August and I had fun checking out a couple parks in the Suraksan area and scouting out the beginning of the Seoul Trail (which runs around Seoul for 170km or so and my friend Derek and I plan on hiking it – in pieces – over the next several months).
We also hung out in a coffee shop for awhile and then headed to APIS to visit with 7th graders and encourage them to finish their National History Day projects, which are due tomorrow.
First, August is really loving the book we got from his Monday class. Also, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that it came with a CD of music that she also uses in class. If I put on one of the three songs he has heard in class he totally snaps to attention and listens. Very cool. Anyway, here he is with the book:
He loves this flap of the duck and duckling so much that he will probably rip it off soon:
As he has suddenly gotten much more mobile over the last few days, he can also move from his tummy to sitting with ease. It also means that he moves his body into all sorts of different shapes.
Combine that with the new silly faces he was making today and you get photos like these:
Our walk was cold but lovely. We were in the area a few miles north of us where you have Bukhansan just to the west, our River in the center, and then Suraksan just to the east. You can walk from the base of one mountain to the base of the other in about 20 minutes.
I had women (not) helpfully worried about August being cold headed both ways on the subway. He was wearing two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two sweatshirts, in the carrier strapped to me, with the cover, and wearing a warm hat.
For example, when we got on the very warm subway headed north, a woman got up out of her seat and adjusted his hat over his ears even though I was about to take it off him. She then tried covering up his hands with the sweatshirts even though I had just taken them out so he could actually use them.
Note: It only got down to 32 today and was sunny.
Anyway, after we had been walking for awhile, it was indeed time to get in out of the cold for awhile. So we went in a coffee shop and had a latte (me) and milk (him) and warmed up for awhile.
As I mentioned, he is really workingn on lids. Got to develop that fine motor control. He was practicing in the coffee shop:
Of course, we are also working on sitting at a table. He managed to make it without banging his head on the table. Although he kept trying to climb on the table. But for a few minutes at least he was calmly sitting on the bench:
Some of the scenery:
Base of Suraksan with the mountain in the background:
From a lovely green area along a stream looking over at Dongbonson (the peak at the north end of Bukhansan National Park) to the west
Didn’t take photos/videos at APIS as we were trying to keep students focused on their homework. However, he fell asleep right as we were getting ready to leave, so I took this:
Back home he continued to play with the book. He also really enjoys these pages, which have two of his current favorite things, cats and dogs. Even better is that the ears of the dog and tail of the cat are fluffy, and thus suckable:
Carly noticed the older babies first handing objects to other people at the first birthday party we went to a couple weeks ago. August must have taken note because he started doing it soon after: