He was up, allergic I think, a little before 5. Carly made him eggs. He found the wooden car puzzle in the pile of stuff to be shipped to Israel and wantedthe backhoe one. He was upset when we found out Carly had sent it to Colin. First he decided he wanted to send it to Vivian instead, but when he calmed down he decided he wanted to send the car one to them as well. He played in the sink, but tried to follow Carly out the door when she left. Thought he would get upset when I stopped him, but he was fine. He simply asked “Mama’s at work now?” I explained that she was still in the hall, but on her way to work.
August then wanted to get the Smurfs out, and we played with them for a long time: he wanted to have them choose to have a picnic in the water, and of course everything sunk or floated away. They played hide and seek. And they went to the aquarium but Hefty broke aquariums with the rock he was carrying. We looked up a list of all the Smurfs to see what other Smurfs there are. And he sucked up all their rocks, flowers, food with a vacuum cleaner. We made soup for them, and he ended up singing a “tomato soup” song.
Then our doorbell rang. It was a woman asking us to move the bike from the hall. A good warning that they were going to clean the halls. Before we ended up with a lake out there, I put a Pink Panther cartoon on his iPad and jumped in the shower. We got ready to go as fast as possible, and left at 8:40.
We walked over to the mama statue and gave it a pat. He knew I had packed a grape slurpy thing (the last one in the cupboard) and wanted to eat it, so we sat on a bench across the path from the statue and ate that. He was watching the women walking laps, and said “I want to wear masks.”
We then got in the backpack and headed to the station. On the train a woman gave him a snack in a box before I could intervene. He wanted to eat it in the cafeteria at the children’s museum. He mainly played with the ear on Human Body. As we got off he said “I’m comfortable with that woman.”
At Children’s Grand Park station he continued to spot all the different models of CCTV cameras through the station – something he’s been into the last couple of days. They are different sizes and shapes, so I’ve talked about how some are older than others, so he’ll point and say “That’s an older one?” or “That’s a newer one?” One of the escalators was broken again. As we went in the park he said “I like that group. I like all those people.” We stopped in the pond area and looked for turtles and I spotted one. Then some workers climbed in and started to cut some of the grass in the pond and we watched them a bit.
We sat in the pagoda by the pond and tried the snack. It was a jello-like snack bar. He first said “Yeah, it’s pretty good.” But then only ate a couple bites of it.
It was before 10, so he was a bit impatient, waiting for the museum to open. He saw some people go in the doors and he wanted to wait in the lobby, but I wanted to wait at the pagoda. As soon as it was 10 we went in the children’s museum. We went downstairs to play with the blue blocks. But first he jump on the circle things, played with the magnets, etc. It was kind of funny, as there was a worker who was treating us like it was our first time there, telling us how everything worked. The best was when he tried to explain, and then pointed to the sign explaining, the random magnets – which are literally supposed to be a free play/creativity activity. August then wanted to go play with the blue blocks. They didn’t have the sound and video working and were fiddling with the DVD player and the guy told us that. I was fine and we started to play, but then he said we couldn’t play there as they were trying to fix it. A little odd. We went and did the robot, the Braille, the airport scanner, music box, etc. August still wouldn’t ride in a wheelchair.
The guy then let us play in the blue blocks. We played there awhile. I made a walking path for August, but he only did it once. August heard the hint of another kid coming down and was being possessive: “I don’t want other kids in here. It’s only for Zinnie…Only for Zinnie, but not other kids.”
At 10:40 we headed up to the bathroom. He chose to use a urinal. From there he wandered to the space area. Jumped on the tilting ship hinges with some other kids, did the running game, considered going up in the big play structure, and played in the space ship. In there, August got hit for the first time during the day, by a boy who hit August’s hand when August put his hand on a lever. The other boy wasn’t using it, and I realized as the teacher got the boy away that he was a special needs student. August didn’t seem bothered by it. Oh, and August chose on his own to get his picture taken at the photo zone next to the alien.
Then we went up to the water area. Played there as usual until August discovered the hand dryers. He would get his hands wet, run to the hand dryers to dry them off, then go get them wet again, etc.
For the last 20 minutes or so he went over to the culture play area. He stood in a masquerade figure so I could take his photo, we played around with the TV camera and microphones, and he tried to get in other kids’ photos on the fashion runway, then stood on it and put his hands up so I could take a photo.
We left at noon to go get lunch. I’d mentioned going to a restaurant to get Korean food, and put him in the backpack. I had also asked if he needed to go to the bathroom and he said he thought he was okay. I realized I’d confused him about where we were going as he said “I thought it was at Hagye.” when I started to walk away from the subway, further into the park. That would make sense, as it is around Hagye that we always talk about going out for lunch and getting Korean food.
But instead we were going to the combination burger/Korean food place (Cobaco) over by the animal show building. This was where, with my parents, he had grabbed a straw and where, a few months later, I had had him sitting in a seat on his own. This time, he was eating soup on his own and using chopsticks. A bit has changed. Oh, and on the way over we stopped to admire the weeds overtaking the old aviary.
At one point during lunch he reached up to grab a straw. I told him of grabbing a straw here and how he used to chew on them. So he tried chewing on it, but didn’t seem impressed.
We next went and saw the seals and sea lion. Spent a good amount of time watching and discussing them.
From there we went to the bathroom (where I had changed him when with my parents – one of the first places). He sat up on the changing pad for funsies. He observed of the soap on a stick “That one’s up. I like up things.” (Referring to the ones over in the coffee shop building that are installed sideways and rest down on the counter instead of rotating left and right.)
We took the path up behind the bathrooms. Actually got up the odd bumpy path just fine, but then he fell in kind of a hole on the regular path and scraped his right knee a bit. He walked around, and sort of played with a big stick a bit, but it was all too much. He decided to go home.
Went down in front of the seals and got in the backpack and put the cover up and sunglasses on. It was clear though by the time we approached the coffee shop area that he was about asleep. So I walked around to the back entrance and up and he was asleep. He slept from 1:57 to 2:47. I started trying to wake him up at 2:35, but that wasn’t happening. Once he did wake up, he wasn’t getting out of the backpack. He spent several minutes hiding hands and making funny noises, then jokingly scooting away from me. The first thing he said was something about coffee, I thought, and a minute later he said “I want my coffee.” Funny boy. He also got Smokey out and was playing with him for a couple minutes.
We left at 3. We walked over to the new playground area. A small fence had blown over, and no
one was working, so we walked in a bit and looked around. There’s a cool water play area, with water going down the hill from one wooden tub to another, that looks promising. And a small sand area. Still looks like there is a lot of work to be done.
Then to the Korean walking path area. Played with the faucets a bit and the toy boat in the backpack, but then he was done at 3:20: “I’m done. I want to go home now. Turn off the water.”
We went to the bathroom, then he really wanted to look at the candy and toys. I finally got him out of the shop. We started to walk out of the park, but only made it as far as the set of faucets. There, he found a hose used by the construction workers. We attached the end that had come off the faucet, and the other end wasn’t far away. We were turning it on, watching water come out the other end, until eventually we had a river that ran down the slope until it found its way into a drain.
Took about 15 minutes there, and though we were leaving a little before 4. But August spotted kids climbing on statues, and I told him he could go join them. The first group was of kids the same age or younger. August climbed on and sat at one end. At one point a girl climbed on behind him and was hanging on his shoulder. He didn’t much like that. Then, as he sat on it, two of the little boys started to hit August in the arms and legs for no apparent reason. Again this didn’t seem to phase him.
That group left, but another remained. One of the girls kept coming up and handing me or August rocks. So we were all making stacks of rocks on them statues together. At one point a bunch of the kids ran up the hill and he ran after them, and when they put their arms up for some reason he did it to. We played on the statues until 4:20, then spent some time looking at the robot-looking statue of Jan Janie Weltevree that is my favorite statue in the park (earlier, August had asked me if some other statue – an animal or something – was my favorite piece of art, and I told him no it wasn’t). We identified some of the things that it is made of.
We got to the station at 4:30. He stayed in the backpack, on the ground, the entire time on the train. There was a girl that got on with a cello case.
We were home at 5:05. As we got to the building I said we could save going to the post office for another day. I just wanted to get some more boxes for packing. He said “No, I don’t want to do that. I want to jump on the bike and get boxes.” I said okay, then asked “Do you need to go to the bathroom first?” He said “No…How far it is?” When I explained it was over on the other side of the art museum he seemed fine with it. He’s thinking about it.
We headed straight over, got 3 size 5 boxes, and drove them home stuck in the middle of the bike. We were home at 5:33, dropped off the boxes, then turned right around again to go down and find Carly on her way home. We found her outside Mama Juice.
They nursed, then for dinner he said he didn’t want anything. I made him up a bowl of rice, broccoli, and cheese anyway and he ate a good amount. He suddenly came out of the parlor pulling the Smurf village mat with all the figurines on it. We played several aquarium scenarios. They nursed and read Five Minutes Peace and Kipper A to Z. He was then playing on his own on the reading area in the parlor, and we were both in different rooms when I heard him say “I’m playing with it. Don’t take it!”
I gave him his bath. He wanted me to stack the cups like Carly does, but I was doing it wrong. I was able to distract him by showing him that the cups connect like a catepillar. So he played with them that way. We got through the washing and hair washing okay. Carly then took a shower, and I put on his pajamas. He said “That’s the pants with nobody inside them that I’m wearing. Now there’s somebody inside them!”
He was asleep just a bit after 8.
I was able to find the Children’s Grand Park theme song, which we’ve headed hundreds and hundreds of times, on YouTube so we can add that to iTunes. Now I just need to find the Korean version of “Way down upon the Swanee River” that we’ve heard just about as often. That one might be more difficult.
Photos:
Taking another straw and chewing on it:
Seals:
sitting on the changing table:
Scraped knee:
Asleep:
Playing on the statue:
