At some point in the morning he did a bunch of sneezing, then fall back to sleep before getting up about 6:10. On Carly’s computer he spotted the word “Community” and asked what it meant, so we tried to explain that. He had some banana bread for breakfast, then we read some Smurfs, reading all of the Baby Smurf volume. I had Cheerios for breakfast and he wanted some of his own and was upset when I didn’t immediately agree to give him his own bowl. I was done with mine though and he was okay using my bowl.
We then played with Duplos, and he was playing on his own, humming the Pink Panther song. We took care of alligator and built an exhibit for the dinosaur. We also packed some more Duplos, adding them to the block that they worked on yesterday. He got pillows and surfed on me, then requested I make up songs: one about a kid playing in a bathroom, and another about going to the doctor.
He was hungry so we had some watermelon. I took a shower and he just played on his own. Requested more watermelon when I got out. We then ate the rest of our treat from Tous les Jour a couple days ago. He then got my sheet off the bed and played with it. He said “I want to fight over it.” so we pulled on it. He got it wrapped around himself, and while he was walking he said “This is my apron.” We were listening to the remix album of the Erasure song “I Love You to the Sky” – a band and song he already likes. He wanted to add each of them to his playlist, and ended up just sitting on the couch and listening to them for several minutes. He then played in the sink, so I took the opportunity to make phone calls to KT about cancelling our phone and internet. Only to find they are upgrading all their systems and can’t do anything until Wednesday.
He had been talking about going out to ride his bike, so we were going to do that then come back home and have lunch, then head to the National Museum in the afternoon since Carly had middle school graduation and wouldn’t be home until 7. But when we were ready to go he changed his mind and said he wanted to go straight to the National Museum. So we made a sandwich and grabbed a little more food and switched to the big backpack and left by 11:40.
He patted the mama statue but I didn’t, and he wanted me to go back and touch the statue to see how hot it was. It was really hot. On the train I handed him Sesame Street Art Maker. He kept turning up the volume when I turned it down “I don’t like quiet things; I like loud things.”
We got to the National Museum and went and had lunch by lake at 12:40. There was a girl who went by, being a duck. He said “Zinnie should be a goose.” We then went in and got a children’s museum ticket for 1:30. We had about a half hour, so went into the main museum and looked around a bit. He saw the ten story pagoda and wanted to take a photo, so we did that. Then up the escalators, eventually to the third floor. I took him through the Silk Road and Asia rooms for a bit, but he wasn’t a fan of the darkness. We then heard music, so tracked it down to the lobby, where a woman was finishing soundchecking her accordion. There was a sign saying the concert would be at 3.
We went into to children’s museum at 1:30. He ran into the primitive house and fell in a hole (cooking pi, I think). He brushed himself off, then went and was grinding wheat for a few minutes. Then headed towards the back, where he threw around the big pillow-like dice, and hit a bigger kid with it. The boy (12 or so) didn’t seem to mind. He then went and was climbing on the hills, and took his shoes off to do it. From there we went towards the bathrooms and he saw the spear game, where you throw a spear to try to hit a bird. He wanted to run in and play but didn’t want to wait. We watched for awhile, then we went and used the bathroom.
Then he wanted to go into the toddler room. He played in there for quite awhile, going down the little slide and playing with the toddler cube things. He kept saying “I wanted to be a toddler.” He then ran across to the book/lounge room and climbed up on the step things and hung out with a family. In the hall there are tables with little wooden blocks that you can change the shape of. They don’t stick together, but he expected them to: “I expect this one to stick.” It was starting to clear out, and he got a turn at the spear thing. I started to tell him how to play, but he grabbed two spears and started running in front of the screen: “I just want my shadow.”
We left at 2:50 and sat and had a snack of banana bread and crackers. We then went and watched a few minutes of the accordion player, but he was ready to play outside.
When we were coming in he was wanting to go to the Arabia special exhibit, but I missed my chance. He wanted to play outside now, and we ended up running out of time to come back. We walked over to Yongsan Park and wandered around a bit. He didn’t want the playground at first, and he didn’t want to play in the stream either, saying there wasn’t enough water. We saw a woman watering the big yellowing field with a single hose (rather Sisyphus like) and he wanted to follow the hose. It went across the field, then stretched across the stream to faucets on the other side, near the playground. We walked around and he was playing with the faucets by 3:30. Played with those for awhile, then he headed over to the playground and the sand.
There were two girls playing with the sand under the play structure and they sort of scared him a bit and chased him, then were pretending to offer him sand that was chocolate. He knew it was chocolate, but when one girl kept putting it by his mouth he said “I don’t want to eat sand.” He then saw a mom and little girl playing with buckets filled with water, and went and played with them. The mom gave him a cup and let him play with the water. Played with them, then went over to the little mushroom house and sat with some girls in there. Yes, there were only girls at the playground today.
The two girls in there came out and they all went over and played with the other girl with the water. He then went and climbed on one of the big bears, and sang a “I’m climbing on the bear” song. Then back to the window area playing with a girl and a bracelet he found. He put the bracelet on his arm, and pushed it up to his upper arm and left it there the rest of the time we were there. The girl was only reluctantly playing with him – she was making a mountain or cake and didn’t want August to touch it. Eventually he was pretending to put candles on it: “candle, candle, candle…I was pretending it was a cake.”
Eventually, I got him to head out as we needed to go get dinner. I was hungry. In the bathroom I asked if he wanted to keep the bracelet or leave it here. He said “Give it back”. He ran out, over to the girl who had been making the cake, and gave it to her.
We stopped at the faucets to fill his water bottle, then he started playing again. I said “I want to go get dinner.” He replied “Yeah, but one minute.” He had also been asking about dinner, and asked if we were going to Brownstone. Then I realized he was confused: “But I not have dinner because it’s not home.” He’s not used to eating out for dinner.
We were headed back towards the museum and he saw a big area of exercise equipment: “What those handles things are for?” “Down please. I want to find out.” We ended up spending twenty minutes or so there. At one point: “I want a made up song: Cookie Monster finds the cookie.” And while on exercise equipment: “I’m twisting. I’m not working well. I squeaked. The gear squeaked…Zinnie Clockwork isn’t working well. The gears are lose.” The most fun though was the rolling equipment, and he walked on the rolling treadmill.
We finally got out of there, and got to the little snack restaurant by the CU near the entrance at 5:40 – just in time, as after they took our order they told people they were closing. We go
t shrimp fried rice and ate it outside. We then went to CU and I got a coffee drink and we got two cookies: strawberry and apple. We went over and sat on a bench and ate them.
We went and got on the line 4 train this time. We read Tallulah’s Tap Shoes and Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed. We got off the train, then stopped to look at the billboard with babies on it and walk up and down the musical stairs once. When we got to the bus stop it said it was 14 minutes until the next one. So we started walking. After 12 minutes or so August said “I don’t want to take a bus. Let’s walk home.” I had been about to suggest the same thing, as it was clear we were going to be pretty close to home by the time the bus came by anyway. Indeed, we were about to cross the stream to Chrysanthemum Park when it finally went by.
He got quiet a couple times, but didn’t go to sleep. Right before we got home I asked “What do you want to tell mama about?” He replied “Nothing…All I want to do is nursing.” It was the first time he had mentioned nursing. We were home at 7:40. He quickly spotted the flowers that Carly had brought home from graduation: “What the flowers is from?”
We washed his feet, then they went in to go to sleep. But he couldn’t quite go to sleep yet. They came out and read a couple books on his iPad then went back in and he was asleep at 8:30.
Photos. Children’s history museum. Throwing the dice:
Shoe hands:
Jumping in the toddler area:
Wearing the bracelet:
Exercise:
A dinner out:
Silly on the train:
