Due to parent conferences, Carly wasn’t going to be home until 6:30. So August and I had a nice long day at Children’s Grand Park – a nice way to end summer, as this might be the last full shorts and sandals day we have this year.
We were in no hurry to leave, so we took our time in the morning. He woke up at 8:13, happy but groggy. He came out to the kitchen and stood on his stool at the counter for a few minutes, stretching and waking up. We did our usual playing, and read that new Korean elephant book, where he started saying “kung” (Korean for ‘crash’) and “kitty cats hug”, pointing out a picture of two cats hugging.
At one point August was playing on the bed, and I asked if he wanted to go to the zoo. He immediately stopped what he was doing, slid off the bed, and started saying goodbye to all of the animals on the bed. We made it out of the house right at 10.
At the park we headed for the zoo. When asked what he wanted to see, he first said “lion” (a new word for him), then “serval”. But we got distracted by the playground, so we first played there. This was also the first week that the park and zoo were overrun with middle/high school students on field trips. Nice because they are exciting for August (and drew his attention to the playground) but they also tend to take over everything. Today, we were asked multiple times by groups to pose with them for a photo for some scavenger hunt. Not sure how getting your photo taken with a stranger was educational. We agreed twice, but then started saying no, as August was getting upset by all the attention.
We saw the elephants (first time he has really been excited by them) then escaped teenager attention by going to the upper floor of the water birds exhibit. Then back to see the lions, servals, etc., before returning to the children’s zoo to see the horses and goats, and then walking through the tropical building, and returning to the water birds on the first floor. He was very patient, trying to see a penguin through the doors in the back of their exhibit as they weren’t out. We saw one (and he said ‘penguin’ for the first time).
Did our usual nap routine and he fell asleep quickly – barely over a quarter of a mile and less than 8 minutes. And he had a long nap, outside at Peace Cafe: 1:35 to 3:00.
He woke up and we hung out there for a little while. He looked at the counting book. Then back to animals: he wanted to see the seals, then we went to the deer. Where the old animal ride area used to be (thankfully they don’t do animal rides any more) they are building something new and taking the rust off of a covered area. August was fascinated by the sound of grinders (“saws”) on the roof, and the backhoes at work on the site. We got to see one backhoe move a tree, and another dig dirt. We watched for a few minutes, then he wanted to draw letters in their dirt.
Pushing our way into a construction site didn’t sound like a good idea, so we went to the Adventureland Playground and played there. Mostly letters and numbers in the sand, although a little play structure. He wanted to go on the rope bridge (“more shaky!”), but it was a narrow, much more advanced bridge, and wouldn’t easily take both of us. So we wandered around the rest of the playground, played with the instruments for a few minutes, and ended up by the train area. He liked the numbers (he can identify all the digits regularly, although he often calls ‘6’ a ‘9’). We played there for about 30 minutes, and before we left he helped fill a small plastic bag with garbage.
We went to the amusement park and to Popeye’s to get a chicken sandwich and cheese sticks. Ate them on the steps looking out at the rides. I called one crazy, so when watching it, August would say “more crazy!” He looked up close at some random display the had, and when we left it he said “Bye bye deer. Bye bye swans. Bye bye sagwas.” We watched the roller coaster up close, and I taught him to wave at the people when they came close.
Finally, I changed him. On the pad he was talking, and said “More Oma’s yummy green soup” out of no where. On our way out, he saw the “banana moon”, but it is a half moon now, so we decided to call it the “D moon”. He said it a few times, and later, when I asked him to tell Carly what kind of moon we saw he sad “D moon”.
Didn’t eat a lot today, although he ate little bits throughout the day (a few eggs in the morning, a little of my cheese stick and chicken from my sandwich, some Larabar, etc.)
We all played Duplos together at home, then Carly went to draw him a bath. He was reading Kipper stories with me, then got tired. Thought he would go to sleep at this point, but he was reluctant to go to sleep, although he was never in a shape for a bath. Carly said he kept trying to crawl backwards off the bed, saying “more dada”. But he was asleep by 8:45.
Emailed my mom to wish her a happy birthday, and Carly and I watched episode 3 of Modern Family.
New words/phrases: red, kuung (Korean for crash), kitty cats hug (pointing to picture of cats hugging), penguin, puma right there, waterfall on, bye bye camel and blue broom (first use of ‘and’, unless I imagined him saying it), left shoe, broom off, crazy, na-beeS (lot of focus on using plurals today), yellow flowers, pink flowers
Zoo:
After his nap. I pulled out the chair and set down the book. He sat down and started looking at the book on his own while I threw away my garbage and put away the book I was reading:
Playground:
Headed home:
