Took him several minutes to wake up, even to the point of being upset that mama was gone. After he was changed and calmed down, we had Cheerios and banana for breakfast and sent Carly a message on skype. He then discovered he could stomp his foot without holding on to something. He played in the sink, and I found out he could say ‘handle’.
We made it down to Ttukseom Resort without much trouble. We checked out the waterpark, but August could be taking a nap soon, so I figured we’d save that until after his nap. We played at a playground just east of the subway station/bridge. He played with his shovel in the sand a little, then got into picking up garbage and putting it in the garbage can. He got his hands on a little plastic spoon, but decided he wanted to keep it, so we went and washed it off. He then had a lot of fun on the bench and standing on me as we had a snack.
From there, we walked down to the Han. We stopped in a semi-circle open space and sat on the edge for more eating, as he said he was hungry. This was the first spot we had to battle the ants, mainly solved by moving down the ledge. He did some more standing on my legs/knees. When finished, we went to the path closest to the Han and headed west. Made it most of the way to the other end of the park and he started to act tired. So I stopped and put him, with some resistance, into the backpack. Walked to the west end of the park, finding a little wetland area, then back to the design building, by which point he had fallen asleep. I got a coffee and we went up to the top floor and sat on the padded bench while he napped.
Only 40 minutes, but not bad. He woke up, and was fascinated by the low crawdad/fish pool. He kept leaning over, wanting to see more fish. They would hide and he would request ‘more’. We went to the other end of the floor and looked in the fishtanks at more fish and crabs. In between, he liked the planets hanging above us, rocking in the breeze of the fans.
That lasted for at least 20 minutes. I needed to change him, and wanted to go to the waterpark, so I dragged him away. I changed him out on the grass, then we went to the waterpark.
We found the shallow pool with a playground structure in it. We sat to the side and ate and just watched for quite awhile to get him comfortable. We then went to the pool, and he got in on the first step (of two). He was fine there for ten minutes or so. He did a little splashing fight with the woman next to him. He then got all the way in (just one more step) and was walking around. This lasted a couple minutes until a bigger kid (maybe 5) came up and kicked water right in his face and he cried. We took another snack break. We had a total of three more session over in the water. The wettest we got was when I held him and we walked up on the play structure. There was a lot of splashing, the water pouring from the big bucket overhead splashed us a little, and August put his arms in a flow of water that ran down him and me. The end of the third time over in the water, he spent several minutes walking around, splashing in the puddles on the deck. The fourth time we went over to the water, he spent a long time playing with my sandals and getting them wet in the puddles.
August started saying the Korean word for water, ‘mul’ while at the waterpark. He puts his mouth into a big ‘u’ shape to say it. He was saying it over and over the entire time we were there, and he started calling it the ‘mul area’.
Also, I saw two odd shirts while at the pool. The first was one that said ‘Let’s get star spangle hammered’. And the next was shirt for the Styx album, The Grand Illusion. Both looked pretty out-of-place at a child-friendly waterpark in 2015, but for different reasons.
Around 3:40 we started to leave. But we had to stop on our way out to rinse off in the showers a bit and watch a little more of the air compressors (which had caught his attention on the way in as well). And then I had to change him on the grass again, after which he really got interested in the child-sized exercise equipment, so we played on that for a few minutes.
We headed home, and got in right about 5. He wanted to sit by the sink, but it was messy, so I gave him a couple pieces of recycling to take down the hall with Carly. This became a big game, with Carly bringing back more things from recycling for him to take back down the hall. And after Carly gave him a bath, he ended up with the washcloth and his container of soap and started ‘washing’ everything: the table, the laptop, our legs. Quite the helper. It was a long day, and he fell asleep about 8.
New words: peel (pointing to banana), peanut (referring to peanut butter), handle, pool, mul, slippery (we were walking on the deck at the waterpark and he slipped. He kept walking, saying ‘slippery, slippery’), blender, oatmeal (looking at the package of oatmeal from iHerb)
In the park before his nap:
In the design plaza after his nap:
Water park:
Saying ‘mul’:
Helping at home: