We went to Children’s Grand Park, as usual. Headed out a bit later than usual, as we did two loads of laundry in the morning. On our way to the the subway, there was a fundraiser fair happening, and we bought 3 Korean picture books for 2000 won: a version of Alice in Wonderland, Heidi, and then a book about an elephant and other animals on a wire. The art in each of them is really cool.
On the way down we initially sat in an open bank of 3 seats. The train filled up, and I gave up my seat. August ended up sitting between two really nice women who played with him the entire way down.
At the park, there was a small festival setting up near the stage near the entrance. We were handed a free Pororo puzzle. As we entered the park, I asked August what animal he wanted to see. His first answer? Serval. He said it sticking his arm out in front of him, palm down and fingers spread. This became ‘the serval thing’ and I’d ask him to do it later and he would.
So we headed towards the serval. I set him down at the elephants. Looked at them, then the lions, tigers, etc. until we got around to the servals. He did, indeed like the servals. We finished up that stretch (coyotes, foxes, hyenas), then went to the water birds. We walked up to the second floor and sat down and watched the birds while we ate.
I tried to divide the sandwich as evenly as possible, but he immediately grabbed the slightly larger piece and called it “dada’s sandoo”. And pointed to mine and called it “Zinnie’s sandoo”. He continued with those names again even as he ate “dada’s sandoo”.
He sat on my lap, eating the sandoo and watching the birds. He was playing around as he finished eating. A couple came along with a 17 month boy. He had a big backhoe he could ride. They had tied a rope to it so they could pull it around. August really liked it, and they let him ride/play on it. He loved it, mainly the backhoe part (“More scoop”) and the buttons that made noise. When he had to give it back he got really sad. So we headed downstairs, where we looked at the birds a little more before heading over to see the lizards, etc.
I realized I can identify all 15 kinds of water birds they have in the building. Also, I think I know every mammal they have at the zoo. We then went to the lizards and turtles and I now have all of them down as well. That leaves the parrot-type birds and the birds they have in cages outside (pheasants, etc.).
Anyway, he was into that building as usual. Pointed to the parrot room and said “parakeet”. As it got to 1 it was time to get ready for his nap. We went out and he wanted to see the goats and horses first. At the goats he pointed to the one with horns and said “dada goat”, then to another adult and said “mama goat”, then to the babies and said “baby goat”. He did the same sort of thing with the horses, even though they are all about the same size. He wanted to sit on the steps, so we did that for a few minutes, then I took him up for our nap routine.
Changed him in the bathroom and did the usual walk to put him to sleep.
Carly mentioned that when people ask her what August is like, her first word is ‘hilarious’. An example of his sense of humor happened after I changed him. He saw a fan up by the window in the wall. He then saw that it was plugged in to an outlet, about 7 feet off the ground. As I carried him out, he said “bye bye no no area”. He kept repeating that several times since I laughed.
He fell asleep from 1:28 to 2:13. We sat outside at the cafe and I read. When he woke up he looked at letters on the book I was reading, then we went down to the festival area. Walked around and watched people, including the two guys on stilts. A band was doing soundcheck, playing a cover of “Mmm Bop”. I am not making that up.
August didn’t want to stay at the festival. I let him choose where we went. He directed me to the swampy areas, looking for gaeguli (frogs) and pointing out all the Haechi pictures on the ‘Don’t enter the water’ signs. He then wanted to go to the children’s museum.
So we went to the children’s museum. I think we’ve only been back once since the summer. We walked around the first first floor and ended up in the ball play area. Spent some time in the ‘under 4’ room, but ended up in the ‘5 and up’ room as it is more fun. The balls spilled on August twice, but he found it exciting. Eventually, he said he was hungry, so we went up to the third floor and finished off the sandwich in the small eating area.
I changed him before we left. There are animals on the wallpaper, and he was pointing them out. First he said “animal” and was pointing out the individual animals. Then he suddenly started working on his plural. He would say ‘animal ssss’. There was no snake on the wallpaper, so I knew he wasn’t doing his snake sound.
Before leaving the park, we stopped by the festival again. There was a K-pop dance group on stage. Rather odd, considering it was a children’s festival, especially when they were dancing to a mix that included the Sir Mix-a-Lot line “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns, hun.”
We headed home. Had to stay in the backpack for the ride home. In the subway station he saw the maps and was calling each “Opa’s map” after the one day Chuck was looking at maps in the subway.
At home he immediately laid on the carpet and was pointing out letters on a book. We switched backpacks and went to the pink building for grocery shopping. Did that, then went into the bookstore there. Ended up buying a really cool Korean baby animals counting book and a set of nice English letter flashcards.
Came home. Carly had just beaten us. She played with the flashcards with him. He had dinner and she gave him a bath. He still hasn’t sat down entirely in the bath. Today, after Carly was done washing him and he had let some of the water out, I asked him to sit down, and he did it. Progress.
Expected him to go to sleep earlier due to the short nap, but that didn’t happen. We all ended up playing on the bed for a long time, with the sheet and stuffed animals. Unfortunately, it ended when he stood up and took two sudden steps to the edge of the bed. There were blankets hanging off the edge and he thought they were solid. They were not. He fell and hit his chin on the bed frame, getting a little cut.
Carly calmed him down, and taught him that kisses make it better. He was sticking out his chin for us to kiss it, and he would say “feels better”. Finally, sometime after 9 he fell asleep.
Oh, and the Peace Cafe got a couple of new books in that I will read. I had thought there was just two books I was interested in left after I finished the one that I’m on. Now they have Still Life with Rice The Guernsey…
New words/phrases: sweatshirt, parakeet, dada sing baa baa, teeter totter (tee-tee-oh), go to see mama, heeby jeeby e f g, tongue, feet, feels better
Children’s museum:
At home: