He was awake before 6 this morning. Pretty standard morning, with Cheerios for breakfast and brushing his teeth while he watched his video from class. He was very patient as I put him in the backpack, saying to himself “Mama says ‘patience, grasshopper.’” He said that a few times through the day.
We left at 9:45 and were in the park around 10:15. He initially said he wanted to see animals, but then saw the children’s museum. Started on the main floor, drawing with chalk and playing with some static cling letters on a window. But the first floor was a zoo, and he kept leaving whatever he was doing when kids would come over. So we went up to the second floor and played with the Hangeul letters and things in that area, heading over to the spaceship controls, where he really liked pushing all the buttons. But then that got really busy as well. So we went up and had lunch in the lounge, then took off about 11:30. I changed the “warm kitty” song to “warm Zinnie”, and he liked that, requesting “more sleepy Zinnie.” Before we could leave, he spotted a wooden floor and had to get down and look at it, saying “More grain!” By the time I changed him (in the museum this time, not our usual spot) and did our usual walk he fell asleep at 12:05.
We sat outside at Peace Cafe – perhaps the last time for a few months. He slept until 1:00. As he was waking up, looked up at the building and said “coffee up there”, pointing to the sign that said, simply ‘Cafe’. He then decided it was “Cassie up there” – I think because the second letter was an ‘a’. He wanted to stay outside and color, so when we got out the notebook I wrote ‘coffee’ and ‘Cassie’. Before I could write ‘cafe’, he turned to the sign and pointed and said “Book CAFE!”
A couple minutes later he needed his diaper changed, so we packed up and changed him in the bathroom, then headed out. August decided he wanted a playground next, so we went to Adventureland. Played there, mainly doing writing, but at some point he became interested in one of the play structures. Went up the stairs and drew more (imaginary) letters on the floor. I went down the slide, then he decided to slide down backwards. He was excited, and wanted to do it again. He landed on his butt the second time, but was very excited, saying “I did it! I did it!” He ended up going down three more times.
From there we went to the zoo. He wanted the zebras, but we never made it that far. First he saw the elephants, then we went along the dogs and cats, paying most attention to the servals and leopards. From there he wanted the snakes, etc., so we went through that building. He was really captivated by the birds, which were being really loud today. Then he noticed the rough bumps on the floor and wanted down, saying “More pattern!” From the second floor he headed down the outside stairs and made for the bench we have often eaten on, saying he was hungry. Ate a lot: all of the tofu and zucchini, grapes, and egg and cheese that we had brought, and all of the fruit chips that were left. He then started saying “Tired”, and decided to lie down on the ground and rest, and then did yoga. Got himself a bit of an audience for that.
From there we went to the dirt area we had played in last week adjacent to the playground they are rebuilding. Had about 40 minutes there. Normal drawing in the dirt to start with, but then he started doing this stomping thing, which turned into doing yoga. Then he was doing yoga on the stairs of the pagoda. Finally, he wanted camel off the backpack. He took camel and me up on the pagoda and we sat together and did some yoga together.
A little after 4 we headed out, stopping to change him along the way. Uneventful ride home, sitting down and doing more Endless Reader. Oh, and I found a Hanguel program that is pretty cool. We did a little of that each way, which I think impressed our Korean neighbors. He’s catching on pretty well to creating the Korean syllables and putting the symbols in the puzzle part to spell sentences.
We got back to our building a little before 5. Called Carly but she was running a few minutes late. Decided to just head home, but he was having a lot of fun just hanging out in the backpack and looking at letters, etc., so we walked around and eventually met up with Carly by the pink building.
He’s continued to do a lot of yogas this evening. Did play dough and nursed with Carly, then wanted to cuddle and do yogas together on the bed. From there he wanted to watch ABC songs, so we watched a few videos, after which he finally ate a little dinner, and then took a bath. Some more Duplos and nursing and he was asleep about 8:30.
New words/phrases:nursing, fourteen, wawa before leaving, uh-oh wawa dripping, cozy, espanol, more building
He was proud of the ‘S’ he drew on the couch, saying “Zinnie do S!” repeatedly afterward, so I couldn’t erase it right away:
Children’s museum:
After his nap:
Playground:
On the twirly twirl (a term he learned from drawing with Carly):
Watching the loud birds:
Eating again:
Final play place:
