Skyped with Vivian in the morning. I heard them talking about ballet dancing and the Tallulah books, and doing some dancing. A bit later he was playing with Carly and gave her a blueberry fish: “A blueberry fish doesn’t need to be cooked.” They then used tape to tape together all the leftover plastic spoons and straws into an invention. He told me “Don’t take my cool machine.”
Carly moved out the donations to the hallways and I made pancakes and August and I ate them. Carly then took him outside. They took down the fan and the vacuum cleaner to the recycling area. They didn’t have to pay for them. They then went over to the playground, where Carly got to see him do the tube slide on his own several times. She hadn’t really seen that. And they also went to Dunkin Donuts and got a bagel and cream cheese. They were home at 9:45.
He was sitting in the parlor, playing with the cord to the lamp, having the plastic piece on it slide on it like a slide. When he started to try to plug it in instead, I went and got the friends that we were going to pack and tossed them to him and he was going crazy with them on the floor. We then got ready to head to Children’s Grand Park for the last time. He got his omega-3 vitamins bottle and was playing with it. There were only a few left, enough for today and a couple extra. He was trying to get them out, but I didn’t think he could, as they stick to the bottom. I can barely get them out with my fingers. But he managed to get them and ate them all. Carly made a peanut butter sandwich but didn’t know how we make our sandwiches exactly.
We were talking about using up what was in the cupboards and I said I was the king of using up ingredients. He said “No. I’M the king of using up ingredients.”
We headed out and first took a bus up to Nowon. We went to the tea place, August commented on it being open this time. He spotted a sushi place with a conveyor belt and we watched it and talked about how eating there works: “That’s a conveyor belt?” At the tea places we had two iced teas and August really liked both of them. We talked about making iced tea in Israel.
We then walked over to the KT Olleh office and I cancelled my cell phone. While I did that they looked around and there was an exercise bike that he played on. It had buttons on the handles and he pretended they sprayed coffee and other things: “it sprays coffee” When I was done he wanted to stay there and keep playing on the bike, but I convinced him to get going to the park. Carly took him to the bathroom, and he used the hand dryer as it was quiet, and was talking about it when they came out. We left at 11:40
In Nowon station we looked at an optical illusion – tiles that made cubes on the wall. As we went down the escalator we looked at the stained glass above us and he said “That’s dada’s favorite piece of art?” On the train they read Tallulah’s Tutu and Carly asked if he wanted to be in the audience or on stage. He said “On stage…mama wear red, Zinnie wears green.” They then read two Peppa books.
At the park he didn’t want to get lunch and wanted to go straight to the children’s museum instead. Talked him into it though and we headed to the same place. We got a shrimp burger and cheese sticks again and ate outside this time. He stood in line with a school group, then went over to see a baby, then he and the big sister ran around and chased pigeons. He really liked the ketchup.
We got to children’s museum at 1:30. Went down to the blue blocks, where he wanted to sit in the window thing and I built a set of steps for him. Then a rather timid girl came along. He asked “Can I build with you?” But then he started to get too rough and I had to take him away. We went and played with the airport machine, then Carly pushed him around in a wheelchair, then we did the robot together. August was turning two wheels at once. Went back to the blue blocks, and there was a boy that he did a better job of playing with. August was going a bit wild, using one of the long ones and climbing around saying “pee, pee, pee” when he fell off the blocks. He somehow ended up with a small scratch under his nose. They were then looking through the holes of the blue blocks, and August was saying “There’s nothing in there. It’s black.” The boy eventually left, and August had fun knocking everything down. He got one for Carly: “Mama. You can have one. I’ll get you one.”
Went to the bathroom, went into the spaceship game and actually got to play it. And he was paying more attention than me about what you do because he said “Don’t take my aliens…I don’t want that alien.” On a computer screen where you can decorate a face he put a bandaid on to match the cut on his face. Went back to the spaceship and he and Carly played the spaceship game together. We headed to the water area at 3.
Watched him play a bit, then I headed over to the upstairs coffee shop and got a drink. They went to the construction site and played with the brick conveyor belt. They came over to the coffee shop a little before 4. He got an apple juice and chose a table with the comfy chairs. We sat there and I found the counting book he used to like. He said “I still like it. I always like it.”
On our way out he wanted to look at the little garden place again. They had stopped to look on the way over too. He pulled the cup up from the dirty water in the little fake well area.
On the way home we had to stop and get off once when he hit the arm of a woman next to him. He and Carly then read Harold and The Purple Crayon and something else. We were home at 5:20.
At home I made a smoothie. As he drank it he said “I like cold things. Not warm things. Not hot things.” He wanted to play in the sink and when he realized his stool was gone he got upset. Really upset. I dragged the table over and got him to stand on that instead.
A bit later he was standing, looking out the window and said “If there was nobody down there…nothing…there’d be pipes?” We’ve talked a lot about the pipes underground and was thinking about them.
I put on the Smurfs and gave him a shower. Took a little convincing, but it went okay. We got him in and asleep at 7:15.
Photos. Exercise bike at the cell phone store:
Leading a line of kids at Children’s Grand Park:
Cheese stick:
Staircase:
Video game:
One last visit to the coffee shop:
