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The website for the children’s museum said it is closed lunar new year day so we went down today, the day after. Turns out it was closed for the entire three day holiday. We made the most of the situation by playing at the playground and going to the conservatory. But with the zoo still closed due to avian flu there wasn’t much to do. 

So we went and had lunch at Subway then headed home. August fell asleep as we got close to our building.  

In the afternoon Carly went back to the coffee shop to work and August and I went for a walk and found a new playground. We then headed back to Home Plus and did some grocery shopping and then went to the coffee shop and found Carly.  

 

In the morning: 

Children’s Grand Park: 

A petal from the huge banana flower fell into the water next to us and the fish thought it was food: 

Lunch: 

Falling asleep: 

After his nap: 

He hasn’t used a pacifier for a couple months. Here he is checking it out for old times sake: 

Our afternoon adventure: 

In the evening: 

Lunar new year, that is. It is now the year of the sheep, which is convenient as August can tell you what sound it makes.  

I was supposed to go on the next leg of our hike around Seoul, but one of the guys called in sick. So Jeff and I decided to hike Suraksan mountain instead. It was a beautiful hike and we left before 9am so saw almost no one up there. We did almost all of the climb to the top until we got to the last scraggly bit – just a few tenth a of a kilometer. We had no gloves and much of the last bit involved using these metal ropes over the rocks. I was concerned about getting back down so stopped at a place where it was icy and you had to pull yourself up a rock face about 5 feet. Jeff went a bit further, but stopped short after a potion where it was just a rope to his left and a sharp drop to his right. 

While I was out doing that Carly and August went to the playground by the stream and then the playground in the park. They also scouted out coffee shops Carly could work in later.  

I got home and August was asleep he took a long nap as he had a restless night. He woke up for a couple hours and then slept until right before I left for my hike at 8:30 – so at least I got to see him in the morning. But it wasn’t enough, and he also headed to bed pretty early in the evening.  

After he awoke from his nap Carly went to work. He and I went outside to get the last of the sun and ended up playing on some slides in a play area in an apartment complex.  

We swung by the place Carly was working – the cafe at the movie theater – and August got to play with the big leopards again.  

My hike: 

Back home with little boy: 

On our little walk: 

A lock of hair: 

Slide 1: 

Slide 2: 

Slide 3: 

Finding mama at the movie theater and playing with the leopards: 

Back home watching his video, playing with an umbrella, and getting changed under the drawer: 

It was the first day of the lunar new year holiday. Today we went to Noksapyeong for lunch and so that Carly could get her hair cut. We then bought August a few books at a used book store and walked through Itaewon to find that a second bookstore was closed.  

We headed home and in the early evening went grocery shopping at Home Plus.  

But perhaps the most fun part of the day was finding out that August can tell us what noise a sheep makes:

On the subway: 

Lunch at the burger place: 

Carly getting her haircut: 

Churro time. At a churro place inexplicably named after Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84: 

Still asleep on the way home. He slept close to two hours in the carrier, making it a record carrier nap: 

August in the rocking chair decorated in a fabric that Glecy sent us: 

Playing with the freezer door: 

Practicing putting the lid on Carly’s tea: 

Carly gets the rest of the week off due to the lunar new year. So today was August’s and my last day of the week to adventure on our own. I decided to head to Hoegi station and attempt to get to Seoul University. This is where our previous attempt failed when we (with Carly that time) found ourselves locked inside the gates of a school. I promised Carly that wouldn’t happen today. 

Anyway, we were successful today. The long and short of it was that we walked around to the main campus entrance, exploded the campus, stopped at the student union building for lunch, did some more exploring, exited the back entrance, and made our way back to the subway station.  

August had fallen asleep soon after lunch and slept until we made it home.  

August’s accomplishment today was being able to point to his hair. Skip to the end for video of that. He is also improving his birdwatching skills as he was watching magpies at lunch and then seeing them in the trees later.  

Waking up in the morning. Actually, since he went to sleep so late last night it was nice and bright by the time he woke up: 

At the university. We both liked this statue on campus: 

And August really liked waving to this statue of a mom and baby: 

Our lunch in the student union building. If you look close you can see the magpie that August is looking at in a tree: 

Out exploring again. He would point at things with the straw I grabbed him at the cafe. And he liked these trees as he called them out several times: 

Waving hello to mama for a Skype message: 

Asleep: 

Back home: 

Finally, his newest trick. He is so good at identifying his hair that he did it when I was watching this video later and he heard my voice on the video. And he did it when we were reading the Under the Sea with Me book and I read words that rhyme with hair (there and air): 

Today was August’s last class on Monday. At least for a couple weeks until the next session starts and he moves up to the next level. We almost didn’t make it to the class as August took a 90 minute nap right before it and woke up just in time. 

After his class we went to the movie theater right next door. It is in the same building as the kid cafe, but in the basement instead of the fifth floor. There is a book cafe at the theatre, but I hadn’t thought about it as a possible hangout spot. But Jeff, during the hike yesterday, told me he had seen a children’s area and a place with big stuffed animals. 

It turned out to be great. I had some tea as August played with the giant stuffed animals for forty minutes. We then went to the other children’s area and looked at books, practiced the stairs, and tries to eat cement.  

We were there for an hour and a half and then returned home. August ate a big lunch, took a bath, ate a second lunch, and went to sleep.  

Carly got home a few minutes later and I headed to PT. August apparently only slept for 20 or 30 minutes, but he somehow managed to then stay awake until close to 10.  

Luckily, we had an awesome new toy to play with. It is his first real truck or car, and he clearly likes it. Although he gets frustrated trying to put the people on it when they fall off. 

Food for the day, ready for adventuring: 

Watching the Napul Napul video. We only watch it once a week or so, so quite a treat: 

Watching the teacher during class. He was intently watching her, but the boy to the left was focused on August and kept touching him. August would turn to the boy’s mom and make a complaining noise and go back to watching the teacher: 

At the movie theater/book cafe: 

Right after he knocked that book down, he reached to the ground under the book shelf and put somethingn in his mouth. I caught a glimpse of a rock as it went in his mouth. Luckily, he let me stick my finger in his mouth and pull it out. It was a bit of mortar from the brick wall:

Back home for a bath and nap #2: 

A few seconds later: 

The awesome gift from a teacher at APIS. The opening takes awhile, but it was fun to watch August’s reaction:

With one spring-like day in the forecast, we had to take advantage of it. I went with two friends to do the second leg of our walk around Seoul on the Seoul Trail. While I did that Carly and August sent to the store, and later went for a walk to the stream and played at a playground. And it was the first time that Carly got to take him on the swings. 

 

Skyping with Thatcher and the rest of the family: 

Playing on the bed: 

Eating dinner with Marshy: 

With his diaper garbage can: 

From our walks. A couple shots of what I saw: 

And August with Carly at the playground, hanging out at his favorite spot, the bottom of the slide: 

While Carly was off at the NHD competition (they did quite well, with one 7th grade group taking 1st place), August and I kept busy. We Skyped with Vivian for over a half hour, did recycling, played at the kid cafe, went to Dream Forest where we played at the playground and played and ate in the cafe, walked to APIS, and walked home with Carly.  

He has gotten pretty good with a high five, and in fact have his first high five to a stranger when a middle school girl asked him for a high five when we left Cafe Dream.  

Also, he has taken two shuffle steps – one yesterday and one today – so he is at least thinking about walking.  

Morning: 

His wake up photo for Carly: 

Giving a high five: 

Skyping with Viv: 

Kid cafe: 

As soon as we left the cafe and were on the escalator he looked tired. By the time we reached the first floor he was asleep: 

After a nap, we were off to Dream Forest for the playground and cafe: 

August and I got a lot of stuff done around the house this morning, like taking a bath, cleaning the bathroom, and making banana bread. But we had time before his nap to go grocery shopping, and after his nap we got out for a walk along the stream and play time at a playground. 

Tammi (8th grade English/SS) came home with Carly to stay here for the night. They are both going to National History Day very early tomorrow morning, so this worked best. 

August loved having a guest and we went and got pho for dinner.  

 

He had a slow wake up. He actually laid back down on a pillow, facing away from me, and stayed there for a few minutes: 

Then he turned towards me: 

And then he was awake and ready to wave to mama: 

Playing in the morning and demonstrating his movements: 

Then he got some clothes: 

On our walk to the store they were tearing up the ice rink. So we watched them work for awhile: 

At the store I tried on belts and it was amusing to watch August crawl around with all of his clothes on. He flapped his mitten to hit the belts: 

Back home: 

He kept pulling on his hair as if he just discovered it: 

Asleep for a nap: 

Before going on our walk he had a conversation with the vacuum cleaner: 

On our walk we stopped at a playground. We went on the swings, he played on a slide, and six boys came over and talked to us: 

On our walk along the stream we had a nice view of the sun and the power plant: 

In the evening with Tammi: 

He showed off his spitting while we waited for our pho: 

He enjoyed reading with her: 

We have a bunch of videos today, so here it goes.  

We went to Children’s Grand Park. First to the children’s museum for lunch and to play, then we walked to the zoo, only to find the whole thing is closed due to avian flu. But we could still see the seals from up top and the conservatory was open.  

From there we returned to the children’s museum and played for another hour. First we explored the science section on the third floor, then went back to the infant area.  

We headed home, stopping to swing along the way.  

Carly brought home with her a letter to August from my parents, and his first birthday present from Vivian.  

Onwards to the videos and photos: 

Waking up: 

Stacking: 

This is his little rocking of excitement that he managed to stack them: 

Children’s museum: 

Seals and plants: 

Watching the fish and waterfall: 

Banana flower: 

Walking back to the museum, he took off his hat by pulling the pom pom. I tried to pull back and said ‘no’ but he laughed. It was a new game. I tested, and no other word elicited a response when I pulled back on the hat. Only ‘no’. This may make discipline more difficult. Or at least funny: 

Back at the children’s museum: 

Kissing the horse/zebra. He actually did this on his own, but did it again when I asked him to kiss the horse: 

Back home, he really liked his card from grandma and grandpa (it has a dog on it) and the birthday present of Vivian’s favorite things: 

It was a nice warm day today so we had to get outside. The pollution levels almost ruined that as the particulate measure started to climb. Luckily, it didn’t get too high and we were able to enjoy the day. 

After a morning at home he took a shortish nap and woke up in time to go to his music class.  

From there we walked to Toys R Us to buy more bubble mix. While there we sat in the food court and ate his lunch. He drew quite a crowd. Made worse by the fact that he keeps waving to everyone.  

We walked back to Home PLus to do some grocery stopping and then stopped at the playground on our way home to do some sliding. 

I had PT and while on the way home August sent me his first Skype video message (presumably with Carly’s help). We then Skyped as I did part of my walk home.  

A couple observations today:

He is quickly picking up the Head to Toes book. In addition to the ‘bend my neck’ instruction that he started to so yesterday, today he started to pick up on ‘pound my chest’ and ‘clap my hands’. He would first help me pound my own chest, much as he would previously hold one of my hands and help me clap my hands, but wouldn’t clap his own hands. But then he started pounding his own chest. He then, at the end of the book, started to actually clap. Unfortunately, we needed to leave to make it to his class so we couldn’t further practice these. 

He hasn’t been into clapping yet, but he also started to do a better high five today, repeatedly clapping my hand hard enough to make noise.  

While at music class we had these buckets with foam disks in them (see video below). The first time he had one filled with the foam disks he picked it up with two hands, dumped it on his own head, then put the bucket on his own head for a few seconds. The teacher had just demonstrated this. Alas, he didn’t do it again, so no evidence.  

He has an ‘In the Garden’ book that shows different types of gardens and the plants and animals in them. Each garden has a bird in it, and I started pointing them out this morning. By this evening he was doing a good job of pointing out the bird on each page, often without any help or prompting. This was impressive as children this age, and particularly boys, are much better at seeing motion and objects in high contrast environments. So objects like the birds in these realistic paintings are often difficult to distinguish (it is kind of like and I Spy book). We’ve been focusing a lot on identifying objects in books like Where the Wild Things Are and that seems to be paying off.  

Music: when he was tired this morning but not taking a nap, I put on his first playlist of songs. He cuddled on my shoulder for four songs. We then played for a few songs and he heard a Jason Webley song that I sing to him as a lullaby. He recognized it and stopped playing and wanted to go on my shoulder again. That lasted two songs and then he went back to playing. It was another hour or two before he took a nap. 

Books: On the it-was-cute-the-first-couple-times side of things, he has decided that the best way to get my attention when he wants to read a book is to hit me in the face with it. This has replaced the ‘look at me, I am putting the book in my mouth’ method, probably because it is more effective. If I am looking away (cleaning up toys, doing something on my phone, reading a different book) , I could miss the book in mouth attention getter. The book upside the face, not so much. 

 

Breakfast: 

Music class: 

Notice how he likes to set the drum stick on top. Also, his use of a foot: 

Lunch in the Toys R Us food court: 

His favorite spot at the playground: 

Sending a Skype message to dada: