This Is Our Blog

Carly was up first, then August just after 7. When he woke up he was saying “uh-oh” because his hand was in his sleeve. I was up at 7:20.

 

He listened to ABCs songs and Carly made French toast for breakfast. We then moved to play dough letters, pressing our letter shapes into the play dough. Made about a dozen of them. Carly Skyped with Cherie. She had a baby and Ava with her, and August really liked seeing them. After that he got GG the giraffe down and was playing with her, having her drink from the water bottle and taste things, like the table and door. He read Spanish books with Carly while I took a shower. When I came out, they were reading the Frida book. He had also ripped a goat out of the Moo book, which I then fixed with tape. August wanted a piece and immediately took it down the hall to the poster. We did more play dough letters and then, while Carly was making nutty noodles, he wanted to make soup. So we got our a pot and ladle for him and he did that for awhile.

 

He napped from around noon to two. Another long one, and another slow wakeup after. He ate nutty noodles for lunch, then was down on the floor with his art. He found a cow sticker from yesterday and put it on the back of his hand like a handstand. He found the K letter shape, turned it sideways, and saying ‘juh’, which is the Korean character ㅈ. We were then typing  Hangeul on the computer. I had the keyboard viewer open and was showing him how the keys light up when pushed them. He got excited about this and said “4s show up” when pushing 4.

 

He did more reading with Carly, particularly Frida, and they were speaking a lot of Spanish together.

 

I decided to take August for a walk in the backpack up to Madeul. Before we left, he did a really nice goodbye to Carly, going in to get a kiss and waving to her. On our walk, we walked along a concrete wall that has vertical lines every few feet. I suddenly realized he was chanting “1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1…” Also, as we got into the Madeul park/stadium area, I took a slightly different path past the tennis courts. We came out on our usual path, and he started saying “Q, Q, Q.” I realized our shortcut had taken us past the science sign that includes the big Q. So we had to backtrack and see the Q sign, then go back farther to see the ‘answer’ sign, which has a big A.

 

From there, we continued our usual walk around the stadium, looking at the science exhibits. He knows them by know, and which ones open (the model of the earth, one with a door) and where the ones with numbers are (particularly the big clock history of the world one). Then past the north end of the stadium, past the dog park, and down to our usual exercise equipment/playground area. It was mid-30s, but felt colder. He completely refused hats and gloves though. We looked a bit at the map, and we used the shovel and stick to hit the metal around the piano sculpture and sang ABC. But he was getting cold, and eventually it was too much. He suddenly wanted to go home. It had only been 10 minutes or so. We packed up and headed out, me holding him this time to keep him warmer and try to hold his hands.

 

We had planned to go to a coffee shop, but he said no to that and just wanted to go home. So I walked back down the stream. As we passed Cafe Tolerance I mentioned it being a coffee shop, but closed. Suddenly he changed his mind and wanted to go to a coffee shop. We checked, and it was closed, so we walked back to our building. We went to Cafe Mug near GS 25. We spent a good hour plus in there. We drew on the iPad, drew in the notebook, spelled words in Alpha Writer on the iPad, played Nighty Night Circus for a couple minutes for the first time in months, and did Very Hungry Caterpillar puzzles. He is getting better at them. For the harder level puzzles I still help a lot, putting the first few pieces in place, then coaching him through much of the rest (he can get the last 4 or so pieces no problem), but his attention span is better (he doesn’t flick to another puzzles after just 2 pieces as much) and he needs less help. He’s also started to figure out that you get different colored stars after finishing the puzzles, and likes the yellow ones, which are the ‘hard’ level.

 

Anyway, eventually we called it good and headed home. From Cafe Mug he wanted to walk to the left, back to the side door, and past the new coffee shop they are making (where the nail place used to be). We’ve walked by a lot, and August now says “coffee shop” every time we pass it. We got home at 5:30. Jill had brought over dinner for us as she heard we are all sick, so we ate her yummy pasta and alfredo and broccoli for dinner, then August and I did more play dough letters while Carly took a shower. She headed to bed about 8 and he stayed out with me. Before saying “good night” to her, he grabbed the Duplo kangaroo to bring out with him. He brought it out to the living room and had it “hop” on all the books we had on the coffee table. We read a few books, then colored on paper, and a little after 8:30 he popped up and went in to Carly. I thought he was asleep about 8:45, but he kept waking back up. I went in around 9:30 to give Carly a break. I sang number songs to him and he was laying on his back with his feet in the air. He looked at his legs and said “11”, then grabbed his feet and said “both”. He eventually kept trying to stand up, so I forced him to stay down, resulting in a good cry. Carly nursed him after that and he fell asleep a little after 9:45.

 

At some point during the day I was facing him and had his hands in mine. He looked at my arms and said “V”. Another new thing was using the non-writing end of the markers to write ABCs, kind of like what we do with the stick or shovel on sidewalks, etc.

 

New words/phrases: has plurals down (ones, threes), 4s show up, comma (identified it when I was typing), picture come off that, turn the paharos (birds in Spanish), back with mama

Skyping with Vivi: 

GG: 

Oma: 

Teuni Teuni microphone, now with batteries: 

Napping: 

Eating a mushroom: 

Madeul. Looking a bit cold:

Cafe Mug: 

Playing in the bath. He actually went into his bath willingly today, taking the squirt cars to play with:

His year two so far:

We were all up a little after 7 after a good night’s sleep. Carly skyped with Vivi and Glecy in the morning, and August and I skyped with Carly in the other room. Carly made him an egg for breakfast, then he had a bunch of banana in Cheerios with me. We were then in on the bed, and he was playing with Carly’s phone. He put it on the computer, so I taught him ‘under’ the computer, and then ‘behind’. He particularly liked ‘under’, and was lifting the computer up to put the phone under it. He would do it again later in the evening. He was then tasting/eating everything again. My possibly incomplete list: Duplo ‘I’ piece (just a big green rectangle), wall, door, window, books, pillow, blanket, dada, giraffe, freezer handle, stroller hook, ironing board, poster

 

After I changed him, I told Carly about how he was pretending to write cursive at the children’s museum on Wednesday. I asked him what he had been writing (his original response at the time was “Cursive S”), but now he said “Zinnie”. He then went out and started writing ‘Zinnie’ on the paper. Usually he was leaving the second ‘i’ out (saying it but not writing it), and his ’n’ sometimes looked like an ‘m’. And his ‘e’ looks like a ‘c’. And they aren’t in a straight line. But he did a pretty good ‘Zinn’ once, and then he did a ‘Zinnie’, including the second ‘i’.

 

He was then watching ABC songs and learned “good night” from one of them and was going around saying good night to things: iPad, wawa, mama. We got out the pastels, and those would be his primary medium for the day. Initially when I mentioned skyping again he ran away, but when I skyped with my parents he was happy to join in. At one point he got Carly’s sweatshirt and was playing peekaboo with it, then wearing it like a cape.

 

Carly had finished her fried rice from yesterday, but left the shrimp. August tried it, called it “yummy”, and ate the rest.

 

He then took a long nap, like over two and a half hours long long. He woke up groggy and cuddly with Carly, and wasn’t really getting out of bed until 4 or so. When I tried to go in he would say ‘no’ and start to get upset; he’s started to learn the routine from previous weekends and days Carly is sick: after he wakes up from a nap I take him out somewhere and Carly doesn’t go. He really wanted to stay with Carly. Earlier, before his nap, when I’d asked if he’d wanted to go outside, he said “Stay at the home.” Now, he said “Mama Zinnie stay home, dada go have fun outside.” and gave me a push. So I went to do the grocery shopping. Of course, when he saw me heading towards the door he wanted to go as well, and was saying “Have fun outside. Mama Dada go outside.” Eventually I headed out alone. Did the grocery shopping and came home.

 

He had some quesadilla for dinner, then shared some kimbap with me. He watched some more ABC songs, then I put the iPad to sleep for the evening and we played with the balls for a couple minutes. He likes the balls, and gets excited when I get them out, but loses interest fast. Or he just wanted to go see Mama. We went into the parlor where she was. The Christmas lights were on, and August lay on the blanket and looked up at the lights “on the fish,” (meaning they ran across Cherie’s fish picture) and was kind of hypnotized.

 

A couple times today he picked up the photo from his great-gramdpa Dahl’s 97th birthday (he had pulled it off the wall) and pointed to the painting of flowers in the background and repeatedly said “This.”

 

We went back out to the living room and played with stickers. I put one on the back of his hand and he liked that, calling it a “hand stamp”. Back into the bed, where we read more books (Curious George’s ABC, which I realized I have pretty much memorized, Moo, Dog, The Going to Bed Book). Art and stickers again, and watching the Feist “1234” Sesame Street video because he wanted the song and I couldn’t remember the words.

 

He then went in with Carly a little after 8 and nursed, but didn’t fall asleep. Both came out about 8:40. Carly drew with him, then went back to bed. He and I did some coloring, then mainly played with play dough. I made a U which he was then trying to make stick to the couch. The U pulled apart, but then he realized he had ’11’. We then made a C, I, and Y (because those were the shapes he pulled out) which he then carried to different places and arranged: the couch, table, and brown chair. He had gotten his old art box out, and it had the finger crayons in it. So we spun those on the floor for the first time in a long time. He was trying to step on them to make them stop. He then wanted me to try spinning other things like the markers and crayons.

 

He suddenly went to the door and opened it and went in with Carly at about 9:30. Took some time to fall asleep, but was asleep before 10.

 

 

New words/phrases: eat this window, under, behind, dirty laundry, good night, in here now (inhehnow), on the foot (photo stuck to his foot), stay at the home, mama Zinnie stay home, dada go have fun outside. Saymo (triangle) is right there, set it on he floor, put it under the blanket

Tasting the Duplo ‘I’: 

Writing his name: 

All 6 letters: 

Coloring the bats: 

Hugging the iPad: 

Back to art: 

Trying to make the ’11’ stick to the couch: 

His play dough letters: 

Drum: 

Looking out the window. Still on tippy toes, but much taller than when he first started to do this: 

7:35. Very sad wakeup. I picked him up and held him on my shoulder. Lots of coughing and I thought he would throw up on me. But no throw up. When he calmed down a little bit but was still crying, I asked “What can dada do to help? He sobbed “ABCD”. Calmed right down. So we started with art. He was drawing circles. That is, calling them “circle” as opposed to Os or Qs. That is new. He did a lot of coughing in the morning, and twice said “Zinnie is coughing.” When I first changed him I changed his pants, then tried to change his shirt. He got upset as he didn’t want his owl shirt off. I would leave it on until we were ready to leave, and he still got upset then. While watching ABC songs, he reminded himself “No ABC songs on subway” (because there is no internet) and he was singing along a lot. We ate oatmeal for breakfast. I haven’t been pushing the medicine, but he remembered it himself and wanted it in the oatmeal. So I made him a separate bowl and we put in the medicine. Of course, he only ate a couple bites after that. After awhile he was “all done iPad” and wanted to read books. We read a lot: Kipper, Dog, and, one of the used books we bought last time at Salvation Army, I Spy at the Zoo. He liked it and we read it a couple times. He’s getting into the ‘I spy…’ sort of stuff.

 

We headed out a little after 10. As we walked through the park, he spotted new Vs: upside down ones in the posts holding up the trunks of trees. Of course, he also pointed out his usual assortment of O and V and I shapes along the way.

 

An uneventful ride down, except that the only people to tell me he was cold all day were two women on the train platform. While he was all bundled up, except he wasn’t wearing gloves.

 

We went first to the children’s museum. First went to the nature area. He had me ‘read’ the big version of The Giving Tree they had there a couple times. It is in Korean, so I have to make up the story the best I remember it. While I was sitting on the low chair, he said “Hug Dada” and hugged my legs. He’s not much into hugging, so that was kind of cool. He then went up into the tree house and spent time examining the gear/clothes of a…forester or botanist or whatever. There were two walkie talkies, and he was bending them together to make an ‘X’.  Next, he wanted to go down to the basement. He led the way, walking down the entire ramp. He did his usuals: grabbing the shower head magnets and singing Spanish ABCs, Tesla coilsWe then went up to the spaceship area. Rather busy, and when August was playing with the control panels he got shoved by a bigger boy a couple times. August’s response is to screech at other kids when they do that, which frankly this boy deserved since he was twice August’s size and his supervisor didn’t do much about it.

 

August was a bit frustrated and it was 11:45 so I suggested lunch, which he agreed to. We went up and ate. After that, he stared out the window for awhile, then wanted to leave instead of doing more playing. He wouldn’t be ready for a nap for at least another 30 minutes, and probably longer, so I asked what he wanted to do and he said “See animals.” So we went to the zoo and ended up first at the outside birds. He got to see one of the white peacocks with its tail feathers up. We did the whole stretch of birds, then went around to the herbivores. He was really into learning their names (moutlons, guanacos, etc.) We got to see the kangaroos hop a bit. I wasn’t actually sure if he saw them hop or not, but later he told Carly “Kangaroos hop.” We then went across to the seals. The lower level was closed, but we could go up top and watch them from above water. I stood him on the ledge, with me behind him. He pressed his forehead against the glass and watched them. And watched them. For several minutes. He was also liking the feel of the glass with his hands, saying “Cold!” Those were the fur seals, then we went to the other end and watched the spotted seals. Again for several minutes. That was kind of cool because they were actually refilling the tank, so we got to see the big jets of water, and watch the water slowly get up to the seals lying on the bottom of the pool. From there we went across to the deer. Just watched them for a couple minutes, but August continued his cuddly day by pressing his forehead against mine, then his nose, and giving kisses – which he hasn’t done in months.

 

We walked back past the herbivores, then into the big cats, as he requested the jaguars. As we got to the elephants he kept saying “Elephants inside!” over and over, then, as we walked towards the primates, “Primates inside! Monkeys inside!”

 

We had spent quite awhile in the zoo, so it was a little long to his nap. Changed him and did our walk. He slept from 1:31 to 2:27. When he woke up in the coffee shop it was sudden, and he instantly said “Playground. Go outside.” He got agitated as I put everything away and got ready to leave. Unusual, as he has always enjoyed playing in the coffee shops.

 

We went to the new playground. He wanted to go on the big merry go round, so when it was empty he walked on it and I pushed him for awhile. Then we spent most of our time playing on the hopscotch area. Tracing and saying the numbers – much of it in Korean (in particular he pointed out 4, which is ‘sa’). Then we wrote in the sand, where he drew a Hangeul ‘O’ (ㅗ). He wandered around the sidewalk area, still drawing with the stick, where he was doing question marks and joked about peeing into a grate again.

 

We had been outside for about an hour and were getting cold so I wanted us to go inside. August wasn’t coughing though, and coughed very little throughout the day after his initial coughing in the morning. A lot less coughing than me. Anyway, we went back to the children’s museum. Back to the nature area where he did the animal noises thing and looked at the rocks (selenite, amethyst, quartz, etc.) Then across to the rest of the first floor (chalk, etc.) We played with the strips of magnets on the floor that we use to make letters and shapes. He invented a new term. He already has the ‘Q part’, which is the little line you add to an O to make it a Q. This time, he had a ‘V’ and he called the line you use to turn a ‘V’ into an ‘A’ the ‘A part’.

 

But by far the biggest toy of the day were the static cling magnet shapes. First, he was carrying around a purple ‘C’ shape. Then, he found two ‘O’ shapes. First, he realized they were on the other side of the window, so he had to walk to the other side to get them. Then he took one back to the original side so that one was on each side. He started walking around the first floor, experimenting with what surfaces they would stick too and which they wouldn’t. They stuck to another window, computer screens, glass, etc. and hung on the pegs for the fish thing. He also put them on his head and on his fingers. When they fell, or he dropped/threw them, he would say ‘Boop!’. That probably lasted 15 minutes.

 

It was now about 4:15 and we headed out. He had been really excited about getting a hand stamped when we got there. Even though they are mostly invisible, he kept pointing to it and saying “This!” or “Hand stamp!” When we came back to the museum, he got really excited when the woman at the entrance shined the blacklight on it and he could see it. So before we left I walked back over to her and had her shine the light on it once again.

 

We headed home and walked up to Carly as she was about to board the elevator up to the apartment. Back home, he had left over vitamins from the morning, since he isn’t eating the gummy kind we have as he doesn’t like how they stick to his teeth. He pretended to feed one to Pooh. He was then reading with Carly, including the Moby Dick book (which he primarily likes because of the Qs in ‘Queequeg’ and because of the gulls page and the sound
s they make) and the I Spy at the Zoo book. I went out and picked up some groceries and vietnamese food for Carly. August ate some of her fried rice – particularly the mushrooms – then some of the bread and soup I had.

 

We then let him watch some more ABC songs and he really started dancing and singing to these ones that have an electronic beat to them. I tried to take him in for a bath, but he had  meltdown as I tried to take off his clothes. Carly came in and he calmed down. She gave him his bath, although it still had to be a quick one.

 

He brightened back up after that and was pretending to eat more things: “Yummy pillow. Yummy palabras. Eating this C, eating this dada.” Carly went to sleep and he did art with me. He was wanting me to write numbers at one point, but he was sitting on the paper. This became a joke as he kept trying to sit on the paper. He still likes to use two colors at once, both for himself and to watch us. He gets excited about choosing two colors to use for “both”. He was getting tired, but trying to avoid it. He wanted to “Sit with Dada” on the couch, but then he would want to type on the computer. We did sit together for awhile though. I suggested I lie down next to him while he nursed to sleep and he popped right up and said “Dada go in.” While nursing, he got up once and patted me a few times. He was asleep right about 9.

 

New words/phrases: square and triangle and circle in Korean, 4 (sa), Hangeul O, stamp for children’s museum, hand stamp, A part, other side, go on the subway, yummy crust, regular sees backwards seas, stand on the O, step on the O pattern, Zinnie dada do have fun

Children’s museum. Making an X:

Spaceship: 

Looking out the window: 

Zoo. Watching the seals: 

Tiger: 

Asleep: 

Playground: 

“Step 7”: 

Making 11: 

Children’s museum, part 2: 

Holding the C: 

Os:

Blue one on his fingers: 

Home: 

Dipping bread in the soup: 

Hasn’t played with this in months. Interesting to see how much easier it is for him. He doesn’t have to lay it flat to push them in, and he can rotate them back and forth to get them to fit, including the heart:

Eating the computer again: 

Sitting with dada: 

August was up at 6:45, a little before Carly left. He wanted to read, and had me come into the other room with him and closed the door. We read his new books again and the ABC books. While reading the Dog book, he pointed to the dog in the tub and said “Doggie in the bath.” While reading the Curious George ABC book, he pretended to eat something on the C page. I asked if he was eating the ‘crab’, and he replied with “Yummy C.” He then ate several other letters as we went through.

 

I let him on the iPad after that. He was watching YouTube videos, and is fixated on a ball pit video right now. Luckily, it teachers colors, and as he was watching it he was focusing on how to spell the colors, naming out the letters. We then played with play dough, mainly making letters. He made a ‘J’ by himself. Then to his paper art, managing to dump out a couple of containers. Then, for fun, he stuffed a few under the couch before I stopped him.

 

He watched Teuni Teuni, and I trimmed his hair a bit after we brushed his teeth. I used the spray bottle, and he called it “Mama’s spray bottle.” Unfortunately, he wouldn’t let me finish the right side, but I got it a bit better when he took his nap.

 

Back to reading books: Wanted to read Frida, but it is just in Spanish. Then Palabras. I asked him what the papa was holding, and he replied “Papa holding pillow.” It was actually the baby. He also pretended to eat the gull and the ice cream and a letter T in that book, and earlier and eaten my computer. I was wanting to get going, and he wanted one more book, saying “last one”. We got ready to go, but I wasn’t quite quick enough for him, so he said “Let’s go.”

 

We went over to the art museum and to the play area. He didn’t really play in it, but first wanted water. Then he was hungry. So we sat in the changing/nursing room and I gave him some rice crackers. Apparently this is a no-no, as a cleaning woman saw us. I tried to have August saying hi, but he sad “Nope. No ‘Hi’” A minute later a security guard came in and told us we couldn’t eat there. I gave August one more cracker after that though and then he was done, so we just stayed there. During the short time he was in the play area, he stated the brown part of the slide, which he things look like a mushroom (bus-ut), the netting, and a purple pole. He wanted to leave a little later anyway, but first wanted to go in and see the bunny again.

 

From there we went across to class. He had not been keen on class, the few times I had mentioned it, and when we got there, he said “No” and wanted to leave (“Go home”). He walked all the way back to the top of the moving walkway. I convinced him to stay there by saying we could sit at a table and color in his notebook. We did that for several minutes, then I convinced him we could color in his notebook in class. He agreed to that. Still wasn’t happy in class at first. Finally warmed up a bit when they were crawling through some boxes and one of those round tunnel tubes. Didn’t participate himself, but walked around and watched. He actually wanted to climb on top of the tunnel things. Back to the notebook for a bit, coloring the covers. Then they did these cheese puzzle things (basically a hexagon of cheese wedges). He liked that. Then, for the next activity they got little push carts. We put the wheels on, then they pushed them around, then they picked up these white ovals, and took them over to a mat that had caves and spiders on it. The carts had lobsters on the side of them. I was a little confused about the theme of class today – the first activity had involved some sort of bug, perhaps lightning bugs, and had an outfit to match – but it didn’t matter, as August had fun with the cart, and putting the ovals away at the end. They were then all given these microphone toys to take home. August was walking around the room, shaking his, when a boy came up and took it from him. August was in shock. It took a few seconds for the mother to realize what had happen, but it all worked out. We got it back to August before he got too upset.

 

At the end of class, I told him to go bow to the teacher. He was on the other side of class, and August walked across to him. He didn’t see August, and kind of walked the other direction. August followed, and tried to bow, but he didn’t see it. I told August to try again. This time, the teacher saw him and got down on a knee. August walked right up to him, and bowed right in front of him.

 

We headed home. As we got in the house, he was upset Carly wasn’t home. But then he said “Mama working. Dada and Zinnie have fun.” This is basically the story I tell him again and again when he misses mama, saying I miss her to, but she leaves for work, we have fun together, and then she comes back.

 

We ate lunch (ravioli and dongatsu with sauce) and then he typed on the computer. He knows which one is his “document”. We then read some books. He chose the stroller for sleeping, and fell asleep quickly. He only slept from 1:39 to 2:21 though, and was pretty sad after his wakeup. When I asked what I could do to help, he said “ABCD”. So we did a lot of art after that: play dough, markers, and crayons. Another round of reading before he was ready to go outside again. I went to change him, and when I put him on the changing table he said “Mama says ‘No screaming in the screaming room.’” She had accidentally said it, or something that implied it, once and now he remembers.

 

We left, him in the backpack, right at 4. We walked to the playground that looks like a tree. He spent 20 minutes or so playing in the sand with the stick, shovel, and then the broom. A group of teenagers walked by and said hi to him. This time, he actually smiled and waved back. From there, we went up on the structure. He was practicing a lot of stairs, going up and down, back and forth. He wanted to go down the big slides, but I told them they were too big. So then, as we walked around, he kept pointing to them and saying “too big”. He wasn’t interested in the little slides.

 

Back on the ground, he headed for the sidewalk, then down it. He saw the railing that he once said looks like Ms, and he did it again. The railings were yellow and green, so he was saying “yellow M, yellow M”. Then he was basically running down the sidewalk, actually saying “running” as he went.

 

After a couple minutes we headed back to the park. His final activity was walking on top of the border to the playground – basically a series of small posts that undulate in height from ground level to about a foot off the ground. I held his hands, and he walked back and for a few times. From there, I convinced him it was time to head home. He let me hold his hands for the first few minutes,then just the right hand for awhile after that. After that he refused, and had pretty cold hands by the time we got home about 5:30. At least it had been warmer today, to the high 30s.

 

Ate a little of Carly’s toast and egg, then shared some banana with me. We read a bunch more books to him and did some art. I gave him a bath, which went quickly, as he wasn’t happy Carly had left the room. When putting on pajamas, I initially tried to put on his Christmas pajamas and he didn’t like that. I asked him what he wanted, and he said “Owls”. So I put those on, and as I did, I said “Hoot”. He replied with “Hoot in Timmy Time”, remembering the teacher in the show that is an owl and only says “Hoot”.

 

Carly went in to bed about a quarter to 8 and he was going to stay out with me. But after just a few minutes he said “Nurse. Go to sleep. Go to sleep.” and went in to Carly. I went in too and we hung out for awhile, then he fell asleep around 8.

 

 

New words/phrases: doggie in the bath, mama’s spray bottle, last one, papa holding pillow, let’s go, dada and Zinnie have fun, document, medicine, vita
min, back and forth, in here now, wagging, fluffy

 

With his notebook in class:  

Paricipating:

He looks so serious, it turned out, because he recognized the song that was playing: 

On the way home, stopping to play by the ice rink: 

Home. They look like the Hangeul characters ㅁ and ㄷ:

Getting sleepy: 

Asleep: 

More play dough letters: 

Walking to the park. He saw this and said “Dot the ‘i’ !”:

Making up a song: 

The playground:  

Waving:

Stairs: 

Posts: 

Fence Ms: 

Back home. He was looking at his Spanish cards and started putting them on his cabesa. Should have done a video instead of a photo as he kept moving and light was low:

Picking apart the play dough: 

When he writes things big he has a low voice that he uses: 

August was awake at 7:25. I met him at the door and said “Good morning” The first thing he said to me was “Nope” and pushed the door mostly shut. A little later he opened the door and said “Dada do ABCD on the paper.” He knows we’ve been putting medicine in his juice, etc., so he’s gotten the idea of pouring one thing into another. In the morning, he wanted to “Poor mango juice in the wawa.” At lunch, he would want to add water to his sandwich (I said no to that one). He then said what sounded like “Marshy help” and then “Marshy do that”. Marshy was, indeed sitting on the couch behind him at the time.

When drawing with the markers, he referred to the one he had as “this old”, meaning it wasn’t one of our new markers. He then watched ABC songs for awhile, before going back to art. He managed to dump out both the long crayons and the pastels at once, after which he referred to it as a “mess”. He then was counting some of the crayons on the four, counting four apart from the others. We then played with the stamp pad, before he wanted to move to the other room, telling me “Dada go in there” Once in the parlor, he was looking up at Cherie’s fish picture. I told him that Oma made it, and he said “Oma did that.” He then noticed the border made a rectangle, and called it a “Hangeul M”.

We then read some books, including our new Moo and Dog books, then moving to our ABC books. We were reading the Curious George ABC book, and he pretended to eat the radishes on the R page, around the rabbit, saying “Eating radishes.” The first of many, many things in the day he would pretend to eat. He knows almost all of the Eric Carle ABC book, only needing help with Xolo and Yak, I believe. We finished with Palabras, where he was again was searching for Qs. I tried to point out the ‘ñ’s, but he made it clear that this time we were just “Looking for Qs.”

We got ready to go and left right at 10. He was missing mama before we left, but then followed me into the bedroom and saw Peter’s photo of me and Carly. He looked up, waved, and said “Hi Mama!” We then went and got in the backpack. As I got in, he was touching my head, and I was making the shocked ‘bzzzt’ noise. As we walked out, he saw Carly’s photo on the fridge, and wanted to touch her photo, saying he was “ZZZing Mama” or “Zing Mama”.

Unusually, he got impatient and upset on the way down, just a stop short. We made it, but he wasn’t happy that last length of track. He wanted back in the backpack when we were off the train, so I put him in and we walked to the children’s museum. We went in, and he was very happy to get a hand stamp today – in the past he has always gotten upset when they tried to give him one. He first wanted to go downstairs, where he mainly played with the little Tesla coils, then the magnet area, where they have random objects attached to magnets. He found a shower head, which he first thought looked like a brush, so he was using it on his hair. I then taught him that it was a shower, and he still held it over his head (wish we could do that in real life – but maybe we should try again). He also played with this microscope that kind of looks like a snake. The idea is that you can press it against your skin and see your skin magnified on the screen above.

He then wanted to go upstairs, where he wanted to play on the first floor. Played with the usual: static shape magnets that stick to the class, chalk and eraser. But he also drew on a long slip of paper for the zoetropes. He kept repeating a squiggly shape and putting two dots over it. I asked him what he was drawing, and he said “Drawing cursive. Cursive S.”

He then wandered over to the nature area, where he remembered “quartz”, and I think I’ve now taught him “selenite”, since that is is favorite one. We became butterflies standing in front of a screen, then climbed up into the tree house and back down. It was now 11:30 and I started asking him about lunch. This is where he started pretending to eat everything, pretending to eat a big wooden worm, then the wooden post. We went up and ate lunch, where he proceeded to taste the table and the chair, and would have tasted the floor if I hadn’t stopped him. Carly joked he is regressing to a baby stage, putting everything in his mouth. We then wandered down the back ramp and to the construction area. They have a bunch of real tools on display and he got excited about playing with them, but they are safely behind plastic. But we climbed up into the house, then back down.

Then back up to the air and ball area. He’s always been a bit scared of putting his hand in the air of the Bernoulli’s Principle thing, or putting the balls in the pneumatic tubes. Not today, where he did both with no worries.

It was then time for a nap, so we changed him and got going. I invented a new song today, about counting by twos, so I sang that to him as he fell asleep. Responded a bit harshly to a woman who, just as he fell asleep, felt she needed to tell me his hands were cold, then reach out and GRAB his hand in the five seconds they were walking the other way. Who grabs a sleeping baby, especially in passing?

He slept from 1 to 1:50. When I got my latte, I got a bag of the pumpkin and a bag of the sweet potato snacks he likes. He brought them up a few times last week, and I felt bad because I had told him we would buy more when we went back to Children’s Grand Park, but we never did last week. He woke up, and ate some of the new snacks. He asked for water, and I handed him his “wawa’. He immediately said “Mama says aqua.” This was interesting, because once we were back home, he was drawing 4s with Carly on the paper. When he wants to draw 4s, she or I draw the ‘L’ part, then he draws a straight line through it to make the open 4. With me, he calls the ‘L’ part “Hangeul N”, but with her she was calling them “L”s. Already code shifting between parents.

Anyway, I asked where he wanted to go next. He initially said children’s museum, but when I asked what he wanted to do, he said “mul area”. I reminded him he would have to wear the apron (which he did not like last time). He changed his mind and decided on the zoo instead. He initially chose to go see the dingo, etc. but they were all indoors. The jaguars, oddly, were not. He then wanted to go over to the outdoor birds. He liked the vulture, then was very interested in knowing what each kind of bird was, repeating it after I said it: “English pheasant”, “golden pheasant”, etc. We met a couple who really liked him and talked a few minutes. They were over the top with the “His eyes are so beautiful” thing, but they were nice, and, unusually as of late, August did just fine with them.

We then went to the water birds, where the naming thing continued. He would point and say “This…” and expect me to tell him what it was. After he knew it, he would then point and say “This duck” or “This pelican”. There was a grey heron sitting on a round bird bath thing close to us, and he said “Heron on the O.” The penguins weren’t out (they never are), but the water in their cage had the jets on high, but the top was mostly frozen over. The ice made really cool shapes at the edge where it met the roiling water. I took a photo, and as I did August pointed to the shape of the open water and pointed out that it looked like a ‘C’. Finally, as we were watching the birds, he noticed the audio loop they have in there. It starts with the sounds of insects, like cicadas. He started imitating the sound, making a ‘ssss’ sound.

From there we went to the tropical building, where we looked at the snakes and lizards the most. He was, as usual, really interested in the zookeeper doors and wanted to go through them. After watching the coatis, a quick walk through the rest and out the top afte
r getting down to look at the butterflies and beetles. We went and saw the goats and horses, then headed back to the children’s museum.

He wanted to go back downstairs, where he spent most of his time playing with the shower head magnets. There were two of them, and he’d hold them both over his head. First, he was saying they were “for mama”. Then he started singing the ABC song (in both English and Spanish) and walking around the room, waving them around. He was pretty funny.

They had bags, like cloth shopping bags, for some reason, and he got one and initially said “bag for home”. When I said we couldn’t take it home, he then started talking about shopping, saying “Get markers.” From there we went up and changed him to get ready to go home. On the changing pad he was first tracing numbers on the wall. He then held up the end of the belt thing and called it a ‘plug’, then touched it to the wall where he had been drawing numbers, saying “plug numbers.”

We stopped in the book room since we had a little more time. He noted it was “quiet” as we went in, but then he saw a book on the floor and stepped on it. When I told him not to, he decided he wanted to step on everything, including toy pieces. He also did some screeching, so we were out of there pretty quickly.

We headed outside, and as we did so he said “No screaming here” in the lobby after other kids screamed and he joined in, then I explained he shouldn’t do it just because others did. As we walked out, he pretended to taste the yellow tiles, then the rubber floor mat outside the entrance.

We hung out there for a few minutes, eating a little more of the hobak (pumpkin) snacks. I had them to him one, two, or three at a time, saying ‘1’, ’11’, or ’111’, which he really likes.

As we stood there, he noticed my shadow for the first time. And within 5 seconds of doing so, he was stepping on it: “Step on dada’s shadow” immediately became a game.

We headed home. When we got on the first train, he was upset about something, because he started screeching, and then hitting and pinching me. At the next stop people got off and we got seats, but he screamed really loudly when I sat him down. So I picked him up and we got off the train, and waited for the next train. He calmed down and was fine from there. As we got close to home, he was playing on the iPad. He apparently knows the routine, because as we got close to home, I said “Guess what?” and he replied “Next stop.” I always say “Next stop” and he turns off the iPad and is ready to go, but I hadn’t said the “Guess what?” before.

On our way home, we stopped to get groceries at the pink building. I initially didn’t think it would work, as he said “No, no, no” to going into the building, and started to get upset as we did. However, he wanted to touch things, so as long as I sort of leaned over so he could touch an item from the backpack occasionally he was happy. Also, he was excited when I said we were getting thing for mama, and presents for mama. We got our fruit and eggs and a couple other things, then headed home. Carly had worked a half day, and got in a few hours of sleep before we were home.

For dinner, he ate a good chunk (for his recent appetite) of a burrito I made for myself, then a little soup. He had his water and juice next to each other, and there was a little in each, so he wanted to mix them again. We hand’t brushed his teeth in the morning, so did that now, watching Teuni Teuni. He first picked up on one of the girls wearing a green shirt, then he was pointing out the colors that everyone was wearing: “She wear green,” “guys wear blue, yellow.”

He did a good job of coloring by himself for a long time, then we gave him a bath. When I first said I was going to give him a bath, he totally rejected me, saying “Mama” and pushing me away and saying “No.” So Carly took him in, but then he wanted me in as well. Carly was able to slip out and he was fine with me giving him the bath. He played for awhile, and was happy pouring water on Sophie to give her a bath. A little after 8 we took him in to sleep. I read the Moo and Dog book to him, then he went to sleep. Unfortunately, he woke up a short time later, coughing. It was a lot of coughing, and he had a big throw up. Carly took him out to clean him up, while I fixed the bed. He was now awake and insisted he wanted to do ABCDs, but he was clearly still really tired, and went right back to sleep a little before 9.

New words/phrases: Pour mango juice in the wawa, leaking, this old, mess, looking for Qs, bunny on the turtle, Quartz, primates inside, macaques inside, no screaming here, garbage can, need the glove (taking Carly her mitten)

Children’s museum: 

Shower head magnet: 

Skin microscope: 

Writing cursive: 

He said the guy looked “sad”: 

Tasting the post:

Tasting the chair: 

Cheese bits as ‘111’: 

Eating a potato: 

Bernoulli’s principal:  

Looking out the window: 

Zoo. Ice in the penguin cage. The water looks like a C:

The heron on an O: 

Singing on our walk back to the museum: 

Children’s museum: 

Back home: 

Scratching himself with the cup: 

Sometime during the night August woke up and was coughing and threw up a little in Carly’s hand. At first he said “wipe it up”, like he always does. Carly pointed out that it was just in her and and she would wash her hand. He then started saying “wash mama’s hand.” Luckily, he went right back to sleep after that, and slept until about 6:40.

In the morning we tried out his new pastels that we bought yesterday. He wanted to listen to Teuni Teuni, and when I started it, he requested the song “Bravo”, which is track 5. Tried out a different kind of vitamin this morning, the gummy kind, to mix results. He ate about half, but spit the rest out. And, out of nowhere, I think after he had been coloring, he said “I love Mama.”

We did our weekly vacuuming. He kept coloring and didn’t help much at first, but when I went to the other end of the house he followed, I think so he could hear the vacuum. He was listening and writing letters with his finger. When I was done vacuuming, he went and turned the vacuum back on just so he could hear it. I was then wiping the play area tiles, and he was saying “dirty” and “more wiping”. Then he wanted to do some wiping himself, so he started drawing on the floor so he could immediately wipe it up.

Finally, in the morning we spent some time playing with the tennis ball, bouncing it down the hall. And he was drawing on the whiteboard, then wanted to go to paper, I reminded him we had different markers. He said “switch!” which is what I’ve said when I’ve given him the same color marker in the other set in the past.

We went outside a few minutes past ten. It had been snowing lightly all morning, and we’d been watching it from the window (August had Qed the snowflakes when we first saw it). So we walked along the street and crossed at the crosswalk, avoiding the bridge. First went to the art museum play area for a few minutes. Then he was done with that. In the lobby, I asked if he wanted to look at some pretty art. He said “See pretty bunny”, then pointed towards the main gallery. I’d forgotten that their was a piece (a big pile of cardboard) with a big stuffed bunny head on top. He had remembered. So we went and saw that for a couple minutes, then headed outside.

Outside, I showed him how to make snowballs, and made a miniature snowman, reminding him of Kipper’s Snowy Day. He then stomped on it, so I made more snowballs and let him stomp on each. He of course wasn’t wearing a hat, or gloves, so we didn’t play long and headed to Home Plus. There, we bought some yellow bins to hold his art supplies, then went up to class.

Class went well, although it was off to a rough start, as he and Jungbin bumped heads before class, and August wanted to go home. Jungbin gave him a snack thing and he eventually calmed down. He impressed everyone when, during role call, he raised his hand and said “new” (yes) really loudly. I also had to explain (through the one mom who speaks English) why we chose the name August, which was kind of funny. Class was about random items and sorting them. He was really into the opening songs, and bubbles went well (he caught a bubble on his finger and took it to a mom for her to pop, as she had done the same to him earlier), but took some urging to get into the main activity of picking up items and taking them to the person (pictures on the wall) that they belong to. He did a little of that, but it dragged on, and he kept asking for stickers. Luckily, the sticker activity was next. Finally, she got out the parachute and he had fun with that – he ran under it a couple times. I don’t think he has fully done that before. They then made a tunnel of it. He went through once on his own, then took me through twice.

After class, we walked home past the library. He kept wanting to touch the snow on flat surfaces, then would shake his hand when it stuck to his finger. We stopped in the park in the tree area by the bus stop, where he had written on the ground last time it was snowing when we were with Carly. There was enough snow that when we wrote with a stick the dirt would show through underneath. We played for about 10 minutes, then headed home.

At home I made mandu for lunch, and he did a better job of eating it this time. He was choosing to drink his medicines in mango juice today, so he had some of that as well. Before going to sleep he wanted to read Kipper, and chose Kipper’s Snowy Day. As I read it, and they were making snowballs, August was pretending to make snowballs on the bed. Very cool. He chose to fall asleep in the stroller today, although he’d been requesting the backpack earlier. That went smoothly, and he fell asleep from 1:31 to 2:36. But he woke up after 30 minutes and I quickly put on my shoes and pushed him back out into the hallway, where he fell back to sleep.

He woke up okay, but was then cranky. Suspicions he actually could have used a longer nap. Finally, when I asked what was wrong, he kept talking about missing mama. She was on Skype, so we called her, and talked to her at work for a couple minutes. He really liked that, and I think it helped a little, although he immediately wanted to call her again.

We got stuff ready for Costco and headed out. His mood improved as soon as we got outside. Walking to the subway, carrying him, I tried to sing him the Wheels on the Bus and There’s a Hole at the Bottom of the Sea. But he rejects most non-ABC and numbers songs nowadays, saying “Nope. No. Nope.” So then I had a brilliant idea and changed “There’s a Hole at the Bottom of the Sea” into a numbers song, teaching him to count backwards: It starts at zero and keeps going – we went to 14 once, as he loves 14, so it goes “There’s a 14 on the 13 on the 12 on the 11…on the 0 at the bottom of the sea” at the end.

We got to Costco and shopping went fine. Looked a little upstairs, then August wanted “downstairs” as he knew that was where the food was. Got a few samples, and August helped get things out of the refrigerated/freezer sections, as he liked the cold. Although he got upset when we were done with one. We got blocks of cheese, feta, naan, and raviolis. When we got to checkout, lines were longer than usual. I then put him in the carrier, facing me, just for checkout. He did not like this and got more and more upset. As it was getting close to our turn, he started coughing and sounded like he was going to throw up on me, right down my shirt. Luckily he didn’t, but I took him out at that point. But then, when I had to bag our stuff I had to set him down. This really upset him. I looked down near the end, and he was looking up at me, desperately doing the ‘help’ sign (clasped hands, waving them up and down). Very sad. I picked him up, and he agreed to go get food. But then I had to stop to take off the carrier and put on coats. I got down with him on the floor, but he was again pretty unconsolable. He calmed down once I was able to pick him up again, and we got our food, including a green mystery smoothie.

The smoothie was green apple. Not my favorite, but he liked it. We sipped a bit and then headed out. We took it to the subway station, where we sat in our usual snack spot and drank a little more. He was pretty funny, repeatedly calling it “cold” and fascinated that there were two straws, red and green”. Mainly he liked the cold, and only took tiny sips. Combined we only drank about a fifth of it before we threw it away and headed to the train.

We were home about 5. Had time to put food away, then Carly said she was almost home. So we went and surprised her at the elevators. Carly noticed the Pororo hand stamp that his teacher had given them at the end of class. August was fascinated by it again and said “Sangsaengnim do that.” He then got out one of his own rubber stamps and a blue stamp pad, and we redid the stamp on his right hand, whi
ch had rubbed off. He then did some more stamping of his arm and wanted to stamp everything in the house. I let him stamp my hand, and he said “Blue on you.”

Carly had lain down to rest. When she’s resting, I try to only let August disturb her if he really wants to nurse. I say “Are you sure?” Today, he started to go in and I said “August.” He responded with “Nursing. Sure.” before I could say anything else.

He was in with her for a minute, then we were back out. I let him use the iPad so he wouldn’t bother Carly and he was watching ABC songs. He is really starting to sing along to a lot of them, and is getting the “L M N O P” passage in the fast versions of the song. He’s also doing pretty well with our 1 to 30 song, having done 1 to 24 by himself a few times now.

He didn’t eat much when Carly tried to share her food with him, but later, as she was taking a shower, he ate 14 (catorce, as we were counting in Spanish) beans from my soup. His most impressive dinner for some time. He decided he wanted to climb on the back of the couch, which we said no to, so then he joked “Dada go up there” and “Mama go up there.” He then remembered our vacuuming earlier, and wanted me to move the couch and vacuum behind it again, saying “Move. Vacuum back there”. I then had to stop him from getting the vacuum from the closet.

Carly’s parents sent a cool selection of books in Spanish, including Curious George and several others. Carly read some to him until he started to try to eat the books. He then pretended to eat all sorts of things around the room: “Yummy pillow”, “Yummy door”, shelves, blanket, mama, etc. I then had to change him, and as I did so he pretended to eat the Pororo stamp on his had, saying “Eat Pororo. Yummy Pororo.”

Initially tried getting him to sleep around 8, but that didn’t work. So he stayed up with for 40 minutes or so. Then Carly had, or almost had, him to sleep about 9, but may have woken him with a cough. He was wanting to leave the room. I went in and said I’d lay on the bed with him. That worked, and I laid next to them until he fell asleep.

New words/phrases: art museum play area, dirty, switch, Tiger falling, mama come out

Museum. Pointing out the ‘q’:

The bunny: 

Outside. Watching a snow blower:

Class: 

Getting his stamp: 

Writing outside in the snow: 

Home: 

Costco trip:

Home: 

I was up at 6 when Carly left to go to the hospital to see a doctor because she wasn’t feeling well. August slept until 7:30. He woke up and started coughing a lot, his sinuses clearing, and he threw up a little. After that, he ate three crackers and watched some ABC songs. Then we started drawing on the paper. I slipped him much of his morning medicines in his Cheerios and milk. 

Carly was home a little after 10. I then took August down to see his doctor a little before 11. We had a long wait. We drew a little on the iPhone, but mainly he just had Endless Academy open – he wasn’t playing, but wanted the background music on. If I tried to turn it off he wanted it back on.

The doctor visit went well. Cold progressing normally. He got upset as we went into the room, but grabbed the stuffed animal monster she had on the corner of the desk and held and looked at it during the exam. A nurse handed him a candy during the exam, and he said a couple things during it. When it was over, he immediately asked me to open the candy. And when he was down on the floor he actually said hi to the doctor. He was then calm and let me talk to her. When we were leaving, he actually said “bye” and “thank you” at my urging. I was really talking up how the doctor helps us feel better before, so I think it worked a bit.

It took awhile in the waiting room though and he was getting frustrated. So I took him back home first, then came back down to the pharmacy and filled his prescriptions. When I got back up, he was asleep. He and Carly took a nap together from just before noon until just after 1.

He woke up slowly, and was just sitting in bed for awhile. I went in and laid down with him, and we ended up doing a little wrestling. I rolled over to him, and he used his head to push me back, then his hands.

Carly had to go back to the hospital for a pointless follow up. August and I started by playing with the Duplo animals. Light through the window was making a rectangle on the ground, and August called it a one and touched it: “touch one.”

We then did some drawing, then I gave August his cough medicine. Again, I’d been talking about how it helps with his cough, and he is starting to figure that out. He took it straight from the dropper and drank the whole dose. In return I let him watch ABC songs on the iPad. At one point he started wildly drawing ‘zeds’ on the screen with his fingers. He ate close to 4 strawberries while on the iPad, which wasn’t bad, given his small appetite. Also, when he was watching a song about shapes, he got excited by the rectangle because it looked like a Hangeul M (ㅁ). Carly got  home at 2:15.

I wanted to get out of the house and give Carly some resting time, so around 3, August and I headed out. He made a desperate plea for the backpack, pulling all the coats off of it and trying to climb in, but eventually I let him walk to the street, then got him in the stroller. He fought it until I offered him a cracker, then it was no problem. I’d planned to go to Toys R Us and play in Hageulbi Park for a little while. But he was coughing a little on the walk and didn’t want to possibly make it worse by spending any more time outdoors. So we went to Toys R Us. Took him out of the stroller once inside, and he started stomping around, saying “walk, walk, walk”, happy to be out of the stroller.

He immediately remembered there was a play area here. I didn’t want to go today (had just done back-to-back play areas) so told him no. He then said “Play area closed” and I went along with that. It is confusing, because the art museum and children’s museum are closed on Monday. Anyway, we went into Toys R Us. He looked at and touched (“touch!”) some big stuffed bears they had in a cardboard display while I looked at books they had out on display. It was like the first time we bought a bunch of books at TrU. I got the Moo and Dog books by the same guy that did the Cat book August has liked so much. And I got a little Eric Carle book called something like How Things Grow. We then went and looked at art supplies. Was happy to find that Crayola sells oil pastels in a cardboard box – exactly what I wanted, as not a ton of plastic waste like the Korean crayons. Also got more washable markers. Wanted slim markers as well, but the only ones I saw at first were the 50 packs. And August kept trying to pull open the 50 packs and pull out a marker. He got really frustrated that I wouldn’t let him and I picked him up. He did some of his light hitting, but he knows he’s not to hit, so then he started pinching my face a bit. He had started that once a couple months ago, but that was it with me, although Carly said he did it once to her too. Anyway, we talked about not hurting dada, etc. and eventually I found a 20 pack, which was perfect.

My new plan was to get a smoothie at Smoothie King in the food court and sit and read the new books and draw. August initially liked the idea, wanting to use his new art supplies right away. Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought a notebook with us. So we went upstairs to Lotte Mart, where I knew they had a good selection of cheap notebooks. I wanted a little notebook for the backpack, but August wanted a “Big” notebook, which he said in a low voice, as opposed to a “little” one (high voice). It was a good opportunity to use the word “both” again, as we got both. We found a little black one with monsters on the cover, and a big one with a pigeon on the front. We’ll use that one for our next big notebook.

We got those, but when we got down to the food court he changed his mind, wanting to go home. So we went and got our coats on. I was talking to him about the idea of a coffee shop, which he approved of, but then we got back around to just getting a smoothie and drawing here. This time he liked the plan. But then as we tried to choose a smoothie and wait in line he got impatient and started to miss Mama again. So we headed out, with him saying “color at home.”

I let Carly know we were coming home, then as we got near See and Me had the idea of going to the library. August approved, and we headed down that way, only to find it is also closed on Mondays. So we headed on home.

At home, he ate a ravioli and a half for dinner. Carly gave him a quick bath. He tried out the new markers, and was working, with Carly’s help, on holding two markers at once, like he has us do. He also had the markers scattered on the floor and was making numbers out of them, first 11. It is funny though, as the markers can be several feet apart and he will call them 11, pointing from one to the other. I then had him do a hundred and eleven, and then 1111. He was doing the latter, but when he said it it came out “a thousand eleven.” He also was writing a pretty good 1 2 3 4 over and over. The 4 is pretty abstract though.

Finally, he drank another dose of medicine from the bottle. This time, he was even holding it himself part of the time and working on tilting his head back so he could get some.

As Carly took him in to go to sleep a little after 7, he requested a diaper change even though he had just put a diaper on after his bath. When we said no, he didn’t need one, he pointed to the bed and said “change diaper here.” We change his diaper most nights after he has fallen asleep and right before we go to bed to make sure it lasts to morning. It seems like he has an awareness that we change his diaper in bed, as we never do it any other time.

New words/phrases: yeah for Qs (I said yeah for crackers), I love coloring, medicine in the goo-uh-goos, pastels, it’s number one (etc. from YouTube number video), (I) like letter X, wear our coats

Carly was up at 4 or before with a fever that spiked to 39. I heard her on Skype – she had been talking to her dad. At 4:30 she woke me up, wanting to go to the hospital. I talke
d her out of going that moment, as it was 3 degrees, I didn’t know if there were taxis, and I didn’t want her out alone in the middle of the night. I told her to wait for light, but at 6 she came in and said she wanted to go. I had not been able to sleep in between and had been doing a lot of coughing. Made for a long day.

Waiting at the doctor: 

After his nap: 

Touching the sun one: 

Toys R Us walk: 

Back home: 

August was up at 6. He had a restless night, and by extension so did Carly. The temperature outside was -2, with a windchill of -15 or so, so needless to say we weren’t going anyplace soon. In the morning he did some more singing to ABC songs, we had Oatmeal for breakfast (I did a decent job slipping his medicine into the oatmeal and his juice), we did a lot of drawing, and we used the bricks to make towers and knock them down. He thinks the brick pattern on them looks like a puzzle, and really likes putting two next to each other and calling them eleven (or once). He picked two up and said “Hold it once.”

 

He took an early nap, from about 9:45 to 10:40 with Carly. For his midday medicine, I had him drip strawberries in it, which worked pretty well, then put the rest in more juice. He ate some of our leftover eggs and mushrooms from yesterday, and then a little pizza for lunch.

 

While drawing after lunch, and listening to ABC songs, I believe, he danced what looked like a little jog, and was then stomping. Sadly, not on video. One of the songs he likes goes “Hello A and Hello Z…”, so he got into waving to letters and numbers and saying “Hi”, particularly “Hi Q” and “Hi Zed” (since he also likes calling ‘Z’ ‘Zed’ now, thanks to the videos.

 

We decorated the frame of the iPad case with number stickers, then played with his shape blocks and the little parachute he got from class a few months back. Did some more drawing on the iPad with the stylus, then switched to paper when he found my pen and got really excited. We also tried out the oil pastels that Meg let us borrow. Carly still isn’t feeling well, but managed to make some yummy bean soup, so I had that for a late lunch. August and Carly then read together in bed, then August and I used the wooden alphabet blocks to stack towers (he was helping) and we counted our progress in Spanish.

 

Sometime after 3 August and I got bundled up and headed out. It was up over 10 by now, so that was something. We only went over to the pink building, where we first went to the book store to look at art supplies. August spotted the stickers and, in particular, alphabet stickers, and wanted a set. They had a few options, but he settled on one. Without thinking, I said, “But you could get both of them,” forgetting it is nice that he only ever wants one thing right now. At first he said “No” and just wanted the one. Good, I thought. But then I set him down so I could look at the crayons/pastels. He was looking up at the stickers and changed his mind: “Both, both.” So we got both. He did a good job handing them to the cashier, but immediately started shrieking. But progress, as in the past he has gotten upset when I have to take them out of his hands. He carried them as we went in to the grocery store and did some shopping: the citron tea that Preacher recommended, milk, etc. I set August down because he wanted to help (“helping”) and he chose the kind of milk we got. He then saw all the bottles of beverages, and was calling them “tea”. He particularly liked the blue drinks, calling them “blue juice”, he then walked down the row, identifying “mango juice.”

 

We took the groceries back home to Carly, then turned around and went back to the pink building and up to the Namu play area. Went in right at 3:45 and it was packed. A little overwhelming for him. Did some ball area and walking around to other things. Tried to play in the food area, but was frustrated when a boy tried to keep him from playing at the table, and then doubly frustrated when he wanted to play with the plastic fish that same boy had and I wouldn’t let him. He walked out of the room and did his arm shaking and a shriek. Also, when the train ran at 4 it was way too busy for him to try, which was upsetting, as he has been wanting to try it. Soon after that he tried to head for the door and say “All done play area. Home.” I picked him up and we went back to our spot where we wrote letters on the ground. Did that and sang some ABC/number songs for awhile, and he was back to playing. Around 4:30 it started to thin out and things went better. We spent quite a bit of time, while waiting for it to thin out, walking around and finding balls that had escaped the ball pit. August would pick them up, then I would either pick him up and hold him up so he could throw it over the glass wall into the ball area, or he would run to the entrance and throw it in. At 5, we were in line for the train, but when we started to get on the train August changed his mind, so we didn’t ride it. A little after 5 it really thinned out, and was quite lovely after that. We played in the block area, building towers, and in the ball area for awhile. I was swinging him around, doing “wheee” and bouncing him off of the soft things and a couch, and we lounged on a couch and sang ABC songs.

 

I was then pushing him around in the police car, and noticed a mom pushing around her little daughter (12 months or so) in the car with the cell phone. The cell phone wasn’t in it when we got there (I looked, of course), but low and behold, the girl was holding it to her ear, and continued to do so for the next several minutes (that’s a learned behavior, if I’ve ever seen one). As soon as they got out, August and I pounced, and switched cars. We spent our last 25 minutes or so pushing him around in that car. He was steering and pushing numbers on the cell phone (a distracted driver, but technically I was driving, so it was more like he was in a self-driving car) and talking/singing to himself. He was getting pretty tired by this point, so was pretty mellow.

 

About 5:40, just before our 2 hour mark, he decided he was ready to go home. He said “Namu play area fun”, and did good goodbyes to two of the workers, actually saying “annyang” once. We stopped for bread on the way home, and were home a little before 6.

 

We spent some time playing with his new letter stickers. He of course wanted to use the Qs first. He wasn’t interested in food, and I got a bath ready, but then he fell asleep nursing about 7.

 

He woke up coughing an hour later and wouldn’t go back to sleep. He and Carly came out, then she went back to bed. We did some reading and drawing, then he had fun hitting things with the markers to make noise. I got tape out to fix a rip in his notebook, and he grabbed it and wanted a piece. I gave him some, and he went straight down the hall to the poster by the mirror – the one he had been ripping way back in September or something and we had fixed repeatedly with tape – and put the tape on it. He came back and excitedly asked for “more yellow tape” (it looks yellow on the roll) and he did it again with a second piece. Right after that he wanted to go in to Carly and he fell back asleep about 9:50.

 

 

New words/phrases: want some of that, dada write ABCD on the paper, blue on the red (drawing on the iPad), set it on the table (pizza when he was done with it and I asked what to do with it), number stickers on the case, watercolor, mama’s phone boring, hit the freezer, hit with both

 

Not going outside anytime soon: 

Dipping strawberries in medicine: 

Realizing he could watch letters upside down: 

Using my pen: 

At the grocery store. Looking at the juices: 

Namu play area. Looking through lockers and finding out shoes: 

Stirring my (empty) coffee: 

Driving the boat: 

Got the numbers back: 

Back home. Using his new letter stickers: 

We’re still in low energy mode around here. We all slept in until a little after 7. August was doing the ABC puzzle with Carly in the morning. It is proving difficult to get medicine in August; he wouldn’t drink juice at all to begin with, and only drank a little through the day. Carly mixed some medicine with ice cream again and he barely touched that as well.

 

Anyway, Carly skyped with her mom, then we had a good Skype call with Vivi and family and were able to wish Jeff a happy birthday. We just jung out at home until he fell asleep a little after noon. He took a nice, long nap – a little over two hours.

 

Soon after he got up, as he was still waking up, I was talking about going to a play area. He popped up and said “Numbers missing. Numbers missing, play area.” Carly figured out he was talking about the phone missing from the car at the Namu play area.

 

Before we left, he took the eye piece of the elephant out from the play mat and excitedly called it an ‘urt’. We haven’t used that term in quite awhile.

 

I brushed his teeth and we got him ready, and we headed out a bit after 3. He still refused to wear a hat, but Carly made sure he was well-bundled: two pairs of socks, three pairs of pants, a sweatshirt, and two coats. And I did force him to have his hood up when it got windy.

 

We walked across to the See and Me building, just north of Home Plus, to check out the play area there. We have never been. As we walked by the north end of the art museum, August wanted his coat pulled down over his hands for the first time – something I keep encouraging him to do since he refuses mittens, but he hasn’t done yet. August had said he wanted to go to the Namu play area, and was upset when he realized we were going in the wrong building. But he changed his mind when he saw the play area through the windows. It is pretty big, and a couple dollars more. The play area you can climb in is huge compared to the others we have been to. It hadn’t looked to bad from the outside, but once inside it was quite busy and loud. To be expected when it is 16 degrees out.

 

August first played with a cool slide that has water and colors inside it. A slight problem, as he just wanted to touch the slide and look at it and pretend to taste the water, but that meant he kept getting in the way of all the kids trying to come down the slide. That didn’t bother him, but me moving him out of the way did. He did climb up it once, but then another kid came up and touched him and he didn’t like that, so I helped August go down the slide.

 

From there we went to the big bouncy area. It was brave of August to get in it with all the bigger kids bouncy around, and he lasted a few minutes. Unfortunately, it ended badly as when August was trying to go out, a bigger kid came through the entrance and literally shoved August out of the way. This was followed a few minutes later with August trying to walk into another room, but an even bigger kid, upset about something and looking for his mother, yelling “Omma” (mommy) right in August’s face. He may have made contact, too.

 

We soldiered on. August and I wandered through the big climbing area and into the ball pit for a minute. That went well. So did the digging area, which was actually filled with little rounded wooden cubes. He filled up a bucket a couple times. We met a guy who spoke English, who really liked August’s sweatshirt, the one from my parents, that says “My Dad is My Hero”. There was then a little show thing, involving people dressed up as the KoKoMung characters (it is based on a TV show, like the Tayo bus cafe was). August didn’t know what to make of that, but it at least reduced the crowds a bit.

 

August needed a break, so we had a snack. He watched a couple bigger boys play with a toy car, then wandered around a bit. August’s next big disappointment was when he saw two workers using a hand vacuum to clean up a mess. August got excited and started saying “Zinnie do that! Zinnie do that!” He was crushed when I said he couldn’t, and they left with the vacuum.

 

He lasted a few more minutes after that; it was actually starting to clear out and calm down, but he was getting ready to leave. We played in the room with the pin board thing for a few minutes. We were the only people in there at first, which was nice, as earlier there had been about 10 kids in there.

 

He lasted a little over an hour before being done and wanting “More outside.” Getting all of our clothes and shoes on and checking out was quite a chore, and he was pretty upset by the end, but as soon as we got outside he calmed down and started singing. We went to Home Plus, where he got excited about seeing the animals. The lizard was using the turtle as a head rest today. From there we did some ABCs on the floor, then he wanted to go “downstairs”. We went down and did our grocery shopping. A woman gave August a sample of chocolate Chex, so that got him through most of it. It was very, very busy. Made it through though and headed out.

 

Walking home (getting close to 6), it was dark and windy. 10 degrees, with a wind chill of -8 or so. That’s fahrenheit. Definitely August’s, and probably my, coldest weather experience. Coming back across the park, I asked August if he wanted to go to the art museum or home to mama. I was startled when he said “art museum”, so I asked again, and he confirmed it. So we went in and he decided to go to the play area. Played there about 15 minutes. He kept saying “hi” to me from the play area. He also pointed out the ‘q’ in the fire extinguisher instructions (“squeeze”) – Carly had mentioned the ‘q’ but I hadn’t seen it yet.

 

Headed home from there, forcing him to wear his hood over the bridge where it was the windiest. He was getting flustered from the wind and cold as we neared home, so I started joking about him being a “cap’n” again. That got us home.

 

At home he ate some ravioli for dinner, and watched more ABC songs; he’s learning from them, as when we were then drawing on the paper, he started calling the letters “the alphabet”, something he definitely picked up from the videos. Later, when he was watching them again, he was singing along to the letters on a couple of songs, then surprised us when he sang along to the line “26 letters from A to Z” in one of the songs. Carly also did a lot of drawing with him. Not a lot of reading today, somehow, but I did read pigeon books with him at some point, and Carly may have read books with him when they were in bed.

 

I gave him a bath after Carly got it ready. I let him play for a long time before trying to wash him. Still didn’t sit down, and still didn’t appreciate the washing when it came, but maybe it will help him get back to liking baths if we give him more play time first. He played with Sophie, having her sit down on the edge of the tub, and also played with the little cups.

 

He didn’t last long after that, and went to sleep about 8:10.

 

New words/phrases: 25 open (as we were getting ready to leave the play area, he was looking at the lockers and saying which numbers were open or closed), reading ‘5000’ (on a banner as we entered Home Plus – think we may have discussed it before), downstairs, Where’s the elephant? Right there (as we were working on the puzzle), alphabet

Getting into the Loopimal music app: 

Play area. Touching the blue:

Coughing in the ball area: 

The show: 

Trying to make sense of it: 

Kicking his foot while he watches some kids: 

Lizard and turtle at Home Plus: 

In his ABCD spot: 

Art museum play area: 

Cap’n on the way home: 

The weather when we walked home: 

Drawing with mama: 

At home. Mama, alphabet, and 2s: 

August was up sometime after 6. In the morning he requested Timmy Time, but just watched a few minutes before switching to drawing on the iPad. He ate a small breakfast, then after one vitamin he started coughing and had a big throw up. Switched to drawing on paper after that. We had planned on going to Children’s Grand Park today, but since he was feeling sick I cancelled that, instead taking him down to the doctor about 9:30. When getting him dressed he flat out refused his new yellow pants. He wore the new shirt though, with pine/fir trees on it.

Before heading to the doctor, I told him that was what we would be doing. So he started to say “Going to doctor soon.” He then started doing about screaming, saying “No screaming in doctor soon.” Of course, when we got down there and he realized what we were actually doing, he got upset. He wasn’t happy with the exam, but calmed down after, and stood in the room while I talked to the doctor. The nurse giving him a candy helped as well.

After coming home he wanted to go outside. He really wanted the backpack, but we weren’t going far, but he was fine with walking. We walked across to the art museum first. As we passed the ice rink, he pointed and said “Zinnie do that.” I told him he had to wait until we were both over our coughs. In the art museum we went to the play area first. He climbed up in it, and spent a few minutes trying to go through the shaky tube thing. I think he is hesitant because it goes downhill first. He drank some water, then wanted to walk around. He had spotted a group of big kids across the museum and waved and said “Hi, big kids.” Interesting because he otherwise continues to refuse to say ‘Hi’ to people.

So we got our shoes and backpack and went and looked at some art. He liked two pieces in the lower photo room: a blue sculpture and a big painting with a lot of people and things on it. From there we went into the main gallery. All of these shows just opened so were new to us. There was one piece on the ceiling that involved lights that he called “pretty”, and as he walked around upstairs he would see pieces with people in them and say “More people.” We also followed a few groups of “big kids” around, and when he saw them leaving he waved and said “Bye, big kids.”

Back on the first floor, he watched the ruby slippers video a bit more, then we headed downstairs to the never-ending Wonderland exhibit (supposed to end mid-December – the next show must have fallen through or something). As we went down he said “Look at the numbers, letters.” We did that, and he also spent some time feeling the fake grass, saying “pattern” and “texture” and “grain”. There was a silver information sign, which he called “pretty”, then was calling “silver”.

He was hungry and wanted a snack, so we went up to the second floor cafe. He ate and I got a tea latte and we sat and drew in the notebook. At least until he started dropping the crayons to see them roll on the floor. After that we switched to the iPad and drew on that. There is a video installation on the second floor, so every few minutes we got to hear Radiohead’s “Idioteque” in the background. He was getting tired – it was now 11:30 – but he denied it even as he lay his head on the table from time to time. Before we left we went into the art museum library as I realized they have several art books for children in English. Unfortunately, they were closing for lunch at noon. So we headed out and went home.

We ate some lunch (the left over rice and chicken soup). Despite his earlier tiredness, he wasn’t in a hurry for a nap. He first wanted to read Kipper, so we did that. He really got into knocking on the door at the right moment, and does a good job of rapping his knuckles on the door now. He tickled my feet, and when I didn’t immediately respond he said “‘Hee hee’ Dada say that.” as that is what I have done in the past when he tickles my feet.

He refused the stroller and carrier. Think he misses the backpack. So I put him in the backpack and walked around the 8th floor for 10 minutes and he fell asleep. Unfortunately, he only slept from 1:04 to 1:39 and woke up from a little coughing, wanting to nurse. I took him out of the backpack, which was a mistake, as he wanted back in. Put him back in and we went out for another 10 minute walk. He was resting the whole time, but didn’t fall back to sleep. Perhaps he would have, had I not taken him out.

We were drawing on paper again when he bumped his back on the brown chair. When he got upset he said “Phone. Magie. Magie for Mama” wanting to call Carly (‘Magie’ being the name that Carly gave to my phone because it is a ‘magic phone’.) He watched a little more Timmy Time, now figuring out how to skip through and episode and actually choosing a new episode to start watching. He was really into saying “Hoot, hoot, hoot” as one of the teachers on a show is an owl and that is all he says.

In the afternoon we headed out to the library and Home Plus. At the library we grabbed the Robot book and a couple of ABC and number books then went upstairs and read them for awhile. That went fine, but then he wanted a snack. So we headed out, eating on our way to Home Plus. There, we did some grocery shopping and picked up a pizza. A lot of free samples in the afternoon, so August was happy with that. As we walked home August was able to read ‘Pizza’. Of course, it was on the pizza box, so there was a big contextual clue.

He wanted to stop in the park and play, so we set everything down and found a stick. He drew for awhile, then started talking about ‘Pee’. At first I thought he was just joking about peeing in the grate, but then he started to get upset. I carried him home (I hadn’t really thought through the carrying the pizza home thing; with no carrier I had him in one arm and the pizza in the other), and he was upset the whole way, but fine when we got home, and nothing seemed wrong. Carly things he might just be getting more aware of when he needs to go to the bathroom.

Carly left school a little early, and stopped at the doctor on the second floor on her way home, getting pretty much the same treatment and prescriptions that I did. When she got home she and August lounged in bed together.

Carly and I had pizza for dinner. I made broccoli for August, and he ate some mushrooms and broccoli for dinner, dipped in teriyaki sauce. Didn’t eat a whole lot. Gave him a bath, which went okay. After his bath he took Sophie with him to play with. Wasn’t being overly successful with giving August his medicines. I got mango juice today, and he slowly drank his midday dose over the course of several hours. For his evening dose I just did a half dose of the medicines and mixed them in ice cream. I had gotten blueberry ice cream for August, but Carly had an urge for mint chocolate chip ice cream, so I went down to Baskin Robbins and got her some. August has always liked ice cream, but  then he only ate a little of it. He seemed more excited just by the fact that it was cold. He would barely touch his tongue to the spoon, then excitedly say “Cold, cold, cold!” and flap his arms.

Carly headed to bed, and I stayed up with August, who was avoiding sleep again. We did his ABC puzzle several times. I help a lot, but he’s slowly figuring it out, and does pretty well when there are just a few pieces left. When the puzzle was done he said “Hold it ABCDs…Hold it uppercase.” After the puzzle we did a lot of reading: Little Kipper, Pigeon books, then Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish on the iPad. When he got frustrated that I wouldn’t let him do anything besides read stories on the iPad, he went to get more paper books, but bumped his head in the process. He really tried to not let it bother him, but after several seconds he couldn’t keep it in and I took him
in to Carly. To went to sleep after that, around 9:30.

New words/phrases: going to doctor soon, no screaming in the doctor soon, look at the numbers (and) letters (wanting to go to the art exhibit downstairs where we have looked at them before), silver (the silver sign at the museum), push hard (using the crayons that aren’t very dark), reach (we were reaching under the couch for a marker), books with 5 (numbers on the ends of books at the library), climb in middle O (as he climbed into the round table at the library), bump the head (to Carly after bumping his head in the kitchen), dip it in dongstsu sauce (actually teriyaki sauce during dinner), gramma gave (?) milkshake, mama gave (?) that

Juice and medicine: 

Art museum:

One of the pieces he liked: 

“Pretty”: 

Watching the big kids downstairs: 

In the cafe: 

Not tired: 

Drawing: 

Backpack in the hall: 

After reading his Moby Dick book and liking the word ‘cap’n’: 

Headed to Home Plus. With Camel:

Sitting on my lap and reading in the library: 

Stopping in the park: 

Helping put stain remover on his new shirt after I didn’t take it off him for dinner: 

Some more coloring to finish the day: