It was a Children’s Grand Park Thursday. He woke up early, right at 6. In the morning he said ‘bye bye’ to Carly a bunch of times before she left. We made a game of throwing the small wooden blocks into (or behind, really) the bucket with the balls in it, he carried around the dog and tractor, we made scrambled eggs together, after which August had fun crushing the egg shells in the sink, we started using the transportation sticker book, and we Skyped with Cherie, who showed August some of his favorite toys from Centralia, including the wooden spoons and forks.
About 9 we headed out. We first went to the zoo. We started at the children’s zoo, where he focused on the horses and goats today. Then through the tropical animals, where he got close to the gibbon (calling it a baboon) and watched a cockatoo taking a bath in the hose as a zookeeper washed the floor. From there we went quickly through the lizards, etc. and over to the water birds.
In all three places, he had been fine walking around on his own until someone else came around, after which he wanted me to pick him up. Here he was up close with both a black and white swan, but when a man came through with a child, August was done and wanted to go.
So we went and saw the real baboons. We spotted the baby, and it was climbing up the fence, so August started saying ‘climb’. August was getting tired, and letting me know he was done. So we went and saw the big cats for just a couple minutes (they were all sleeping, so not really entertaining to August, but pretty amazing that a lion is sleeping two feet from you) and then found a bench and had a snack. I then put him in the backpack without fuss and started walking to Dream Cafe and he fell asleep.
At the cafe, I set up outside, since I’ve found the noise of the espresso machine wakes him up indoors. They don’t have the umbrellas over the outside tables (due to wind, I assume), so I put a chair under the big overhang. I was reading when it started to rain. And boy did it start to rain. Carly said her students thought it was the end of the world. It was a solid downpour for about 20 minutes. We were a few feet from the edge of the roof, but were still getting wet. I ended up having to drag the backpack about 3 feet over to the side of the building, and then stand between August and the rain in order to keep him from getting really wet. Still, he ended up pretty damp, but slept through it, for a nice 85 minute nap. Got some good reading done on The Sheltering Sky when I wasn’t enjoying the downpour.
When he woke up he needed to be changed (he had leaked). So we went and changed him, then found a garbage can so he could throw away the diaper. We found a covered picnic table and ate lunch, then went to the children’s museum.
We spent a good two and a half hours at the children’s museum. All of it playing, except for changing him at the end. Most in the infant room. He was really into carrying an object around the entire time he was there: first the blue fish, then a teddy bear, then this weird squishy stuffed…thing. He played with the wooden tree construction set (for lack of a better description) for a long time, rode (and I pushed him around on) the ladybug push car (while holding the squishy thing), and just sat in a couple of spots. And he did a lot of organizing, putting things away in the low-ceilinged room, primarily, but also the push car things. He also did better on the trampoline, although he didn’t stay on for a long time.
Around 3 he started to say he was hungry, but it took us a long time to leave. We left the infant area, but then he wanted to go in the book area. We played for quite awhile in there before changing him and leaving close to 4.
Outside, we stopped at a bench for a snack. He got up on it and was basically running from one end to the other. Acting a little fearless. He ate his snack, then we walked towards the exit via the swampy area. As we started to go through it, he started saying ‘gaegul, gaegul’ and pointing, looking for frogs again. I don’t actually think we’ve seen frogs in the wild, so very interesting that he so clearly understands what frog terrain looks like.
We made it to Hagye station, then walked to Home Plus, where we managed to buy string cheese, parmesan cheese, and (finally) teriyaki sauce (hidden in plain sight). August was happy because he got his ‘samples’: sausage and cantaloupe.
We came home a few minutes before Carly at 5, and by 7 he was asleep. In between he ate spaghetti for dinner and played a lot on the bed. He lounged against Carly’s pillow and proclaimed ‘comfy’. He also created a new game of dropping objects through the hole in his stool and saying ‘uh-oh’.
Something he’s been doing lately is saying the names of people he knows and giving them objects. He’s doing that more and more. Today it was things like ‘baby’s apple, gramma’s car, tia’s shoes’. But he also did a couple really silly ones, like ‘banana’s shoes’.
One other thing I noticed was his tone has changed when he’s calling for me or Carly. Before it was more of a ‘mama!’ when he didn’t know where she was, as if he was actually saying ‘I want mama!’ Today, when he was lounging on the pillow on the bed, he turned his head towards the door and said ‘mama?’, as if to say ‘I know you’re here, but where are you?’ He later had this same tone when calling to me.
New words: sticker, people, goat, goat poop, climbing (baby baboon), kids, ah-ge (baby), shinbal (shoes in korean), zoo, animals, zebra, comfy, Kindle. Also working on lemur, fox
Pointing at the horses:
Pointing at the gibbon:
With the swans:
His nap:
Tweety:
Children’s museum:
Putting things away:
Squishy thing in hand while he rides around:
Sitting:
Speeding on the bench:
One way:
Back the other:
On the bed at home:
