It was 18 degrees when I first looked at the temperature today. So we were in no hurry to leave the house in the morning. He woke up at 7:13. I rushed in there, but he was already opening the door. I picked him up and he pointed to the bed. It wasn’t until we were on the bed that I think he realized I wasn’t Carly. He wasn’t happy about that and sat on the floor at the foot of the bed. I started reading the Mother Goose book and that calmed him down.
We did a lot of reading again in the morning. He hasn’t requested iPad at home at all the last couple days. We made eggs and crab for breakfast. He ate a bunch of cheese and crab before I could get them cooked.
Later, I was changing him, and asked myself ‘What time is it?’ Before I could check my watch, he said “7:40” – that was the time it was when he was looking at my watch yesterday or the day before and I taught him what it said. He was an hour off though, as it was 8:40 today.
As I was making snacks for the day, he was playing in the cupboards and got out the container of rice. He started requesting the scissors, which he has never really done before. I gave him the tongs instead, and he played with them for a minute, then started requesting the scissors again; then I realized why: he was trying to open the rice container with the tongs. He has seen us open boxes with the scissors and wanted them to open the plastic box with rice in it.
We left a little after 10. He had been doing a lot of Qing in the house, and continued it on our walk, Qing birds and people and cars and anything else he saw.
We got down to CGP and he wanted to see animals, fish in particular. So we went to the tropical building. Spent close to an hour there. We saw a couple zookeepers go into a back room, and he fixated on that, wanting to go through those doors to see “more animals” and getting upset when he couldn’t. We also saw one of them go in the room behind the reptiles and amphibians. He liked seeing her pour water in the cages, but was again upset when I wouldn’t take him in the room itself. He also spent time playing in the dirt in the empty planters and with the rocks sitting in one of them.
Finally, he was getting tired and agreed to leave. So we got our coats on and headed to the bathroom to change him. On the way he first wanted to check in with the horses and goats, but just briefly (long enough to count them) as he didn’t want out of my arms. We went to the heated bathrooms, only to find they weren’t heated. Changed him in the nursing room, then he fell asleep pretty quickly on our walk. Went to the cafe and he slept an hour, from 12:58 to 1:58.
When he woke up he looked at the counting book for awhile. I started doing the numbers in all 3 languages. He started to pick up the Spanish because as we were walking to the children’s museum he said “quatro, cinco, seis.” He then sat on my lap and we started using Dragonbox Numbers, as he seems ready to start developing some number sense, and both the Montessorium app and the Endless Numbers app aren’t quite cutting it in that regard.
We then headed to the children’s museum. Today I gave him a choice of about 5 different places we could go. He chose the spaceship. Really crowded up there as there was a school group, but he kind of toughed it out. Didn’t have too for too long though as it was approaching 3, and they soon left. Played there, and with the Hangeul magnets, then he wanted to go downstairs to the first floor. His favorite activities there were once again making letters with the magnetic strips and drawing with the chalk and erasing on the chalk board.
He was getting hungry again (we had first eaten part of our lunch at the train station, on our usual bench), so we went to the third floor and ate some more, then changed him and headed out. He spent a few minutes walking around outside again, as a light snow began to fall.
Took the subway home, and put the cover up as we walked home, as it was still snowing. By the time we got home you could just tell that the group was turning white. Pretty much stopped at that.
A lot of writing letters and numbers on the whiteboard and paper by both me and Carly this evening. He did not want to take a bath at 8, so I made that very quick, as he was screaming very loudly. He calmed down quickly afterwards, very helpfully lying down on the changing pad for his diaper and then for his pajamas. He hung out with Carly on the bed for awhile, but wasn’t ready for sleep. He came out and we did a lot of reading in the reading area – mainly Brown Bear, Brown Bear and From Head to Toes. Sometime around 8:30 he wanted to go back in the bedroom with Carly, and he went to sleep pretty quickly.
New words/phrases: marmoset, python, one hundred (saw it on the longevity chart in the children’s zoo and said it, surprising me), ducklings, cuatro cinco seis, coat for dada coat for Zinnie, head to toes, red bird red bird what do you see
Qing pigeons on the way to the subway:
Zoo:
Asleep on camel:
Children’s museum:
Admiring the plants in the way out:
Home:
