Our first full day without Oma and Opa around. He handled it pretty well, but mentioned them pretty often, especially in the evening when he started walking around, trying to find them.
After he woke up after 8 we took the morning to finish cleaning and setting up the laundry/etc. room. August found the chunk of ginger that Megan had given Carly, and was walking around carrying it, saying “ginger”. He also found the paper for one of his Duplo sets in the drawer, and was pointing to the picture on the front, so I built the farm for him, and now he is calling it “farm”. He kept wanting to go outside, and we finally made it outside a little after 11.
We walked and took a bus up to Danggogae Station. This is the valley where Chuck and Cherie walked up to a temple. There is an extension of the Seoul Trail that I’ve been meaning to do, so August and I started it today. From the station we walked up to the stamp location for the Seoul Trail. I had taken August here before when I went back to get the stamp. There is a pagoda near it where we had sat and he had crawled around on the floor. We stopped here again and had lunch. I divided the sandwich, and August traded. As he ate the piece he now had, he continued to call it “dada’s sandoo”. I had checked in the backpack to make sure there was a pair of shoes. It turned out the pair that was in there was a pair of Vans that I tried the other day but couldn’t get on over his socks. Luckily, he wasn’t wearing socks and they fit. So after he ate he was walking around in those, playing with little rocks, and watching a little beetle on the ground.
Eventually we took off walking. Very nice area, and the trail climbs up over a tunnel on the Seoul ring road. August kept himself entertained with songs, either by himself or with me singing. He found it hilarious when I said “whoop-de-doo” in a little chant thing I know.
He fell asleep at 1:27. Suddenly, the trail became very devoid of sitting spots. Made it down to a road and walked back to the station. At 2 I was walking up to Danggogae Park (where the climbing wall is – Chuck and Cherie had been here) and he woke up. A short nap, but as you’ll see, he apparently didn’t need more.
Set him down and took him out of the backpack to realize one show – his left – was missing. So we walked back about a half mile looking for it. August seemed to enjoy the search. No luck finding the shoe. A good one to lose, as I had planned on donating them since they weren’t going to be of much use during the winter.
Back to the park. Sat on a bench near at the playground and ate some more. August was very focused on hearing today. He had pointed out crickets when we were hiking. In the park he started by saying “hear train” and pointing off through the trees in the direction of the tracks. He kept saying it, and started adding in the article, making it “hear a train”. Then he said “hear a car” and “hear a tweet tweet”. Later, someone up the hill started singing. He started by saying “singing” (a new word) and pointing. Then he surprised me further by saying “someone singing”.
While we were at the playground there was a girl, age 6 (Korean, so 4 or 5), named Haneul that played with him and talked to me using all of her English (and all of my Korean, for that matter). August was sweeping the slides and she was at the top when they first met, and August had a lot to say to her. She would repeat what he said. She was sliding down the slide, which was going fine, but at one point accidentally knocked him off the end. Not a hard fall, but he was shocked and sad. He was afraid of her for a couple minutes, but went back to waving and talking to her, and when she was leaving he said “bye bye Haneul” many, many times.
I changed him in preparation of leaving, then he started climbing on and walking/crawling across the benches. At one he stopped in the middle and did some bench yoga. I had packed up, ready to leave, only to find that he had pooped, so I need to change him again.
Finally headed home, getting back about 4:40. Had planned to quickly trade for the regular backpack and go to the store, but he immediately went and found his ‘whale shark’ (his Duplo whale and shark) and started playing with them. They were the first Duplos he had played with in the morning. He was very focused on getting both of them on the same square piece. So we spent 10+ minutes on that, then Carly got home. He would play with and say “whale shark” a couple times later in the evening.
Oh, and we started to work on reading today. Carly decided that ‘coffee’ would be a good sight word, since he can find it on signs. And I thought ‘art’ would be good too. So in the morning when he was coloring I made signs for each and hung them up in the appropriate location in the house. I swear a couple times when we were out he said “bye bye a-r-t”) but I am not positive, since he was also saying “bye bye train’ (and his ’train’ sounds a lot like just ’t’) in those talks.
Anyway, his first sight words might actually be ‘Cassie’ and ‘Welcome’. He found the photo collage of Cassie and Vivian and Jeff as I had set in on the floor when we were moving things around. He started by pointing down to a photo of Vivi and saying “ah-gee down there”. But then he started focusing on the letters. And I was teaching him that Tia’s name is Cassie. So he was pointing to the C and saying ‘Cassie’ first, then he started saying “W, welcome”. He did this later with Carly. Can’t really be considered a sight word until he does it someplace else, but we will see.
Despite the short nap, he decided he was going to stay up. Made it to 9 something. I was pretty drained by then. He was really fighting sleep. Mainly he didn’t even seem to be tired. But at one point he wanted to play Duplos and Carly took him away. He lost it, and wasn’t calming down in the bedroom, wailing “more baa baa”. So I took him his Duplo sheep. Helped a little, but not really. He came out once more, then I went back in with them. We sang to him some more, then I slipped out. Carly still had some work getting him to sleep after that.
New words/phrases: ginger, peach (color), white, farm, door, change a diaper, whale and shark, ah-gee down there (pointing on Vivi photo), osprey, train, gettin’ there, pretty, bug (little ants at park), hear a train (at park – pointing to train out of sight), hear a car, someone singing (minutes after just ‘singing’, dada get it (pointing to rock he couldn’t reach), rooster, reading area (eed area), grain (of the boards on the floor)
Morning:
On our hike:
At Danggogae Park:
Home: