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We covered a lot of ground today. He was sleeping upside down for the later half of the night and slept in until 8:01. He stood right outside the bedroom doorway being upset for a minute tops, then said “ABCD on the paper” and was fine. We had Cheerios and strawberries for breakfast, then got ready to go and headed out by 9:30. We walked to Derek and Logan’s house by Wolgye Station, with the intention of going with them to Dream Forest. Derek had this one more day off (like most people in the city) unlike Carly and Jill. Anyway, when we got there they cancelled as Logan was not doing well.

 

August actually did better going to their place today than yesterday. He started to complain a little as we wen’t to the building, and was crying in their apartment, but I think he might have calmed down if we stayed. Anyway, so instead of carrying on without them, August and I hopped on the subway and did the two quick transfers to get us back on our normal line and headed to Children’s Grand Park.

 

The children’s museum was busy with families, as school was still out. August was excited by the hand stamp, but then a little annoyed by all the people. We wandered around the nature area for awhile, then ended up at the chalkboard, where we spent ten minutes or so. But then he wanted to go someplace else because there were “Too many people.” In fact, when he would hear an announcement on the intercom he was getting upset, saying “More big kids” – after our last experience with the announcements being for the rotation of the school groups he (logically) assumed that was what all the announcements were about.

 

We tried going downstairs, but it still looked busy to him. We headed upstairs, and he decided it was time to eat an early lunch (about 11:10). That was a good call though, as the lunch room was pretty empty. By noon it would have been a zoo.

 

We had stopped in the subway and bought some kimbap. So we ate that and a banana and some of our peanut butter sandoo for lunch. He was in a good mood, performing the ABC song for anyone that would listen. We were also reviewing the punctuation/symbols he knows, and at one point was going around drawing tildes on things with his finger: “Tilde on the wall…Tilde on the amarillo.” When I got out the banana he joked about putting it on the kimbap. He set the banana on it, and I joked that it was a sculpture. So then he was setting the banana on the kimbap and sandwich, saying “sculpture.”

 

From there we went down to the little kids area. Spent all our time there in the back half, going up to the little kitchen area once. Mainly played with the big cube toys, looking at the clocks on the side and playing with the sliding animals. He also played with the magnet thing and with a couple of the little puzzles. He did the butterfly puzzle three times and was figuring out the turning of the pieces. When we went upstairs to the kitchen area, we found these little wooden tea cups. He was drinking tea, saying “Mama’s tea hot.” Upstairs he found both a stuffed crayon and a wooden piece that he recognized belonged downstairs. So we went downstairs and put both away. At one point he was asking for a cracker, but I said we couldn’t eat in there, so he said “No eat in the little kids area.”

 

Eventually he wanted to “Find Qs.” I convinced him we wouldn’t find any in that area and we should go next door to the book area. So we went over there and looked at books for awhile, reading a few of their English Nuk Books – he really liked the Oh No! one. We found a total of 5 Qs or so – one from the book on shapes (square) and the rest in titles of some other foreign language books they had (perhaps vietnamese?).

 

It was past time for a nap, so we headed out for our usual walk. But first he wanted some crackers, then just kept singing. After 40 minutes I gave up and we went and played at the old playground (Adventureland). We mainly wrote in the sand. He was having me write his name (Zinnie) and he would trace it. He wanted me to write up in the grassier area, but I said that wouldn’t work. He kept asking, so I told him to try. He did, then said “Nope, doesn’t work.” He wandered up the stairs to the second playground and drew on the rubbery surface for awhile, then came back down to the sand area where he wandered over to the train area and played with the things in there. We also spent a little time at the musical instruments on the one remaining drum.

 

He was then done with the playground. We decided to go to a coffeeshop – I didn’t tell him I would try to get him to sleep along the way. It was now past 2, so last call for a nap. It didn’t work though, so after a few minutes I suggested we go see animals first. He agreed, so we did that. The zoo was really busy, but now the crowds didn’t bother him. Also, most of the animals were out, starting with the elephant. We then went to “See kitty cats”. Everything was out except for the lynx and servals. So he Qed the leopards, etc. Then we took a little break on a bench and ate the apple cookie I had gotten earlier. We then saw the primates, most of which were out (except for the chimpanzees and one of the macaques).

 

Done with the zoo, it was now approaching 3:30. We went to the downstairs Peace Coffee. As we were going, August explained why he was excited for a coffee shop: “smoothie dal-gee”. So we got a berry smoothie. No coffee for me, but that was okay because it was really good. Much busier than usual, so we sat at a little table at the big round area. Drank the smoothie and mainly did art on the iPad. He did some on the Paper app, but has gotten back into the Sesame Street Art Maker app. He also did some numbers apps, and was tracing the numbers in Intro to Numbers, saying “Work on 8.” He also said “opposite” when starting on the second side of the zero. Not sure where that came from.

 

We left about 4:15 and changed him. On the subway he was doing more Sesame Street art – he was really into the glue and glitter and rainbow bush in the Abby picture. We got home a little after 5, a few minutes after Carly.

 

I was meeting Derek at 7 to go down to Itaewon to help him review a couple of restaurants, so left by 6:45. Before I left, Carly gave him a bath and we did some art. He wasn’t much into eating. Don’t know if he ate any more after I left. Probably not, as he was nursing and probably on his way to sleep when I left.

 

We went to Little Baja, which had moved into a bigger place, and a new place called Gino’s New York Pizza. Both good; I had a root beer float at the pizza place. Got home just before 11.

 

New words/phrases: no eat in the little kids area, mama’s tea hot, nope doesn’t work, work on 8, opposite, glue, sequins

Children’s museum: 

He claimed it looked like an ampersand…: 

His first sculpture: 

Little kids area: 

Drinking Mama’s tea: 

Finding a 14: 

Book he liked: 

Playground after not taking a nap: 

He had just been saying “No, no, no” when he saw me heading to our usual nap path: 

Apple cookie: 

Sesame Street Art Maker: 

His new song involves adding ‘1’ into the ABC song a few times: 

August spent a lot of the night rolling over into me, and I remember him talking in his sleep at one point, although I can’t remember what he said. He woke up right at 7. When Carly changed him, she had to take off his owl pants as they were smelling like pee. She convinced him that cat pants were okay, so then he got excited that he was wearing cats and owls together (“Both!”). He was also really interested in his musical instruments in the morning. We played on the xylophone and with the triangle and little cymbal things. He turned the triangle into a Q using the striker, and of course he put the triangle on his head.

 

Derek had invited us over to their place to hang out in the morning. At 10:30 we headed over. August didn’t want to leave without Mama, and talked her in to leaving with us. After a couple blocks, she turned back. He was not happy about this, and took a few minutes to calm down as we kept walking. He never got entirely happy on the walk, and when we turned into the apartment complex where they live, he immediately started protesting “No, no, no!” It was shady and windy, but we stayed outside for about 15 minutes, trying to get happy in the playground. He was trying to negotiate on what to do “Go subway; play iPad.” “Go coffeeshop…get coffee.” He wanted to go up on the play structure, then I went through the big tube first. A couple guys came with a little girl, and came up by August to use the slide. One of the guys just stayed at the top of the slide, cornering August against the tube, and didn’t seem to have any awareness that he was scaring August. So that didn’t help. Made one attempt after that to head into the building, but August fell apart. So left, as I didn’t want to burden Derek with all the crying. I set August down and he actually took off back down the path. He calmed down as he went, and really calmed down when I picked him up and he knew we were leaving.

 

We walked back under the tracks and found Yoger Presso open, now close to 11:30. We went in and got a strawberry yogurt smoothie. It came with a big straw, so I got a smaller one for him, but he ended up liking using both together. He mostly drew on the iPad, and would draw for a minute, then start a new one. He played a little Wordplay, then Intro to Letters, where he was starting to say “____ starts with __” – like “Book starts with B.” He started Green Eggs and Ham, and started reciting it himself, saying “I am Sam” on the first page, then on the third starting with “That Sam I am”.

 

He did a little more art and I got the one sandwich they had for lunch, although August didn’t like the ham. He was getting tired as we left, although he wasn’t in a hurry to leave, even though it was now close to 1.

 

We got home and he was soon down for an 80 minute nap. He woke up and he and Carly had ravioli for a late lunch. We then all walked up to Daiso. As we walked, I offered him my finger to hold at one point, saying “Hold my finger?” He then said “Hold my hand.” August protested a bit going into the store – he wanted to keep walking. We primarily got new pads of paper for him. He also saw the pastels and wanted to “take it home” and carried the package around the store. We headed back, and at the art museum I took the bags to head home and Carly headed to Home Plus. August was not happy about this second betrayal and was upset the entire way home. So at home I set down the bags and stretched a bit, then put the backpack back on. We walked over to Home Plus, and surprised Carly just as she was finishing at the checkout.

 

A whole lot of art in the evening. Carly gave him a bath. They had a ton of fun playing with Sophie (as August wouldn’t let her in the water), but he still won’t sit down. After that, he did a great job of avoiding going to bed. He saw that I had hung up the Alphabet poster, and spent a long time looking at that (he also identified “stinkbug” and “quahog” and “mariposa” on it). And at one point he made a dash for the parlor, saying “Play in the reading area.” But he was asleep right around 9.

 

Continues to learn Spanish. Saying “otra vez” a lot, and figuring out how to say “anaranjado” (orange).

 

New words/phrases: otra vez (again), mama coming with, ____ starts with __, looking for something, hold my hand, anaranjado, get some more water, stink bug, quahog, mariposa, play in the reading area

 

Qing the triangle: 

Triangle on his head: 

Carly’s finished tree before she took it down: 

Trying to cheer up at the apartment complex: 

Yoger Presso. Two straws and eyes that had been crying:

Walk to Daiso: 

Evening: 

August and I ventured out on an adventure with Jill and Logan to a play area none of us had been to before.

 

August woke up at 6 and said “explanation point…question mark” before Carly nursed him back to sleep. We were both up when he then woke at 7:30. We heard one long, like 5+ second cry, and went in. The first thing he said was “Owls, owls”, then he talked more about owls as Carly took him in to the parlor.

 

He then skyped with with Vivi and got to see them having fun in a bath. He wanted to take a bath, saying “Zinnie take a bath.”

 

Sometime after that he was marching around the house singing ABC songs.

 

August and I headed out at 9:30. We took the bus over to Wolgye and met Jill and Logan on the northbound platform. August did not react well to seeing them, getting his very sad look and crying. A lot. Like when we tried to go see Jill and Rosie a few months ago. August has been fine with them the last few times we have seen them, but we have always been with Carly. Best theory right now is that he sees Logan with his mom and is sad that his own mama isn’t there.

 

We made got on the train and took the 3 stops north and found our way to Vic Market, where the play area is located. The entire way, if he wasn’t complaining or crying, August was saying “No, no, no.” He finally warmed up a bit when we went inside and he started reading signs and numbers.The market was open (it is like the Korean competitor to Costco), but we went upstairs only to find that the play area didn’t open until 12 today because of the holiday. It was 11:40.

 

Of course, both the kids saw the play area and wanted to go in. August no longer wanted to head home. We decided to stay and hang out in the food court area. The kids walked around, explore the ramp/stairs/bridge in the entrance to a closed Korean restaurant, then sat at a table and drew: Logan in August’s notebook and August on the iPad. We then watched some ABC songs and Timmy Time and all got a sweet potato pizza to share for lunch.

 

We finished up lunch right at 12 and went into the play area. We took our shoes off and put them in bin 5 or, as August said, “Cinco”. So then we were counting them in Spanish, in order. We got to 15 and I stopped. He then said 16 in Spanish, and continued on up through 25. I know that Carly has said the numbers up past 15 with him, but never had him do it himself. I’ve never tried going past 15. So quite a surprise.

 

It is like all the other play areas we have been to (although the Tayo and CoCoMung ones are a little different as they are tailored to their TV shows), with a bear to bounce on, a pin board thing, a ball area, a floor piano, etc., but it was in really nice shape, had a few extra things, and all of the sets of blocks, etc. were mostly complete and organized.

 

Logan rode the train by himself for the first time. August wanted to go in, but didn’t want to be put on the train (and they wouldn’t let parents ride). But I think the real reason was that he didn’t actually want to go on the train at all, but wanted to play in the track area, and was upset that I wouldn’t set him down to do so. Kind of like the ice rink where he didn’t care about the ride thing at all.

 

We did all the usual things, and spent most of our time playing with a set of small wooden letter and number blocks. He started with J and then found the letters in order to U (where he lost interest). For each, he would set the letter out in the room, but they were really spread out. Interesting. He then played with a hammering thing next to Logan, and we finished with a wall where you could write with crayon. He just colored, and of course we did ABCs.

 

As we left and walked with Jill and Logan to the subway, August was asking for a lot of Spanish words, particularly colors (he is now big into gold and silver). Jill’s Spanish is pretty good, so she helped. We said goodbye to them at the subway, as August was about ready to fall asleep, so I was just going to go to a coffeeshop. By now he was good friends with Jill and Logan and said a very nice goodbye and waved.

 

We walked for another 5 to 10 minutes and he fell asleep. We went in a nice coffeeshop that appeared to be called Coffee and Cookie. Although it turned out the only cookies they had were little prepackaged cookies. I got an iced blended coffee thing, and he slept from 2:12 to 3:08. When he woke up he didn’t want to get out of the backpack and just wanted to get going. So we headed home, taking the subway south one stop where we could transfer to a bus headed home. Unfortunately, the bus directly home wasn’t coming for 26 minutes (holiday schedule) so we went to take the 1161. But the one we waited for was headed the wrong direction (it is that weird turnaround area at Changdong). Third time a charm.

 

Although as we waited a woman told me he should be wearing a scarf. A scarf. Note: he was in the backpack, where his sweatshirt and coat bunch up around his neck so there is no place for a scarf. And it was 44 degrees – the warmest it has been in 3 months, and it was the first time anyone has told me he should be wearing a scarf. I didn’t even have my heavy coat zipped. The guy that was with her came over really close to August and was asking him “Aren’t you cold?” several times before he back away. I was telling Carly about this via Skype and she told me I should start laughing wildly when I get these things. So I tried laughing (but not wildly) when she then told me, right before we got on the bus, that his hands are cold.

 

Anyway, we made it home about 4:15. A lot of art and singing. Carly and I both cleaned our bathrooms, and he helped scrub the floors and the mirrors. He really liked all the colorful bottles (of course) and (of course) started saying things like “Yummy blue,” referring to the glass cleaner. I told him they were all yucky, so he turned to his new favorite colors, saying “Yummy gold, yummy silver.” Then “Use gold.” And finally, since we don’t have a gold bottle “Find gold.” So he was looking around for gold. Yes, he is looking for gold.

 

It was now around 5:30 and he requested ABC songs, so he watched some for awhile. He had some spaghetti for dinner #1. After dinner, Carly was reading the new Alphabet book with him and he got really excited about the poster in the back. It is in English, but he was pretending it was Spanish and looking for Spanish letters and words on it. But first he identified the ‘yak’ and the ‘jaguar’ on it. He was pointing at animals in the book and saying “What’s this?” (Similarly, when asking for translations to Spanish, he has switched from his usual “___ Espanol” to “What ____?” – sometimes adding “espanol” to the end, but pretty implied by now.)

 

He was then hanging out with me and saw me eating the leftover pizza from lunch and wanted some. This became dinner #2. He ate a good chunk of pizza, most of his leftover egg in the fridge, all but one of the strawberry pieces leftover from lunch, a chunk of my bar, and then 3 crackers.  Not bad. Especially as he needs some more calories to gain some weight.

 

I got an email from my parents saying they were heading to Everett for the next couple days, so we jumped on Skype about 7:30 and caught them before they went to bed and talked for about 20 minutes.

 

Carly went to bed about 8. He had been about to nurse with her, but then wanted water, but it was empty. So I had gone to the kitchen with him to fill it up. But then he opened the freezer and was tasting the cold freezer door and pretending to eat the naan through it. He then wanted up to look through the fridge, calling everything yummy and asking for translations of things like juice, milk, citron tea, smoothie, and jam. He then spotted two coins
on the table that he wanted to take in to Carly, so we did that.

 

Finally, we were back out, first doing more art (oh, and earlier he had been spelling/writing “O P A Opa”), where I was teaching him ‘periwinkle’ (one of the crayons were were using) and ‘perspective’ (as the H and I that I wrote looked like I and H as we were at 90 degree angles), then reading several books: Picasso’s Trousers (where he started saying “quotation marks!” and I could further teach ‘perspective’, what with the painting faces from the front and side at the same time thing), I Spy at the Zoo (wanting translations of leopard, elephant, and panda), Puff the Magic Dragon, Kiss Good Night, How Things Grow, and, finally, Alphabet. He said it was the “last one” but was then upset (tired) when I took him in to Carly close to 9:15. I think it took awhile to get him to sleep, but he was probably asleep around 9:30 or a little after.

 

New words/phrases: blueberry, juicy, naranja (Orange), auto bus, ramp, up to dose; no catorse, counting to 25 in Spanish, What’s this?, yak, money, 50, lamp, quotation marks

 

Waiting for the play area to open. Exploring the closed restaurant: 

 

Drawing while he waits: 

Play area. Egret:

Coloring on the wall: 

Fell asleep holding my finger: 

Heading home: 

Evening: 

Alphabet poster: 

Tasting the freezer: 

August was awake at 7. He walked out of the room wheel Carly was skying with Cassie and Vivi, so they got to see his wake up. A lot of drawing and play dough in the morning. At one point he was in on the reading area with Carly, playing with Under the Sea with Me. He was really interested in the speaker, and Carly was telling him you can’t push it, but to put it to his ear. So he kept holding it against his head, but on his forehead, not at his ears.

 

Marketing works: He really likes Maisy’s First Colors, and on the back of it are pictures of Maisy’s ABC and Maisy’s First Numbers. So he started requesting them, particularly the numbers, saying “This” and getting frustrated that he couldn’t read it right now. Unfortunately, despite Maisy books being sold everywhere, they aren’t available digitally yet (really, how hard can this part be? But so few children’s books are available).

 

Carly headed down to a coffee shop at 10 to do some work. We mainly did art and watched ABC songs. I also confirmed his weight measurement, confirming he hasn’t gained weight in the last couple months, but he has grown 3cm and is above average there. His head is also slightly on the big side (75 percentile). So he’s slightly tall and skinny with a big head.

 

We were also drawing on the iPad, and he figured out how to add a photo of him and Carly and draw on it.

 

She got home a little after 12. He fell asleep about 12:40 and woke up at 1:18, as I was getting ready to head out to see some our with our friend Meg. He went back to sleep and slept until 2. Carly made spaghetti sauce with broccoli blended in it, and after August woke up they walked across the park to the art museum. He wanted to be carried all the time, so she made a game of letting him get close, then scooting backwards so he had to go farther. He was frustrated at first, but it turned into a game. They walked through the art museum (I forgot to ask what they looked at) and then went to the coffee shop. He didn’t want to go to the play area. They read some books that Carly had brought along.

 

Meanwhile, Meg and I took the bus down to Insadong, then walked up to the gallery area. Unfortunately, the gallery she wanted to go to (Hyundai) was closed. So we walked up to the MMCA and had a pleasant surprise, as it was free for the holiday. And their current shows were really impressive.

 

We saw the Suh Se Ok exhibit (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201511110000357), which was there last time we went, but I didn’t really see it as August wasn’t a fan of the black and white stuff. It is all blank and white ink on mulberry pieces. Not my favorite stuff either, but I was able to appreciate it more with an art teacher there.

 

Then downstairs, first to the third installation to be in the Air Box space. It is by Julius Popp (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201511090000355). Hard to explain. Basically, it is 4 levels of water reservoirs. Water is released very precisely, and forms a word as it falls through the air and then lands in the reservoir below. So as you watch, 3 words cascade down in front of you every few seconds. And the language changes every minute or so. We saw English, Korean, and Russian.

 

Next to the huge William Kentridge show (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201503310000237). He is a South African artist, and it was amazing. Really large pieces, many in charcoal, that were used for these elaborate animations.

 

Then through the Ahn Kyuchul exhibit (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201508210000319), with its goldfish in circles and the 64 black rooms. But this time I also got to see the white sphere. You walk into it, and it is completely white. But it has an amazing echo. So any stomping, or whistling, or talking in it really echoes.

 

Finally, the Philippe Garrel, a French filmmaker, exhibit (http://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?menuId=1010000000&exhId=201511040000351) was interesting, but would take a lot of time to fully appreciate.

 

We looked in the gift shop for awhile then walked towards City Hall. She was taking the subway to have dinner with friends. I went to Kyobo books, where I found the Matthew Van Fleet Alphabet book (like our Cat, Moo, and Dog books). Oh, and Meg gave me a book for August. Her copy of The Boy Who Bit Picasso. She had had her mom send it over from the states. I got to read it on the subway home and it is very cool.

 

I took the subway home. As I was waiting to transfer to the bus, Carly and August called me on Skype. He seems so much older now, as he can say hi to me on Skype.

 

Got home and showed him the books. We read Alphabet once, then had spaghetti for dinner. He just kept eating more and more mushrooms. Carly gave him a bath that went very well. He saw the bubbles, so he and I did bubbles for awhile. Then, he reached down to put a marker away, only to stand up and bump his head on the counter. He went to nurse with Carly and eventually fell asleep sometime after 8:30.

 

New words/phrases: amarillo, rojo, rosa

Art. Julius Popp sculpture: 

William Kentridge:

Gift from Meg to August: 

Evening. Eating mushrooms (bus-ot):

August was up 7ish. Had a nice Skype call with Cherie, then Carly made eggs for breakfast. August and I made a zoo out of his Duplos – our best one yet – and August expanded his prepositions by saying something was “next to” something else. Then a nice sky call with Glecy. August was doing a ton of coloring today, but at one point in the morning was getting tired of using the paper, so Carly suggested an empty cereal box (I had just taken down recycling or we would have had lots of options). That worked, but that made him want cereal, so he ended up having some cereal as well.

 

Carly made hummus and August and I did more art and did some reading. We read the Going to Bed Book, and August read the words ‘is’ and ‘now’. We had naan and hummus for lunch, but August didn’t like the hummus. He just wanted to eat naan. Carly put peanut butter on it and he really liked that.

 

A bit after 12 it looked like he would take a nap, but that wasn’t the case. He came back out with me while Carly took one though.We did his leftover stickers from class on Tuesday. He said pointed to the gorilla sticker and said “gorilla”. He found a spot in the book where he had written with marker and said “Who did that?” He initially said “Dada” but then admitted it was Zinnie. We did a lot of play dough letters. I had started to put them in order yesterday, and he got into that, just sorting them and looking for the alphabet. We are missing L, R, S, T, and V, however, so when he would get to L I would have to tell him it was missing. So he started looking for it, walking around and looking, saying “Hmmm” repeatedly. He got down on the floor and looked under the couch, then was looking under the cushions. I wasn’t helping, since I’ve known they’ve been missing for months (probably in Chelan or Centralia, or on a plane somewhere), so he’d say “Dada look.”

 

Carly got up and forced him to take a nap at 2. He resisted, but when she started talking about skipping his nap, he finally fell asleep and slept until 2:50. He actually wanted to just nurse and fall back to sleep though, which we didn’t want, so I put ABC songs on the iPad and he watched from Carly’s lap for several minutes.

 

Once he woke up, we decided to head out for a walk while it was still light. He really wanted to go out. We put him in the backpack and headed to the stream. Along the way, we walked along the wall where he was saying “1, 1, 1, 1…” last week. This time, he expanded on it, saying “11, 11, 11, 11…” and “111, 111, 111…” He also did it across the bridge and then on a wall at the coffee shop that had a lot of vertical lines.

 

We went across the bridge and he saw the playground. He then said “Coffee shop closed.” That was pretty cool because he was referring to Cafe Tolerance, one we’ve been to only twice in the last year since it opened. When we were walking back from Madeul last weekend, I said something about it, and he picked up on it and wanted to go to a coffeeshop. We checked the door, but it was locked, so we went to Cafe Mug in our building. So it was only a minute long thing a week ago. But here we were, still a good distance from the coffee shop, couldn’t even see the building yet, and were walking to it from the south instead of the north, and he remembered that. He had made a couple other good associations earlier in the day. I forget the really good one, but things like me asking “What do you want for dinner?” and him answering “Yummy dal-gi (strawberries)”, which shows he clearly understands the question.

 

Anyway, luckily today was Saturday and it was open. So we went up. Of course, he also remembered that there is a ‘block’ (like Legos) play area there and he wanted to play in it. It is a.) for older kids and b.) was closed anyway, so he was upset about that. But he calmed down when I convinced him to draw in our notebook. We sat at a low table, drinking our cheap, but good, drinks, enjoying the lovely (it is all wood) coffeeshop and the view and had the place all to ourselves. And I did a lot of drawing with August.

 

But we couldn’t stay for too long if we wanted to make use of any of the remaining sun. We headed out, walking up the stream and past the apartment complex. We walked around Madeul, showing Carly all the science exhibits that August likes (the ones with Qs, the earth that opens, the door to go through, etc.). We got to the little area that has fossil imprints on the ground and August wanted to get out. He got his stick and we did ABCDs on the fossil area and in the dirt for awhile. We then continued walking and finished the loop of the science area before heading home.

 

August was getting cold, and was admitting his hands were cold, so I carried him in my arms and pulled the sleeves down over his hands. He was still uncomfortable, so we forced him to wear his gloves for awhile. He wasn’t happy about that, but it helped. He wanted to go home, but we suggested nursing at the art museum, so we went and did that. I took a few minutes to look at art, then came back and went into the play area with August while Carly went ahead to Home Plus to do shopping.

 

We followed a few minutes later when the museum was closing at 6. We found Carly, ordered pizza, then put August in the backpack only to find that one shoe was missing. No idea what happened. Anyway, I took the pizza and started retracing our steps and Carly took the shoe to ask around. She ran into a woman who was carrying the other one, so a happy reunion.

 

We came home and had pizza for dinner, with August eating all of our mushrooms and olives. A lot more coloring in the evening. I got his bath ready, then gave him a bath. He objected to going, until I suggested he go find mama to take him to his bath. That was all it took, then once he was in the bathroom he was impatient to get in the water and play with the squirt car. During the bath I suggested we count backwards. The first time I started doing it I got to 6 and he finished the rest “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, o.” I was shocked. I’ve sung that “Hole in the bottom of the sea” song that I made up a bunch, but he’s never sung along or anything. After that, he was doing as much as 8 on down.

 

After his bath Carly put him in his owl pajamas. It was now past 7:30 and Carly was getting tired. We were all in on the bed and he wasn’t ready for sleep, so I suggested we go out. He first said “Leave mama alone”, but then rethought that and argued she should come out too, saying “Mama dada Zinnie have fun.” We headed out, and he closed the door. We went out and did more drawing, and read a couple stories in the new reading area (we now have two, one in the original spot and one in the parlor – but we had transferred it to the parlor and had the brown chair next to the couch, but today moved the brown chair and made the ‘new’ reading area in the original location next to the magical shelves).

 

Carly got back up because she wasn’t falling asleep and drew with him for a little while. They then went in to sleep a little after 9.

 

Oh, and I weighed him this evening. He is up to 11.3 kg, which is just at, or shy of, 25 pounds. So basically what he was 3 months ago. Taller though. I will measure that later. 

 

He was also, of course, requesting translations for all sorts of words into Spanish today (including rabbit, giraffe, eagle, book, blueberries,  black, pink, and purple). If Carly didn’t know the word, he would say “Look it up!”

 

New words/phrases: next to, reading ‘is’ and ‘now’, queso, naan, look it up, gorilla, real (looking at this in the evening, I can’t remember how he used it – may be a typo…), maroon, melon (crayon color), amarillo (yellow), open them (container of crayons)

 

Lounging: 

Letters: 

Stickers. “Who do that?”: 

Looking for the ‘L’: 

Trying to keep him up after his nap: 

Walk to Madeul: 

Cafe Tolerance: 

He had seen a ‘3’ in the foam on Carly’s coffee and was now looking at mine: 

Science exhibits: 

Art museum play area: 

Counting down: 

A very smooth trip to Children’s Grand Park. They always are, but today was especially so. No problems with the subways, no one saying he was cold, and he barely got frustrated with anything the whole day.

 

He was up at 7:12. Upset for a minute but then straight to ABCDs using pastels. Then reading Kiss Good Night a couple times. The beginning and end of the book each show the neighborhood of the story at the beginning and end of the story, respectively. I pointed out to him that at the beginning the light is on in the upstairs, but at the end the light is out and the downstairs is lit up because Sam’s mom took the lamp down with her. So now he likes to flip back and forth and spot the differences, pointing “Sam’s mom…Sam asleep.” Then to typing on the computer. He now knows ‘dollar sign’ and ‘ampersand’ as he said them himself upon first typing them. Carly emailed us back in the morning saying “Good morning, Pumpkin Berry!” I told August the message and he said “Good morning, Pumpkin. Thank you Mama for blue!” – referring to the blue play dough that I just bought him. While on the changing pad getting ready to go, he started to get a bit random, which was a hint of what was to come for the day. He was making references to the “A is for Apple song”, and was then using numbers. He was saying things like “111 suns. 114 Qs”. He then continued with some more free association: “No 14 on the clock. Up to 12. No Hanguel Q. Becoming ‘No Hanguel Q’. Becoming blue.” He also requested translations for a lot of words into Spanish: pink, Cheerios, spoon, yellow, and letters.

 

We headed out about 9:50. On the subway, he continued to have fun with the first software bug he’s found: in the new Dr. Seuss ABC and Green Eggs and Ham apps, there are these little mini game things. Some present you with 4 letters, and you drag one of them to the correct spot. If you answer the question, then drag 2 of the remaining letters at the same time (using different fingers) to the answer spot, one will get stuck. And instead of bouncing back to its original location, it will stay where it is, and that will be its new ‘home’. I should probably get that on video so it makes sense… Anyway, he’s done it a few times now, and finds it funny when he gets it to happen.

 

Went straight to the children’s museum at the other end. The woman at the entrance knows us well, as after she stamped his hand she immediately grabbed the black light so he could see it. He first went downstairs, but just for a few minutes. Then up to the first floor for about 10 more, but it was really busy, and at 11:10 he declared it was lunch time (“More eat,” I think). So we went and ate. During lunch he was very particular about me cleaning up the crumbs he dropped – if he spit something out, he would back away from the table so I could pick it up. He would then point out little crumbs I forgot. He was also very neat today at home, closing doors, taking a container of lotion back into the bathroom, and closing play dough containers and putting them back in their basket. During lunch, he put the lid back on the strawberries when he moved on to something else, and in the play areas he returned a stuffed apple he found in the wrong area, and a static cling magnet before moving on to something else I was trying to show him.

 

Anyway, during lunch I tried singing non-ABC/numbers songs to him, and got the expected “No!” reaction and request for ABC songs. Finally, I got to him by singing “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. He still said no, but I said it used to be his favorite song so I wouldn’t give up. So I changed the lyrics to appeal more to (almost) 23 moth-old August: “Baa baa black Q, have you any Qs?” etc. That worked. He wanted to dump out the nutty noodles so they would be easier to grab. I poured some out on the lid. He then joked about pouring noodles into the strawberries, then the strawberries on the sandoo. He did set one strawberry on his sandwich for awhile. He also got the stick out of the backpack and was putting it on his head and writing ABCs. Finally, he was requesting a bunch of words in Spanish, including: dizzy (he had been spinning), noodles, sandoo, strawberries, mushroom, yummy, upside down, stick, cracker, and see. There were many words, both then and later, that he would request, but I wasn’t actually sure what he was saying in English. Oh, and he started say “What’s _____ Español?”

 

From there we walked the back walkway, thinking he would want to stop on the half floor or second floor, but he wanted to go all the way down to the first floor. Still busy, but he found things to do: play with the apples, turn the growing flower thing, spend a good chunk of time on the chalkboard (but not as much as Wednesday), and play with the floor magnets. He then wanted to play with the window magnets, and this is the only point where he started to get frustrated. It started out fine, but then he wanted one of the Os or the C shapes. He was about to get a C shape but another boy ran in front of him and got it. He then wanted one of the O shapes, but I wouldn’t let him have it as it was part of a picture a girls was making on the window. So he started to get frustrated. It was past time for a nap anyway, so we went up and got ready.

 

Outside, before getting in the backpack, he was stepping on my shadow. He then suddenly stopped and said “More sleep.” Despite being really tired, he took a bit longer than usual to put to sleep, probably because he decided he needed a snack. So he was eating for several minutes. He didn’t want to go on our usual route (probably because he was still eating), but once I was on it, if I tried to go off it (because he was taking longer to fall asleep) he would complain. Eventually he fell asleep and slept from 1 to 1:55.

 

He woke up and immediately started to say “ABCD” but changed his mind and said “More outside.” I asked if he wanted to be in our out of the backpack and he said “Stay in backpack.” So I quickly packed up and we took off. He rejected the idea of the playground, so we headed to the zoo. As we walked, he spoke his thought process out loud: “No giraffes. No kitty cats; kitty cats inside. Elephants.” As it turned out, the elephants were inside as well.

 

He was in the backpack this whole time as we first checked to make sure the cats were still inside, went and saw the seals, saw the herbivores (primarily the zebras), walked past the outside birds, then went into the tropical building (but just the first floor). The entire time he was basically a running monologue of free association and puns. Some of it included:

– “14 inside, 15 inside…100 inside” (talking about animals being inside, but then switching to numbers)

– “Grant’s Z 3…Grant’s Hangeul no sound” (I had been teaching him ‘Grant’s Zebra’, which he got, but then started riffing on it)

– “Z I N N I E spells 3, Z I N N I E spells zero, Z I N N I E spells Q, Z I N N I E spells numbers” (I was spelling ‘zebra’ for him and pointing out that ‘zebra’ and ‘zinnie’ both start with ‘Z’)

– “No 14. Up to 12, up to 11, up to O, up to Z” (randomly talking about clocks as we walked past the elephants and I was trying to ask him where he wanted to go next)

– “funny zookeeper” “becoming zookeeper, becoming fish” (we were in the tropical building, by his favorite zookeeper door)

– “up to 100, up to monkeys, up to Hangeul E, up to one, up to elephants” (again talking about counting up to a number again, but then switching to non-numbers)

 

Anyway, the highlight of our actual animal viewing was getting to see the naked mole rats actually eating, and not just sleeping in a pile, as they had just been fed.

 

From there he initially agreed to go to the playground. But when we got to the playground he said “No playground.” He did, however, want to
write ABCs on the low brick wall along the main path. So we played next to, but not actually in, the playground for the next 20+ minutes. He had the stick, and was suddenly whispering to himself for a couple minutes as he wrote on the wall. We were then away from the wall, and he gave me the stick and pointed up in the air towards the tree saying “ABC up there.” I started writing ABC in the air and singing the song, but he said “No! Quiet ABCD.” So then I had to whisper the song. He then wanted me to do it on the bush. At one point he also held up the stick so he could see it with his shadow, and was also stepping on my shadow some more. We found a little washer which he then traded for the stick. He spent several minutes dropping it on the ground to see it bounce and roll. He also placed it on several of the pictures, and on the ‘no sounds’ on a Hangeul sign.

 

We went back to the children’s museum for awhile. Downstairs again. We played with the household item magnets, now actually using them as magnets and getting artistic with them, and also making a ‘Q’ of them. He is also getting much better at stomping on the pressure pads that light up. Back up to the first floor, where he got to play with his window ‘O’, then back to the light area where we looked at our colorful shadows, used the shadow puppet blocks (mainly he liked the sheep) and he pretended to brush his teeth at the light table.

 

We played until 4:10 then got ready to head home. He chanted/sang animal sounds on the way to the subway. We got home a bit late, about 5:15. Carly wasn’t home, but August didn’t say a peep when I told him as such – he just headed for his markers. But she got home a minute later.

 

Nutty noodles for dinner and playing with play dough. He is starting to use the iPad as a pity reward – or trying to. That is, when I accidentally bumped him in the head, he immediately started saying “Dada get iPad.” Then, when he kind of tripped or bumped himself at the corner of the table he immediately requested it. I did give in and let him watch a few songs before his bath. But when his bath was ready and I mentioned ABCs with the squirt cars he immediately paused it. He made a show of complaining about going to his bath, but he went and opened the door to the bathroom himself. He went back to get Mama, but Carly then just walked him to the door and I went in with him, and he didn’t say anything about it. Bath went well, then I got him dressed. He was excited as he could wear his owls again (last night he could have, but actually chose to wear his Santa Claus pajamas instead). As I was getting him dressed, he said “Mama is doing dishes.” A good guess, as she had just finished them.

 

He pretty much went straight in to nurse with her. It was 7:30 or so. He took a long time to actually fall asleep – about 8:20 – but wasn’t fighting it.

 

New words/phrases: other side, sea lion, English pheasant, what’s ___ Espanol?, Mama is doing dishes

Children’s museum: 

Adding the finishing touches to our masterpiece: 

Laughing: 

Animals. A zebra got close to us and laid down: 

“English pheasant”: 

Playing next to the playground: 

Putting the washer on the “no sound”: 

Back to the children’s museum: 

Hanging up the ‘O’: 

Shadows: 

Pretending to brush his teeth: 

Chanting on the way home: 

Carly said he was dreaming and talking in his sleep a lot last night. The most memorable had him talking about play dough a lot, and rolling up on a pillow and off of the bed.

 

He woke up at 7:21. Not happy to begin with, but calmed down and wanted to color. So we did a lot of that. When I changed him the first time I changed his pants. He once again refused the yellow pants, but was fine with grey. We made a smoothie and he was standing on his stool helping. As I was doing something I heard him say “M I L K” and looked down to see him pointing at the milk carton. He then said “Milk”. It was the first of 3 words he would read on his own today. He was also very interested in the word ‘fresh’, which came right before ‘milk’. He also saw a kitchen drawer as Hangeul ㅁ, knows “tongs”, and saw the tongs as an X. He saw Google News on my computer. The top story was about Obama going to a mosque. He kept pointing to the photo and saying “What this?” Then, he saw the ‘q’ in ‘mosque’, so was saying “Q for mosque”.

 

He asked for the iPad so I let him on for awhile. He was watching ABC songs (of course). He started watching them upside down, something he does from time to time, but this time he just kept doing it – for 2o minutes or so. He particularly liked the Dutch alphabet song upside down. At some point we were by the coffee table and he suddenly looked at his thumb and pointer finger and said “11”. Yesterday, he did this looking down at his feet in the bathtub.

 

We ate eggs and toast for second breakfast, then started getting ready to head outside. When it came to changing his shirt, he again refused a few shirts before insisting on an “animal” shirt. So I think I’m on to something here. He then saw me reaching for more pants (second layer) and he got upset, saying more about “animals”. I think he thought I was going for another shirt. He then started talking about “dirty clothes” – I think referring to the fact that the animal shirt he wore yesterday was dirty.

 

We finally got out of the house around 10:15. We walked to Home Plus and did our shopping. He was fine with getting play dough, but didn’t want to go down stairs to groceries. He did fine though until I set the full basket down by the frozen food and picked him up and went to find sponges, our last item. He got upset that I was leaving the basket behind, what with the yummy string cheese and strawberries in it. He was pretty loud by the time I found the sponges. Then, he didn’t want me to set him down again during checkout.

 

We finished there and headed up to his class early. Every mention of class in the morning had elicited a strong “No”, so I had stopped mentioning it. He got upset as soon as I headed up to the second floor. A long story short, he was very upset up through the beginning of class, past when the teacher picks up each kid, and past the forward rolls portion. Then, he calmed down, and did great the rest of class. Carly had thought it may be because the teacher is very hands on, and I think she was right. In particular it was the opening part – August was fine when the teacher came around with later activities and touched him. So maybe he had a bad dream about the forward rolls or something. He hasn’t been wanting to do them at home recently, although later in the day he would remember them.

 

Anyway, not really a theme today. First activity involved saving cham-say (sparrows) from eagles, walking across a walkway, and putting them in their nests. He did a bit of that. Second activity involved using magnet sticks to lay on the floor and reach under a cardboard box as if they were reaching under a couch and retrieving things like cell phones and TV remotes. The kids loved this, and August was no exception. Next, we pulled them around on these little carts that looked like recycling trucks. The teacher put August on his truck and pulled him. After that, August didn’t have much interest in it. Finally, they got long tongs like the workers use to pick up garbage in the parks. Of course, these had magnets. They then picked things (like dead fish) up off the ground and put them in their recycling trucks. 

 

When class was over he was very nice to the teacher (and did his bowing – I also asked him to bow to Jihong’s mom as we were all saying goodbye and happy new year, etc.). As we were leaving he said “Class over. Teuni Teuni all done. Teuni Teuni fun.”

 

We went home where we ate nutty noodles, ravioli, and strawberries for lunch. He figured out how to hold shirt to type ‘?’. He also now officially knows ‘semicolon’, ‘slash’, and ‘bracket’. As I changed him, he put his feet up in the air and used his feet to make ‘11’, ‘T’, and ‘V’. He joked “Yummy apple Q. Icky poop Q.” As we left the changing room he had to close the door, saying “Close the door this way.” We did a lot of reading. As we were reading Kipper, he suddenly pointed and read ‘the’. Then he pointed lower on the page and said “read ‘at’”.  Falling asleep in bed wasn’t working despite him saying “Go to sleep on the bed.” So into the stroller. Took about 15 minutes.

 

He slept from 1:49 to 2:42. Not a happy wake up. At some point, as we were playing on the couch, he saw the cracks in the arm and saw a ‘Y’. Eventually he decided he wanted to go out and do the “ice thing” – the rink in the park where you pull kids around on boards. He wanted to go in the backpack though. So we headed out. Got out there at 3:20 and spent 40 minutes on the ice until it closed. He loved it. Not the boards, as he could care less about those (I pulled him a foot before he decided that wasn’t what he was there for). No, he was fascinated by the ice. Mainly finding little chunks of it everywhere and stepping on them to break them. I showed him how there was little bubbles in it, and he kept picking pieces up and saying “Bubbles!” We also looked at the sun reflecting off the ice, explored the different textures of the ice, and looked at bubbles and all the shapes under the ice. At 4, when it closes, a man started hosing down the ice. August didn’t like him doing that, and he was sad when I made us leave a minute later. Luckily, they have extended the opening of the rink until the 14th (it was supposed to close Saturday), so hopefully we’ll be able to go a few times.

 

Got back in the backpack from there and wandered around the park. As I put him in the backpack he asked “Sun espanol?” and “Ice espanol?” So I taught him those. He also said “Ice fun.” August didn’t have a specific destination, so I just wandered across the park. As we crossed the bridge he asked “Class espanol?” The one thing August didn’t want to do was go inside. We walked up on top of the art museum and he thought I was going in. We walked down the other side and then wandered back to Brownstone. We were wandering around here, and he was asking for more words in Spanish (like ‘eat’ and ‘yummy’). He also started chanting the English alphabet, going “Big A, little a, Big B, little b, etc.” My phone suddenly died and wouldn’t turn back on, even when charging. Had meant to stay out a little longer (it was about 4:30), but went home. Got my phone working by heating the battery with a hair dryer (thank you, internet).

 

Carly came home at 5. A pretty usual evening. They did a lot of reading together. We also got out the green and blue play dough we had bought earlier in the day. He really avoided a bath, delaying me by wanting to read more and more books. He has such a cute whine when he doesn’t want to go, as if it is the worst thing in the world. Anyway, once we were in the bathroom he wanted to get in the bath and  he happily played with the squirt cars. Barely any complaining as I washed him – the face still elicits shrieks. Carly had done dishes while I did the bath. She then headed to bed. He sta
yed out with me for awhile, but then headed in to nurse just past 8 and was asleep around 8:15.

 

New words/phrases: apostrophe, semicolon, butter, toast, bread, shift, bracket, slash, clase (Spanish for ‘class’), azul, verde

Smoothie making. He saw a 9: 

Reading milk: 

Watching upside down: 

Markers on his cabesa: 

Teuni Teuni class. Cham-say (sparrows):

One on his head: 

Dead fish on his head: 

Dead fish: 

V: 

Typing ‘?’: 

Nap: 

Ice rink: 

New play dough: 

A happy wake up at 7:11, although he kept the door cracked for a few minutes before coming out. Went straight to play dough letters, and a constant stream of talking: “Dada did that”, “mess”, “blue marker”, “blue letters”, “B on fingers” etc. He was playing with the magnets on the door, and made ’14’. He then turned them upside down (and eventually switched their places) and said “Upside down 14”. We made eggs and he was trying to eat all the cheese, but started spitting the pieces out, but then got upset when I took the cheese away. When I turned off the burner he kept pointing and saying “Quiet”.

 

At some point I let him listen to ABC songs. He also started watching Timmy Time, but only the intro song. My least favorite line of the theme song is “Trying to be cool. He’s number 1” (Really? He’s a sheep in preschool.) Anyway, August started walking around chanting “Number one!” because, of course, it is a number.

 

He ate breakfast a bit later, and dipped his eggs in ketchup. I also let him try thousand island. He was impressed by it because it was cold (but then again, so was the ketchup), but preferred the ketchup.

 

Changing him to leave, he requested his owl shirt. I let him choose a different shirt. Took a couple out, and he rejected them, then said “animal shirt”. I don’t know if he was specifically asking for the shirt I then took out, or if he was saying he wanted (like the owl shirt) a shirt with animals on it. We will see how this progresses.

 

We left about 9:45 and got to the children’s museum by 10:30. Went downstairs and literally were the only people down there the entire time (maybe 20 minutes). He did the usual (shower magnets singing ABCs, Tesla coils, skin microscope (although he was upset that it was broken), and we made a tunnel out of the blue blocks, which he promptly pushed over. The one ‘new’ thing was saying that the orange bags look like our bag “for class” (we keep our books for the 5-Touch class in it), then putting a round blue block in it and figuring out how to dump it out.

 

He then headed upstairs. The first floor was chaotic, as the school groups are back (they haven’t been there the last few weeks – extended break?). August went for the window and floor magnets. There was an announcement and the big kids started to leave, which I thought was a good thing and told him, but he got upset because they were leaving. Another group came though, which I guess was good, but then he kept getting crowded, bumped into, etc. and would screech each time. This time he took two of the floor magnets (actual magnets) and experimented with where they would stick (answer: no where). Then spent much of his time in the back part, with the light activities (shapes on a light board, etc.) About 11:20 I convinced him we should go up for lunch. As we walked up the ramp, he could see back into the first floor area. He pointed and said “Busy!” We went up and ate. During lunch he was saying his 70 numbers. He now says 78 the most, for some reason, and was joking “78. Oma say that.” When he knows it was 76 and 79 she was saying (because that was when me and Carly were born).

 

We then wandered down from the 3rd floor on the back walkway and played in the career/household/food area for the first time. He did some hammering, went to the vet area (where a bigger kid kept bothering him, so August left), looked at the food (curry, specifically), and quickly played with the vacuum cleaner (but it didn’t make noise, so…). Then down to the construction site, where he crawled through an unfinished wall, then watched the big kids operate the big crane for a few minutes, on his hands and knees.

 

At that point he was ready to leave, and after changing him we got out of there about 12:20. He was saying he wanted to go home, and after putting him in the backpack he said he wanted to head to the subway. He even tried to protest a bit when he saw me start up our usual sleeping path. But he was soon asleep at 12:39. Went to the lower coffee shop, but he woke up at 1:15. Short, but it saved us from the paint fumes. They were outside the back entrance, and I had noticed just a whiff of them after we had sat down. But then several people went in and out to the bathrooms and it got pretty strong. Him waking up forced my hand, as he wanted to stay in the backpack and walk (I took him out, and he wanted back in). I started to go to our usual spot, thinking he might fall back to sleep, but he again protested. So I turned, and headed across the pond area, and to the south path.

 

He was quiet for 10 minutes, and thought he might drifting off, when suddenly I heard “Seals this way.” So we went and saw the seals. I thought he wanted out, but he got upset when I started to do that. He wanted to stay in the backpack. We watched the sea lion, then the fur seals for several minutes, then the spotted seals for several minutes. Eventually I asked if he wanted to get going and he said “Get going.” He would then say that as we continued around the zoo and he wanted me to move on. From there we went to the deer, then the other herbivores (trying to teach him that word and what it means). He was most interested in the zebras. Then went and saw the outside birds. The golden pheasant was walking figure 8s around two posts, which was interesting, but also alarming – it reminded me of the jaguar in the old Woodland Park enclosure that would endlessly walk the same path in its small cage over and over (I think they’ve improved it since then, but not entirely sure). From there he wanted to see the cats. Alas, all the cats, including the lions and tigers and leopards, are now back inside someplace. He wasn’t happy with that, and kept requesting “More kitty cats.”

 

We were able to see an elephant – they had the doors open, but chains across the entrance so it couldn’t really come out. From there we went to the water birds, then to the meerkats (at least ‘cat’ is in the name) and finally to the horses. I took a break here (he was in the backpack the whole time), and he decided he wanted to go home to mama. I suggested multiple things, and he decided the book room at the children’s museum and drawing in our notebook would be good. So we went back to the children’s museum. On the way, we finally saw cats: three of the feral cats outside Peace Coffee. We got close to them and he Qed them a lot, then we continued to the museum.

 

At the museum he got to see his hand stamp, then we went in. We never made it to the book room, as he played on the first floor the entire time. After his slow wakeup, he turned into a very happy August. He looked at the rocks (selenite, etc.) then did the fruits/veggies seasons puzzle thing. Only got frustrated once, when he was trying to put a stuffed apple (he had been dropping it and rolling it along the floor) away and there was a kid in his way. He put it away because he had seen the chalkboard and wanted to write on it. We ended up spending the rest of our play time there – 20 to 30 minutes – writing ABCs in every possible pattern and tracing and erasing them. I was getting hungry, and finally convinced him we should go up for a snack. Went up and he ate a lot: strawberry, a bit of my bar, and our sweet potato and pumpkin snacks. This time, getting into the 70 numbers, he said “‘Dada’s 76.’ Mama says that.” Snacking took a long time, and we finally finished up, changed him, and headed out a little after 4. In the subway station he took note of the UNICEF sign/map. He pointed out the “rainbow” on it, and really liked the word ‘play’ on it. Back in Hagye Station, as I put him in the backpack, he started mentioning “spotted seals”, then also said “fur seals”. First time he’s said those.

 

On the walk home, he was singing the usual ABC song by himself. I noticed that he had the rhythm down, including the LMNOP part, all
the pauses (like between P and Q), and last two lines, down almost perfectly. I think he rushed one pause. I then sang the A is for Apple song. When I sing it, I pause after ‘for’ each time and what for him to fill in the item. In the past, this has always thrown off the rhythm, as I have to wait through a pause until he supplies it. But now he has it down to where he was (most of the time) getting the timing down, which is really impressive as the timing changes for three syllable items. That is, one and two syllable items (like ball and igloo) come in on the downbeat, but the three syllable items (like gorilla and kangaroo) come in a half beat earlier to get in that extra syllable. And once we were home I heard him trying to sing the “Duh duh duh…” part that comes between each ‘verse’ of four letters – I’ve never heard him singing it before, as he has only paid attention to actual words.

 

Got home at 4:50 or so. Told August as we went up that we would have to wait for mama for a few minutes. He handled it just fine. Said “Miss mama” once, then “Wait for mama.” He was using markers when she got home a couple minutes after 5. He was drawing with Carly and can now write good Fs and Gs. I found out, yesterday I think, as we walked across the park that if I spelled out several words he could tell me what they were. Carly was trying this with him, then writing them out. He knows zoo, dog, cat, mama, book, and home almost instantaneously and can also get coffee and cafe.

 

I had told him we were done with videos for the day, but then he was typing on my computer and somehow managed to get to the desktop. He then put the cursor on the Teuni Teuni video, and hit spacebar to open it and have it start playing. He was very, very proud of himself, so I let him watch some. He wanted to read Moo, and then Cat several times, so he would pause it for those.

 

After Carly took her shower she got his bath ready. When he heard it was ready he went into major stall mode, twice saying “Sit with dada” and getting up and leaning against me. Eventually I got the big orange ball and tried to lure him in. He was interested in it, but I still had to force him in. But once in, we started using the squirt car to write ABC on the shower door. He had it at one point and accidentally squirted me. I joked ”Who did that?” and he replied “Dada do that…people do that…Q do that.” Eventually, got most of the washing down without a hassle, although he still complained about his face. Then, he didn’t want to leave his bath, wanting to just do ABCs. Eventually I had to convince him to get out.

 

During his snack at the children’s museum, he had asked me what ‘sweet potato’ is in Spanish by saying “Go-guh-ma Español.” (It is ‘batata’.) As we were leaving the children’s museum, and I was about to put his shoes on, he kept saying something, until I realized it was in Spanish: “calcetines” (socks). And in the bath, he asked me “Bubbles español?” (burbujas) But as I got him out and started drying him, I said “Saca, saca, saca” like Carly always does. He said “No! English.” More of the code switching/things that belong to Mama thing. With Carly in on the bed, he asked “Nursing español?”

 

Looked like he was going to sleep with her shortly before 8, but it turns out he was having trouble getting to sleep. Carly got up for a minute, and he was not happy to see me. I tried to get close to him, but he pushed me all the way down the hallway, afraid I was taking her place. He was finally asleep, I think, about 8:45.

 

New words/phrases: busy, space ship, seals this way, get going, children’s museum that way, calcetines (socks in Spanish), rainbow

 

Waking up: 

Playing in the morning: 

Children’s museum: 

Singing at lunch: 

Qing the cats: 

UNICEF sign. ‘Play’ and rainbow: 

Tempted by the ball: 

Carly said he got up a little after 5. He apparently asked for me as soon as he woke up and she was tempted to bring him to me.I heard them Skyping with, I think, Vivi and Cherie before I got up at 6. He found an ABC song on YouTube that is some foreign language (Dutch or something). It sort of sounded like the Spanish alphabet, especially at the beginning, and he kept playing it and singing along, trying to make it work. I gave him his vitamins, the gummy kind he now refuses to eat, and he said “Set it on the table” and transferred all 4 pieces from the the table to the counter.

Many, many ‘sightings during the day’: two soap boxes next to each other were and ’11’, as were two diapers. Our square light fixture, the frame to the dog bears print in the changing room, and his rectangular marker container were the Hangeul ㅁ.

A parenting mistake: I was letting him drink water out of his little blue cup. He was trying to walk around with it and set it on the counter, both of which resulted in some spillage, which he didn’t like. So I was showing him how to keep it level, and if it wasn’t level it would spill. This made August think it was fun to spill the water, and he went around to places he wanted me to pour water and pointed “Here” – he even pointed up to the ceiling.

He started doing “Step color” on the squares on his play area. Stepping on blue and saying “Step blue”, etc. He crawled under the table and wanted to plug in the Christmas lights. He pretended to plug them into his high chair, then I let him ‘help’ plug them in for real. We then vacuumed and cleaned. He took much more interest this week, helping a little, but also following along and singing the ABC song really loudly along with the vacuum cleaner. When I turned it off he twice said “Quiet. Q for quiet.” Later, he would point out when other things were quiet: an empty restaurant when we walked by, and the Teuni Teuni video playing at Home Plus that didn’t have the sound on.

He helped make oatmeal, but was getting frustrated when I wouldn’t let him eat it raw. He started saying “Pinch dada”, but not actually doing so (thankfully). He did this once or twice more. I think it was progress – he was telling me he was frustrated, without actually trying to pinch.

We were on the couch and 3 of the animals fell off the back of it. After trying to teach him that ‘both’ only applied to 2, and with 3 he would use ‘all’ (not sure he quite understood that yet, but a start), he set each of them on the ground in a row, and called it “111”.

We did a lot of play dough letters today. He started by saying “Make E out of play dough.” He then likes to turn the E sideways and call it an M. Later, he would string together perhaps his longest sentence yet: “Make upside down G out of orange.” There were a couple of words today that he said very intentionally, with good enunciation, and was then smiling when I understood him. One was ‘hat’ when he put the letter shapes on his head. First saying they were on his “cabesa”, then calling them a hat. He also called one of the pieces to Carly’s tree painting a ’Nanana moon”. And when I was changing him he looked up at the dog bear picture we often talk about and started himself, saying “Dog bears have a robot” and “Dog bears have a train.” Finally, before we were ready to leave, he saw the plastic bag with a water bottle that Carly had left in the hallway. He pointed and said “Who did this?” He did it once earlier in the day with something as well. Before today, he had only used it for crayon/marker on the floor. Also, he has switched from “Who did that?” to “Who did this?”

We took off early for his class. He was saying “No” to class again, so I figured we could take it easy in Home Plus and let him adjust to the class area. I also needed to register for the next class session. Didn’t really work how I expected. It just gave him more time to want to go home before class started. When he saw the teacher and other parents he started saying “No, no, no.” The teacher brought him a little juice though, which he like. And I was able to coax him into class a few minutes before it started. Once there, he did pretty well. He didn’t try to leave once, and in fact closed the door when class started because he knows the door gets closed. He was really into bubbles and the opening songs. Class was about different animals. He got really excited by the demonstration portion, as she had a colorful red box and big cards with question marks on them. He saw them and kept pointing and saying “Question mark!” She then put a card in the box and it came out the bottom showing the other side, with an animal on it. When she put it in, she turned it upside down, so he said “Upside down question mark!” Unfortunately, he was so excited he kept wanting to go up and touch the box and get in the way. He got upset and started screeching when I wouldn’t let him, and got more upset when I took him out of the room. Fortunately, he really wanted to go “back in”, and he calmed down enough to return. He really liked playing with the question cards we got to use. After that, they each got two pom pom things to shake. He really liked these, dropping them and saying “Red, blue!” and then shaking them a lot. He has refused to do ‘Man-say!’ (arms up) since the summer, but he did it today with the pom poms. The next activity involved getting two sticks and drumming. He did a better job during this intro. She asked a few of the kids up close to sit down, and he sat down next to her. He liked the two sticks, and at one pointed handed them to me to “Do ABCD.” He also used them to make ’11’, ‘I’, and ’T’. When it came time to get the stickers from her, he ran up to her and said “chu-say-oh” (please give me) several times. This was the first time he did that. When it came time for the stickers, he only did a few, and saved the rest for home (actually handing them to me and saying “for home”. Finally, he did the last song on his own, and continues to get more of the movements down. For the first spinning, he said “bin-gul, bin-gul, bin-gul” (spinning) and for the second it was “turn, turn turn”. He was of course excited to get hand stamps at the end of class.

We came home and ate some lunch, then went straight to trying to get to sleep. He wanted to try at home again: “Fall asleep in home.” But once again it didn’t work and we ended up in the stroller, asleep at 1:20. At 1:47 he sort of woke up, and I had to rush and push him out in the hall for a minute, then he fell back to sleep until 2:45. A sad wakeup. Tried pushing him more; didn’t want that. Made him get out of the stroller, and he just sat in the hall, back against the wall, until 3:05, when he requested a “sandoo”. He was scratching a lot at his ankles, so I took one pair of pants and his socks off. He got upset at the mention of lotion. We did play dough letters, then when I went to change him, I took of his pants to find big red patches, particularly on his left legs. I put some lotion on the red spots on the other leg – he wasn’t happy with that. I took his shirt off to see there was any more (there weren’t), but then he wanted his owls. I wasn’t going to put dirty clothes on a child developing a rash, and he lost it for a good 10 minutes. He wouldn’t calm down in that room, so I took him against his will into the parlor and locked the door. It took a few more minutes, with me sitting and calming suggesting things we could do and asking what I could do to help, before he calmed down and wanted to do ABCDs.

He was fine after that. Carly got home and we did more play dough letters. He started saying “favorite number” ( I don’t know where it came from), but saying letters, like “favorite number Q”. He was also saying “Favorite letter”.

Quick ba
th as he was getting tired. Wanted his owl pajamas, but they were in the wash. He didn’t complain too much. A bit later he was sitting on the end of the bed, processing that to himself: “No owls. Owls dirty. Owls wet.”

Carly went to bed about 7 and he was out with me for awhile. But around 7:40 he made a dash to the door and went in with her. She said it took awhile for him to fall asleep, but it went smoothly.

New words/phrases: plug in, flashing (Christmas lights), Make E out of play dough, get it out, “dog bears have a robot”, Monday, make upside down G out of orange, chu-say-oh, dump markers

Plugging in the lights: 

“111”: 

Letters on his head/cabesa: 

Class: 

Man-say!: 

Sitting: 

Stamps: 

Walking home. He saw a ‘J’, ‘l’, and an ‘i’  needing dotting:

Traditional Korean games again. Stepping on them like he just did the pom poms in class: 

Now the light was an ‘!’: 

Sucking his ‘thumbs’ to the Kipper story “Arnold”: 

Asleep on the blanket: 

Afternoon indoors. “Hold it” letter: 

Making a ‘T’: 

August started waking up around 5:15. Carly came and got me up at 5:50. He started with art and play dough letters in the morning and we were still doing that well after Carly left for work. Eventually he wanted the iPad and was watching ABC songs. He ate a bunch of strawberries for breakfast, then wanted cereal. He then just wanted milk, and then wanted some of it poured into the bowl. I poured just a little in, and he enjoyed dipping his fingers in and getting the milk.

 

We played with the cardboard bricks. He chose to stack them 14 high before knocking them down: “Wait for 14.” We made a walking path out of them, and he pointed out it looked like a ‘J’. We did some reading, mainly of books we haven’t read for awhile: the Korean counting book, Teacher Says, Under the Sea with Me, and of course some Kipper. While we were on the bed he pointed out that my legs looked like ’11’.

 

We then revived the closet game, where I carry him and run to the closet and put his head in my clothes. He enjoyed that a few times. Luckily, there had been just a little milk in the bowl, because when he went back out to the coffee table he accidentally knocked it off, and milk splattered a good six feet, somehow missing all the stuffed animals and books in the vicinity, which was nice.

 

He found one of his plastic knifes and we cut some fruit and veggies, with him noting the halves of the chili pepper looked like an ’11’.

 

He started getting sleepy around 10, and finally started to admit it awhile later. He really wanted to fall asleep on the bed, refusing the stroller and backpack. We read some Kipper, then he would lie on his back for a long time and I would sing number songs. By ‘on his back’, I mean he was more like wedging himself in the pillows at the edge of the bed, by the chair, but looking very comfortable. But it just wasn’t working, and eventually I changed his diaper again and put him in the stroller (again, he fought it until I offered him a cracker). He fell asleep less than 10 minutes later at 11:54 and slept until 12:56.

 

When he woke up he wanted out of the stroller, and wanted me to take him in on the bed. He then didn’t want me around, getting upset if I was close. He lay on the pillows again, generally quietly, until about 1:20. At that point he started getting more upset (he missed Mama, and clearly still needed more sleep, as he had only slept 8 hours last night), and eventually he let me read Kipper. After that, he was ready for lunch. He ate a lot of quesadilla and rice and beans and cheese, and some orange, and was in a good mood.

 

But something cause that to change, and he was already getting upset when I tried to take him in to change him and get him ready to go outside. He kicked and screamed and tried to pinch all the way down the hall, then fought the diaper change and insisted on taking off his socks. But the worst screams came when I took his owl shirt off to try to put a shirt on for the day. I couldn’t get a shirt on him. I went back out to the living room and he was shrieking. He went back into the changing room and came back out carrying his owl pants. I had changed him out of his owl pants earlier in the morning, but left on the shirt. So I thought he had meant to get the shirt. I gave in, realizing he wasn’t ready to go outside anyway. I went and got his owl shirt and brought it back out. But he kept saying “No, nope” and screaming and pointing roughly down at the pants, which he had thrown on the floor. So I took off the blue pants and put his owl pants back on, then the shirt. Then he calmed down and we were able to talk about it, and he made it clear he wanted to stay inside until Mama came home. So it became a pajama day.

 

We read more books we hadn’t read in awhile, like Plant a Tree for Me, From Head to Toes, and Hop on Pop. There was hammering noises coming from outside or a neighbor and each time he heard it he would get back up on the couch next to me. We then spent a lot of time sending messages to Carly. He now knows at least 5 punctuation marks (periods, commas, apostrophes, question marks, and explanation points) and heard me saying ‘comma’ and ‘period’ as I was using Siri to compose my messages to Carly. So he was saying “comma” in his messages to her (Siri comically translates his messages like “I love Mama. Bye” to ‘Abdominal my.” His enunciation is getting a lot better, but not computer-can-understand-him clear). Carly didn’t know about apostrophe in particular, so I had August record a couple videos of him listing punctuation marks for her. He also typed her some messages focused on punctuation. I finally got smart and had him typing messages to her on the iPad while I used the iPhone, as he would get upset when I needed the phone to myself for a minute.

 

One thing he was doing today, and I’m not sure if it was a joke, or just really abstract visualizing, was seeing the Hangeul ㅁ character everywhere today, and not just in things that were rectangular – some were rhombus like, at least, but others were things like pointing to the side of a stuffed animal and saying it, and I didn’t see anything resembling a rectangle.

 

Anyway, after that, I let us veg on ABC and other videos for awhile. Trying to get him back to the other apps and away from YouTube. He has learned a lot from them, but the balance is off. Funny that he totally forgot about YouTube for weeks until I reminded him at one point, and now he is forgetting everything else. He did do a lot of singing along to ABC songs though. He saw one of the cardboard bricks on the ground, the one with the Puma on it and said “Puma is sad.” At least, that is what I thought at the time. An hour later I realized he may have said “Puma inside”, referring to the fact that the Puma is not out in its enclosure at the zoo. I got him away from YouTube and he played with the Intro to Letters app, recording himself saying the letter sounds and playing them back.

 

Finally, at about 5 he got upset that Carly wasn’t home. I told him we could put his socks and shoes on and go meet her at the elevator. But just as we were all ready to go, she came through the door.

 

A bit later I went out to do some shopping at Home Plus. While I was gone, he was standing on a stack of books in front of the window, which made Carly a bit nervous. She told him he could stand on one book, to which he then responded “One book. No two. No fourteen.” She gave him a quick bath as he was getting very tired.

 

He fell asleep a few minutes short of 7, just before I got home.

 

 

New words/phrases: white shows up, mama goes to work, more peanut butter on the knife, say-mo is triangle. Three sides, One book. No two. No fourteen

Lounging in the morning: 

Dipping his fingers in milk: 

J path: 

3 stickers on his hand: 

Sleepy before his nap: 

After his nap. This is where he stayed for over 20 minutes: 

Skyping with mama:  

Intro to letters: 

Shampoo and wash for boys. There was no girl equivalent: