Carly had a field trip going to the Dondaemun Design Plaza, so August and I went down to meet her at lunch time, and also to play around the DDP.
August woke up a little after 7, and made it a little difficult to get out of the house, as he kept finding something else he wanted to do. He continues to say “Thank you mama…” for different things. Today it was “Thank you mama for iPad” as we were playing Endless Reader.
But we finally left a little after 10. We took the bus and then subway to Dongdaemun. When we got there, we found it raining pretty hard, so had to put on all our rain gear. Did it on the floor as there weren’t any benches. August was pretty clingy, and didn’t like being set down for this. He instantly tried climbing in the backpack, and when I asked if he wanted in, he said “in the backpack, in the backpack.”
We made it to the DDP and headed to the baby room. We were still there when Carly called. So we went out and met her, then went back to the baby room. She nursed him, and he fell asleep. So when she had to leave she handed him to me and I sat down and read. The first time he’s slept in my arms in a long, long time.
He woke up at 1:15 and wasn’t too happy to find mama gone. Eventually got him calmed down and ate some lunch. We then went up to the Design Experience Zone. August has been there twice before (once with me and once with Carly), but he could do much more now. He saw the building area, and instantly wanted to start building a fort. Pretty sure there was some memory of previous visits there, as there was no one else there this time, and all the pieces were stacked up so it wasn’t obvious what it was.
Anyway, we spent the next hour or so building a fort. August helped by getting out the connector pieces and trying to put them on, and also ‘drew’ letters and numbers on the floor – he was chanting his ‘-teens’ today (and also started chanting 1 to 5 in order for the first time today). We then took a break and sat on a bench and ate second lunch. We went back to the fort to take it apart. August wasn’t upset, but he also didn’t help take it apart and only put away a few connector pieces, so it seemed like he maybe wasn’t happy to have it taken apart.
From there we looked around the rest of exhibits, spending time at two in particular:
The Volvo truck safety exhibit. Mainly because there was a low table with a rug on it with a pattern of a town. August liked climbing on it and looking at the pictures on it, and was doing yoga, etc. He kept saying “more grain (or green)” and pointing at it. Finally, I told him I didn’t understand what he was talking about, and he thought about it and said “more pattern”, and I was like “ahh, that makes more sense.” It also explained earlier, when there were two kids and their parents building a fort next to us. He kept pointing at them, saying the same thing. I think he was pointing out the pattern of the pieces/connectors.
The other thing we spent a lot of time with was the mirror room. Probably 15 or 20 minutes. Just looking around at the mirror and the lights. Eventually he wanted me to sit down in there.
Before we left we changed him and bought a bunch of sticker sets. They were cheap, and featured things like The Wizard of Oz and The Little Prince. Took a different subway this time – line 4 from the DDP, then transferred at Nowon and got off at Hagye. We didn’t have a seat most of the time, so August played Endless Reader on my phone as I held it over my shoulder.
A loss today: we have had a stick with us in the backpack for a couple weeks for all of our letter writing in the sand. August got it out when I put the rain gear on to walk to the DDP and was carrying it. I took a photo right as we were about to enter the DDP, and he still had it. Pretty sure it fell or I set it down in the baby room and then just didn’t see it after that.
In the evening August was really into repeating everything we said. I had a burrito and, and he started saying “burrito”, really emphasizing the last ‘o’. He played with Sophie in the bath, then when I was getting him dressed afterward, he wanted to play with Carly’s umbrella, which was open and drying. I wouldn’t let him, so he went to Carly, saying “More mama’s”, then led her down the hall to the umbrella. After some more coloring and reading of tree kangaroo and watching the 5 Little Monkeys video while Carly took a shower, he decided he had had enough and cried until Carly came out. He was asleep around 8:30.
New words/phrases: just one (number of blows for the balloon), cuffs, Zinnie walking on (he was walking on te circles on the floor at the DDP), in order, burrito, plug (in tub)
DDP:
Design Experience Zone:
In the baby room: