He was up just before 6:20. Did fine when Carly left, although I had to grab him at the door. He requested Marble Machine, which he hasn’t watched for a long time, and watched that a few times. We were talking about what to do, and he requested the science center. I asked if he wanted the little one near us, or the big one, and he chose the big one. So I jumped in the shower as he watched it again. When I got out I could hear that he’d moved on to another video by the same guy, and he came it to inform me that he had finished the vide. We got ready to go, but he wanted me to play with Clockwork Smurf, so I had Clockwork help make the sandwich. He found the bag of Duplos that Carly had used at work and brought home. He had a lot of questions about that, and put a couple away where they belong before getting distracted.
He’d had Cheerios and banana for breakfast, and I was eating the other half of the banana and offered him a bite. He sort of grunted and turned away. He thought his own reaction was funny, apparently, as he then said “Give me a bite of banana.” When I offered again he grunted and turned away again. In the bedroom, he looked at the Josh Ritter poster and said “I don’t like that guy.” I explained who it was, and sang a couple of the songs that August knows from Josh Ritter. August asked if the songs were “made up”. I explained that all songs are written by someone, etc. He said “Zinnie’s a musician?”
We left at 8:50. As we walked through the park, he was blocking the sun with his hand, and we talked about how trees provide shade. On the way down we read four books: Loch Mess Monster, Tallulah’s Solo, Little Red Hen, and Tallulah’s Tap Shoes. We transferred, and during the walk a guy started talking to us, in English. He walked with us half the way, waited for the train with us, and rode the train with us, talking and asking questions, practicing his English. August said “I don’t really like that guy.” But he handled it okay, and did tell him he was 3 when the guy asked how old he is.
We got to the science center at 10:10. We went and played in the playground, using the buckets and backhoe things to scoop sand, then sat and ate our sandwich. He really liked the s-c-i-e-n-c-e song that kept playing on the speakers. Think it is like the museum’s theme song, like Children’s Grand Park’s. Maybe I’ll be able to find it. Played in a drinking fountain, then went and got a ticket and went in.
Robots were dancing when we went in, but he only watched for a bit. He would stop and watch them a few times through the day, but not for long. So I was surprised when he told Carly his favorite part was “robots dancing”.
We first went to the new wing, to the right on the first floor. It was closed last time we were there. It is about the future, science fiction, and jobs of the future. After the really cool opening (weird light halls, with one with mirrors that makes it look like you’re surrounded by stars), we wandered through there, looking at a lot of stuff. His favorites were looking in the 3D goggles that showed you an image from the back of a model train that was going around a track, and a video on lab safety. We talked a bout about some of the jobs listed in ‘Job world’, then about some pieces of art at the end of it. Oh, and we watched a robot perform surgery.
He looked at the see though escalators (working here) and wanted to go upstairs. In the center there is a temporary exhibit on sight and how we see things. He particularly liked the rotating rotoreliefs, and really liked the idea that it looked like you were going into a vacuum cleaner. Then there was the LED Magic Board game. A big wall screen with a controller that sensed your hands and you could interact with it to play games. Played that for several minutes with other kids. Then into the ‘Advanced science’ hall (upstairs to the left). Through the area on power production. First wind, then he really liked the demonstration on tidal power production. I explained it a couple times, but don’t know how much he got as he had his fingers in his ears. Then the solar power demonstration. Quieter, and he was really interested (we’ve seen solar panels a lot, so have discussed them before). He seemed to be understanding it, and kept asking “Its making power?”
Past that is the area about space (sadly lacking in the new one close to us). August saw a group of kids in yellow shirts looking at a video about the robots on Mars (which he recognized from the Solar System app) and went and got right in with the group. He then followed the group, walking in line, as they made their way to the airplane area, through the model of a passenger plane. We parted ways, and we looked at more stuff about planes: he liked the wind tunnel (more plugged ears), airplane controls, and hang glider (it is an actual demonstration where you lie down and swing around, looking at a big screen of you flying. He ALMOST got on, then heard the buzzing noises it makes when you are too steep, etc. and that scared him off).
We were talking about going down to the play area, but he kept getting distracted, saying multiple times: “I want to go to the play area…Wait, what that is?” He mainly got held up by the fiber optic cable making machine (constantly making these fine fibers that go on and on) and a square light area that makes it look like you’re standing over a bottomless hole. Back out in the center of the second floor he saw the candy store and we went over and looked at candy for a bit, then headed down to the play area at 12:25.
Kind of puttered around there for 50 minutes: the broken water stuff, the musical keyboard you step on, the weights on levers, then we spent the last 20 or so playing with the foam blocks. I was really hungry, and just needed a break, but when he got distracted by the magnets thing I did pause long enough to show him the opposites attract thing.
We went out to CU at 1:15. Too late, as it had been cleaned out by all the school groups. I got a coffee drink and he got an apple juice. We went and sat outside and ate more of the food we had brought.
We went back inside and straight up to the LED Magic Board at 1:35. He went to watching robots from the balcony with other kids. He then ran back to the ‘advance science wing’, watching the ‘fiber spinning’ for a bit more. Then back to the science area, where we went in the Space Shuttle exhibit, which we had skipped before. He played with the concentration test (moving a metal ring over a shape). They need to update their displays, as they all talk about the Space Shuttle as if it were still in operation. We walked through the rest of the raised pathway part, and saw all the different kids of engines and discussed those: rocket, jet, propeller.
Then back to the vision exhibit – feeing things in boxes part, back to the rotoreliefs, a lot of looking at the plastic fruit randomly in a bowl (I’m sure there was a point). We watched some kids in a special area (there was a line, probably age limit, etc.) trying out VR goggles. We watched them walk around funny. August got upset when he kept scooting under the divider and I pulled him out. Took him out of there, but then he wanted to look at the candy more and was opening the bins. More frustration. But we were able to calm down and he went back and looked at the candy a bit.
Then through the last hallway we’d never been in (I don’t think, unless maybe briefly the first time), the one on the history of Korean science. I expected it to be kind of dull, but was actually pretty impressive. There’s a video game thing where you can use a joystick to walk around inside a turtle ship, then one where you can row a boat.
We were running out of time, and I said we had about 30 minutes left. He was having tons of fun and didn’t want to leave. He said “I want infinity minutes!”
We headed back downstairs. As we got to the escalators, we saw some high school girls playing around at the
top of the escalators (walking back up, etc.). Then saw them get met by science center staff at the bottom and walked over someplace where they were presumably getting in trouble.
Got to the human body area in the ‘Basic science’ hall at 2:40. We started at the end, at the baby development display. We listened to each other at the auditory illusion thing (which supposedly slightly delays what you are hearing, so it doesn’t match the other person’s lips, but it didn’t seem odd to me – we still had fun though).
But then the best thing were the sound tubes. They are different lengths, and are supposed to show you how sound travels slower than light, as when you listen through the tube that is 100 meters long it is delayed from the 1 meter long tube. August did indeed like listening to them, but then he started using them as vacuum cleaners. That lasted for several minutes until he needed to use the bathroom, just after 3. Did that and afterwards he wanted to go back and play with the hoses. Did that a bit longer, then as we walked out we were startled by this: https://youtu.be/FSmRSpxCWAM Didn’t actually get a good look at it, as it was to our right. We stood around a few more minutes, hoping they would fire it again. The suspense was too much for August though so we got going.
A couple weeks ago I’d mentioned that sunglasses only protect your eyes. Seemingly a pretty simple thing, but maybe not, since it makes everything look shady. Anyway, so he’s brought this up and asked about it several times, and I explain how it doesn’t shade your neck, nose, etc. Today as we left the science center he was then pulling up his collar to protect his neck and mouth.
On the way home we read Tap Shoes, Loch Mess Monster, and Berenstain Bears Go to School. We had to deal with a lot of people trying to talk to and touch August though, and it was too much for a worn out boy. Actually, the final straw was my fault: He was sitting on my lap and all 5 of the other seats cleared out at once. I thought there was no way they would all fill back up, and I let him sit next to me. But then a big group of older people got on right away and I tried to get him back on my lap.
So we got off at one station and waited for the next train. A woman tried to shove lollipops in his face as I was getting him calmed back down. We got on the next train, but just barely. He had a seat, and the guy next to him reached over and started touching his scraped knee. August made what were some clearly international sounds of distress at that and jumped off the seat. I got him back on the seat, reluctantly, and the guy tried doing it again. I made it clear he needed to back off. August wasn’t going to handle much more.
Got off at Changdong and immediately caught the 1144 bus at 4:45. The newest bus we’ve ever been on, with that new bus smell. He liked watching the driver. Got to the Brownstone stop right at 5, so we crossed and walked south by the pink building. August asked why there was a faucet on the side of the building. One of us said probably for cleaning, then before I could suggest that it was also for watering plants he said it: “Or maybe watering plants…maybe they attach a hose to (go to) the plants.”
We met Carly on the corner right away. I saw a woman with a cool shirt: it showed a cat with a horn, and said ‘Kittycorn’. Carly had brought home a poster from work, in a poster tube, with the end taped shut. She mentioned how she’d been careful to make it so the poster wouldn’t stick and rip, and he said “Well if it rips I’ll suck the rip up.”
At home he told Carly his favorite part was the dancing robots, which surprised me as he hadn’t watched them a whole lot. While nursing he was moving around like he was a year old. Which Carly mentioned, which then turned it into a game. He ate tortilla from my burrito, then Carly made him a quesadilla with broccoli and cheese. He was a little perturbed when the sides would kind of slide apart: “Don’t move!” “Were you ordering the quesadilla not to move?” “Yeah.”
I gave him a bath. We watched Beethoven’s Fourth. Carly cleaned the kitchen. We then read all of Smurfs #14 Baby Smurf. In bed I think I said something about him being Grouchy Smurf, then Baby Smurf. He said “I’m Big Kid Smurf.” He was asleep about 7:30.