We went south of the river today to the Seoul Arts Center to attend the Antoni Gaudi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaudí) exhibit at the Seoul Arts Center. He was the guy who designed the Sagrada Familia church and Park Guall that Carly and I visited in Barcelona.
In the morning we read some books, and it was the first time we used Hippos Go Beserk as an actual counting book. We were then watching and listening to the videos and songs that go along with his baby class, as we hadn’t really done that yet. When the song came on that they dance to now, August started sidestepping like they do in class. Finally, we played with the play dough. But we turned it into a letters game as well, as I rolled the play dough into a snake and then we would form letters and numbers.
Then we headed to the art center. A long trip, but it went pretty smoothly. When we went over the river, August really looked “out the window”, and pointed to the boats below.
On the walk to the art center, we met a nice white cat. August was in the backpack though, so we didn’t visit for long. We got to the art center and got a ticket, then walked around and found a place inside to sit and have lunch.
Then, the exhibit. Frankly, it was kind of a bust. Gaudi is best known for his very colorful and extravagant work – the park is famous for its colorfully-tiled lizards, columns, and benches, for example. And they used two very colorful images on all of the materials for the show. But then you enter through black curtains into a very dark room. This did not suit August, and he immediately wanted to leave. The entire thing was dimly lit. Then, almost everything in the show was black or white, or just white, or, in the case of furniture, brown. And the show was also very quiet. If I said something to August I had the feeling everyone in the room heard it. Very, very different from the Mariscal or Tim Burton shows, which is what I expected it to be like.
Anyway, we managed for maybe 30 or 40 minutes. He enjoyed a few pieces (mainly the models for apartment buildings or the church) and did some yoga on the floor. He also had found a rubber band on the floor wand was playing with that, but lost it. I then gave him a piece of red yarn, and that entertained him (cat-like) for a little while, but wore off. There was at least a little sticker activity at the end that he really liked.
Then we exited the exhibit and he really liked the tiled lizard they had outside. But then I realized you weren’t supposed to touch it (I don’t even think it was a real Gaudi – which is funny, because the real Gaudi lizards are in a park for children). He totally didn’t understand that, so that was the end of our Gaudi experience.
We went out and sat on the little stage for a few minutes, then went inside and changed him and got ready for his nap. Putting him to sleep didn’t take long – a short walk up the stairs and towards the calligraphy museum and back. Took a couple minutes longer than needed as a small truck honked at us and woke him back up. It is a huge pedestrian square, mind you, and we were walking down the edge. The construction truck just didn’t want to drive on the rough stones, or apparently wait for us to pass; we had to get out of the way.
He slept 1:47 to 2:24 in Cafe Matisse. When he woke up he saw the iPad out and so we played Endless Reader with him at first sitting on my lap. Did that for awhile, then headed out.
There was a children’s park just a couple blocks to the north, so we headed there. There were a lot of leaves at the park, so that was the focus of his playing. Although, since he is obsessed with letters, it turned into writing letters in the leaves. Near the end, a couple of elementary age boys showed up, and were sword fighting with sticks. This was the best thing August has ever seen, so that entertained him the last several minutes.
From there we headed home. Train went smoothly. Carly had beaten us home. After dinner, I gave him a bath. In the bath he said “Wawa makes it feel better” “Opa”. This is a reference to when we were up at the stream with Chuck and August’s foot was itchy, so Chuck taught him to put water on it. I have mentioned it a few times, when August says something is itchy, but today August really started saying it on is own. At one point during the evening he turned to me and Carly, with a serious look, and strung it together even more completely, something like “If itchy…wawa on it…make it feel better…Opa.”
The other thing he started doing today was requesting our custom “Wheels on the Bus” verses by saying in the person AND what they do on the bus. The first was “Grampa…trees” (Grampa says “Trees trees trees”), followed by “Grampa…hamster car”. In the bath he added “Opa…golf”. Then he showed he could actually sing several of them, including “Opa on the bus says ‘I’ll teach you to golf’”.
After his bath, he got to Skype with Cassie and Vivi and Colin. And at one point he went down in the bedroom. I saw him down by the foot of the bed, saying “mama’s wawa” and picking something up. I thought it was her water bottle, but then he turned around and started walking down the hall towards me and I saw it was a glass full of water. He got much of the way, but before I could get to him he sort of stumbled and splashed water on himself. He then exclaimed “Oh my gosh!”
After that eventful day he fell asleep about 9:30.
New words/phrases: trough (with his Duplos), icky nose, washing machine, butter, itchy ankle, elbow, hand, penis, sandoo crumbs, another (ahnuhnuh) hoo ha, flagS, gu-uh-gooS, hear announcements (muh-mouse-ments – pointing up at the speaker when there was an announcement)
E-noooor-mo slide:
:
Across the river:
Seoul Arts Center:
Park:
Bath time:
Skyping with Cassie and Vivi:
Sweeping himself:
