After a rainy, indoor morning we made three outings, one before and two after his nap. The first was me and August going to the science center to look at bugs. The second was all together to walk east: we went over to where they are building the science center, past the cemetery area, through the park, and to the garden area. We then stopped at the playground in the park and played. After we came back and ate dinner, August and I went out to the ‘Sunset Concert’ that was over on the art museum side of the park.
In the morning, I had my book group meeting for two books: The Slap and Leonardo da Vinci and the Last Supper. August was asleep when I started my meeting, but awake when I was done. Carly was wearing her cat socks, which he really liked, and he kept saying “more kitty cat” so she would show him her socks. We were going to go for our walk earlier, but a thunderstorm came over and it was on the chilly side. So Carly went to Cafe Heim to get some work done, and I stayed with August. Chuck and Cherie went to Home Plus.
While everyone was gone, August and I listened to the newest Mark Lanegan album, fixed the korean words poster he’d ripped again with tape, and spent a lot of time out in the hallway between our apartment and the elevators using his broom and ‘shovel’ to sweep the floor.
We then got our shoes and sweatshirts on and went outside. We walked over to the science center and he spent a lot of time looking at the beetles, scorpion, stick bug, and praying mantis on the first floor. We went upstairs to see all the other animals, but the hall was devoid of aquariums. August seemed to know what we were doing, as he said ‘no animals’ and ‘animals all gone’ as I searched the floors trying to see if they’d been relocated. We went back to the first floor and did some more looking. As we left, he did his usual “bye bye scorpion”, “bye bye stick bug”, etc. But before we could leave he got really fixated on the toy dinosaur kits they have in a cabinet behind the main desk. I think he’ll be building those when he is older.
We went home and met back up with everyone else. He took his nap.
We then went on our walk east. A few rain showers, but nothing bad. We saw the set up for the concert on our way there. August really liked the big horse puppet, and kept saying “more neigh”. He would do that in the evening as well.
The big surprise was when we walked past one of those electrical boxes with the rainbow picture on it. August got incredibly excited and started shouting out his colors – rather out of the blue, as he hasn’t called out colors when we are out and about before. He would say “bye bye colors” and then “bye bye blue”, etc. He definitely did green and orange as well. Not sure if there were other colors in there. He did it on the way back as well.
At the playground, he did a lot of sweeping with his little broom. When it started raining, he noted the drops on the slide and called them ‘bubbles’. He then liked to “sweep bubbles”.
We headed home and ate a dinner of homemade popcorn, salad, french fries, and leftover potatoes. That sounds a bit odd, but it was quite enjoyable.
August and I then went out to the concert. A guy with balloons was performing first. After that, it was older-style (i.e. not K-pop) Korean pop/adult contemporary/rock music. Fun, but not amazing. August did listen to it, and would occasionally clap when other people did, but he spent most of the time playing around the lizards. He would point out colors on the colorful lizard, walk back and forth on the paving stones (like he had done at the waterworks museum), and climb and walk on the benches. This part would scare me a bit, as he would take off running. I’d try to hold his hand, but was afraid I’d knock him off myself. I was able to get him to focus on sliding down the edge of the benches a lot of the time. He’d keep asking for “more wee”.
He also wanted to go in the art museum, saying ‘art’ several times, and at one point walking over to the doors and pushing on them. He didn’t understand why we couldn’t.
A little after 8 he decided to take off walking east. He wanted to go to Home Plus. So I carried him across the street. I asked him what he wanted to see, and he kept saying something that sort of sounded like ‘cup’ or ‘cap’ or ‘cake’. No idea. Anyway, when we got in, he first pointed to the pinwheels and called them by name. He then directed me towards the moving sidewalk going up. At the Dippin’ Dots he got really excited, pointing to the cups, and kept saying ‘cup’. Don’t know if that was what he had in mind, as he hasn’t pointed those out for several months.
Anyway, after that we went upstairs. The rooms where he has his classes are used for band rehearsals/music lessons in the evening. He got to see into his own classroom. It was dark and set up for a music lesson. He had a confused look on his face, like he was trying to figure things out and expected to see his teacher. The door opened on another room, and a guy was practicing on a drum kit. August watched that intently for a few minutes. He also walked around in the hallway, balancing (holding my hand) on the little rail bumper things that keep carts from hitting the wall.
At 8:30 we headed back. We stopped on the first floor so he could sit in the kid rides, then walked home, seeing the horse puppets and concert for one last minute.
His nap had been over two hours, so he was in no hurry to go to sleep. He had a lot of fun with Oma getting her to tickle Opa. Around 9:30 Carly went to sleep. I stayed up with him awhile longer, playing Duplos. Finally, he decided he wanted to go to mama. He whacked his forehead on the door when he tried to open it to go see her, so started crying. He fell asleep right after that.
New words/phrases: all done spinning, come on mama, green ball, throw dada (throw to dada), more dada’s teeth, lips, all gone more up (there were no more letters to push up the door), tongue, I got my goodness, bye bye colors…, more bubbles up there, pinwheel, more tickle, honk
Watching the rain:
Sweeping the hallway:
Science center:
Random posters in the English Science EduCenter. Others include things like ‘Scientist doing research’, which is at least on-topic:
Walk east:
Sunset Concert:
Watching the music:
Trying to go into the art museum:
In Home Plus:
At home. Ticking Opa:
