We had a pretty good first birthday for August. In the morning he had a nice big breakfast; since it was his birthday I gave him the small luxuries of not having to sit in his chair while he ate and also let him eat more orange and cheese than he has had in the past. We also started to listen to his new CD from his Monday class in the morning.
A bit before 10 we headed out at caught the Nowon 9 bus to Kwangwoon and then took the subway to Dongdaemun. We went to the play center on the first floor where you have to be a year old. So August enjoyed meeting his first age restriction.
It was fun. We were the first people there, and the whole time we were there (bit more than 90 minutes) there was only ever one other mother with her son. If anything it was a little cold and sterile. But better than being really crowded. He played with the stuffed animals and balls, then the rocking horses (baabaas), although he mainly rocked them while standing and didn’t want to sit on them. He then crawled over and into the sewing/house area. We also had fun in a room with these rubber circles with different shapes/textures on them and with dropping/throwing wooden balls into the ball pit. The one mishap was when I put him on the wooden slide and we were rolling balls down it. He then slid down the slide. It was a small slide and I thought it wouldn’t be a problem, but it was really slippery and he tumbled into the wooden balls.
And he has a new word: balls are ‘ba’, so it just kind of sounds like half of ‘baa baa’, but he started using it clearly with the balls at the play area.
The most unusual part was this area where you pushed a button of an object on the wall and you would hear the noise. There was a sheep, which August loved looking at, but when he heard the noise he would get all sad and keep repeating ‘baabaa’. He kind of looked scared, but would keep pushing the button himself.
Mainly though he was getting tired at that point so I got my ‘free’ drink (a basic rooibos tea) and we headed out. Walked up the boring spiral walkway to put him to sleep and sat in a chair in the design lounge for the next 90 minutes while he slept. I finished the Cleese book and read some Bolano.
When he woke up there were many more people in the lounge. Two workers came and visited with him for several minutes. He was quite shy at first, clinging to my leg. But he warmed up and was showing off by the time they left. But other people kept coming and I saw our time ticking away.
I had wanted to do a little birthday photoshoot since the lighting up there is nice and I fit in 10 minutes or so. Rather rushed, and a little awkward as there were about 10 people in the room compared to zero when we first entered. There were even workers taking out some of the chairs. Still, I got a few decent photos.
I had wanted to surprise Carly at work but we now had only an hour to get there if we wanted to see her at all. So no leisurely visit, and no finding a scale to weigh August. We went and hopped on the 100 bus and proceeded to sit in traffic for the next 20 minutes. As it was we ended up rolling past the turn off to APIS as her culture club was starting. So rather disappointed that that didn’t work out. I should have just left after the play area and had him nap on the bus. But there seemed like plenty of time at the time.
Off the bus we walked through the park and went to the Buk to see the exhibition of new works that opened that day in the upstairs hall. It was decent. They were all videos, so got his attention.
After that we went to Home Plus and got some groceries and headed the playground. Had fun on the swing and the bouncy thing despite the cold wind. We were probably there for 20 to 30 minutes.
Thought about meeting up with Carly on her walk home, but was getting just a bit too cold (and I was carrying groceries). So we beat her home by 5 to 10 minutes.
They played for awhile and then we did his choosing ceremony. Not quite sure what he picked… either the protractor or the brain or the gavel…
He then ate dinner, then we measured him on both of his monkey growth charts, and opened presents.
A few highlights from the day. I will be posting a few more things about his birthday, like the gifts and the choosing ceremony, in the coming days:
Morning:
Play area:
Nap in the design lounge:
At the Buk:
In the park:
