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The flight went smoothly. He was the quietest baby (out of 3) in our part of the plane. We got two bulkhead seats together in the center. The woman to or left managed to move to a different empty seat, so we got a free third seat. August liked all the new foods – I gave him cranberries for the first time in the airport, then on the plane he had a broccoli/cheese thing and an apple sauce/something mixture. And then he gulped down a good chunk of Carly’s beef and pasta and vegetables dinner. He slept for 8 hours. All on Carly. 

We got off the flight, got our luggage (with a little delay as the conveyor belt got stuck – but that gave us time to change him and me, as he leaked on me when Carly went to the bathroom) and were greeted by Chuck and Cherie. 

Some difficulty and crying getting August in the car seat until Carly figured out how to adjust the straps, but after that he did surprisingly well, although Carly did a lot to entertain him as we went. 

We made one stop to pick up the keys to Glecy’s apartment. I slept maybe 20 to 30 minutes along the way. 

We made it to Centralia. Surprisingly, August didn’t fall asleep in the car. He was excited by their house and went immediately to playing and interacting with them. 

The three of us went over to Steve and Claremay’s for about 45 minutes, where he had fun with them and the box of toys Claremay brought out, but we headed back when he fell asleep nursing. 

He fell asleep in the car, and then transferred easily out of the car and into bed. 

Boarding soon. Here’s the day so far… 

 

When he he woke up I found him on the other side of the door with a cup in hand: 

A little outing to stretch the legs: 

Watching a woman sweep: 

Trying out a broom: 

Ready to leave: 

On the bus: 

Playing around the airport: 

As we’re about to head to the airport and leave Seoul for awhile, I figured I’d post a video of August’s second year so far: 

Most of out day was dedicated to packing and cleaning. 

But despite that, August and I went out twice, and in the late afternoon we all went for a walk. 

On our first trip August and I just went to the grocery store to get a couple last items. Unfortunately, it isn’t the grocery store I usually buy diapers at and I ended up grabbing these liner things, not diapers. 

So awhile later we went out again. This time we first went and played in the stream/Rock area in the park, then went and saw the new show at the art museum. It is probably the best show yet for August. It includes three pieces by the same artist that had these plastic creatures that breathe in and out hanging over the stairwell when the museum first opened. I got August to start raising his arms when the creatures breathed in and extended their tentacles. 

Before returning home we stopped once again at the store and picked up diapers this time. 

In the late afternoon, packing pretty much done, we all went for a walk. First we went to the art museum so Carly could see some of the art. We then walked back to the west and across the stream and went to the playground by the youth center. 

We were there for about an hour. There was water under the grates this time due to a heavy rainstorm this morning. August had fun reaching his skinny arms down there and touching the water. He also did a lot of wandering around and threw a lot of leaves and little rocks into the water. As he walked around he usually held an object, be it his ball, a brochure he found, or something else. 

‘baby’ seems to be a word today, after we looked into the playroom at the museum and I said something about a baby we saw there. 

He walks around the apartment saying this over and over sometimes. He only says it once here, but you get the idea: 

Our second outing: 

Back home: 

Afternoon outing: 

August and I accompanied Carly out at 8:30 this morning, taking out the recycling. Instead of heading back inside, we spent the next 90 minutes exploring the area and the park. 

We started by walking around the building, then I let him decide where to go next. There are a couple of ‘baba’ lights (the red lights that turn on when a car is coming around the corner) in the parking lot of the pink building and we ended up there since the lot was empty. Usually, we couldn’t get too close to them. 

We then went across the street to the park. We went to the ‘mama’ statue and then to the fake stream area. We went in the empty stream area (boo, drought), and played with the rocks. We then went to the other end to the little bridge where he had thrown rocks before. We loaded up on rocks, and he found a discarded paper cup to play with. He played on the bridge, then eventually we moved on to the exercise equipment area, cup and a couple rocks still in hand. 

There he played with the exercise equipment. He even managed to climb up on his own on the one that swings side to side. 

From there we headed to the middle of the park and played in the faucets, then up and over the little walkway to the playground. Here he found a nice stick that he kept hitting on the ground. Here too we had our only negative feedback, from a woman on an exercise machine who was upset he wasn’t wearing shoes (most of our trip had been in vacant areas of the park, but we had seen three or four other women along the way who were just fine). 

We then walked around the north end of the park and came back to the playground, where we went on the swings for a few minutes. 

We got home at 9. We played Endless Alphabet and had a good laugh using our noses to move the letters around. He took an hour-long nap starting a little before noon. He woke up tired, however, and was still drowsing on my shoulder when Carly got home a little before 1. 

In the evening we all went for a walk up the stream. We tried to go to the new coffee place on the second floor across the stream, but it was closed. Instead, Carly got an iced latte at the cafe in the women’s business center, then we walked up to and around Madeul Stadium. We ended up at the water faucets. 

August had a blast playing in the water. We quickly stripped him down to his diaper. He played with his ball, a shovel, and Carly’s empty plastic coffee cup and straw. The only bad moment was when he walked around the large set of faucets and hit a slippery spot. His legs slid out from beneath him and he fell on his back. Scary, but he bounced back pretty quickly. 

He was getting tired on the way home, and fell asleep right at 7.

 

Morning exploring:  

Home: 

Evening walk: 

Discovering clouds for the first time: 

August’s latest word is ‘dig’. We have used it a lot when playing in the sand. Today, when holding the shovel he would clearly say ‘dih-guh’ over and over. He’s also gotten better with the mechanics of the shovel and can now use it to scoop sand or water. 

He is also now really into mimicry. It kind of started with that chimpanzee last week and has built from there. Today he was really copying how I responded to the fountain when we were playing in it, he started putting both arms up in the air after Tammi did it, and after Webb hit his head and rubbed it with his hand August rubbed his own hand. 

Anyway, he woke up early this morning and we played at home until 10 when we went to Home Plus for a few more items. We came home and I expected him to fall asleep soon for a nap, but he stayed awake until 12:15. 

He slept for 90 minutes, but when he woke up he wanted to go back to sleep. He tried getting back to sleep for a few minutes but eventually got upset and I picked him up. He wanted to just nap on my shoulder, so eventually I put him in the carrier facing me and dinh died packing up. He dozed on the way to the bus and even on the bus. 

He finally woke up completely as we got off the bus. We were taking drinks out of the water fountain and I turned him around. A woman tried to give me a paper cup for him at wouldn’t be dissuaded until I got out his water bottle and showed it to her. 

We walked through the park to the wading pool and went straight in. When the fountain came on we went and played on the edge of it. He laughed a lot, and twice wanted down to play at the edge of the fountain. Neither lasted long, however, as he soon wanted back up in my arms. 

Back to the wading pool for awhile, where a bigger kid splashed him pretty good. Then back to the fountain where he was sad when it turned off at 3:30. 

We walked to APIS, pausing once to play with some exercise equipment and then again to watch a jackhammer. 

We got to Carly’s room a little past 4 and hey nursed. We then went and picked up dinner (I got a rice burger, Carly went back to Doniburger). August was adored in the rice burger place and the woman (I think she was the owner) have August a banana, which he started eating. 

We found our way to the new Lotte Time spot (the playground is closed). August interacted some with Ripley – at one point they sort of exchanged a soccer ball for a coke cup – and April Paulin, pointing out her nose. But his main focus was the water under the grates and playing with Carly’s Coke cup, lid, and straw. Near the end he slipped as he was trying to get the cup from under a bench and ended up with a little scrape next to his right eye. 

We used that as a good excuse to get out of there before they took a big group photo and headed home via bus. 

He fell asleep right at 7. We’ll see how early he gets up tomorrow…

Dream Forest: 

APIS: 

Lotte Time: 

Rubbing his head when Webb did: 

Wind: 

Touching April’s nose: 

August alerted me he was up by rattling the door a couple minutes after 7. I hadn’t heard a peep. 

After a breakfast smoothie we left the house at 8:15 and walked into the park a little before 9. The subway crowd seemed thinner than last week. 

We walked around a little, then headed to the zoo. I took August down and he explored the children’s zoo. The horses and exhibit area first, then we went up and saw the meerkats and otters. We got to see the zoo keeper come out and feed a bucket of fish to the otters. We were the only visitors in the children’s zoo the entire time we were there. 

We then went and visited the chimpanzee before walking through the water birds exhibit. 

We got to the children’s museum a little after 10 and stayed for a bit over 2 hours. During that time we saw literally no other visitors on the third or second floors where we were playing. I heard a few kids down on the first floor, but never saw them. It was crazy. 

We started up in the water area as we hadn’t spent a lot of time there recently. A typical visit, except he was starting to get friendly with the workers, although he would walk away when they started paying attention to him. He also was fascinated by the hand dryer. I would stick my hand in to turn it on and when he turned off he would ask for more. He wouldn’t get too close to it though. Very similar to his relationship with the vacuum cleaner. 

We then went and ate lunch and then went down the the toddler room. It was really nice having the run of the place. He made the most if it, bouncing from one thing to the next. 

We left and he fell right to sleep. I went to Peace Coffee. It may have been empty when I got there, and when I left there was one other customer. This MERS scare is bad for businesses, but nice for employees: both the women in the toddler room and the two women working here pretty much read the entire time. 

I was finishing up War Trash and only had 15 pages left when August woke up. I finished it as he played with my empty cup and straw. Perhaps not the closest read as I had to make sure to stand between him and the stairs, keep him from throwing the garbage through the railing, and keep him away from the bird droppings in the corner. 

From there we went to the wading pool. Alas, it was off. We played in the faucet for awhile instead, then went to the playground where he got nice and dirty in the sand. He sat in it and methodically dropped sand on his legs and feet. And at one point he was walking and managed to fall over and plant his face in the sand. I picked him up to find his damp nose and mouth covered in sand. A pretty sad sight. 

Before we left we went and played with the chimpanzee one more time. He then directed me back to the horses. As we left the zoo we first walked by the little creek by the robots, then watched the fountains in the folktale area. He didn’t want to leave the fountains, so we sat on a bench with a view of all of them and had a second lunch. 

The train was thin on the way home. On our walk home a driver in a Coupang (Korea’s version of Amazon) truck handed us a balloon out the window. August was exited by that and played with it quite a bit through the evening. 

Carly got home about 20 minutes after us. His nap was kind of late, but a bit short, and he went to sleep soon after 7. 

Breakfast smoothie: 

Moving up to bigger shoes: 

Children’s zoo: 

Children’s museum: 

Outside: 

Home: 

We spent a lot of time today starting to pack for the trip. This involved searching for things in all the closets. August loved this as he got to play with all sorts of objects. He got to play with his pacifiers for a few minutes before I packed them. 

The day felt like a big game of hide and seek. First there were all the things to find for packing. Then, as we were about to leave the house to go to Home Plus, I realized I couldn’t find his shoe. After a long search, I found that he had put one in his baby blender. But I couldn’t find the other, so we went to Home Plus without shoes – not a big deal as it was already in the 80s. 

Hide and seek continued at Home Plus. Every floor is in the process of being renovated and reorganized. Right now it is chaos. I managed to find everything except dish soap, and it took three times as long. 

He came home, had lunch, and fell asleep for 90+ minutes. He woke up for 5 minutes in the middle, but I laid down next to him and he rolled over and fell back to sleep. Progress!

He is also really working on sitting down in chairs. He is doing quite well, but his eating chair is difficult because it is so narrow. 

Workers came to change the gas gauge soon after August woke up. We then spent some more time packing and organizing, and then I realized I hadn’t found the second shoe. After another long search I realized I had not looked in the washing machine. Success!

We walked to APIS to see Carly and have dinner with her as she had to stay late for the middle school graduation. It was only 91 on the way there. 

With Carly we went to Doniburger and got food and then took it back to the park across the street from APIS. August did a lot of playing, mainly dropping things down the grates and carrying Carly’s beverage around and practicing putting the straw in. 

A few minutes before 6 she went back to work and August and I headed home.

We stopped at a park along the way and he did a lot more walking around the playground and managed to pick up all kinds of garbage. He played under the play structure and carried around a plastic bowl someone had left. When he was done he kind of just started walking off, sort of towards home. We went back and got our stuff and ended with a stint on the swings.

We beat Carly home by 20 minutes. She gave him a bath this evening and he did pretty well. 

 

A very happy wakeup. No crying; I just heard him walking around: 

Remembering the pacifiers: 

Home Plus. Where’s the cheese and butter? The dried fish section, half a store away from yoghurt and other dairy items: 

Walking: 

The park: 

Headed home:

At the park with his discovered toy:

View from the bridge: 

Stopping for a drink: 

Touching the brick wall (he also ran his hand through the ivy again): 

Recovering from a bath: 

We left the house about 8:15, probably our earliest departure yet, and travelled 14 subway stops and a transfer to Seoul Forest. The subway got really packed near the end, but we made it.

We picked up a map of the park and I planned our rough route for the day. We revisited many of the locations we went with my parents: butterfly house, deer park, the big pond. But we also went to the marsh area, played in the playground, and in the floor fountain. 

 

Playground: 

Walking to the marsh: 

Water: 

Grate time: 

Sadly, they have stopped the deer feeding due to foot to mouth disease: 

Axolotls: 

Floor fountain: 

Headed home: 

Home. Taking the swiffer with him to a diaper change: 

Today August and I went to Jungnang Camp Forest, a park and campground I passed through while on a Seoul Trail hike, and then stopped at Costco on the way home. When Carly got home we went for a walk to the playground behind the hospital. 

Camp Forest: 

Costco: 

Watching a backhoe and holding French toast to his head: 

Headed home: 

Playing in the sand: 

Cats go hiss: