a little as they were working on the moving walkway, so we had to take the elevator. Still, got up there right at 10:20, but heard them finishing up the opening songs. Got in to see her clock is set 4 minutes fast. So we missed most of the songs that we’ve been learning the words to the last couple days. Then, she went off-script for the main activity. Instead of being about camping (which we were ready for), it was a prince/princess dress-up thing and walking on a runway. August, of course, didn’t participate. We then did a little clapping/chant thing, and I had no idea what they were saying – so when it was our turn to add something I told them to pass. Finally, she got out the parachute and did parachute games. Unfortunately, she has them seen most of the time on top of the parachute, which August refuses to do. When she had them run under the parachute, August did that, but then we were bring down the parachute on their heads a lot so he was done after about 10 second. August was fine though, and in a good mood throughout – he just didn’t participate in much of class. He did, however, get two Pororo hand stanps at the end of class.

We headed to Children’s Grand Park. I realized there was  Dais and an Alpha near the back entrance, so we transferred at Gunja and got off at Achasan and did some shopping, as we were almost out of paper for coloring. August did fine with Dais, and picked out a little bucket with 7 colors of play dough in it. Got a bunch of pads of paper as well. He wasn’t fond about looking at Alpha though as he was hungry and getting tired. So we did that quick and headed into the park.

We found a new spot, east of the zoo, for lunch, sitting on a bench. That was a mistake, as later in lunch he saw people sitting on picnic mats and said “Zinnia do it.” He had fun though, watching some big boys play with frisbees for a few minutes. While eating his sandwich he was picking out the seeds and eating them and saying “seeds are yummy from a tree.” He then got out Smokey and wanted “more what do you see.” We played that, and he saw “bird poop right here.” on the ground. We walked over and played with the drinking fountains and refilled his water. Finally, I changed him and got him in the backpack and we got walking. Took 20 minutes or thereabouts and he fell asleep from 1:43 to 2:45. We’ve just been going to the upstairs one as the park is now always busy, so the first floor one is more likely to be busy as well.

After he woke up he played on the iPad for a few minutes and ate all the ice. He then wanted to take Smokey to the zoo. He (August) first wanted to see the lion, he then picked up some garbage to throw it away, and found a map of the zoo on the ground. He saw the seals and penguins on it, and wanted to see them. Penguins first. So we went and saw the penguins, then showed Smokey a crane, then headed outside where we set our stuff down and played with all the water faucets and with our tennis ball. He decided he wanted to go to the upstairs part of the bird building, so up we went. He played at the penguin display, dropping Smokey though the rotating signs, then wanted to go back and climb on the big egg sculpture/photo zone. Took his photo on the top of that. While he was sitting there, a boy’s balloon popped. August really liked that, although the boy didn’t. Another mom and boy then gave August some fry chip things and August did a good job of saying kamsamnida to them.

From there we headed home, changing him by the entrance, then sitting on the floor of the train much of the way. As we walked home he saw a ㅆ (double S) on the back of a bus and pointed it out, then exclaimed “That’s not mama; that’s a double S!” No idea. We were home at 5:10, after Carly.

We listened to a lot of Basho and Friends, had some rice, etc. for dinner, and I prepared his bath and Carly gave him his bath. He got into his Bingo spelling game again:  “oango, wango, zango, xango” Then wanted to play in the sink: “Dada Zinnie have fun in the sink.” After that we all went in to the bed and were reading. He read a bunch of Picasso’s Trousers. There is one long page that includes the word ‘beautiful’ and he only needed help with one word. He and Carly went to sleep around 8:30.

New words/phrases:  buenos noches, hasta manana, yo soy en Seoul, all sorts of new reading words including ‘beautiful’

Waking up:

Drawing letters: 

Using a book as an eraser: 

The one photo I took of class today. Pretty much sums it up: 

Lunch at the zoo: 

Trying to get him to sleep: 

The zoo. Showing Smokey a crane: 

Water: 

On the eggs: 

Home. Trying to blow up a balloon: 

Hiding under the gift from class as I blow up a balloon: 

Carly wasn’t sleeping well due to being stuffy and was out in the parlor part of the night. During the night, I heard August talking about foxes – at first I thought I heard him say Firefox, but I thinking he was saying “Fennec Fox”, which we see at the zoo. Then, when Carly wasn’t in the room, he woke up and was over by me saying “Get up” – he was trying to wake me up.

He woke up at 6:44, right after Carly left. I heard him say “Where’s dada?” I went in and he was upset that mama was gone. I lay down next to him. He started saying “Wait…wait…wait…” I asked what he wanted to wait, and he said “Wait…want mama to wait.” He calmed down a little but wasn’t quite ready. He said “Walk…dada out.” so I went out to the living room and he came out a couple minutes later. He wanted the iPad and the new tracing app. I added and recorded myself saying a variety of animals, and he traced those. He activated Siri, then we spent awhile asking Siri to show us photos of different animals. He then wanted “mooka mooks”, which Siri didn’t understand. I told him he had invented mooka mooks so he was the only one that knew what they looked like. We did letter stickers for a bit, then he noticed the reading area was gone, and asked for it. I told him he had to talk to mama, so he was saying “Talk to mama.”

We ate the last of the carrot pancakes for breakfast, then he played in the water, standing on the stool. We then Skyped with my parents before they left for Everett tomorrow. August was still playing in the sink at first, then stopped and was playing all over the place. He sang the ABC tongue twister song for them, and when we were talking about this later with Carly that is what he remembered. His shirt was a bit wet, so he wanted to change it. I took him in and gave him the drawer of short-sleeved shirts and told him to choose and he chose the Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles shirt.

After the Skype call, he wanted the new video from class. So we watched that and brushed his teeth. As we were getting ready I heard a sound from the and looked out: they were polishing the floors and had just started ours. So we skipped class. He’s been wanting to learn songs in Hangeul, so we watched more of the new video, following along with the words, and then the video from his first 5-Touch class. Been quite awhile since we’ve watched that, so he kept saying “Remember this one” when a new song started. I used Google Translate to capture the lyrics of some of the new songs, so we could practice them for class. Finally, the hallway was clear and we could head out. In asking him what he now wanted to do he said, totally unprompted: “Go in the forest…see trees, please.”

So we headed out. The closest forest-y place is the little corner between the stream and the power plant. But when we got to the stream August wanted to go down and walk along it. I tried to coax him over that way, but he wanted to go back to the stream. He also didn’t want to play in the playground. So stream it was. It was about 5 hours since he woke up, so I figured he was tired. But he didn’t fall asleep. We ended up walking 2 miles total, going about a mile up the stream. We saw all the float/sculpture things for the festival on the stream. He liked the Mt. Rushmore one, the one with people playing music, and the traditional Korean one that he thought looked like people “making sand castle”.

He fell asleep as we came back and got to Cafe Tolerance. He slept there from 12:38 to 1:55. He woke up and immediately said “Zinnie’s got eyes…got eyes right here. Zinnie’s got green. Turn the eyes. Turn the eyes here. See eyes.” He had leaked, so I took him downstairs and changed him on a bench outside the door. He looked at the diaper and said “See Huggies”, pointing to the word. On the way back up he was looking at all the signs and saw one with a balloon on it: “See the b a l l o o n on the sign,” spelling out ‘balloon’. Finally, as we walked back into the coffee shop he pointed at the coffee grinder full of beans and said “See beans.” We sat there, looking out at the stream, and played on the iPad and shared a strawberry smoothie. When we had the smoothie he said “Mama here,” making me think he was remembering when we came here with her. But then he was pointing into the smoothie and joking “Mama in here.” He spotted several egrets and a crane working their way down the stream. There was music playing, and the one song that caught his attention that he wanted me to look up was Lenka’s “The Show”. Finally, we were spelling words, and he wanted ‘teeth’. Then he said “What about teething?”, adding the -ing. I told him that was actually a word and he was excited: “Zinnie made up a word!”

Soon after we headed out. Didn’t make it any farther than the playground right there by the youth center. Spent the next hour and a half there. He was looking at the garbage can and saw the ㅆ: “see the double S!” The blue thing next to it “See that blue thing!” I had to change him again, then he was supposedly hungry. Instead, he simply held the egg and played around with it for 5 or 10 minutes. Didn’t actually eat anything. Got Smokey out and played “What do you see?” for a long, long time, just from the covered platform area, then standing on the ledge by the bushes. Finally, he went over to the play structure and dropped Smokey down the straight slide several times. He observed that Smokey made a “zigzag” as he went down. Smokey was taunting him through the cracks of the play structure, and August wanted him to do the Bluie dance and the “Missed me, missed me…” thing. Back down at different bushes doing more What do you see? and observed that the shape of the wall looked like a “Z…zigzag.” Finally, he wanted to read Bob books. So we took our stuff over to a picnic table and sat on the picnic mat on the ground and did some reading. We got swarmed by a group of curious kids for a few minutes. August wanted to sit on the low railing of the fence, but there was a drop behind it and he wasn’t happy when I wouldn’t let him.

We headed home a little before 5. Figured we had time to go to the book store in the pink building to look for Korean beginner books. He liked the idea until we were there and he realized we could just be going home to mama. So we left. Wondered if Carly was walking home, so we stood outside the building for a few seconds and indeed we saw her crossing the street. I had told her and Megan that the chicken man was parked up the street, so we went up there to get chickens, but it was a 10 minute wait. We headed home, then I went down a little later and got two of them for dinner. I shared my sandwich with him, then Carly prepared some rice, peanut sauce, and zucchini for him and he ate all of that. I gave him a bath (he played with the cups, mainly), he helped me make the bed, then he read several pages (10 or so) of Go, Dog, Go! He and Carly fell asleep about 8:30.

New words/phrases: spelling ‘saw’, 또라란스 (tolerance), 쓰레기, smokestack, reading Mainz Dom

 

 Awake:

Getting used to the new couch: 

Watching the Korean video: 

Followin along:

On our walk: 

Cafe Tolerance. Note his hands:

Bird spotting: 

Playground: 

Home: