At 4 something he woke up and called “Mama! Help!” Carly came and got him and took him to the reading area where slept until 6. We were asking him “Do you remember what you were dreaming last night?” “Yeah! Drink Gatorade.” That part seemed pretty quick, so was plausible, but that as we asked about the bad dream it turned into a story about someone taking his Gatorade. We asked “Who took it?” and he replied “Someone else’s kid.”
Carly headed to work and he played a little Dragonbox Big Numbers but then declared “I want to go outside.” He said it a few times through morning, but it was still a bit rainy. Cheerios and banana for breakfast, then he wanted the Smurf picnic story again so I told that. We talked about his allergy medicine and how I put it in his water. He said “But I can’t taste it.” Had some more Cheerios and banana and he wanted to play Human Body. He said “You’re learning things. You’re stuck on Human Body? You’re stuck on smelling and nerves. You’re stuck on smelling and messages?”
He then wanted to leave right away. So I took a shower and we got going, and left right at 9:00. Outside we watched a backhoe pick up broken asphalt for a few minutes, then headed for Seoul Forest. We transferred at Gangnam-gu Offices, and the train was packed. He was standing, and at the first stop I had to pick him up and step off the train backwards and let everyone off. One more stop and we were at Seoul Forest at 10:10.
We went to the bathroom. The piano that had been near there last fall was gone. I didn’t point that out to him until we were leaving the park later. So we went to the playground. He wanted to climb the rope things, but they were all wet. He came back and had some sandwich, humming and making yummy noises. He wanted me to kiss his head and we did the bird poop thing several times. We made a video of it then he wanted to watch the video.
Then, our big discovery. We went over to the stream area and started playing with the water screw things, where you turn them and it draws water up and pours it out. He needed my help at first, but then figured out he could do it on his own. He asked about gravity, and we talked about how he was using mechanical energy to draw it up, and the gravity was pulling the after back down. There was a lot of discussion of ‘tools’ and ‘machines’ and ‘winding inclined planes’ and what they meant. He would spin it, then look down at the water leaking back down to the stream and ask “That’s Zinnie’s water?…That’s more Zinnie’s water?”
We played at that one for an hour or so. A childcare group was playing with the other one. Eventually he went over to check it out, and we looked at the spillway for that one. They left, and August started using that one. We paused and ate an orange. It was alternating between sunny and calm and cloudy and breezy. He kept refusing his coat, saying “I’m sure I don’t want my coat.” But eventually I got it on him. We discussed how long he was playing with these things and he said “Zinnie keeps doing it? Why? Because it’s pretty cool?”
Finally, he played with the toy backhoe thing. He could almost do it by himself, but needed my help to actually lift the arm up. Did that maybe 10 minutes, then he headed back over to the play structures at 12:28 – close to 2 hours after we went to the stream area. I did a lot of winding with him, but also read a lot of my book.
The structure he went to this time was the big wire sculpture of a person that you can climb through. To August it looked like a vacuum cleaner, and as he saw kids in it he asked “You can be sucked up in the vacuum cleaner!?” We had to wait a few minutes to get him in, as it was crowded with older kids going through, and August wanted to go in what they were using as an exit. He climbed in the structure and pretended to be vacuuming “I cleaned up Zinnie…I cleaned up dada.” He got up to the knee of the leg, but was going to need my help to go down the tube ladder – the part he really felt looked like a vacuum cleaner. I went around and went in the other end, with the intent of helping him climb down. But then other kids showed up and followed me in, so when I got up the ladder I had to have August turn around and head back the way he came from. He still enjoyed it, but admitted later he was disappointed he didn’t go all the way through.
We made one more effort of it, going in the bottom of the structure. But this time, another school group came and started climbing in the other end – the opposite direction of the previous group. So they were coming down the ladder part as August and I were heading in to go up it. So we came out.
As he played around that area, I asked “Do you want some triangle kimbap?” He said “Eh. Maybe it will make me sick.” I THINK this was just a joke, but that one time he did get sick to the stomach, I was pretty sure it was the triangle kimbap we bought – I only had one bite of it and he ate the rest. We’ve had triangle kimbap several times since then though and he hasn’t mentioned it making him sick. So probably just a coincidence.
Anyway, he asked “What Bert sounds like?” Referring to Bert and Ernie. This started with him trying to get them straight (he kept calling Ernie Bert) and me doing their voices. He’s asked a few times and I have a routine where Ernie has Bert’s shoe on his hand and Bert is asking why and wants it back because he needs to go outside.
August then found dandelions and was brushing off the seeds, and a butterfly fluttered around us. We started to go, and he stopped by some flower bushes and was touching them, then was rubbing his eyes a bit. Finally, we left at 1 headed for the butterfly and insect buildings. We stopped at the CU and got a regular kimbap, a spicy triangle one (for me), and a fruit cup of mango. We sat on our usual square benches (where I once changed him back when with my parents, and where we’ve eaten several times) and ate.
We then went to the butterfly house. Didn’t stay long there, but August is now able to walk back and forth on the posts that act as steps across the stream area. We then went into the insect house. A quick trip for us, but saw several things. When he got to the second floor he instantly said “There’s no chairs.” He remembered all the cool little stools that used to be there.
We left and he needed the bathroom, so we went to the one by the square bench. When we came out he ran up behind to people sitting on the bench and yelled a nonsense word. He told me “That’s scoopedoodle language.” I think I asked if he wanted water at some point. He replied “No, I want nectar.” We left, headed for the deer, at 2. Alas, the deer feeding was closed due to hood disease again. So we said hi from afar (I was remembering how we used to say bye and thank you to places when we left them and we’ve been trying to do more of that again), then walked back, all the way to the stream area again.
Here he played with the screw things for another long time. First the right one, then the left one. At one point he was singing and humming and dancing to “It’s O.K.” We paused at 2:40 to finally eat some of the animal crackers from my parents. He really liked those but agreed to save some for another day. We had more of our kimbap, and he said “I like radish, but sometimes I don’t.”
He was asking, of the path area we were playing on, “Bikes might come?” I said “No, I don’t think so.” He looked around, saw the uneven stone surface, and said “Because of the bumps?” That was some interesting thinking on his part.
I then taught him to play fetch. That was pretty funny. I didn’t get the best part on video though. After he fetched a stick several times, I did a fake and didn’t throw it. He looked around for the stick and said “Wait.” We took our garbage and threw it away. On the way back he found a feather and poked it in the sand on our way past and said “You made a decoration.” He then s
aid “I want the stick game!” Finally, he wanted five more minutes of the water turning thing, but then needed the bathroom.
On the way to the bathroom we looked a bit at the sculpture area, and a little plant house thing that was there. And he really liked the non-reflecting reflecting pond. We got to the bathroom a little after 3:20.
We took the train two stops, then on line 7 stopped at Children’s Grand Park and went up to buy one of the spinny things. When Carly heard that we had played with them, she mentioned that she wanted one. So we got her a green one as part of her Mother’s Day present.
On the train home no one complained about him being cold. However, when we got on August passed up three seats because he wanted to go stand at the bar area. A woman saw us and got up to give him her seat. I thanked her but said it was okay. Nice of her to offer, but then she wouldn’t let it go and kept insisting. Finally she got the message and left us alone.
We got home at 4:50. We read a bunch of Seuss: Gustav, A Wocket in My Pocket, half of The Cat in the Hat, part of Daisy-Head Mayzie. But at 5:20 he suddenly got upset that Carly wasn’t home. So we got on our shoes and went to meet her at the elevators. We took an elevator down to the first floor, and as the doors opened there was Carly waiting to get on.
Went home and they nursed. We had hotdogs and other food for dinner, then I made another batch of the pasta salad. They nursed, took a bath, read books (Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight and others), and watched Pink Panther. With me we played with Peter Rabbit and his extendo arm, then played with the Monster Mix cards before taking him in to bed and he was asleep by 7:45.
Photos:
Monster Mix:
