He had a nice long laugh in his sleep sometime this morning. He woke up at 8:10 and had some Duple time before we left the house about 9:30. We took the bus and subway to City Hall, then walked down to Namdaemun, the old south gate to the city and National Treasure #1. August got down there and played around a little, then we went into Namdaemun Market so Chuck and Cherie could look for a couple things. August was still down and did pretty well. There are only so many toys you can look at but not really touch before it gets frustrating though.
When they were done, we walked south out of the market, then up to Namsan Park. We first stopped close inside the west entrance near a statue of a guy on a horse. We sat on benches and had a snack. This was the start of him eating a lot throughout the day.
We then started the trek up the hill to Namsan Tower. After taking a look at the building with the folk museum, we played in the rock area outside. August climbed across one of the big rocks, but then focused on throwing smaller rocks into the bushes. We continued on, stopping once again for more food next to some exercise equipment. Here, August played with Opa with the barbell (and really liked the letters spelling ‘barbell’). One unfortunate moment as August tried to walk around the barbell and walked right into the end of the bar, leaving a red bump next to his eye. He recovered really quickly, however.
We then made the big haul up the stairs. August fell asleep along the way at 1:47. We reached the top and Chuck and Cherie went and looked around while I sat with August on a bench. It was a short nap – he woke up at 2:23 – and he was in a daze for awhile. I changed him in the same spot I changed him a year ago when my parents were here, then we tried to play by the chain area where he played in the spring, but got upset when he couldn’t crawl past the chain.
So we continued on. We walked east along the trail, and found a path down to the folk village/time capsule park. We got down to the time capsule, and this is where August really perked up. He had been on the quiet/introspective/moody side most of the day, but this changed when he got on top of the time capsule. The time capsule has messages from mayors around the world engraved on top. This was the best thing in the world to August. He kept pointing out letters and naming them, then scooting/crawling across the top, saying “more letters, more letters.” We did this for probably 20 minutes. I had to change him and we needed to get going home, so we ended it there. But August was ready to keep going.
Went down to a grassy area and changed him. While I was putting stuff away, Chuck and Cherie were trying to keep him from running over to a drainage ditch. August was kind of yelling, so you couldn’t tell if he was upset, but then he would suddenly break out laughing.
We walked out of the park, stopping to have August put his head through those cutout people things, then got on the subway. His energy continued here. Cherie had the fun of sitting next to him, while I stood in front. He kept looking “out the window” and ate a couple crackers and the rest of his sandwich (by now he had also eaten slices of apple, our supply of broccoli (which he also ate for breakfast), and a Larabar).
We transferred to the 1144 bus and Chandong. August and I sat in front of Chuck and Cherie. Along the way, I asked August what he wanted to do. He surprised me with “Art”. I said we could color when we got home. He then said “Want to SEE art.” Which was a total shock, as he constructed that sentence all on his own (although we’ve clearly been working on the ‘want to…’ structure).
We got home a few minutes after 5, and Carly had beaten us home. After eating dinner, August did some more yoga with Cherie, and we reconstructed the photo of Carly, Cherie, and August on the couch from when Cherie was here after he was born. He also looked at some of the art books with me. Primarily we looked at the ‘Arttoys’ program from the show we went to with my parents down at the college of arts and science. He’s liked that one in the past, but today he started to pick up on the names of the figures, saying “More BB” or “More MooL” or “Bambino”. I also had mentioned the colors of the MooL figures, and he started saying the names: “Grey MooL” and “Colorful Mool”.
Because of the short nap, he got to sleep earlier, a little after 8, after Carly gave him a bath.
New words/phrases: dada here mama at work, fall down, up here, more buckle shoe, too big rock, want to see art, sail, BB, colorful MooL, grey MooL, Bambino
Morning:
Namdaemun:
Namsan Park:
Getting changed at Namsan Tower a year later:
Time capsule:
Headed home: