He slept until 7:28. Not upset at all, and just sat on the floor waking up. A bit later he wanted to play Dust Buster on his iPad, one of the piano learning apps, but he only wanted me to play, and said “I don’t want dada to make mistakes.” Ate some banana bread, and played a little GarageBand, but mainly he decided the keyboard was a vacuum cleaner, sucking up notes. Then he wanted it to get hurt and take care of it: “What happened to this vacuum cleaner?” Exercised and took my shower; he played in the sink in the bathroom while I took my shower. He wanted me to keep reciting Green Eggs and Ham, but with having Sam’s friend not like other things, often random, like balancing. Got ready to go, and wanted to grab change for the lockers at the aquarium and he helped me look through the coins for 500 won coins. He found a red ginseng candy in the pocket of his shorts – someone had given it to him sometime. I broke it into quarters and let him try it, but he seemed suspicious of it. Said he liked it at first, but then would just lick it and decided he didn’t like it too much.
On the toilet, he was playing with the toilet paper roll and said “The toilet paper’s dancing.” We finally left at 10:40. We patted the mama statue and he noticed it was warm and kept asking what would happen if it was different temperatures: “What if it’s 200?…twenty two hundred?”
We took the train and transferred at Konkuk University, then went to Jamsil and got off at Lotte Tower. We quickly found the Jaume Plensa sculpture I’d been wanting to find (http://jaumeplensa.com/index.php/works-and-projects/projects-in-public-space/item/324-possibilities-2016). We sat down on a neck by a bunch of Pororo statues (that August liked and wanted to take photos of) and ate lunch, but he mainly was playing, especially when he saw a girl about his age playing on the statues as well. He started playing next to her, then when she ran across to the other set of Pororo statues he followed her. And then when she went across the field, past the Plensa sculpture, he kept following. They went over to an art installation on the other side of the field and played in that, then were both running around the field, chasing each other. I went to get our backpack, and they went back over to the installation. They kept playing, and eventually they brought a box over to August – they were a box of Russian chocolates. We shared one with the girl, then they had to go.
We sort of went back to finish lunch, but then he kept trying to play with other kids. Unfortunately, they weren’t as interested. In fact, there were two girls that seemed to only want to pose for photos and when August got close to them they would run off.
August and I discussed what to do, and he wanted to go to the aquarium. I had looked into going up to the observation floor, but it would have cost about 50 dollars for the two of us. Anyway, but first August wanted to go in the mall we were right next to. We went in, and August spotted some mannequins he wanted to take photos of. He led the way, on his own, up some escalators. Then he found another Pororo statue, we found a statue of a mermaid, and he stuck his hands in some display cases. We took a photo of a pair of shoes he liked, then went and rode the elevator up, then down to the basement. There was a ceiling with white flower shapes on it, and some light fixtures he liked.
Then we left at 1. We took the train a few stops to the west. In the station he spotted a brightly colored billboard he’s seen before and liked and wanted to take a photo of.
As we walked through the mall he hummed Ode to Joy and he noticed that the reflections of the lights on the floor seemed to move. I explained how it had to do with the changing angles between us and the lights as we walked, and he really tried to understand it: “Changes the angle of your feet?”
We got to the aquarium about 1:30. As we put the backpack away he spotted a woman and started to talk about her. They were speaking English, so I was afraid he was going to say he didn’t like her, but instead said “I like that one…Yeah, I like all of them, but mostly that one…I’m comfortable with them…I’m comfortable with them too.”
He talked about the shark statue chomping us, then we went in. We didn’t have a long time, but instead of hurrying, he spent a lot of time in the Korean ecosystem area, then the Korean gardens. He was most interested in where the water was coming in to each of the tanks. And following the paths of the water through the garden areas.
By the tank with snails he surprised a woman. Turned out the couple was from Vancouver. I said we were from Seattle, and the guy got overly excited, giving me an enthusiastic handshake and hug and joking we should have dinner together sometime.
We sped up after that. He wanted to stop at the harp-shaped aquarium though, saying “I want to look at that one. We always do.” Oh, and at the green/orange/red light aquarium he joked about crossing the street, and we took photos of him in each of the lights.
He needed to use the bathroom again, and in the Amazonia area we went back to the bathrooms – we’d also gone before we went in and had talked about how the other doors went to the Amazonia area.
On to the Touch Lab area, where we spent ten minutes or so. He liked the animals, but was fascinated with all the pipes he could see and room full of pump equipment, etc. and wanted to know where the water goes and comes out.
We hurried more after that, then stood on the moving floor. At the gift shop I mentioned finding something for Carly for her fake birthday. He spotted balloon bopper things and said
“I want to surprise mama with that.” He first chose a Hello Kitty one, but then spotted a Poli one and we went with that.
We went back in to get the backpack. I was ready to leave and hurry, but he wanted me to do the shark again: “First, put your hand in that.” We left at 2:50.
On the subway he didn’t like a guy that touched him and jumped off the seat. We moved to a different set of seats after a couple stops. He was eating crackers, and grabbed two: “I think two will do it.”
We took line 2 up and transferred to line 1, then at Wolgye we took the Nowon 15 bus to APIS. Or actually a stop farther, as we went to Tospia and got a mocha for Carly, a strawberry yoghurt smoothie for August, and a drink for me. We then went and got to APIS just before 4:30. August and I sat on the stands, waiting for Carly to come out, as she had told us she was leaving at 4:30. But after 10 minutes or, as August was finishing his drink, he wanted to find mama. So we went in, only to find she wasn’t there. I called, and she had actually left at 4:25. So August said “Happy fake fake birthday” to her over the phone.
We went and used the bathroom, then cleaned up the little bit of smoothie that had spilled when he had dropped his smoothie going up the stairs. He had wanted the smoothie back in the cup.
As we walked across the field he said “I don’t want fake grass in Israel…” And randomly, “I want to wear underwear at night now.” At the busstop we waited. And waited. Two 1130s went by. Then we saw Emmalee and Naara, the music teachers, and went and talked to them for a few minutes. Still no bus. Took about twenty minutes. It came, and we got on. August got the last seat before the second door on the door side. The bus got more and more crowded since it was the first one in so long. August was almost falling asleep by the time we were getting to Hagye. I was singing to him, and said I shouldn’t sing a sleeping song. He said “I want a sleepy song.”
We got off the bus, and said goodbye, and he spotted the camel statue and said “I want to say hi. You used to do that?” Been a long time. We got home at 5:40 and gave Carly her drink and bopper, and the rest of the Russian chocolates. August said “I want chocolates.” Carly had said she had missed her own fake birthday.
August kept asking why, then said “Why mama missed fake birthdays? Because they leave?” We realized he didn’t understand her use of ‘miss’.
He had some dinner, then Carly gave him a bath. They were stacking up all the cups and then pouring water through them. After his bath he climbed on Carly with pillows, and we joked that he was surfing, and were humming “Wipe Out”. He kept asking us to sing it again.
On the toilet he called Carly Dada again, then was joking that all our names were switched. He was now Mama and did his Mama impression: “Why hello there.” He was then teasing her, and instead of saying he loves her just “so much” he said “A ton of Qs…so much Qs.” He was then asleep right at 8.
Plensa sculpture:
Drink by Lotte Tower:
Looking up at Lotte Tower through the sculpture:
Drinking Pororo’s drink:
