He was awake at 5:30. Carly got him Cheerios for breakfast, and they cut up pieces of paper towel to discuss fractions. He wanted a vide about how cereal is made, but stopped watching it when Carly was leaving. We walked her to the elevator, but was then upset about going back in the apartment, and then his iPad froze as well. So he was grumpy for awhile, but he wanted to go to the big zoo, so I was getting ready. I made a peanut butter sandwich and he wanted peanut butter on a spoon. He still does the zookeepers in the peanut butter joke, and was really going on about it today: “I’m going to feel the zookeepers in this bite. I’m going to eat all the zookeepers. I feel it going down my throat and now it’s in my body! There’s zookeepers in this bite. There’s a zookeeer going down my throat!”
He watched some Pink Panther while I showered, and we were ready to go by 8:30. Took us a bit longer to get going though, as he really wanted to get on the bike. So we had to do some talking and thinking before he agreed to first go to the bathroom then get in the backpack. A smooth trip down. No iPad at all, and I told him two smurf stories: the picnic one, and a new one about Gargamel trying to catch them with holes dug all through forest. The Smurfs defeat his plan by rolling potatoes into all the holes, setting off all the bells back at Gargamel’s house at once.
At the station we went to the Storyway and got a ham sandwich, the 2+1 (buy two, get one free) fruit juices we like, and a STRAWBERRY cookie (the place we usually get such cookies only carries apple). On the way to the zoo first a man gave him a pumpkin (hobak) flavored candy. Kind of like a taffy. I tasted it and it was good. I warned August to take bites off it and not put all of it in his mouth at the same time. He really listened, as a few minutes later, when he was down to just a little bit, he asked if it was okay to put it in his mouth. There is all sorts of construction along the way, as they improve the walkways and put in more plants. So backhoes, etc. he wants in Israel. There are silver spheres on the top of the posts along the way, and he said there were letters on top of them. We took turns touching one, making our fingers look big.
At the zoo we saw the giraffes and ate our cookie at our usual tables by them in the green light. We then walked up and watched the rhinos. He thought it was funny to see their bottoms. We went to the insect house, but only the first floor (which is half closed). He spent a couple minutes watching the long-necked turtle as it stretched up its neck to breathe air. We did a quick walk by of the Australian Pavilion and watched the cassowaries and talked about flightless birds (he kept asking why they couldn’t fly, so some first talks about evolution).
He really wanted to go to the nocturnal building (that was our goal all along), but we found that we couldn’t. Because it no longer exists. They are building a new building (presumably a replacement, which is good, as it was a pretty awful building), but have just started. He was talking about heading home, saying “I like home.” a few times. We then found that half of the playground (and all access to the stream) is closed. They’ve built a small play structure where the sand area was, and were now using a crane to lift down pallets of paving stones. We watched that a bit, then continued on to a bathroom.
We then sat on a round bench at the upper part of the playground (where the dinosaurs are) and ate lunch. He was worried about the bag blowing away, and he set both a drink and his water bottle on it and said “Now it definitely, definitely won’t blow away?” I found my parents online and we skyped with them to say happy Mother’s Day. Paul answered and sounded like a chipmunk at first, which was funny. We showed them the crocs that he had chosen to wear today, and the black sandals, which I’d also packed. He put a sandal on his hand and played around. My dad asked “Why do you want to go to Gramma’s house?” He replied “Because they have bubble gum ice cream!” They had gone up to Winthrop today and had checked out the camping spots and the ice cream shop – my mom told August to tell Carly that they have bubble gum ice cream.
We then played on the dinosaur playground. He went down the slide twice. For some reason he was insisting I walk down the stairs a couple times instead of going down the slide myself. He then played around with his water bottle and one of the drink cups, and when he recycled our garbage he had fun hitting the metal garbage cans like drums.
We then walked up to the water birds aviary and it was open. We spent most of our time just near the entrance, watching the birds near the little fresh water pond. First it was a crane drinking, then we heard the storks making their noises. August said “Why’s the swan in there?” Indeed, a black swan had gotten in the pool. We watched cranes fly around in circles, and August was excited when a zookeeper walked by us and went into the exhibit. Before we left, I realized there were a bunch of stork nests, mainly on the other side of the aviary. We left after 12:30.
We walked up by the sea mammals and watched the harbor seals for a bit, then started our slow trip back towards the entrance. We watched a camel for several minutes as it peed and pooped, then headed to the playground. He started by going down the big slide – kind of like 4 regular slides put together. He then ran to the climbing wall and said “I want to smurf this climbing wall.” Before I knew it he was about half way up. He slipped a bit, then asked for help a couple of times, but mainly he wanted me to spot him and I didn’t really help. He made it to the top. He then went down the other big slide, then we watched the crocodile (the first big slide) ‘throw up’ the other kids as they came down. He went and sat on a horse statue, and I sat with him and did the Lone Ranger song and told him about grampa doing the horse thing on his knees way back when August was a baby. Finally, we went up the whole climbing wall again.
We went over to the elephants and sat and had a snack and drank another of the juices. We watched the elephant eat. We left at 2:05. As we walked he said “I want to buy two get one free again.” Meaning he wanted more juices. He also said “I want to sleep more. Go to a coffee shop and sleep.”
We looked at animals on the way, stopping at the hippos for a few minutes. One snorted and startled both of us. I recited some of the lines of Hippos Go Berserk and he then wanted me to recite the hippo book. He played with a faucet on the back of a stone dolphin, then we went to a bathroom at 2:20. We ended with the zebras.
Something that’s been invented the last couple of days, and that he wanted to do a lot today, was him or me having a glitch, then restarting like his iPad, even making an Apple over our heads like on the iPad screen.
We left the zoo and went over by the water faucets to refill his water and to get in the backpack. But this turned into a big activity, as he was turning the water on and off. Then, wearing his Crocs, he got his feet wet and ran and twirled about doing the footprint dance. Over and over again. We finally left at 2:55.
On the walk back out he was imagining letters and other things on the metal balls: “There’s hippos that make words. That hippo fell down.” We stop and watched the ski lift that takes people up to the zoo for a few minutes, then at the construction we watched workers cut a piece of concrete edging. He said “What’s your brain saying? What’s Zinnie’s brain saying? Saying ‘I don’t like that smell. Go away.” We then watched a backhoe scoop dirt “I want that backhoe in Israel. With that scoop.”
We headed to the station. I found a coin on the ground and let him hold it. As we got down to the platform he dropped it and I picked it up. I noticed he was getting quiet and I set down the backpack with him in it. He was awake but falling as
leep, and actually put his head down and tried to fall asleep right there. The train came and I got on and he continued to fall asleep in my arms. I would lightly tickle him and he’d laugh with his eyes closed. Finally got him woken up and he did Todo Math. Then he needed the bathroom. Luckily, the next stop was Isu. So we got out, went to the bathroom, and transferred back to line 7. Usually we simply stay on line 4 all the way to Changdong and take a bus, but this worked just fine too as we were able to get seats on line 7 as well. We read Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight and two Bob Books.
We got home at 4:45. He played with his extendo arm and Carly got home at 5:05. They nursed and he had to go to the bathroom. He joked “I’m peeing apple. Apples are coming out my penis…apple, apple, apple, blueberry, blueberry, blueberry, corn, corn, corn…” We had dinner, then he did some reading with Carly (Suddenly! and Bob Books, I think).
He went to sleep at 7. Before going to sleep he said “I don’t like it when mama goes to work.”
Photos. Big finger:
Green:
Going down the slide together:
Harbor seal surfacing:
High on the climbing wall:
Watching the alligator throw up the kids:
Horse:
Elephant:
Dolphin faucet:
Playing in the faucet:
Falling asleep:
Waking up:
