Author: Ryan/Dada

We went to Costco today to replenish Carly’s cheese supply. 

Here is August, awake in the morning and ready to play with/ mess up all his toys: 

We sat at the desk and looked at this Feely Bugs book for a good 20 minutes before his nap:

As we walked through the park on our way to Costco, the pigeons started to crowd around us. Then, as we walked through/past them I turned around to see the walking after us. Disconcerting. I assume they were waiting for the pigeon lady to come and feed them:

He was incredibly mellow during the entire trip to Costco. I had him facing me in the carrier, as it was only 19 degrees when we left the house. He didn’t make a single noise during the entire subway ride. When we got off the subway I said something like ‘You are really mellow today, boy’ and he replied with a single ‘meh’:

Our first find at Costco. A set of eight shapes for August:

As we wew leaving August was excited by the statue outside Costco. This is one of those times that he was more excited before I pulled out the camera, but you get the idea:

The statue he was looking at:

Playing with the banana before we eat it:

Our haul from Costco aside from the set of shapes for August. Two feta cheeses, three cheddars, a beef burrito, and a hotdog:

Playing with the new shapes. They will be good for learning both shapes and colors:

Finally, playing in the crib before bed. Quite the laugh:

A fun leisurely and productive day around the house. He helped me hang laundry by taking each item out of the basket one at a time again. 

His other big thing today was offering Sophie (the chewy giraffe thing) to me to chew on multiple times. 

Our adventure today was walking to APIS to hang out with the 7th grade girls while Carly ran her after school activity. He knows a couple of them quite well from hanging out with them with Carly after school on Thursdays when I was at PT. So it was interesting to see how they could hold him and he wouldn’t get upset, whereas with most other people he will only last a few seconds or a couple minutes before needing to go back to mom or dad. 

 

Morning time: 

Carly used to let the 7th grade girls hang out after school on Thursdays and visit August while I went to PT. Now that she runs an activity with K to 2nd graders at that time I have had to change my appointments to Friday. But I still want August to interact with more people, so I took him in to school so they could still hang out with them. 

First, he was kind of mobbed outside the library, where we went to hang out: 

But once we were in the library and it was a bit calmer he had a blast:

Chewing on his hat on the way home:

From the evening, a new game that has developed. Going into the clothes in the closet. You get to see him doing his arm pointing thing at the beginning:

There was both snow on the ground when we woke up and then a thirty minute snow storm around 11. 

At 12:30 he had his first music class.  

Morning:

He insisted on falling asleep in my arms again. Here he is sleeping on my shoulder: 

Watching the snow fall outside the window:

Video:

What we were looking at and the noises he was making:

Before his class we had a few minutes to walk through the art museum and say hi to some of his favorite pieces, including this one, which probably both reminds him of the two giraffes he has as well as a banana:

His first music class. Went very smoothly overall except when she pulled out a shaker shaped like a banana and showed it to the class. August was very excited, standing and doing his arm waving routine. Then she put it back in the box. He started crying and I had to turn him around and comfort him. Then when I turned him back around e saw it sticking out of the box and started saying “nana nana nana” and crying again. Luckily, when she handed out shakers and his was a red pepper he didn’t seem to mind:

He basically ignored me when we were supposed to be playing with the shakers together. Instead, he lay across my lap and watched the woman and baby next to us. Which is fine, since my goal with the classes is to expose him to other people, not just me:

Like every class there, they spray bubbles at some point. He loves it:

We also got to play with a balloon:

After the class we went down to the store and found bubbles to buy. We also did our usual time watching the fish and birds:

Bubbles at home:

Chewing on his sock before his final nap. Note the name tag:

Playing in the evening:

After his first nap we headed south on the subway to check out the COEX Mall for possible indoor activities. There is an aquarium there that we will probably go to at some point, but that wasn’t our plan today. We also went to the Bonguensa temple because it is literally right next door. That is Korea for you: 1200 year old temple site next to a ginormous modern mall/conference/trade/aquariumcomplex. 

But first, the day got off to a rocky start as he woke up crying and still tired: 

But he woke up and got better:

Eventually he was getting ready for a nap, but he has started new pfft noises. So here you get some of his new sound and some crying:

He fell asleep on my shoulder:

He woke up happy. I found him awake, playing with the Boppy pillow:

Getting dressed in two pairs of pants for our outing:

We took the subway to Cheongdam – the same area August was born. But instead of walking north from the station, we headed south. First we went to the Bongeunsa temple:

Huge Buddha statue:

At the base of the statue there are glass boxes of offerings. One had plants and the other had candles. This was August’s introduction to fire and he loved it. We watched the candles for several minutes:

We then went to the huge COEX mall across the street. Failed to find an indoor playground, but the changing room was huge and we found a huge bookstore that had a large section of English books. The English books were the same price they would be in the U.S. So we had to buy him a book. 

Also, he loved the Moleskine notebooks: 

He fell asleep after I changed him in the mall:

And woke up 50 minutes later during the subway ride home:

At home he practiced crawling, but then refused to perform for the camera:

We ended the day with some silliness in the kitchen:

An eventful day! August had his first official class (the five senses one) and as we left the building he experienced his first snow storm. It was also windy, so it wasn’t a very pleasant snowstorm. 

In the afternoon we walked to APIS. August was literally asleep in the carrier before we left the apartment and napped the entire way there.  

Also, I took a lot of good photos, so this should be a big one.

In the morning: 

Playing with a coffee packet for the first time:

Before his nap:

When he woke up he didn’t make any noise. I went in to find him just laying there, playing with one of his socks:

His class. Not a lot of opportunities to take photos or videos. The class went well, although he cried a few times. He really got excited though by the bubbles and the song at the end, during which we stood up and moved around. He also preferred watching everyone else as they did the activities over doing them himself. Here he is holding the goat hat that he refused to wear:

Watching the mom/baby off to our right:

Snow! I stopped filming to help block his face and ended up walking backwards across part of the park. But he seemed to handle it just fine and made it in one piece:

Pink cheeks and nose:

Back home:

In the evening:

i lowered the blinds and doing so makes a noise he doesn’t like. I was holding him and he enjoyed touching the blind, so I thought I would offer him the chain to touch. He initially reached for it but pulled back his hand. He would then only give it a cautious look and never did touch it: 

Dinner time silliness:

Pajamas:

But he was hyper and wouldn’t go to sleep. So it was time to practice crawling:

Garbage can head:

Carly had grading to get done, so in the afternoon August and I went for a walk up to Nowon. We were looking for bubbles (failed) and the location of the Little Prince kids cafe for later reference (success). 

A few highlights of the day:

Playing with blocks: 

Skyping with Glecy and being fascinated by her friend’s cat:

Looking at the dots on the blanket and playing peekaboo with it:

Watching the barber poles on our walk:

Yawning:

Wearing duck pants:

Playing with the pots and pans:

And he helped with the laundry by picking every item out of the laundry basket one piece at a time. Although he has started offering us items, they are often joke offers in that he won’t actually let go, or will pull it back. So it was with the laundry, which I had to pull out of his hand every time:

We spent much of the morning and early afternoon cooking: Carly made creamy spinach soup and I made two loaves of banana bread. When we needed a few more things from the store August and I walked over to Home Plus. 

We walked to our friends Derek and Jill’s place for dinner. It wasn’t big – six adults and two babies total. But it was exciting enough to wear August out around eight and we walked home. 

We opened one of the toys we bought at Toys R Us awhile ago. Of course, August preferred the box over the push lion: 

He got excited by the fish at Home Plus. He seems to be slightly less excited by the bananas, as he is finding other things around the store to excite him:

Some clips of the party:

Photos from the party. I didn’t do a good job of getting everyone:

Back home, looking a little worn out:

August got his flu booster shot in the morning. During the day we went shopping at Home Plus. And in the late afternoon I went to my PT appointment. 

Eating an apple: 

Being checked by the doctor:

Fun new talking noises:

Reading one of the new books with mom:

Standing (almost) by himself:

Funny face:

Eating tofu/apple/banana mush:

And, just because, our lovely nachos for dinner:

This time it is the same tooth but on the top right. It is already visible. 

Having some technical difficulty posting to YouTube, so will catch up on that tomorrow. 

Can’t say we did anything related to Thanksgiving today. But Carly had the day off, so we went downtown with four friends from APIS, mainly to go to the Bauhaus theatre exhibit at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. 

August got really excited about the sculptures, and in particular about a couple of the Bauhaus costumes.  

Playing in the kitchen in the morning:

At the museum:

He really liked the one on the left. My theory is that the face reminded him of Iron Man. There was a life size Iron Man statue at Toys R Us and then an Iron Man toy at the bookstore last weekend that he could play with. He really liked both of them:

Yummy beer and pizza for lunch at a place called Beezza:

Playing with the hand of one of our friends on the way home:

Back home:

Chewing on a drawer: 

Trying on his snow suit (alas, it looks like it will be too small for him before the end of the winter):