It was cooler today, but what made it hard was the wind. And the fact that August and I were on top of a hill when it hit.
The idea was to go to Hyehwa and go up to the park on the hill (one of the original defensive hills of Seoul with the wall running along it) to play and eat lunch, then go back down the hill and go to our favorite art gallery (the Arko), then hit the Salvation Army for books before heading home.
Books at the SA was the only piece that went as planned. We got to the top of the hill to find that the ‘playground’ labeled in the map was actually an outdoor theater (so, technically, ground on which you could perform a play).
We ate lunch at the park, but it wasn’t all that pleasant and we huddled on a concrete bench next to a wall to avoid the wind.
Then, it turned out that the art gallery is closed for another week. Also bummers: the first coffee shop I found in the area and the art shop where I bought the prints in the guest room are both closed.
Anyway, things didn’t exactly go as planned, but we still had fun. August liked a window display full of tchotchkes, two ceramic cats outside a restaurant, a dragon outside a museum, and seeing green monster’s twin in the Artbox store (where I bought Green Monster and Bluie).
And another new word: ‘river’. As we took the bus home and looked out the river, he said it, with no prompting from me, as we crossed our river. Like ‘Pororo’ it had been a practice word a week or two ago but he hadn’t used it since. So it was a surprise to hear him pull it out. He has said it many times since today and is quite clear. In fact, it might be his word that is closest to the correct pronunciation.
I thought he might take a nap after we got home at 3:30 but he was full of energy (see the magnet video). But then he crashed at 4:26 and Carly got home a couple minutes later and I went to PT. Luckily, he only slept for 35 minutes. But that didn’t stop him from being up until 10:30.
Oh, and he just lay in my lap for 10 minutes after waking up this morning. He hasn’t done that, outside the 40 minute stretch the other day, for months. And that was more like sitting, whereas today he was stretched out across my lap. Later, he sat on my lap for 20 minutes, staring at the speakers, as we listened to his music.
Morning:
Poking his palm. This is from one of his songs from class:
Our adventure:
Waving to people down the steps:
Top of the hill looking towards downtown Seoul:
Lunch:
In his shoes. A little complaining at first, but he wore them for the rest of the trip and did fine:
Pointing to the flags blowing hard in the wind:
Cats:
Rosy cheeks:
Back home:
Tonight is apparently the traditional holiday where they burn the fields to prepare them for planting. We have seen the parade the last two years but only from our window. Today I saw it up close as it went by as I returned from PT: