Pollution threatened to limit our outside time at CGP, but it was lower down there, and started dropping during the day, so it wasn’t a problem.
He slept until 8:07. I heard the light switch, then he opened the door and walked out. After I changed him, he walked straight into the bedroom where Carly had left some books and wanted to read them (saying “thank you mama”). So we read in bed. Then he spent quite a while putting the plastic letters in the play dough. He would go to the other room and get one letter at a time. After Cheerios for breakfast, he requested mango, but as soon as it was ready he ready he rejected it. Probably because I took his shirt off to eat it, and he immediately wanted “grampa shirt on.”
Finally, as I was getting snacks ready, he was playing with his Duplos. Afterward, I walked in to realize he had set up a bunch of the animals around a trough in the middle of the room. And then right before we left he was doing some good flying around the house.
We left about 10:15. Both at home and at the park he said he wanted to see the elephants. But first he got distracted wanting to write letters on the robot path. I told him we could do that at the playground, only to find the whole playground dug up, being renovated. We went to a dirt field next to it, by the pagoda, and did letters there and watched the backhoe.
From there we went to see animals, but when he saw the elephants he wanted to go into the water birds instead. We did that, then out the other end where he wanted to go in the tropical building for the snakes. Did that, spending the usual time on the amphibians and reptiles. He said hi/bye bye to both the coati and then, as we went around the children’s zoo, the meerkats. So those are two animal names he knows really well. He also really liked watching the fennec foxes sleeping.
We ate lunch by the goats. He really liked the statue of the woman next to the sheep (he’s always focused on the sheep before). He particularly liked the hand, saying ‘hand’ repeatedly.
About 12:30 he started to get tired. Earlier than usual. He was saying “sleepy” and lying in my lap. At one point he pulled his sweatshirt out of the backpack because he wanted to get in (he has started to want to get in the backpack when he knows he is tired). But before we left a few girls came and talked to him. One had a cat thing attached to her backpack that she showed him. When they left he kept saying “more kitty cat.”
We went up and did our usual napping routine. When changing him he started singing the start to “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Took a little while to get him to sleep. Only slept 34 minutes (1:19 to 1:53) at the cafe, but I was able to read one whole story.
After that, we went inside and sat and drew in the notebook and bought a banana snack that turned out to not be healthy at all. Luckily, I was able to switch them with some apple chips. Before we left, he wanted to sit in the comfy chair. He did this twice, but he would then go over to the display case and ask for “more juice…treat.” Took me awhile, but I realized he was remembering his 18 month celebration – that was the last time we had sat in that chair. I had bought him juice and a treat.
We went to the Adventureland Playground (the better one, anyway). Did letters, etc. in the sand. He really liked it when I started drawing hearts, and he wanted to sit on each of them. Oh, and he has started to request that I write ‘Cassie’. We then played with the musical instruments. By far his favorite thing was sitting on top of the plastic drums. We sat there for over 15 minutes, singing “Baa Baa” repeatedly. He can now sing much of it himself. But mainly I was singing and drumming. He would direct my hands to tell me which drum to hit. When we had to leave he was upset and kept wanting “more baa baa.” He tried to make one escape from the bathroom before I changed him to look back longingly and say “more baa baa.” He cheered up though when he noticed an interesting bumpy wall in the bathroom and started feeling it, saying “more texture.”
But he was happy to get in the backpack and we headed home. On the way down we had sat and drew on the iPad. On the way back we had to stand. He was fine with this. He was entertained by eating Cheerios and by watching the baby sitting near us. In fact, when the baby and his mother got off, he was sad and kept saying “more baby.”
Before we got off, we were standing below the monitor that announces the station. It flips between Korean and English. He was saying “Hanguel, letters, Hanguel, letters…” then started putting in the ‘then’ as it switched back and forth “Hanguel then letters then Hanguel then…”
On our way home, he was saying “Mama Carly Dada Ryan.”
Carly beat us home as she had a training day and got to leave a little early. Carly made him stir fry for dinner. And I gave him a bath. He did quite well today. We also decorated his notebook with stickers I had picked up at the library, and did some more drawing/writing.
They are reading books on the bed again. Mother Goose. August has started claiming that the ‘spoon’ in “Hey diddle diddle…” looks like “mama”. Not flattering, as it looks like an odd looking bald man.
Later: After leaving the bedroom he played with the blocks with me while Carly took a shower. I made paths for him to walk in, and then we used them like dominos. After Carly came out, he started playing with the his alphabet cards by himself. For many minutes (maybe 7 or 8), he simply kept turning the cards over, saying “little W, big W, little O, big O…” He ended by identifying the ‘Night’ picture, then he and I looked really closely at it for awhile. After that, he requested to be changed and went to bed to fall asleep a little after 9.
New words/phrases: coati, meerkat, octopus, shells, 0 to 11, hit foot ouchie foot (after I explained what would happen if a broken metal piece fell on his foot), song on (when music came on over the speaker), heart (shape), path, dominoes
CGP:
After his nap:
On the drums:
Headed home:
Home: