August woke up a couple minutes before 7, and by a couple minutes after 8 we were headed to the subway. It took 65 minutes and one transfer to get down to Seoul Grand Park, south of Gangnam. August did just fine. For the second train stint he sat on my lap and we read the two books I brought along (Carle’s ABCs and Plant a Tree for Me).
It is a long way from the subway, up past the parking lots and around the lake to the zoos. We walked this time to check things out along the way, but would probably take the shuttle bus/train thing in the future. The parking lot was being used by the police for motorcycle and riot police training, so that was pretty entertaining.
As we got to the children’s zoo (you had to walk along a fence to the far end), August could hear and smell (he did his sniffing thing) it and was getting excited. We walked into the the zoo and first he was excited to see a sheep statue and sit on it. Then he saw pigs for the first time. It got even better after that as he saw goats and horses and then ‘real’ baa baa sheep. We spent a good 30 to 45 minutes with the sheep, pausing for a snack. After our snack, we bought hay from the vending machine and he loved feeding the sheep. He got to touch their wool and a ram came over and he was touching the horn.
We moved on, looking at the gardens a bit and then heading out and across the street to the big zoo. There, we went first to see zebras for the first time, then the giraffes (he pointed and called them ‘GG’ after his stuffed animal).
He was hungry, so we went to the playground and sat on a platform to eat. He was really entertained by another green bug that crawled on our backpack, then played in the sand. We then went down to the stream and played in the water using the shovel and the plastic boat I’d brought along.
From there we walked up to see about the dolphin shows. He saw a dolphin picture and said pointed and said ‘dolphin’, a word I didn’t know he knew. He had heard me say it in the zoo, but I hadn’t been pointing to a dolphin. So that must have come from a couple of his books with dolphins in them. Anyway, we saw the seals, then stopped for a snack and water. He started laying on the ground at my feet and I thought he might be tired, so I put him in the backpack.
Walked up to the goldfish pond and back and forth a bit and he fell asleep for a 45 minute nap by the pond.
After he woke up we walked back down the hill, headed for camels. Along the way we saw llamas and then spent a lot of time looking at the big birds (he said ‘eagle’, ‘owl’, ‘who’, ‘condor’, and ‘law’ a lot). And we saw a bateleur, which was new to me.
We then went to see the camels, but could only see part of them, since they were in their houses. He was hungry again, so we found a bench by the water birds and ate a Larabar. Another family saw him and gave him a rice cake thing that he loved (called it a ‘cracker’). This is where he said ‘dada eat’ and ‘dada eat it’. The backpack was out of water, so we went to find a water fountain. Took awhile, then headed to the dolphin show. We passed more water fountains and August pointed and said ‘a-ha’. Pretty sure that isn’t exactly what I said when we found the previous one, but obviously I had been excited.
Anyway, we went into the dolphin show (benefit of the backpack: not having to leave it outside in the stroller area) and sat down in the first row. He kept pointing and saying ‘mul area’. When the show started, the audience clapped. He was startled by that, and kept looking at the audience every time they clapped, even after I pointed out the seal. After a couple of times of clapping, he then clapped, but got his sad/overwhelmed look. So I picked him up and he sat on my lap the rest of the show (15 minutes). He loved the dolphins, and was upset when the show ended. For the next 15 or 20 minutes he kept saying ‘more’ as we walked outside.
Getting out of the park took much longer than I expected. We saw a camel out in the open, then when we got to the hippos August decided he didn’t want to be carried. So we played there for awhile, mainly with the bushes and railing and wanted to be picked up to see when the hippo made noise. I was standing a bit off from him while he played when he turned to me and said “I got my dada” several times and grabbed my legs, then went back to playing.
I got him away from there, but the next stop was the meerkats. Who knew he loved meerkats, so much? He watched them for several minutes, then wanted to go back to them after we started to leave.
We made another pass by the zebras and changed him in the bathroom across from them. From there, we made the long walk back to the subway. He was fine most of the way, but insisted on playing near the parking lots and was a bit upset when I cut that short and insisted we go.
He did great on the ride back. On the first stint on the train he was in the backpack. At one point, he started rubbing something on my neck. I knew he didn’t have anything so was confused. It turns out one of the women around us, I don’t know which, gave him a piece of hard candy. In the wrapper.
We transferred and managed to score one seat for the entire 40 minute trip back. He was still in the backpack. 3 crackers, some Cheerios, and then reading the books kept him occupied until we got home a little before 6.
Carly made him spaghetti for dinner, which is still his favorite, then gave him a bath. He successfully peed in his toilet again before the bath. Went to sleep around 8:30 again.
So one of the things he was doing today was changing the words to the ABC song. Like he has done with other songs (like Baa Baa), he would say something different to be funny. I was telling Carly about this as he ate spaghetti, and he sang the ABC song replacing the letters he knows with ‘haak-uum’, his made-up word for garbage.
New words: sheep, wool, giraffe, dolphin, owl, bye bye condor, dada eat, dada eat it, raisins, meerkat
On our way:
Children’s zoo:
The big zoo:
He had tried to drink the stream water, so I called it icky water, which he then repeated a lot:
Waiting for the show:
Watching from my lap. Note the bit of Larabar still in his hand:
Sad because the show is over:
Playing by the hippos:
Meerkats:
On our way home. Cracker boy:
Dinner time:
Don’t think I’ve mentioned it on the blog before today, but haak-uum is his word for garbage. It can refer to either a piece of garbage or to a garbage can or bag. My dad first figured it out in Everett on the waterfront: