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This morning was all about people: we Skyped with Vivian and Cassie for a few minutes, Skyped with my parents for a few more, a woman came around to spray something down our drains (it is a building thing they do a couple times a year), and Atsuko dropped by to deliver a present to August. 

After his nap and lunch and Atsuko, we headed out for a walk. Kind of grey and windy at times, but really quite comfortable. So we walked south along the river, enjoying watching the wind on the river and playing at the exercise equipment along the way. 

At Gongneung there was a stairway back up and over the roadway and we walked along streets to the playground that is built to look like a tree. There was literally no one else there and we spent quite awhile on the swings. 

We then walked back up here to the pink building and hung out at the kid play area in the movie theater. The part with the big stuffed animals was closed so we played in the other part and read some books. Again, it was pretty much empty. I don’t really know where everyone was today. 

We then did a little grocery shopping and headed home. 

I went to PT and after I got back August got sleepy quite quickly. So we didn’t have time to open the presents that arrived from my parents. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

Morning:  

Looking up at the photos on the wall: 

Playing with his new helicopter: 

Watching the new video from his class: 

Chatting on the changing pad: 

Trying out the new crayons/stacking objects: 

Opening the freezer door: 

Present! His SpongeBob backpack and crinkly wrapping paper:

Spotting the bananas on his new monkey growth chart (from his Monday class and in centimeters, not inches): 

On today’s adventure: 

Wind on the river: 

At the theater: 

Reaching for some Cheerios: 

 

We had a pretty good first birthday for August. In the morning he had a nice big breakfast; since it was his birthday I gave him the small luxuries of not having to sit in his chair while he ate and also let him eat more orange and cheese than he has had in the past. We also started to listen to his new CD from his Monday class in the morning.

A bit before 10 we headed out at caught the Nowon 9 bus to Kwangwoon and then took the subway to Dongdaemun. We went to the play center on the first floor where you have to be a year old. So August enjoyed meeting his first age restriction.

It was fun. We were the first people there, and the whole time we were there (bit more than 90 minutes) there was only ever one other mother with her son. If anything it was a little cold and sterile. But better than being really crowded. He played with the stuffed animals and balls, then the rocking horses (baabaas), although he mainly rocked them while standing and didn’t want to sit on them. He then crawled over and into the sewing/house area. We also had fun in a room with these rubber circles with different shapes/textures on them and with dropping/throwing wooden balls into the ball pit. The one mishap was when I put him on the wooden slide and we were rolling balls down it. He then slid down the slide. It was a small slide and I thought it wouldn’t be a problem, but it was really slippery and he tumbled into the wooden balls.

And he has a new word: balls are ‘ba’, so it just kind of sounds like half of ‘baa baa’, but he started using it clearly with the balls at the play area.

The most unusual part was this area where you pushed a button of an object on the wall and you would hear the noise. There was a sheep, which August loved looking at, but when he heard the noise he would get all sad and keep repeating ‘baabaa’. He kind of looked scared, but would keep pushing the button himself.

Mainly though he was getting tired at that point so I got my ‘free’ drink (a basic rooibos tea) and we headed out. Walked up the boring spiral walkway to put him to sleep and sat in a chair in the design lounge for the next 90 minutes while he slept. I finished the Cleese book and read some Bolano.

When he woke up there were many more people in the lounge. Two workers came and visited with him for several minutes. He was quite shy at first, clinging to my leg. But he warmed up and was showing off by the time they left. But other people kept coming and I saw our time ticking away. 

I had wanted to do a little birthday photoshoot since the lighting up there is nice and I fit in 10 minutes or so. Rather rushed, and a little awkward as there were about 10 people in the room compared to zero when we first entered. There were even workers taking out some of the chairs. Still, I got a few decent photos.

I had wanted to surprise Carly at work but we now had only an hour to get there if we wanted to see her at all. So no leisurely visit, and no finding a scale to weigh August. We went and hopped on the 100 bus and proceeded to sit in traffic for the next 20 minutes. As it was we ended up rolling past the turn off to APIS as her culture club was starting. So rather disappointed that that didn’t work out. I should have just left after the play area and had him nap on the bus. But there seemed like plenty of time at the time.

Off the bus we walked through the park and went to the Buk to see the exhibition of new works that opened that day in the upstairs hall. It was decent. They were all videos, so got his attention.

After that we went to Home Plus and got some groceries and headed the playground. Had fun on the swing and the bouncy thing despite the cold wind. We were probably there for 20 to 30 minutes.

Thought about meeting up with Carly on her walk home, but was getting just a bit too cold (and I was carrying groceries). So we beat her home by 5 to 10 minutes.

They played for awhile and then we did his choosing ceremony. Not quite sure what he picked… either the protractor or the brain or the gavel…

He then ate dinner, then we measured him on both of his monkey growth charts, and opened presents.

A few highlights from the day. I will be posting a few more things about his birthday, like the gifts and the choosing ceremony, in the coming days: 

Morning: 

Play area: 

Nap in the design lounge: 

At the Buk: 

In the park: 

Today is the day – right about as I write this – that August turns 1. What a year…

Here he was last March 10th:

And here he is today:

We had a busy day of playing and celebrating and I’ll post more of that later. Here are the highlight videos of his first year:

This evening as I was putting some of his food in the fridge August somehow fell as he stood near my feet and hit his nose. He started crying and Carly took him and then realized his nose was bleeding. It wasn’t too bad though and after a couple minutes of intense crying he calmed down and Carly nursed him to sleep. 

He slept until 9:11 this morning, which is crazy late. We didn’t have time in the morning to do much besides have breakfast and prepare food for the day before we headed to his class. 

Class went fine. There is now a fifth student. It is actually a boy we know from the music class. We got the new set of books, CD, DVD, etc. today. August is very excited about them. I told the teacher that tomorrow is his birthday and at the end of class she gave us a present: a set of the super awesome bubbles she uses in class. They are much better than the bubble mix from Toys R Us. 

On the way home the wind died down enough for us to play in the park. We were the only people there so had full use of the swings and slides. August pretty much perfected his slide technique and can sit without holding the sides and scoot himself to start sliding and stay sitting up to the bottom. 

Back home we had an epic lunch and then Skyped with my parents for a long time. 

I started a bath for him after that but he decided he was tired and fell asleep. When he woke up we got ready for another trip outdoors and walked and met Carly halfway and walked home with her. 

A generally normal evening after that until the nosebleed. 

His new words: the definite on is ‘doodoodoo’. It means ‘Cheerios’. It doesn’t sound like ‘Cheerio’ at all, but you’ll have to ask Vivian why it doesn’t. That is what she called Cheerios so Carly taught August the same. He doesn’t yet include the final ‘doo’ but it is otherwise pretty clear. The other new word might be ‘cheese’, which sounds more like ‘chee’. He was using it a lot this evening on his own accord as I gave him a snack. We will see if he keeps it up tomorrow. That would be word #13.  

Morning: 

Putting things in the backpack: 

Magic bubbles: 

Playground: 

Lunch time: 

Lunch consisted of broccoli, strawberry, nectarine, Cheerios, salmon, tofu, egg, cheddar cheese, pasta, and bagel:

Skyping with my parents. He was in his chair for over 40 minutes for lunch, and another 15 or so with them: 

Having fun: 

Evening: 

Garbage can walker: 

First, some sad news out of Seoul: It turns out that August and I were at the zoo at the time that a zookeeper was mauled to death by a lion. It was the first day we realized the zoo was closed. We had walked around from the main entrance to the zoo to the back entrance to see the seals and were actually quite close to the lion cage. We then walked back to the main gate and went to the conservatory right next door for a few minutes. When we came out there were ambulance and fire trucks around the main entrance and an ambulance come out the main entrance.

Also, it turns out that the avian flu that has shut down the zoo and the water ways and ponds at Dream Forest was discovered in a stream just south of us.

Anyway, today was a wonderful 59 degrees. I went on a hike down a ridge south of us down to the Han. Carly and August went to the store, the art museum, and the playground by the stream. 

He went to bed – we thought – a little before 8. But he woke up a bit later and stayed up. He finally fell asleep a little after ten. That was a bit weird. 

Carly and August: 

Eating and talking. He had been saying ‘dada’ a lot: 

At BBQ: 

Evening: 

Supposedly asleep for the night: 

Back awake and having fun: 

 

 

I’m tired, have a bit of a cough, and need to get up early for a hike tomorrow, so a quick entry today. Between us we had 4 outings:

 

– First we all went to the pink building to shop at the remodeled grocery store. 

– Then I went alone to Home Plus to buy a new frying pan and a few things we couldn’t get

– Next we all took the subway 3 stops south to Meokgol to meet Nathalie and return her phone that she left in the van yesterday. She walked us around the neighborhood and showed us a kid cafe and an Italian restaurant that has a play area. We didn’t go to ether today though because August fell asleep. We then walked the three stops home as it was warm. 

– Finally August and I returned to Home Plus while Carly started the spaghetti because I had forgotten spaghetti sauce earlier. On the way back we stopped at the playground and played on the slide for awhile. 

 

August’s big accomplishments were really starting to walk and adding a new word: he did 3, 5, and then 8 steps for Carly. I then caught a 3 stepper on video. I am sure we will soon have more to show. 

 

His new word is ‘tea’, which he used to refer to Carly’s tea this morning. That is his eleventh official word. I’ll have a post with all of his words sometime soon. 

 

In the morning: 

Being silly while Skyping with Oma and Opa: 

Disliking the vacuum cleaner: 

(Currently hiding in iCloud and YouTube land) 

Asleep on our walk home: 

Walking home from Home Plus: 

At the playground: 

Bending his neck for the book: 

Playing with his new crayons. At least the box: 

Taking 3 steps (theoretically in YouTube land but ‘still processing’ as I write this): 

Carly had to leave at 6am to make it to her conference. August wanted to make sure he saw mama before she left, so he woke up a little after 5. A highlight of his playing in the morning was using the empty diaper garbage can as a walker and a toy, shoving it around the apartment. 

After his first nap we went to see the new art show at the Buk (okay, but not too exciting) and then went shopping at Home Plus. After that we went and played in the playground where we were able to use the swing, slide, and bouncy thing as there was almost no one else there. August seemed to be falling asleep on the bouncy thing, or at least very relaxed, but he stayed awake after we went home. 

At home we ate lunch, read books, and played some more. He had salmon for the first time. He reacted to the first bite kind of oddly but ate the other two bites I gave him as well. 

He seemed on the verge of taking a nap a couple times but rebounded. It was warm and sunny outside so I felt we should get out of the apartment so we headed to Dream Forest. He fell asleep along the way and woke up when I was sitting in the cafe listening to podcasts. Not sure what woke him as it was clearly too early. 

We went into the kid area but didn’t last long. When he got up to crawl over to see the birds on the wall, he was startled when he passed a corner and a man was sitting there and bent forward to say hi. Startled, August turned around and ran into a table. I got him calmed down once, but then when playing at one of the wall toys a girl and her mom getting too close set him off. 

We beat a hasty retreat and I planned to head home. But he saw the playground and wanted to go. I almost said no, but it turned out to be a good idea as we spent more than an hour playing on the slide and hanging out in the sun and snacking on Cheerios (dododos, thanks to Vivian). 

We headed home when Carly was on her way back from the conference, but ended up beating her by more than an hour. He was falling asleep so I was trying to keep him awake until he could see mama and make it closer to his 7pm bedtime. With some dance music and playing with Marshy on the bed we made it until Carly arrived a bit after 6 and he fell asleep around 6:40. 

A couple notes, primarily for those who have visited Seoul:

Turns out all of the pond areas and the deer park at Dream Forest are also closed due to avian flu. We hadn’t been in three weeks so this was the first we knew of it. 

The grocery store next door in the pink building was closed about a week ago. They have reopened, having replaced a bunch of the shelves and other storage areas. It looks a bit nicer now and, more importantly, has a lot more products than before. August and I just looked around for a couple minutes, but I am hopeful this will improve our shopping and variety of foods.

Oh, and Carly’s conference went well. She had some computer video issues right before presenting but got that worked out and it went smoothly. She was then able to attend two sessions, one on global service and one on mindfulness in education.  

Morning: 

At the park after Home Plus: 

Going off the end of the slide for the first time (oops). He was okay: 

On the swing: 

Still has a sticker on his butt from playing with them earlier: 

Getting sleepy on the bouncy thing: 

Lunch time. Salmon for the first time: 

Playground at Dream Forest: 

Enjoying the sunshine and dododos: 

Trying to stay awake until mama got home: 

 

We went to Children’s Grand Park today as we usually do on Thursdays, but we got a bit of a late start as he took a 2 and a half hour nap after only sleeping 9 hours last night. 

We first walked over to see if the zoo was open (still closed) and then went to watch the seals, peek in at the deer, and walk through the conservatory. 

We then headed to the children’s museum and played there for 90 minutes. He showed interest in a puzzle for the first time, although it was in asking the pieces out and putting it away in the box, not putting it together. He did that several times after I placed the pieces. 

It got really busy in the toddler area so we went in the book room where he worked on mastering putting the magnifying glasses in their holes and showed, again for the first time, some interest in actually looking at the books after pulling them off the shelves. He also went up the short set of stairs without any trouble, but is now hesitant to try going down them. 

We headed home at 4 and went first to the Buk art museum where a new show was opening today. They had a string quartet and pianist playing in the lobby so we watched for awhile and looked around just a little bit. It was very busy so we will go back tomorrow. 

We bought strawberries from a vendor on the way home. 

At home Carly Skyped with Glecy and August started to get tired soon after that. Carly have him a bath which he was in no way fond of and we only managed to keep him awake until 6:30. So it might be an early morning. 

Got him saying ‘river’ on video today. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but for several weeks now he has been calling me ‘mama’. He clearly knows how to say ‘dada’ and knows that word refers to me, so I kind of think this is his longest running joke. Sometimes he slips up and says ‘dada’ but if we point it out he immediately starts saying ‘mama’. Also, he is great on the changing pad nowadays and will often spend extra time there looking up at the ceiling or art. But he pretty much hates the bath. We will have to work on that one.

 

Morning: 

An unusual sight, as there is very little air traffic over Seoul. The joint U.S.-South Korea exercises perhaps? 

At the children’s museum: 

Looking so big in this shirt: 

At home: 

Cuddling with Carly as he listens to his Korean music: 

It was cooler today, but what made it hard was the wind. And the fact that August and I were on top of a hill when it hit. 

The idea was to go to Hyehwa and go up to the park on the hill (one of the original defensive hills of Seoul with the wall running along it) to play and eat lunch, then go back down the hill and go to our favorite art gallery (the Arko), then hit the Salvation Army for books before heading home. 

Books at the SA was the only piece that went as planned. We got to the top of the hill to find that the ‘playground’ labeled in the map was actually an outdoor theater (so, technically, ground on which you could perform a play). 

We ate lunch at the park, but it wasn’t all that pleasant and we huddled on a concrete bench next to a wall to avoid the wind. 

Then, it turned out that the art gallery is closed for another week. Also bummers: the first coffee shop I found in the area and the art shop where I bought the prints in the guest room are both closed. 

Anyway, things didn’t exactly go as planned, but we still had fun. August liked a window display full of tchotchkes, two ceramic cats outside a restaurant, a dragon outside a museum, and seeing green monster’s twin in the Artbox store (where I bought Green Monster and Bluie). 

And another new word: ‘river’. As we took the bus home and looked out the river, he said it, with no prompting from me,  as we crossed our river. Like ‘Pororo’ it had been a practice word a week or two ago but he hadn’t used it since. So it was a surprise to hear him pull it out. He has said it many times since today and is quite clear. In fact, it might be his word that is closest to the correct pronunciation. 

I thought he might take a nap after we got home at 3:30 but he was full of energy (see the magnet video). But then he crashed at 4:26 and Carly got home a couple minutes later and I went to PT. Luckily, he only slept for 35 minutes. But that didn’t stop him from being up until 10:30. 

Oh, and he just lay in my lap for 10 minutes after waking up this morning. He hasn’t done that, outside the 40 minute stretch the other day, for months. And that was more like sitting, whereas today he was stretched out across my lap. Later, he sat on my lap for 20 minutes, staring at the speakers, as we listened to his music.  

 

Morning: 

Poking his palm. This is from one of his songs from class: 

Our adventure: 

Waving to people down the steps: 

Top of the hill looking towards downtown Seoul:

Lunch: 

In his shoes. A little complaining at first, but he wore them for the rest of the trip and did fine: 

Pointing to the flags blowing hard in the wind: 

Cats: 

Rosy cheeks: 

Back home: 

Tonight is apparently the traditional holiday where they burn the fields to prepare them for planting. We have seen the parade the last two years but only from our window. Today I saw it up close as it went by as I returned from PT: 

It was rainy today. So we played at home in the morning and after August took a nap we headed north out of Seoul to Uijeongbu and the Sinsaegae department store. It was open this time and we found the toy store on the 8th floor. There was also a cafe and play area so we played for an hour and then sat and ate/drank. We didn’t buy anything, but got some ideas and will probably go back with Carly sometime. 

On the way home something unusual happened. We had a set of seats to ourself, so I was going to take August out of the carrier. He started to yawn a bit so I figured it would also be a good time to turn him around. 

So I sat him next to me and adjusted the carrier. And then I look over to realize that he has fallen asleep next to me, sitting up. He has never fallen asleep while sitting up. And he barely made a peep doing it. 

Back home he woke up when I removed him from the carrier so it was only a 36 minute nap. He seemed tired later, but managed to stay up pretty late. 

He pulled the word ‘Pororo’ out today as we were in the bookstore. He said it on his own when he noticed a Pororo display while I was looking at books. He then said it several times. So I count that as an official word now. 

His maybe words for the day were ‘Zinnie’ (he repeated it after me a couple times while looking at a photo of himself) and ‘strawberry’. We will see if they come back in the next couple days. 

Also, he is starting to make some little steps. Two is the most so far and he did that three times today after he pushes closed the desk drawer and then needs to get closer to it. 

Morning: 

Our adventure: 

Pororo, the little penguin: 

Kid cafe: 

He loved the fruits and veggies: 

and the rolling things: 

Falling asleep on the train: 

Awake one second: 

Asleep the next: 

Back home: 

A step (I didn’t get any of the two step ones on video): 

Awesome new shoes! He loves them: 

Just not when he has to wear them indoors: 

Finally, eating some banana bread while sitting on the couch like a big kid: