August didn’t wake up until 7:53. That is 13 hours of sleep. No surprise then that he didn’t go to sleep until after 3:30.
Anyway, when he woke up I didn’t hear anything until the door opened. He was upset that Carly was gone, but calmed down quickly, then was in the bedroom, playing silently with the baby monitor. He didn’t acknowledge me at all until he had been up about 10 minutes, then dragged me into the fort by my shirt, then dragged me back to the bed by my finger. On the bed, he seemed to process that Carly was gone, repeating “Zinnie here, Dada here, Mama work.”
He really wanted to watch ABC songs, so we cuddled up on the couch together and watched a few. It apparently paid off, as a while later I heard him make his first full run through of the alphabet, only slurring is M and N a bit.
We ate oatmeal and blackberries for breakfast, then took the recycling down. We then did plenty of playing with the fort and building (and knocking over) towers of bricks. Before we left, he was grabbing his animals and making them sit, particularly Marshy and GG, who are his favorites nowadays.
We left the house around 11 and headed up to Dobongsan. First tried to walk up to the Forest Villa facility to see what it is, but was greeted by someone in the driveway. Obviously not a public space. We then went into the park and found a nice spot near the Eco Education Center. The leaves have all turned up there, and there is a lot of water in the stream, so it is very pretty. A great day to be walking around up there. We ate and watched a cat walking around the area.
August then needed to be changed, so we went over to the bathrooms and changed him for a second time (having changed him when we first got there as well, on a bench). We then went and looked around the Eco Education Center. The Alpine Museum and book cafe were closed because it was Monday, but there was an outdoor climbing wall with all sorts of different shapes as handholds. August liked looking at these, as they were letters, animals, hearts, etc. There was also a great view of the leaves and stream there. We tried to go inside to go to the ‘Eco Roof’ but got turned away again by someone who saw us.
So we headed back down. Had been five and a half hours and he was looking tired. Stopped at our usual play place in the stream to watch the water rushing through – no playing in there now, as it is much too high. Watched a crazy dad on the other side position his son on the rocks close to the cliff to get a photo. Then kept walking. He didn’t fall asleep. We walked a back street and came across a children’s park we hadn’t been to (Seowon Children’s Park), so we got down and played. The sand had just been raked of leaves, so it was perfect for writing on.
From there we walked the street and cross the stream, heading first past another children’s park to take a look (boring), then up another branch of the stream I’ve been wanting to walk. The Dulagil Trail runs along it – the third spot we’ve run into the trail. A very lovely walk, with views of Dobongsan and Suraksan, and trees turning color in every direction. We got up to where the path ends along the stream (stopping at a set of benches once so August could have a snack), then headed back downstream. August fell asleep at 3:35. No coffee shop in sight. And it turned out that the area around Dobong Station has a lot of hair dressers that look like cafes – one even had tables outside on a little patio. Finally found a coffee shop, Cafe Beanball, next to the station. August slept until 4:15.
When he woke up, he wanted to fall back to sleep in my arms. I started whispering “Endless Reader, iPad” to him and he forced himself awake. We played the Montessorium Letters app, and I could see him start to get parts of letters down; he still has a lot of difficulty on the down and left stroke of, for example, an ‘o’, but he can do the up and back down motion on the right side of a ‘u’ pretty well.
We did that for 15 or 20 minutes or so, then headed home. Carly beat us, so August was excited to see her when we got home. At home, he played with GG and Marshy again. He had GG play with the cards, saying “GG play cards.” When Carly changed him I came into the room and we ended up all sitting in that room. August was happy to have us all back together, saying “Mama here. Dada here. Zinnie here. Marshy here.”
We played with Duplos (he had the zookeeper and zebra sit on his chair of bricks). Carly vacuumed. First he would only peek in on her, but then he got brave and was turning the vacuum cleaner on, getting startled but then excited each time. He ate tofu and broccoli for dinner.
We then colored on the big paper. He has started to do a circular motion, and was focused on drawing ‘O’s and turning them into ‘Q’s.
Carly gave him a bath, which went well. Then he stayed up. And up. With me we made a long path with the bricks. He would walk along it and name things off. New things he could name include emu and gorilla. Carly went to bed a little before 9:30. But then August realized the fort didn’t have its cover (we had taken it in to her on the bed). Now he wanted the blanket back. I tried to use my blanket instead, but he wasn’t happy. Had to be mama’s. Finally he settled down and we did some more yoga and path playing. And we had read the new book from our latest stack about the little bear who can’t sleep. About 9:45 he remembered the blanket again and wanted to go in to mama. Now 9:55 and I think he is asleep.
Forgot to mention that yesterday he was having Angeles and Marshy sit on the floor and he couldn’t make Angeles sit, so he changed his mind and decided that Angeles was “doing yogas.”
New words/phrases: dada go (with a gentle push – he wanted me to move so he could sit on my chair), lots of letters (looking at all the drawing we did in the sand), bye bye neighbor (to guys at the park after they were done smoking – I often call people around our building ‘neighbors’ when he is nervous around them), reading ‘sh’ sound, blinkers (requesting “Wheels on the bus”, subway come (hearing the subway approaching in the station), mirror, (seeing himself in the platform glass), GG play cards, piggy (his pig Duplo), gorilla, emu
Dobongsan:
Playground:
Sandoo break:
After his nap:
Home:
