He slept until 7:25. They Skyped with Cherie and Vivian. I heard him sucking up slime. Vivian apparently knows that August likes poop jokes. Cherie said “Vacuum cleaners are your favorite thing.” Vivian added “And poop!” August later found the tongs and played with them a lot, picking everything (clothes, his water bottle, etc.) up. I was joking around with him about something and he did a ‘grr’ to me. He wanted to do robot cleanup of something, and we ended up cleaning up most of the toys strewn about. Carly and I started clearing out the kitchen stuff. Of the plastic Spongebob mug he said “I don’t want this anymore.”
He remembered a conversation he and I had had the other day (it has come up a couple times) about how accidental spills, etc. are okay, but it isn’t okay to add to the muss on purpose: “Accidents are okay?…Squishing a banana peel is okay?…Not the part that you eat…” Big discussion of what/where it is okay to squish things on purpose. He went down with Carly to take out compost, and they had to stay there a couple minutes so he could play with the foot pedals. Also, Carly let him sit on the kitchen counter for a couple minutes, which was fun.
We all then did a lot of packing-related stuff. I cleaned out some of his toys, Carly worked on the closet and hallway. August and I took a break to do a little art with the glass crayons, which we haven’t used in a long time. He was a little put off by their messiness at first – and he commented about how he didn’t want the ‘art’ that was on the crayon box, as younger Zinnie had written all over the box.
They had had oatmeal for breakfast. August and I later had crackers and salmon and cheese for a snack. He was taking it in to Carly in the closet so she could smell it. He didn’t really like salmon though – it was a flavored kind with mayonnaise in it. After that, he played in sink for a long time.
We all left at 12:40 to walk over to the science center. August kept commenting on how we were all wearing our sunglasses.
Our visit to the science center was quicker, at first, mainly due to the crowds. Not packed, but their were waits for most things. And Carly and I were really noticing how the exhibits as a whole don’t really have a lot of capacity (the river thing with binoculars only does two people at once, the brain exhibit just one, etc.) Anyway, he did a little K’Nex on the first floor, then on the second ran over to look at the cockroaches and rats in the pests area. Carly went to go sit down for awhile, and August and I went and waited for the microscope. He did a good job waiting, then we used it to look at his shirt, hair, the counter, etc. and did a good job giving it up to the girl next in line.
A little more frustrating on the following floors: he did the pixelating camera, but then wanted to run to the front in front of other people. And the wheel on the garbage power plant display had a long line of people, although he watched the lights.
So a little before 2 we found ourselves at the top. He wanted to play with the drinking fountains, but that one didn’t work. We went down to the third floor, and that one (the Tayo one) didn’t work either. So then down to the first floor where the Larva one did. And there we spent the next 40 minutes. Mostly he did a great job letting other kids come in and use it. He kept running over and wanting Carly to come and see it. There was a smaller boy next to him at one point and his mother was leaving, and the boy was a bit upset. August seemed concerned about it, and kind of followed him at the end to make sure he got to his mom. Randomly, at one point he asked me “What color is my hair?” After playing for awhile, he went to the bathroom with Carly and I got coffees for me and Carly.
About 2:45 he wanted to go in the cafe/gift shop. He looked at the rocks. He picked one dark blue one up and said “It looks like space?” I wouldn’t let him get crazy with them, and he used the excuse like “But that boy is doing it!” with me. Finally, he spotted the Mini Melts ice cream and said “I want to get it with mama!” But when she pointed out they had cake or popsicle at home he wasn’t happy. He did a frustrated “No!” and bumped his chin on the case, making things worse. She then took him to the bathroom before we left, and hurt him a bit more by getting his fingers in one of the doors.
He had recovered pretty well by the time they came out with the bike to me. We left at 3:00, and he wanted to pause and look at the stream and the fountain. We then walked south to 충숙공원. Walked past the playground, but then August wanted to go back to the playground to have a snack. So we went back and sat and had some crab and apple. He then needed the bathroom again, so we went to the bathrooms. There was a hose at the entrance of the women’s restroom and he played with it for a long time, using it at a vacuum and sucking everything up.
We headed home and stopped at GS25 for eggs and sugar and milk and were home at 4:05. For food I mentioned something about the peanut sauce and he said “I don’t really like peanut sauce. I prefer teriyaki sauce.” Carly made him an egg pancake with broccoli and cheese and he dipped it in ketchup. He wanted to squeeze more ketchup on his own, and when he squirted it out he said “What brain is that?” He thought the ketchup looked like one of the brains at the science center. And out of nowhere he said “I want my fingers painted.”
After he ate he helped me scan a few more things, and he kept talking about how the scanner is a machine. He then wanted to go outside, so I took him out. A bit after 5. We rode around the park, then stopped at the playground. He went on the teeter totter, then climbed on the blue wall part. And then the tube slide. The bridge is missing, so I had to lift him up to the platform. He did the tube slide 6 or 7 times. I was spotting him at first, but then when he had figured it out he went down entirely on his own a few times. The last time he fell off about half way down. His bottom slipped off, he hung by his hands for a second, and then he landed on his feet.
He spent some time trying to climb up the bars after that, and then pulling on a broken ribbon from around the broken bridge. And then he played around on the bar around the swings and waited for a swing. And waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, he got a swing. I was giving him 10 minutes (although he was saying 100 or a million) and the girls in line kept sighing (although given that we had waited more than 20 minutes, and people were spending longer than that on them, I wasn’t feeling guilty). But he got off after about 7 and ran over to the spinning exercise equipment. Played on both of those, then headed home at 6:25.
Carly said he had grown, and he wanted to measure himself against her. He said “You’re about as tall as mama?” Carly had caught what looked like a flying ant under a Tupperware container. He and I looked at it while she went downstairs to look for masks for a school project. We were in the hallway, dropping it out the window, when Carly came back.
Carly was in the hallway closet, and August wanted up on the counter in there again (he had also sat on that earlier). So he sat on there and I was sitting on the floor while Carly took a shower. He was reaching for the outlet and I told him to be careful with the outlets and he asked why, so we ended up discussing electricity the whole time. He had a serious look on his face.
Carly started her bath, and I went in to actually do the washing and wash his hair. He got through it okay, and without a video, as he sat on the edge of the bath while I washed him and he thought that was amusing. When we came out, Carly was taking her tree down from the wall in the bedroom. August helped a bit. Unfortunately, the darker paint we have in those rooms has really faded, so you can still see the tree. Taking down the art on those walls reveals dark squares. August was asleep abo
ut 8.
Photos. Tong’s:
K’nex:
Pixelated:
Space rock:
