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I had a busy book group/hike with Derek day. So I felt I didn’t really see August much. But I got home a bit after 3 and that was enough time to play in the park twice and spend a lot of time playing with the water in his tub with him. 

While I had my book group meeting Carly and August were skyping with her parents. As soon as my meeting was over I rushed out the door and made it up to meet Derek at Dobongsan at 9:20. We hiked almost to the top of Jaunbong Peak, which is the crazy steep looking rock up there. Along the way we stopped at Cheonchuksa Temple, which is a really beautiful Buddhist temple with some excellent views. A good destination for a hike when Chuck and Cherie are here…

When I got back from the hike I met Carly and August in the park. They were sitting on the boardwalk by the dinosaurs, picking leaves off a bush (I think August was doing most of the picking). He was very excited to see me. 

While I was gone they had gone up to the playground at Madeul Stadium and played in the sand and he had taken a nap. They were going to meet Jill and Logan in the park, but August was napping when they showed up. 

We came up to the apartment for awhile, then headed back out. Carly went to do the grocery shopping while I had August walk around in the park area across from Home Plus. 

We came back and Carly started making food and I took August into the bathroom and we played in the water. He dipped his foot in a couple times. And I would turn on the water and hold it like it was a little fountain and he would stick his foot in that. So far we haven’t been to a fountain in a park that we can play in yet this summer (they aren’t turning the ones here at our park on until June), but he liked the spray from the CGP fountain. I need to get him to a play fountain sometime soon. 

Not much after that as he quickly got tired and went to sleep around 8. 

August before I left: 

Couple hike pics: 

Another 3 hour wake up in the middle of the night for August. This time from 2 to 5. Carly took most of it, then I was up for the last hour. 

He was up around 8 and we spent the morning playing in the water (he even dipped his toe in), listening to the fish song on his headphones, and making a smoothie. 

We headed to Dream Forest around 11. On the way out, we ran into the two Spanish girls we had met in the park several weeks back. They came running out of the bap burger place to say hi. 

We took the bus to Dream Forest and first went to see the deer, which are open again. From then we walked bay the art gallery, where two men were pressure cleaning the fountain area in front of the building. August loved this and we watched for close to ten minutes. He was very sad when they were done and kept signing ‘more’. 

But we went to the playground and played there. He spent most of his time around the trees, picking rocks and cones and needles and sticks from the gratings underneath them. There was also a group of high school students that took an interest in him and he liked the attention. 

I needed to change him and it was time for him to take a nap. So I changed him in the arts center and we started walking. He fell asleep quickly and I walked to the children’s park we found last. 

I sat at the park and read the Murukami book and watched people play croquet. At 3:30 August was still sleeping but we needed to get to APIS to meet Carly so I started walking. He made it to APIS before waking up. 

We then walked home together, stopping to let him play at the small park along the way. 

He only stayed awake for 4 hours after his nap, falling asleep before 8 again. 

Dream Forest: 

Napping: 

It was our usual trip to Children’s Grand Park today. What was not usual was him waking up from 10pm to 1am last night and then taking a 2 hour nap in the carrier at CGP when he has been going 40 or 50 minutes the last 3 weeks.

Basically, he woke up last night right after I posted the blog entry. I stayed up with him for 3 hours. During that time he discovered his eyelashes. A couple times during the day he would intently touch his eye lashes for several minutes – he made it several stops on the subway doing this on our return trip.  

Skyped with my parents in the morning and then got our usual start, getting to CGP around 10:30. Started at water table again today. More people than usual, including one bossy older girl who played pretty well with August after I chastised her for shoving him out of the way. 

He lasted about 45 minutes there then we ate lunch. During lunch there was another baby that was crying and started to scream really loudly. This stressed August out and he tried to crawl out of the room. 

He fell asleep soon after leaving the museum. I spent the two hours at the cafe outside, reading the Murakami book of short stories. Was able to read about a third of the book. 

After he woke up we went to the zoo: first to the baboons and macaques, then to the water birds where he got up close to a swan, then to the children’s zoo where he did all the walking and a lot of it. 

When we were done there it was 3. We were going to finish with some time at the playground. On the way we stopped at a drinking fountain to play, as one was at August’s height. While there we were recognized by Bin’s mother. He is a little younger than August. We had met them a few weeks back in the infant room at the museum. Anyway, August now has a play date for next Thursday as we are supposed to meet at the water table. 

We played at the playground with the musical instruments, then went on the swings and played in more drinking fountains. I changed him and then I we walked towards the fountain. He walked (holding my finger) over 100 meters. I then carried him a bit. He asked for milk as we got to the fountain. We sat near the fountain (getting some spray from the wind) and ate a second lunch for a half hour. After awhile he climbed into my lap to watch the fountain. 

We headed home in a packed subway. I stood in a corner by the door and we were just fine. Whatever food August hadn’t eaten for his second lunch was gone by the time we for home. 

We gave him a bath after a little dinner. No crying, although he still wouldn’t get in the water. He made it to 7:40, so hopefully this will be a normal night. 

 

Discovering his his eye lashes at midnight: 

Awake in the morning: 

Sleeping for two hours like this: 

Swan: 

Water fountain: 

Watching the fountain from my lap: 

 

Today was a weird day of sleep. More of that in a minute. But first, a funny story about fish:

When I came home from PT Carly told me that August had been looking at his iPod and headphones and making fish noises. She asked if I knew what it was about. Well, he had been doing the same thing earlier in the day when we were using it to listen to music. One of the songs from his first class is about fish (mulgogi in korean). The crazy thing is that either he remembered that the song is about fish from either watching the video (which he hasn’t seen in many weeks, as we’ve only been listening/watching the music/video from his current class) or he knows the word ‘mulgogi’ well enough to identify it in the song (seems less likely, but I’ve used the word with him hundreds of times). Either way, pretty cool. Poor Carly thought there must be a music cover with a fish on it so was looking for that. 

Anyway, his sleep. He only slept 9 hours last night, which had me worrying he wasn’t getting enough sleep, what with his movement towards a single nap. But then his nap came…

50 minutes in bed and then he woke up crying. He fell asleep twice on my shoulder but would wake up when I set him down. Tried to get him to fall back asleep lying down. No luck. Went to change him and he falls asleep on the changing pad. Turn off the lights. 7 minutes and he wakes up crying again. 

Pick him up, back to the couch. This time he lets me sit down. He falls asleep. And sleeps. And sleeps. For almost two and a half hours. In that time I type a few emails and read a good chunk of Think Like a Freak. He only wakes up when I whisper his name. 

We eat a late lunch (he had eaten two breakfasts) and make a smoothie. He had smoothie before, but this time I put it in his old straw cup so he can drink it better. 

Only an hour until Carly gets home and I go to PT, so no time for our original plans. We go to a couple of playgrounds instead. He shakes the little riding animals (horse, duck, rooster) and walks around at one and then just wants to be on the swings at the other. 

We head home, buy bananas on the way and make the exchange with Carly. 

And then, on my way home from PT Carly tells me he has fallen asleep already. At 6. He is still sleeping soundly, so we will see how early he wakes up tomorrow…

Morning. One handed piano playing:

Just playing in water. He was supposed to have a bath in the evening: 

Listening to the fish song: 

The long nap: 

Smoothie: 

Playground: 

When he was done shaking the ‘neigh’ he turned around and got excited by the duck (which he had seen dozens of times) and, in his excitement, shouted some of his animal sounds, except for the correct one – ‘baa’, ‘moo’ …

 

A double holiday! August celebrated by making today the day he would really start to transition to walking as his favored mode of locomotion. And he is suddenly trying to put on his own socks, shoes, and hat. And this morning he was really trying to plug in the vacuum cleaner (pretty difficult as there was a safety cover in the outlet). 

 Carly had the day off. So after Carly made a quick trip to the pink building for groceries we headed to Korea University. We first ‘celebrated’ Cinco de Mayo’ by eating lunch at a Dos Mas burrito place. We then walked around campus, stopping for quite awhile at a nice square near the center of campus. Carly and I took turns with August and read. He walked around a lot, played with the tennis ball, and made a lot of funny noises as he explored. This was also where he tried putting on his hat. 

We then went to the university museum – August and I went during one of our first weeks alone last fall on a very rainy day. There was a cool art exhibit all about tigers in art. August really liked it. But he was getting tired so after that we left and he fell right asleep. 

After he finished his nap back home. I took him out to the crazy Children’s Day festival going on in the park while Carly made soup and did some grading. We walked around a bit and ended up on top of the Buk Museum where I took August out of the carrier. 

He immediately wanted to walk down the stairs. About halfway we came across a drainage ditch full of rocks. He sat down and proceeded to play with rocks for 20+ minutes.

From there we headed down to the area in front of the museum where he proceeded to walk and explore all across the park. We eventually came out on the sidewalk on the south end. I put him in the carrier and we went home for dinner. 

We ate and then headed back into the park to watch the talent show starting at 6:30. Carly came out and met us a bit later. August did some playing in the playground and really tried to climb the play structure. We watched a few acts before calling it a night. 

Morning: 

Lunch: 

Korea University: 

In the park after his nap: 

After dinner: 

Watching the talent show: 

August woke up early (5:45). I was afraid he’d be wanting to take a nap right about the time of his class today. But we went out to the park and walked around for an hour before class. He discovered rocks and throwing them from the wooden walkway into the empty pond area below. We came home for a few minutes to change him and he started to look tired, but we headed back out and to his class and he recovered nicely. 

Class was all about paper and all the ways you can play with it. August decided to start standing up all on his own and did it twice in a row. 

We came home, Skyped with my parents, and then August let me know he was tired by simply crawling into my arms. I sang him one song and he was asleep by the end of it. 

A pretty remarkable morning overall, as he was awake for close to seven hours and I don’t think he shed a single tear the entire time after Carly left. 

After a ninety minute nap we ate lunch (during which he ate an entire banana for the first time) and then went out again. This time we headed toward APIS and went to Maebong Children’s Park right by Wolgye Station. We had never been there before. Some swinging, walking around, and playing in the sand with shovels. At one point August walked twelve or so steps by himself. But his favorite part was playing with the shovels in the drinking fountain. 

From there we went and met Carly halfway on her walk home. August spotted her across the street at a crosswalk and was very excited. 

We walked home, stopping to nurse and briefly play at a playground in an apartment complex. 

Oh, the other thing that has to be mentioned is that during lunch he stole a cracker from me. He simply grabbed it out of my hand. He has never had a cracker before and thought it was hilarious to steal my food. At one point while he was eating it he was literally spraying crumbs out of his mouth while laughing. 

 

English Science Park: 

Dunggae Dunggae class: 

Home. Stealing a cracker from me:

Maebong Children’s Park and coming home: 

Spotting Carly: 

Slightly drizzly and ‘only’ hit the mid-60s despite a forecast for 77. But made for a great day to walk through the parks and along the stream – everything was really green. 

Skyped with Chuck and Cherie in the morning and we did a lot of Sunday chores. Then we went for a walk in the park. Turns out there was a little science fair going on thanks to the Science Edu-Center at the north end of the park. August got a balloon, liked looking at the tarantula, beetles, and scorpions, and got to see lab rats (although he wasn’t too interested in the rodents – he wanted to go back to the insects). He also walked around a lot. 

We then went to Home Plus and did our grocery shopping. Came home and August took a nap. 

After his nap we walked over to the stream and through the park/wooded areas by the power plant. We then walked up the stream to Madeul Stadium and the playground there. Went on the swings, but the definite highlight was using the toy shovels we bought on Friday to play in the sand. The sand was wet from the rain, but mostly dry under a slide. After digging in the sand for several minutes he was done and as he was walking by the swings he used the shovels to hit the pipe railing around the swings in order to make noise. 

Another calm bath today. He made it through without having to nurse and actually played in the water a bit. He still didn’t want to step in the water though. 

A rough day. I learned that my grandpa, my mom’s dad, passed away the morning of May 1st. Not much to say about that here, but we are particularly sad that he won’t get to see August again. At least they got to meet once last summer. 

This morning was also filled with a long tech support call to Apple and a few other things that meant we didn’t leave the house until after 11. We headed to Myeongdong so Carly could do some clothes shopping. While she did that August and I scouted out places to eat. August also finally fell asleep for a nap. 

When Carly was done we walked to a sandwich place, Longbread, and had a good lunch. August kept sleeping and sleeping, and after he had been asleep for two hours we decided to leave. We walked east towards the cathedral and he finally woke up – close to two and a half hours of sleeping in the carrier. 

We played around the cathedral. August did a lot of walking, watched people trimming flowers, and played with the tennis ball. 

We walked back to the subway station and headed home. Crowded and long, but August managed it well. We got off at Changdong to transfer to the bus. August needed to nurse, so we went to the book cafe under the station and got a drink. 

Back home August stayed awake until 9:30. He has been playing with his magnets on the door a lot. We have some letter magnets up and he particularly likes the ‘T’ and will make the T sound when he sees it. He does the same with ‘R’, but to a lesser extent. These are letters he has started to pick up from Endless Alphabet. 

Piano stairs: 

Asleep in Myeongdong: 

Myeongdong Cathedral: 

Watching people trim the flowers: 

Pointing at birds: 

Pororo in the subway: 

Book cafe: 

And we saw this on the way home. It moved back and forth. August was very amused: 

 

In the morning we went and played at the playground up by Madeul Stadium. We went on the swings a couple times, but the big events were playing in the sand and walking around the wooded areas. Oh, and we adopted a tennis ball we found when walking around the tennis courts. Finally, August got an unintended physics lesson when he pushed a platform on the exercise equipment. It is basically a pendulum and came right back to hit him in the chin. He wouldn’t have cried too much, but we were quite a ways from the backpack, his nose started to run everywhere, and his hands were covered with black dust I didn’t want him rubbing in his eyes or on my clothes. 

We came home and he fell asleep in the carrier, facing forward, just as we left the elevator and walked down the hall. It has been a long time since he fell asleep facing forward. 

He took an hour-long nap after which he ate lunch. We then walked up to Daiso and bought another straw cup to replace the leaky one we’ve used in the house, some clay, and a little set of beach toys – he can use the sailboat in the water at home and the shovels in the sand next time we go to the park. 

We took the bus home and played in the drinking fountain in the park until we saw Carly walking by. We all walked home and then I headed to PT. While I was gone the two of them went back to the park. August did a ton more walking around. 

I got home, August ate a spaghetti dinner, then he ate a second dinner of banana bread, Carly gave him a very calm bath, then he ate a third dinner of broccoli, and finally he went easily off to bed. 

 

First time he’s really paid attention to what is in his shirt. Very cool: 

Playing with the sheet: 

Pointing at an ant: 

About to get a physics lesson as it comes back to him. Note the dirty hands: 

Sand: 

Walking among the trees, tramping on leaves, and following pigeons:

Playing with the tennis ball we liberated: 

Asleep facing out: 

In the stream on our way back from Daiso: 

Walking home with mama: 

 

August ate a large breakfast and continued to eat a lot throughout the day. That just seems to be his MO now. 

August and I skyped with my friend Sarah and her two kids (her daughter, Lauren, is the one that did the painting of a baby for August’s wall). We then quickly headed to Children’s Grand Park (where it hit 81 today) as I wanted to make sure he got to play at the water table as long as he wanted before a big group showed up. We got there at 10:20 and it was no problem – he played for about 45 minutes and decided he’d had enough of that. Only one other kid had shown up that entire time. After that:

– he ate a big lunch (he ate a large chunk of my peanut butter sandwich) while standing, as he didn’t want to sit in a chair

– I changed him

– he played in the infant room (he was excited to see it as we didn’t go last week)

– he played in the book room

– he fell asleep

– I went to the Peace Cafe and chose a book off their shelf for my book group of one: a Haruki Mukakami collection of short stories called The Elephant Vanishes. I read two and a half stories before he woke up. 

– we went on the swings at the playground and he walked around and played in the dirt

– we watched the baboons and macaques 

– we went to the children’s zoo where he was out of the carrier most of the time. He primarily looked at the goats and miniature horses. He also watched the waterfall ‘sitting’ on the ledge – he saw other kids doing it so I let him do it, but he was still strapped in the carrier at the time. And we watched the otters play in the water and catch fish. 

– we went into the building next door because he wanted to. Turns out he was most interested in the vaporizer inside the door. 

– we went to see the small ‘fierce animals’ – foxes, hyenas, servals, etc. He was on the ground again and got a ton of attention here. We found a spot in the shade and ate a second lunch, and that just drew more attention. 

– we swung by the bird exhibit to see if the penguins were any more active than during previous visits (they weren’t). He wasn’t happy that we went by the water birds quickly. 

– we headed home. He did great on the crowded subway. 

– we played in the drinking fountain at the dinosaur park. He liked it wen I put water on his head, arms, and legs. We tried to meet Carly at the bus but gave up after the 5:05 bus. We beat her home by 10 minutes. 

He ate a big spaghetti dinner again. And he was doing this funny thing where if we asked where Zinnie was he would point to himself as usual, but then also very dramatically grab his head. 

 

Waking up up in the morning: 

Water table: 

A mouth full of teeth (including the crooked one): 

Playground: 

Watching the waterfall: 

Looking at animals: 

Exploring the zoo on his own: 

Center of attention: 

At the drinking fountain:

Where’s Zinnie?