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Mulbola Children’s Park is about the last park of any significance and convenience (about 20 minutes) within walking distance of our place that August and I hadn’t yet visited. So we fit it in this afternoon while Carly did some work. 

In the morning we Skyped with my parents, Carly made French toast, I gave him a bath, and he had a smoothie. There was also a lot of playing in there. 

He also took an early nap, so he ended up taking an afternoon nap. I think it was the first time that has happened in weeks, excluding when he was sick. 

Anyway, to get to the park we walk up the stream past 3 children’s parks and then a boring neighborhood park on the left, then take the next left. The park is nestled in the center of a few apartment complexes. It had three playgrounds, and we ended up at the one farthest east as it was the most shaded. 

He played in the sand and threw rocks, sand, and one of his shovels down a grate. Luckily, the grate could be lifted and I was able to get it. We also walked up on the play structure. He wanted to go down a slide, and scooted himself forward, but then re-grabbed my hand and he started to move, causing him to fall back and bump his head on the slide. 

He cried but recovered quickly, as he saw some plastic shovels and a water can belonging to someone else. It was a really nice boy who is 37 months old. He let August play with his toys, and they spent quite awhile playing together in the sand. He offered August some candy, which I turned down, and he pushed August around in his push car thing. It was really fun to watch. August had fun, and turned the little steering wheel back and forth. 

Carly was done with work and skyping with Glecy, so we headed home. After we got home Carly went to the pink building for a few groceries. She came home and fed August some frozen mango, which he liked, grapefruit, which he had had before but didn’t like, but loved this time, and some cooked spinach, which he also ate. 

In the evening we went for a walk in the park. Carly and I got ice cream bars, so we took turns eating them. He was initially by the water fountain, then walked over to the playground. We walked around that for about 10 minutes. We let him pick up a straw in a wrapper, and a cardboard coffee cup holder, but he got upset when he couldn’t pick up other garbage. 

So we got him back over by the dinosaurs and he contentedly played with the bushes and picked up handfuls of leaves. 

A little after 8, Carly left to go home and get ready for the following day and we stayed for another 20+ minutes. He scooted down the ramp, then crawled back up (he can walk both directions), then walked around the photo zone in front of the T-Rex. It is sort of circular, and he was holding my finger, doing circles on the photo zone and going up and down the two steps. 

He then wandered across the park to a little hill and played there with rocks and a plastic coffee cup. 

The back to the dinosaurs and north to the vending machines and passage through the science center building. 

Finally, he asked to be picked up and then started saying mama. So we headed home and he fell asleep soon thereafter. 

Home: 

Grapefruit: 

Evening park walk: 

I started the day with a Skype call to my book group to discuss the poet William Stafford. 

Carly had to go to graduation this afternoon. So August and I walked along the stream and went to some parks. First, to Madeul Stadium to play in the drinking fountains and play in the sad, unused floor fountain, then, for a few minutes, to a playground in an apartment complex, and finally to a park (Gamnamu) that translates as Persimmon Tree Park. There, we spent most of our time around a drinking fountain. He played in it a bit, watched the water in the drain, and closely watched the bigger kids as they filled water balloons, washed off some fruit (not persimmons), and played around. 

We walked back via the main road and went to Home Plus to get a few groceries. We got home around 6, and Carly was home awhile later. We had planned to go to a party on the roof across the way, but August had taken a long but early nap and had been awake since before noon. He stayed up awhile, but did fall to sleep around 8. 

Carly and I watched most of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Didn’t finish it, but good so far. 

Persimmon Tree Park: 

Walking home:

Home: 

 

There isn’t much good about a MERS outbreak, but there is a silver lining to public panic – with hundreds of schools closed and people staying home, we basically had Children’s Grand Park, the zoo, and the children’s museum all to ourselves. We basically shared all of it with a couple expat families, a group from a girl’s school, and a handful of Korean citizens. 

We had to be home by 3ish to go to the bank with Carly, so we headed down early, arriving at CGP a quarter to 9. We spent the first hour and a half in the zoo. Besides the zoo workers, we were the only people at times. We were the first people in the children’s zoo, and the otters were excited to see us. August walked around, and got nice and close to the otters and meerkats, as well as the goats and horses. 

We also saw the apes, and when we walked up to the chimpanzee it was holding on to the fence and swaying back and forth. August started to sway in the carrier. The chimpanzee then started to play with us, running back and forth in the cage and wanting us to follow. 

We also went by the big cats and saw the water birds, then headed over to see the deer and other herbivores. 

From there we headed to the children’s museum. Usually, the first floor is packed with school groups. Today, we literally saw two other expat families while playing in the children’s museum. That was it. 

We went up to the lunch room at 11:30 and ate (all alone). We left around noon and August fell right asleep. I went and got a drink at Peace Coffee and sat outside for awhile until it started to drizzle, then moves inside. August woke up after about 50 minutes so we left, but he fell back asleep. I found a bench under a tree and did some more reading until close to 2 and then headed home. 

August woke up after a few stops on the subway. We made it home and relaxed for awhile, then went and met Carly at the bank. We transferred money to our US account and got our internet banking straightened out. It took quite awhile, and Carly kept August occupied in the bank. 

Came home and August stuck closely to his mama for the evening. A lot more playing with fruit and nursing.

Zoo: 

Meerkat: 

Children’s museum: 

Teamwork: 

Soft: 

Finishing his piece of art: 

Cuddling: 

Chalk: 

Music room: 

Lunch: 

Upset that we are out of fruit snack (and signing ‘more’): 

Home. Playing with mama: 

 

Today we hung out at Dream Forest in the heat, then headed to APIS to for the secondary concert. 

August was in fine form today. Still a bit of a runny nose, but not bad. In the evening we noticed he had broken out with little red spots on his arms and legs – so it looks like what he is getting over is another case of roseola. 

Only had one PCWAS (physical contact with a stranger), after zero yesterday. It happened as we were about to get off the bus and a man grabbed August’s hand. Luckily, we were right by the Dream Forest visitor center, so went in and washed our hands. Seriously, I’m hardly germophobic, but with his multiple sicknesses and the MERS outbreak, it would be nice if strangers would back off. 

Anyway, August’s word of the day was ‘together’. You can see him saying it in the last video of the day. And he took his babbling to a new level today. All sorts of new sounds started jumping from his mouth. 

Another first was sitting down. I’ve never seen him just turn around and sit on a chair or bench. Today, as we were at the playground and he was eating a rice snack, he just turned around and sat right next to me as if he did it all the time. 

And he is still obsessed with water. Or, at least, pointing at every single thing he saw on the walk home and saying “wawa”. He is saying “baba” for tons of things now as well, so it is difficult to tell what he is pointing at a lot of the time. He clearly has a lot to say, but can’t. Must be frustrating, but he isn’t showing it, yet…

Anyway, we got to Dream Forest at 9:45. We first went and visited the deer. We then went to the wading pool, but it didn’t turn on until noon. So we went to the empty playground and hung out for a very relaxing hour. It was also cool to watch August just wander around and play, talking as he went. He would wander for 3 to 5 minutes at a time and I could just sit and watch him. 

The fountain and wading pool turned on, and he played in the pool for a half hour. He then got tired so I took him inside and changed him (where he ‘talked’ a lot on the table). 

He fell right asleep after that, and I stopped at the Terrace Cafe, mid-park. Got a macchiato and sat on a bench in the shade and read and responded to email for the next 75 minutes. 

When he woke up we spent a few minutes playing with the ice in my cup – something he’s never done before (I bit it into small chunks) – and then headed to APIS. We were late, so we caught the bus for two stops – “That’s What Friends Are For” was playing on the radio. 

We found Carly in the back of the concert. We watched a little, then she took him to nurse. I watched some more and they came back. It wasn’t exciting enough for him though so he didn’t last long. 

It was almost time for Carly’s after school activity anyway, so August and I left, walking home. It was in the low 80s, which felt really hot when we had gotten to Dream Forest, but was now feeling very comfortable. He had fun touching the icy as we got close to the bridge. 

On the way, we stopped at the playground in the apartment complex and played for about a half hour. Mainly on the swing and with his tennis ball. At one point he walked up to a swing that was still kind of swinging and managed to grab it. That kind of freaked him out, but it was pretty impressive. 

Best Carly home by 20 minutes or so. In the evening she played the fruit/veggie cutting game with him, and he is now saying the word ‘together’, which they had apparently been working on the last time. 

Watching deer: 

Playground: 

Practicing his gangsta lean: 

Eating a rice snack: 

Watching the concert: 

The walk home: 

Evening: 

Saying “together”: 

It was a nice recovery/getting things done day. In the morning August and I stayed home. We made banana bread and a smoothie and did some straightening up. Later, after Carly got home, I went grocery shopping and took out garbage, etc. and Carly gave him a bath.

August is working on a lot of things these days, but particularly words. Purple was a new word today, and he says it very clearly. He’s doing quite well with identifying colors, but this is the first one he can really say. Other words he says a lot now or is working on include dizzy, icky, Vivi, auntie, ant, woof, and probably a few others I’m forgetting. Yes, we’re at the point where there are too many words to keep track of.

After sleeping all day yesterday, he changed things up today, starting with last night when he woke up with Carly for a couple hours. Then this morning he still woke up at 6:30. He seemed tired a few times, particularly after skyping with my parents, but he stayed awake until almost noon and slept less than 40 minutes. It was actually two mini naps, as he woke up for about ten minutes in the middle. The good news was that I was able to just lay next to him and he got himself back to sleep.

After he woke up he ate lunch (he was very intent on using a spoon with a bowl of beans) and I checked his temperature (just 37.1). We walked up to the fake stream next to the real stream and threw rocks in the stream again and then threw leaves in and followed them through the current. Didn’t stay as long this time though as it was later in the day this time and we had less shade. 

We then went up to the street and across it to the park and went on the swings, played in the sand, threw around the tennis ball, and drank from the fountain. 

On our way home we stopped at the dingy little toy/stuff store and bought a glider and a Larva matching game for use in the future. 

On our walk home August fell asleep, so I walked around the park for about 25 minutes until Carly was home. He woke up when I got home. 

He had a pretty good evening, taking a bath when I was at Home Plus, and going to bed around 8. 

Smoothie: 

Saying purple: 

Throwing rocks: 

Moving to the playground: 

Pointing to the water: 

August woke up at 5 and was awake for an hour with Carly. She thought he might have a temperature, but not much of one. 

He woke up at 7:40 and was low energy through breakfast, but didn’t seem too off. He fell back asleep an hour later, and slept another hour until the school maintenance showed up and woke him up. 

With no fever, and with him perking up (he finds the words pee and poop really funny, and was working on his B and P sounds on the changing table), we headed towards Itaewon. He stayed awake on the bus and subway, but was very mellow. We got off the subway, and found a water faucet to play in. But when I put him down to play, he made it clear he wanted up and was tired. So I picked him up and he fell asleep. 

I walked up the hill past the Grand Hyatt hotel. Thought about getting coffee and sitting down, but a $6 latte at the Kenyan embassy made me think otherwise. So I kept walking and found a bench in Namsan Park between the children’s forest and the wild flower garden and read. 

We were to meet Derek over the the west in the HBC neighborhood at 2pm, so at 1 I got up and walked through the wild flower garden and then headed that direction. August woke up enough to look at a stream and a little fountain, but then fell back to sleep again. 

He woke up yet again when we met Derek. He stayed strapped to me through lunch and ate a decent lunch himself before falling back to sleep. The pizza was very good. 

We then headed into Itaewon and to a seafood taco place. I tried the octopus taco for him and also had an horchata. The taco was really quite good. The octopus was deep fried and you couldn’t really tell it was octopus. 

August woke up as we were leaving again and heading home. He nodded off on the train but couldn’t fully get to sleep. He made it most of the way but started to cry (but not very loudly) the last stop (the most noise he had made all day). There was a woman mumbling at me as he was fussing the last few stops and she tried to touch him twice. The second time I literally swatted her hand away as she grabbed his arm. 

As expected, he fell right asleep as we left the subway and I could get walking. We caught the bus home and ran into Carly at the elevators. 

August livened up a bit for part of the evening, but went to bed a little after 7. His fever never went much over 38, so hopefully the sleep is helping him get over whatever is bothering him. We have an open day tomorrow – making banana bread, taking a bath, that sort of thing. 

Sleeping in Namsan Park: 

Looking at the stream: 

Eating lunch: 

Octopus taco: 

Sleeping on the bus home: 

Asleep for the night: 

We headed north to Uijeongbu today. Our main goal was to finish off the gift card we haven’t been able to use anywhere except at the big department store. We failed at that, but we had fun exploring a new part of the city and a nice park behind city hall. 

On the way up, I spotted Camp Jackson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Jackson_(Korea)), which I didn’t know existed, just a little north of Dobongsan and the iris garden. 

Up in Uijeongbu we transferred to their U line – it is basically like the monorail. As we walked from one line to the other, we had a great view into a construction site. August grabbed onto the railing and got upset if I tried to leave. We were there about 20 minutes and 4 missed trains before he was happy to move along. 

We headed three stops west and got out at city hall. There is a big park area behind it. We first played at a playground, where he played in a drinking fountain and was a bit afraid of a blue toy he had never seen before, then walked through the park and found the sculpture garden/pond/fountain. 

We watched for awhile then headed to the end of the park, finishing out that their ‘X Games’ skate park was just a dinky little skate park. And a little wading fountain, which would have been awesome, was off. 

But we went back to the fountain and had a lot of fun there for the next hour and a half. He ate, watched the fountain, threw rocks in the grate and his hat, and spotted a helicopter. I also made a little song using his name, and at the end he would point to himself. 

I changed him on the grass on the other side of a rope fence from my back pack. His diaper broke and I couldn’t reach a new one, so I did the best I could with it. I put him in the carrier and it seemed fine, and he fell right asleep. 

He slept for an hour, and in that time I walked to the department store and to a seating area on the roof, listening to podcasts. 

He woke up and we spent quite awhile playing around on the roof and eating lunch. He played under the table, spotted our reflections in the window, and led me through the hedge maze by my finger (there is a sheep sculpture in the middle, so that was exciting for him). I carried him around the rest of the roof – through the tree house and over past a scary sculpture that is out of place on the roof – and he finished by playing with the water bottle around some flowering trees. 

Then we headed down a floor to the toy store. I noticed that his diaper was starting to stick out of the top of his pants. He as having fun walking among the toys and we were looking at the Duplo blocks. All the sudden, I looked over to see him holding his diaper. I really have no idea how it happened: the other leg was still attached. It must have been sliding down that leg and he pulled out out through the bottom of his pant leg. 

I grabbed him and the diaper and we hurried over to the changing room (very close). Crisis averted. 

I tried to buy the Duplo set, only to find that she charged it all to the credit card and nothing came off the gift card. There definitely should be a balance, so I asked, but did not understand her explanation for why the card didn’t work. 

Anyway, so I returned the Duplo set. We then walked out and to the Main Street and looked around Artbox. We were then disappointed to find that the little stream and the fountain in the street were also off. 

We headed home, stopping first at Starbucks to get a smoothie (trying to use up another gift card I’ve been carrying around). This was a bit of a mistake, as August wanted smoothie as well it ended up with him splattering and dripping smoothie on his shirt in the subway. 

He was acting tired by the time we got to Hagye, so once on the platform I set him down to turn around the carrier. He spent the next ten minutes exploring the platform. 

He continued to act tired, but he wasn’t falling asleep by the time we got home, so we first went to the grocery store next door. 

 

Watching the construction site: 

Watching the fountain and eating: 

Napping: 

Playing on the roof: 

Leading me through the maze: 

Sheep: 

Water bottle: 

Trees: 

In the toy store: 

This morning August had fun when Carly ‘cut’ the plastic fruit and vegetables with the plastic knife. We also think he is saying ‘subak’ now (the Korean word for watermelon). Also, he is saying ‘tee tee’ to refer to Glecy (‘auntie’). Finally, he found it very funny to steal Carly’s toothbrush out of her mouth. 

At 11 we met our friend Meg and headed down to Insadong. We first looked for a place to eat, and ended up at a nice sandwich place called Peggy Pie. We then walked through Insadong and on to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA).

In the street behind the MMCA there was a craft fair set up, and we bought a doll we are calling Angeles for August. We bought it from two women that work with an organization called Talk to Me (http://talktome.or.kr), which we believe is a children’s charity, but like most Korean websites their ‘about’ page is an image, meaning it can’t be translated. 

Anyway, we were excited by this find as the price was right, it is a very unique doll, and we’ve been wanting to get him a doll. 

From there wee continued to the MMCA. August had fallen asleep during our walk, and was asleep for much of our MMCA visit. But he woke up when I put my shoes back on after walking through one piece that involved a room with hundreds of white ropes dangling from the ceiling. 

After that, Meg had to leave and we introduced August to Angeles. He was very excited to meet Angeles. We then went to one more exhibit, Robot Essay, that was my favorite. August wasn’t doing to well with it though, so Carly hung out with him and played on the floor with her water bottle and Angeles and did a lot of waving to people. He is also obsessed with grates, thinking there could be water under them, and there were grates outside the window that he couldn’t get to. 

We then took August back to one room that we had gone to when he was asleep. It was covered in color on all the walls and the floor. As expected, he really liked it. 

We then left and walked south and went to Subway so that Carly could get a sandwich for dinner. August was fascinated by the big ceiling fan. 

Finally, we went to the Buddhist temple, where they still have an amazing number of lanterns hanging, forming a huge ceiling around much of the temple, and encircling the huge tree next to it. 

We headed home. At home August got to play with the vacuum cleaner nozzle and attachment when we vacuumed out the couch, I gave him a bath he wasn’t too fond of, and he had fun playing with the bedroom door and seeing me when he opened it. He would then push the door closed. 

Playing at lunch: 

Buying Angeles: 

Meeting Angeles: 

Awesome robot art: 

Playing in the museum: 

Lanterns at the temple:

Staring up at a ceiling fan in Subway: 

Home: 

Yesterday, August and I stopped at Morning Glory to get a card and a couple gifts for Carly’s fake birthday. This morning, I got up before her to have it out on the table when she woke up.

In addition to the card, we had found her a Larva handheld fan (August found that one), a box of fake Oreos, and one of those expanding/shrinking plastic balls that Carly has wanted on multiple occasions. 

August loved both the fan and ball as well, and played with them a lot this morning. We spent much of the morning cleaning and organizing. We rearranged his toys, reduced the size of the mat since he doesn’t crawl anymore, and started to remove some toys he doesn’t use anymore. 

There were also Skype sessions with Cassie and Viv and with Glecy. 

During his nap, I went to Home Plus and did our grocery shopping. When I came back, we continued to clean and started to prepare the food. 

Around 3 I took August out to the park by the children’s center. There was a youth symphony performing out front. August spent a lot of time playing with his football, then we watched the symphony for about 10 minutes. When they finished a piece he would sign for more. He played with his soccer ball for awhile more, then wanted up and pointed back to the symphony. He was getting a bit overwhelmed though, as he was then fixated on the cords, and water, then garbage, etc. 

So we headed home. Derek showed up around 5:15 and Jill and Logan arrived a little later. Fun was had. August and Logan are interacting a little more each time. In particular they had fun playing on the bed. 

They walked home, and we accompanied them as far as the bridge before turning around. August lasted a little longer at home, but it was a pretty straightforward transition to bedtime. 

 

Mama’s presents: 

Soccer ball time: 

Watching the symphony: 

Spoon: 

Not my child: 

Carly left some stuff at home this morning, so August and I made a delivery this morning, leaving a little after 7. He thought it was pretty cool to be out of the house so early and he spent the entire bus trip staring out the bus windows and pointing. 

After leaving APIS we went to the one children’s park in the area we had not et been to. He tried a baby swing for the first time (he wasn’t a fan), had a snack, watched an ant, swung with me for a long time, and explored the bushes and sand. In total we were there for over an hour. 

We then walked home and he stayed up until 11:30. He took an hour long nap, after which he had some lunch and we headed to Dream Forest. The really cool wading pool was off, but we played in the rectangular shallow pools and watched the fountain. It was his first time wearing a swimming diaper. 

We were there for about 45 minutes, then headed to APIS. We stopped and played in the park across from APIS for a few minutes before going in.

It was in the mid-80s today, so we took the bus home. 

Today he was working on the words ‘crunch’ and ‘icky’. And I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that he says ‘ant’, although it sounds more like ‘nant’. I couldn’t get him to actually say it on video today. 

Home: 

Wading pool: 

Across from APIS: 

Home: