Category: Uncategorized

This morning we left before ten to go to Toys R Us. On the way there August liked all the paper (well, plastic) lanterns now lining the streets. 

Once we were there we watched the puppies in the pet store, pushed buttons on the machines outside Toys R Us, and then spent time letting August walk around the toy store. He kept getting excited by the piano each time we went back to it, so I knew it would be a good purchase. 

We bought it and headed home. A little awkward to carry, but luckily the rain had let up so no need for an umbrella. 

At home he continued to stay up for a long time and didn’t fall asleep for almost 7 hours. When he did take a nap he woke up after 40 minutes and cried for awhile before I got him back to sleep. And when he woke up at 3 he cried more and sort of dozed on my shoulder. But he got upset if I tried to sit down. And when he was crying he would sign ‘more’ and ‘please’ but I couldn’t tell what he was talking about. 

Finally, at 3:30 I decided we should just go outside. He wasn’t happy with the process of getting ready, but his mood changed when he got outside. 

We spent time exploring the park on foot – first in the area close to Carly’s morning bus stop and then over in front of the museum. We returned home a bit past 4:30, beating Carly home by about 10 seconds. 

In the evening we made a quick trip next door to the grocery store for a couple things. Carly was carrying August and he was incredibly hyper  

He ate a ton today: eggs, bananas, banana bread, broccoli, salmon… And he continued that with a spaghetti dinner. Carly gave him a bath after that for obvious reasons. 

Walking to Toys R Us: 

Toys R Us: 

No, August. We are not spending 400 dollars on a Tayo bus you can drive: 

He really liked this pink scooter and picture: 

Home: 

Standing on a book in his zombie shirt: 

Not happy after his nap while I get ready to go outside: 

In the park: 

Touching the statue he calls ‘mama’: 

Pointing at an ant: 

On our way to the pink building: 

Noodles: 

A big adventure day today. I planned to walk the fortress wall around downtown Seoul this spring. This was sort of part 1. Although we had such a hard time following the trail as it turns out it is set up for walking it clockwise and we headed counterclockwise that we did a lot of backtracking and took a lot of ‘off’ paths. So I consider this more of a scouting trip. 

In total, my phone tells me I did just over 26000 steps today, and our walk today was a bit over 13 kilometers and took a little over four and a half hours. But we left early and put in plenty of breaks for August. He got to run around and play four times, we stopped to play at water fountains, ant hills, and to watch construction equipment, and I walked during both his naps. 

I might put in a fuller description of our route later, but roughly we started on the opposite side of Seoul and did a third of a circle, counterclockwise, that took us past Namsan Tower (yes, I walked up to Namsan Tower carrying a baby) and ended a bit to the NE of Itaewon. 

The highlights for August were:

– watching a backhoe for 10 minutes

– watching and chasing pigeons, both at Seodaemun Independence Park and Sungnyemun Gate

– playing in 3 water fountains in Namsan Park

– playing with another boy as they both pulled on a chain at Namsan Tower

August also got a ton of attention (a lot of tourist with cameras up at Namsan) and enjoyed that. He did great overall and even the long subway rides weren’t a problem (of course, he was still sleeping for part of the ride back). 

When we got home we were both exhausted. He was starving because he hadn’t eaten much at either of our eating breaks. And I was sunburned on my arms. Luckily, he was properly lotioned and hatted, and got turned around in the carrier. I, on the other hand, had my right arm facing the sun much of the time. 

Morning:

Sporting the new bug shirt:

Seodaemun Independence Park: 

Lunch at Sungnyemun Gate:

Namsan Park: 

First fountain: 

Going up: 

Playing at the top: 

Very dirty pants: 

Drinking fountain #3. His height. Unfortunately, he hit his head against an edge trying to play with two faucets at once and left a nice mark: 

Back home he and Carly were playing with his helicopter and he has suddenly gotten much more interested in and better at putting the shapes in their holes. The first few times he did it he put both arms in the air with his palms facing up. Alas, he didn’t do it when I turned on the camera:

Finally, a couple random wall shots since I took a lot of them: 

He took an early nap but slept until 10:43, meaning we were quite late for his class. He missed bubbles, but enjoyed what he made it to. Class today was about monkeys and there were two toys (a felt monkey with expanding plastic arms and legs and a monkey percussion instrument) that he was upset he had to give back so quickly. 

From Home Plus we took the subway to Costco. Took our time looking around. Bought him a bug themed set of clothes (two shirts and a pair of pants). Then went down and got our cheese supply. I emailed Carly to ask if there was anything else she wanted. While we waited we walked around and got free samples – August got to try orange juice for the first time and then we both tried a yoghurt with granola already mixed in. He really liked both. 

We then paid and went and got food. We took our food outside to the platform in front of Costco that had a family statue on it. We took our time eating and he crawled around a lot and checked out that statue. His hands and knees of his pants were nice and dirty. He also walked around a bit. 

We then went home. Thought he would fall asleep for a second nap but he never did. Eventually made it to close to 8. 

After Carly got home we all went to Home Plus. August loves free samples now and we got more here: he tried pineapple and watermelon for the first time, liking both, then had orange and a big piece of red pepper. 

Also at Home Plus, August and I ran into the same autistic guy from yesterday. He recognized is and immediately brought up Howard Zinn. Today he also brought up John Maynard Keynes and David Cameron, among others. And August got really excited when he saw the stuffed animals. He grabbed onto the pink sheep he looks at every time and wouldn’t let go, basically hugging it. He carried it around for a few minutes but I was able to peacefully return it to the shelf. We have plenty of stuffed animals already but I have a feeling I might be getting him a sheep at some point. 

We came home and he had a huge dinner of spaghetti (noodles included this time). It was like I hadn’t been feeding him all day. He was a complete mess and due for a bath anyway, so even though he was tired Carly have him a bath. He went to sleep soon after that. 

 

Watching his Dunggae Dunggae video:  

Waking up before class: 

Class: 

Intently watching the teacher behind me:

Costco: 

Reading the name of the statue:

Eating: 

He was focused on the wind in the trees: 

A walk around: 

Home: 

Eating spaghetti: 

Another three park day. In the morning August invented a new percussion instrument by putting one of his shakers in the baby blender and then using a stick from the xylophone to rattle it around. And when Carly was vacuuming he got even more excited and closer to the vacuum than usual. They also had a good time skyping with the PA crew. 

He took an early nap and during his nap I got a message from Derek saying he and Logan were coming to our park. So after August woke up we went down and met them. Like before they ignore the play structure and instead walked around the park. August was again I to following Logan. But August’s favorite thing was the big anthill we found. He wanted to sit down and watch the ants. This was fine while I was right there to keep the ants at bay, but when I tried to get a video one ran up his arm and Carly put an end to that. 

Derek and Logan were walking on to Eunhang Junction so we tagged along as far as Hangeulbi Park. We played at Hangeulbi, going on the swings, but mainly walking August around. We then went to Toys R Us to look around. We didn’t buy anything but August found a toy piano that he really likes. 

We returned home for awhile. Carly wanted to make spaghetti, so August and I went out one more time, this time to the playground by the youth center and stream. He walked a ton. He tried following a boy around who was driving one of those electric cars and he really liked walking on the grates over the drainage ditches. And when people were playing basketball he was very much into that. 

We were there for a little over an hour, and on our way back he walked from the playground to most of the way across the bridge before asking to be picked up. 

Back home he pulled out the train set, which he hasn’t really used in weeks, and played with it for quite awhile. He is much better at putting the trains in the starting tunnel and pushing the button than he was back then.

A close up while skyping: 

Dinosaur park with Logan: 

Hangeulbi Park: 

Playground by the youth center and stream: 

Walking the grating: 

Dirt: 

A break for circle time: 

He climbed into my lap for awhile: 

Walking home across the bridge: 

Spaghetti dinner: 

Playing with his train set: 

 

Olympic Park and SOMA with Meg

We went to Olympic Park and to the Millet et al show at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (SOMA) today. 

Much of our day today seemed to involve cleaning the snot off of August’s face. And he wasn’t terribly happy in the morning and took a 35 minute nap after a couple hours. It didn’t seem to improve his mood much, but once we got outside he was a new person. And he was thrilled to see Meg and had a lot of fun with her. 

We took the subway to the back (south) entrance to the park and walked to the north through the sculpture area. We went to Lotteria to get lunch before the art museum, but it was packed and the whole process took a long time. 

We ate down near the lake though, which was nice, and after we were done it was clear August was ready for another nap. 

We got our tickets and Carly and Meg went in while I made sure August was asleep. I only went in a couple minutes after them, but they moved kind of quickly through the show so I didn’t see them inside. 

When we were all done we walked back to the subway, past the huge crowds forming for a K-Pop concert, and headed home. After we transferred we were on a Larva-themed subway for the first time. 

We came home for awhile but needed to get some grocery shopping done. And August hadn’t actually gotten to do much playing yet. 

So Carly did the grocery shopping and I took August to the park. August and I got to talk to a very interesting, but very difficult to follow, autistic man. I wouldn’t mention it (we talk to a lot of people I don’t end up writing about here), but he talked a lot about George H.W. Bush, Noam Chomsky, and…Howard Zinn. What are the chances of talking to an autistic Korean guy in Seoul who admires the historian your son is named after? 

After that August and I walked through the art museum and then walked to the playground. He instantly wanted to start walking on the rocks and hills around the playground and did some bird spotting. When he did walk back down to the level ground he went to the exercise equipment and wanted to stand on that. 

After a certain point though his tiredness became too much and he was done. I took him home and he was almost asleep a little after 6 when Carly got home. He perked up a bit though and was able to make it to 7. He has been restless in his sleep though due to his cold. Hopefully both he and Carly will be able to get some decent sleep. 

 

First time wearing his Kermit shirt: 

August loved this rope fence at Olympic Park: 

By the time we left there was a huge line for the museum: 

Finding mama’s elbow funny: 

We got to ride one of the Larva-themed subways on the way home: 

More of the Larva decorations: 

Ready to go off the beaten path: 

His favorite piece of exercise equipment right now. He was riding a similar machine at park #2 yesterday: 

Exhausted boy, asleep early: 

 

Dream Forest, Bule Children’s Park, and Gaksheem Children’s Park

A trifecta of parks and playgrounds today. 

In the morning we cooked broccoli and tofu. Which doesn’t sound like much but August was very much in a hold-me-all-the-time mode so everything took a long time. 

We left around 11 and took a bus to Dream Forest. We walked to the playground and spent all of our time there, primarily in a ten foot radius around our backpack. There was plenty to keep him occupied, from playing with our water bottles, his hat, and food containers, to walking around and looking at bushes, to practicing going up and down the little ledge, to watching and interacting with all the bigger kids and their teachers. 

A little after 1 we left there and I started to walk to the NE corner of Dream Forest, expecting to go out on a path we hadn’t walked down before. I also expected him to take a nap. That happened quickly. But it turned out there were all sorts of paths down the east side of the park I had missed before. And they were very lovely and peaceful. So I walked along them for awhile and came out on a new street. 

Walking back north along the street I came across a children’s park called Bule (버리어린이공원). It looked nice and had a bench in the shade, so I sat there and listened to podcasts until Z woke up. We played in the park – swings and walking around – and I changed him on the ground before we left. 

We then met up with our usual back (northern) route from Dream Forest to APIS. We stopped on the pedestrian bridge over the stream to first watch a trio of ducks and then a crane looking for fish. 

We arrived at APIS about 3 so went across the street to Gaksheem Children’s Park (각심어린이공원) for awhile before going up to see Carly. August snacked (he had really just been eating slowly but consistently all day) and we refilled out water bottles. August wanted to play in the plugged basin of the water fountain like it was the water table from yesterday. 

We went up and found Carly at 4. Would have been earlier but much of the girls soccer team was getting August’s attention. Unlike the last few times we have gone to APIS and August has been impatient because he wants to get up to Carly, today he was all about seeing and showing off for other people. 

We walked home together. I wore shorts today and look forward to a lot more of this in the coming weeks. 

Carly gave him a bath this evening. It was time, plus he had managed to get pretty filthy today. I imagine we are going to start giving him baths more often due to playing on the ground and sweat. Anyway, he still wasn’t too fond of the bath but handled it better than he did with me last time. 

August has also had a runny nose and is now a bit stuffy. The cold that I and Carly have had has come to him. 

Park 1 (Dream Forest): 

Park 2 (Bule): 

He is blowing raspberries as he goes, thus the funny lips: 

Park 3 (Gaksheem): 

On the way home: 

Bath time: 

 

Our weekly trip to Children’s Grand Park. What has been cool about these trips is that they really allow me to see how both Seoul changes through the seasons and how August has changed from week to week and month to month. Today we spent our time at the water table in the children’s museum – out in the ‘regular’ museum and not the toddler area. In a way he has outgrown the toddler area, and the water table (even the 36 month and under one) seemed way too big and unusable for him a couple months ago. And then we spent a couple hours outside, where he walked and explored much more than he ever has. Along the way he discovered ants for the first time and was really focused on the outdoor musical instruments – sure, he still likes the slides and swings, but those are now a small piece of our park time.

The full day:

Pretty typical morning. Woke up at 6:30 – a very happy wake up, which was nice. Most of his playing at home now involves putting things together (he loves lids) or reading books. Today was no exception. We left the house at 9:45, getting down to the children’s museum a bit past 10:30. The first floor was packed with school groups, so I thought the water area would be as well. I was wrong. We were the only people in that area for about 45 minutes. August took right to it and didn’t slow down during that time. He loved moving the water cannon, but also loved grabbing and tasting the balls and putting his fingers in front of the spray. He splashed himself a lot in the face but that didn’t deter him. We left after a big school group showed up. It was about time, anyway, as I thought August would be going to sleep soon.

We went to the book room, where I changed his shirt (wet from the water running down his arms) and we had a snack and played for awhile. He gave me a scare when he managed to pop a piece of a plastic toy in his mouth, but he spit it back out.

We left and started to walk around. He didn’t, however, fall asleep. We found a ledge and grass area by the performance hall and had a drink. He then walked around and discovered ants for the first time. They were big black ants, and it was cool to see him stop to process what he was seeing. He ended up touching 3 ants before we left.

We were probably there for a half hour and then we packed up and tried again for a nap. It took awhile, but we had a nice walk through the center of the park before he fell asleep. I went to the coffee place and managed to read two chapters of the book I am reading off their shelf before he woke up. Only 40 minutes, but it was now 1:40, so he would be able to make it to bed on that.

We now went to the Adventure Playground area and were there for the next 2 hours. A little sliding and swinging, and a lot of playing around. A 7 (Korean age) year old boy came up to us and started talking to us. He told me how he had been looking for bugs earlier in the day. He would end up playing the outdoor instruments with us, showing us a bee on a flower, and telling us about an insect museum in Seoul. I also met his mom, who learned English (and German) while studying industrial design in Germany for seven years. I thought that was pretty cool, but she said it wasn’t a good choice for Korea, where that whole industry prefers men (ugh). 

August also did some smelling of both bushes and flowers, and practiced a little walking. He ate a long second lunch up in a flower-filled area behind the playground. I had had to change him once after leaving the children’s museum, and had to change him again before leaving. He ended up wearing an entirely different outfit from the time we arrived thanks to the water table and a leaky diaper.

We headed home; the subway ride is easier all the time (knock on wood). Beat Carly home by about 20 minutes. He was getting impatient for her to get home, so we went out wandering the hallways. We were playing with the mailbox when Carly arrived. 

He practiced more with the salad spinner this evening. He is now really into the baby book and Old King Cole book that we got on our last shopping trip, and has suddenly developed an interest in the Dr. Seuss ‘There’s a Woset in My Closet’ book, which he has ignored for several months.

Waking up: 

First time at the water table: 

Figuring out the magnet: 

First outdoor stop: 

Admiring a bush: 

Discovering ants: 

Second outdoor stop, in and around Adventure Playground: 

With Jungho (sp), the boy who likes insects: 

He then took a couple steps, which I missed getting on vieo, but I got the last step and him clapping for himself:

Back home. Some more methodical practice with the salad spinner: 

August took his nap early today – about 70 minutes starting around 9. He didn’t take a nap in the afternoon, and while Carly had to keep him from falling asleep at 5:30, he then bounced back and stayed up until close to 8. That means he was awake for more than 9 hours.

Anyway, after his early nap, we took the 1144 bus from right outside the building and took it up to Changdong Station. From there we took the subway one stop west, to Ssangmun. About 15 minutes of walking got us to Ssangmun Neighborhood Park. The park is a good sized wooded area, and I didn’t know what we would find. I was hoping for a playground at some point, but most of it was trails, hills, exercise equipment, and badminton and tennis courts. 

We found a bench in a nice spot by a little basketball court and took our first break. August ate much of my peanut butter sandwich, walked/crawled around, and waved to everyone who walked by.

We then hiked around the rest of the west side of the park, crossed over to the east side, and eventually found a second spot where we played and ate. 

From there we walked around more of the east side of the park – he did more magpie spotting today. 

Finally, as we were about to leave the park at the SE corner we found a playground. So of course we had to play for awhile. He did more walking around and had to try out all the slides. We got a turn in the swings and he liked pointing out the blue bouncy ball a group of kids were playing with. 

We headed home and heard Puff the Magic Dragon playing on the radio on the bus. 

From getting off the bus we went to the grocery store in the pink building for a few things. 

When we got back to the apartment I expected him to fall asleep for a nap but he never did. When Carly got home I went to PT. 

This morning he did his sniffing thing when he saw Carly’s origami flowers. He had done it yesterday, but I thought it might be a coincidence. I think he is actually making a bit of a joke. 

Our upcoming weather. Looks pretty nice:

Morning: 

Park:

We are still arguing about when he has to wear his hat when it is warm (he was fine with his winter hat, and fine with a hood when it is windy or raining). To distract him from his hat, I told him to look at the camera. He stuck out his tongue: 

He did a lot of squealing when he saw the playground. This is the end of it: 

Swings: 

Home: 

Sometimes we think he is practicing Hebrew or Yiddish:

For several minutes he would methodically put the salad spinner together, put one or two items in it, put the lid on, turn it over, take it apart, and repeat:

 

Managed to give August a bath this morning. Not that he was too fond of it. 

After his nap he ate a huge lunch – ate more than 3 strawberries, some apple, broccoli, and all the canned salmon I had set aside for him. 

We packed up and took the subway to Taerung and transferred to a bus headed east. We went past the Taerung royal tomb (where we had been twice before, once with Carly) a few stops to the Gongneung royal tomb. Not a huge area, but plenty for August and I to explore. We walked around first, and August got really excited when he would spot magpies. He would hear one, try to find it, and when he saw it he would shriek and point with both hands. Very cool to see as he has until recently found it difficult to tell which direction a sound is coming from. He successfully did it at least three times with the magpies. 

And he really liked the big metal sign in front of the tomb. It was pretty much identical to the sign he enjoyed kicking while in the carrier with the cover at the other tomb. He was bigger this time, so no need to reach out with his feet, and he was also pointing to the pictures of food on the sign and saying ‘baa’ (as they looked like balls). 

We then found a picnic table and he ate pretty much all the food we had with us. He then explored the area, walking around (he particularly liked going through the deep leaves and up and down hills), sitting on the moss and looking at stuff, and doing more walking. 

He even saw a ghost: he was standing near the stone path, looking at/across it, and started to wave. At no one. I asked him who he was waving to and he pointed. And kept pointing. Several times. He wouldn’t walk forward when I tried to get him to, and eventually (after a couple minutes) sat down. He pointed one last time, lost interest, and started playing in the dirt. I believe he was actually just fascinated by a leaf blowing across the ground, but it was quite a coincidence. 

Anyway, he explored for about an hour and then we left. We walked just to the west and went into Samyoong University. I realized I needed to change him. Luckily, a shady spot in the grass out of the way wasn’t too hard to find. 

We then went to the university museum. We started at the top and worked out way down. First I realized it was a Seventh Day Adventist church. Then they had floors on biblical archeology and bible study/history (this floor actually had an impressive collection of Bibles in different languages and editions). 

Then we get to the first floor, where they have fossils and minerals. First I notice none of them have ages on them.  Then I find the only mention of age on the floor – a sign that explains most fossils were from 6000 years ago. 

And that is how I took August to his first, and hopefully last, creationist museum. And contrast that museum with the funky (but accurate) natural history museum at Kyunghee University (which is a Christian university, but obviously not SDA). 

After that we walked through much of the rest of the campus (which is really quite nice). We saw the greenhouse and went into the entrance of the art building. August liked the sculpture of colored pencils out front, and he really liked the apples hanging from the ceiling inside. He spent several minutes batting at them and was upset when we left. 

We headed home from there. Got home at 5:20 something, just a few minutes before Carly. 

Morning:

At the tomb: 

University museum. The history is actually quite interesting: 

Oh, really: 

Art building:

 

Carly had nice morning time with August as he woke up at 4:30. He took a  90 minute morning nap and woke up in time to have a good breakfast and easily make it to his Dunggae Dunggae class. Today was all about rabbits, and she brought out a new sort of parachute that August enjoyed. He sat by himself and held on to the edge for most of the time. 

After class we walked through the park and stopped to smell the new flowers in front of the art museum. 

At home we had lunch and talked to my parents about summer plans. He fell asleep for a second, 50 minute, nap. When he woke up we made a smoothie, which he really liked, and then walked to the park at Madeul Stadium. 

We went on the swings which, if I remember correctly, was the first place I took him on the swings. I took a picture while we are swinging, and when I told him to look at the camera, he stuck out his tongue. Seemed very deliberate and funny. 

We walked around the rest of the park a little, going on the exercise equipment, looking at the horse statues (he was very excited about the horse baabaas), and watching teams practice soccer. 

We got home just a minute before Carly did. He didn’t last long in. The evening and fell asleep before 8. He got to play with the big blender, which was pretty exciting. 

 

Morning: 

Class: 

Teething. He chewed on a straw for much of class: 

Smelling the flowers: 

Smoothie: 

On our walk: 

Playing with the big blender: