Category: Uncategorized

This little man is 11 months old today: 

Today we went to Dongdaemun. We first ate a lunch and did some shopping and exploring. Then when he fell asleep I went to the design museum and then up to the design lounge (the place with the chairs where we went before) and read until he woke up.  

We then walked over to little Russia and went to a bakery before walking back past the DDP, walking down a few new streets and then heading home.  

In the morning August ate two nice breakfasts and spent a lot of time playing, in particular reading his Napul Napul books: 

On our trip: 

Waving to someone during lunch #1: 

Playing on the floor. He liked the circles: 

Messing up a window: 

After his nap, more playing in the design lounge: 

A second lunch in the nursing/changing room: 

On our walk to little Russia we found this: 

Finally, August really likes flags, particularly when it is windy. So he really liked the flags at the DDP today: 

Here we are walking up to and through them on our way back: 

 

August slept until close to 8, allowing me to get some work done in the morning. 

He woke up happy and had a good breakfast. We read a lot of books, and he seemed to focus on books we hadn’t read for awhile: Tickle, Barnyard Dance, and But Not the Hippopotamus. 

He started acting tired after 2 hours, but ended up making it to 7 hours and doing quite well along the way. 

First up was his Monday class. It was perhaps the best one. The main activity was all about textures and August loved it. She had all sorts of squares with different things glued to them and you could walk the babies over them. August decided he preferred to use his hands, but would also reach out his foot like another hand and feel with that. Very cute and resourceful. 

From class we headed straight to the subway and headed 5 stops south to Costco. Restocked our cheese supply and got lunch and got out of there pretty quickly. 

Found a nice seating area in the subway station to eat our lunch. Was going well for several minutes but then an overly nice woman came over and wanted to help. First she wanted to wipe his nose using some brown liquid from her water bottle, then she was very concerned when he fell down (it was a gentle fall and he didn’t cry at all), followed by being concerned when food fell on the bench and he tried to eat it (I had wiped down the bench beforehand), and finally putting his mittens on when I was getting ready to go. Ugh. 

We made it home just fine and he actually stayed awake a bit longer. He slept for an hour but was awoken by some majorly loud hammering from outside. He tried to get back to sleep, but just couldn’t. 

He ate a good second lunch and then we walked around while waiting for Carly to get home. 

In the evening, Carly tried to introduce him to mustard, which backfired as he got too much and threw up. 

But later he ate a huge dinner involving egg, tofu, broccoli, strawberry, prune, and cauliflower. 

We had a nice family game of playing with the orange ball. It was really the first time we had tried to pass/roll it to each other. He loved chasing the ball around and was getting better at sending it the right direction. 

Last night he slept pretty well, but a couple times when he sort of woke up he came straight for me and climbed on my face. Quite a way to be woken up. Twice. Carly had to save me both times. 

Saying hi for a photo for Carly after he woke up: 

Waking up: 

Playing with a sticker:

His class. The main activity was about textures:

Previewing the textures: 

Exploring. Note how he uses his foot: 

Foot and hand at the same time. The rocks were definitely his favorite: 

The full layout. He is feeling the other set of rocks: 

Lunch in the subway station: 

Perfectly content before being interrupted: 

Home. Awake for 7 hours. Looks ready for a nap: 

After his one hour nap: 

Earing lunch #2 and showing off the empty dish: 

Bubbles with mama: 

It was cold today. Forecast to hit 25, but the forecast changed to 23 this morning. And I’m pretty sure it didn’t hit much above 19. I was supposed to go hiking today but that was postponed due to the cold.  

So instead we spent a lot of today cleaning and then went, during the warmest part of the day, on a walk up to Starbucks (we still have gift cards) and then to the art museum to see the last day of a show there of art for children. 

August in the morning. He is actually opening and closing his hand here – something new – and not just waving: 

Getting ready for our walk. It was only 19 degrees, so a lot of clothes were involved: 

At Starbucks: 

At the Buk. It was the last day of this show about animals, so we took his picture with his three favorite pieces, the bull, red pigs, and the giraffe snake: 

And Carly drew on the white board: 

Walking home, we walked through the park a bit. August has a selection of sculptures and other objects he gets excited about. Today, he added these posts to the list: 

Back home for the evening: 

Eating a broccoli stem: 

Avoiding clothes: 

Playing with the freezer. He likes to touch the cold surfaces:

He just kept eating and eating this evening. He had two dinners and seemed reluctant to stop eating:  

He stayed up for close to 7 hours after his nap. Here he is finally close to ready to sleep. I don’t often look at August and think ‘oh, he looks like me.’ But his face in this photo reminds me of a photo of me or Paul:

A couple of people had scheduled a get together at the kid cafe right next door to us. The idea was we get there when they open at 10 in order to avoid the crowds. We were the first ones there and had the place to ourselves for the first 10 or 15 minutes. Then Chris and Ashley showed up with Kinsey and it was nice and relaxed for another half hour. By the time other families started showing up it was getting busy and August was ready for a nap so we headed home.  

August had a restless night last night because he was stuffy and gassy, and Carly didn’t sleep too well either, so they both took a nap.  

After that we ran an errand to the seamstress and we managed to get the key to our storage room down the hall. We have lived here for two years and just recently found out we have a storage room. Thanks, school. Anyway, that allowed us to move things like fans and car seats out of the apartment. Woohoo! 

We then made a shopping trip to Home Plus. On a Saturday afternoon. So it was busy. It went well though, and I think August actually liked it better, as there was more excitement and people to look at.  

Had enough time when we got back for dinner and a bath for August and then he was ready for bed.  

He was extremely talkative today and making all sorts of noises we haven’t heard before. He is also getting more confident in his crawling and climbing and will now simply crawl over my legs or whatever is in his way.  

He woke up talkative: 

At the kid cafe: 

Back home: 

He started off fine in the bath, but after a couple of minutes decided he was done and surprised Carly by climbing out of the bathtub. So his bath was finished standing up: 

He continued his talking and hamming it up after his bath: 

Not only is he deciding when his bath is over, he’s decided to start taking charge of the video taping and when that is over. He managed to stop the recording: 

But he was getting tired, so headed to bed right after 7: 

Finally, asleep for the night. Well, sort of. He seems stuffy so we think he will be restless again. Outfit chosen by Carly, position by August, photography by Ryan: 

After his bath he had another meal in his construction vehicles pajamas: 

We did our maybe-a-routine one-a-week trip to Dream Forest and the cafe there then walk to APIS and walk home with Carly. Since I moved to just one PT trip a week we didn’t have to hurry to get home at a certain time. 

We are lunch at the cafe, played, and met a seven month old baby and her mother.  

August was so intent on feeding himself and kind of playing around at the same time that I was actually able to read a few pages: definitely a first.  

Looking serious in the morning (but actually it is just that he was holding still; all the photos when he was moving came out blurry): 

A yawn in three parts: 

Laughing snotty boy: 

Before we left on our adventure, August decided he wanted to practice getting on and off the bed. This lasted at least ten minutes:

At the cafe he played one of his favorite games, pulling books off the shelf: 

While eating he was very amused by the bird in the wall. This is what he was laughing at in the following video: 

Playing around the cafe: 

He had put Bluey in the backpack so Bluey got to come along: 

August fell asleep after we left the cafe. We walked a new route to APIS, walking over two hills north of Dream Forest to get there. Here is the view from one of them: 

At APIS August got to eat part of Carly’s apple; his first apple in a long time (maybe since Seoul Forest with my parents when he only had two teeth): 

August and I are recovering from colds, but they weren’t bad enough to keep us from venturing out to Children’s Grand Park today. August has had a runny nose, but hasn’t been too stuffed up. I’ve only been a bit stuffed up; my main symptom has been being overly tired. 

Anyway, he took a surprise nap this morning as we were about to get ready to go. It only lasted shy of a half hour, but he was fine after that.  

We rode the subway down, then walked around a new neighborhood southwest of the park. It will take another trip or two to fully scout it out. Found a promising burger place.  

We then walked through Sejong University and talked to a guy who spoke English. There was a statue of a mother and child that August liked.  

We ate lunch at the children’s museum – the first time he sat in a chair and fed himself – then played until a bit past three.  

We walked around a bit, checking on the aquatic birds and the dogs and small cats. August really liked the jackals.  

Coming home, he fell asleep on the subway at the exact spot as last week – as we pulled into Taerung Station, two stops before ours. Unlike last time, I could not get him back to sleep when I put him in bed. It lasted a whole 15 minutes. 

But he bounced right up, waving, asking for mama, and giving me kisses. He did fine and stayed awake until going to bed awhile after 7.  

 

Morning: 

 

I told him to wave to mama so we could send her a photo when he woke up. He obliged: 

Playing with the caterpillar: 

First thing we did when we got to the children’s museum was we ate lunch. It was the first time he really sat in a seat and fed himself. It took him awhile to get used to the lids that moved, but he did a pretty good job: 

Playing at the children’s museum: 

I was nice and wiped the mirror off after he was done: 

Liking trees (namu), as usual: 

The children’s museum was much more crowded today, but we still stayed quite awhile. After we left we went and checked on the aquatic birds and in the hyenas, jackals, foxes, and servals. The jackals were his favorite, as he was startled when one ran right in front of him. He continued to be startled by and laugh at the jackals for several minutes: 

A jackal running by: 

Back home: 

Wrestling with Marshy:

I’ve decided that August likes to be scared, at least a bit. He laughs when I jump in a room unexpectedly, found joy in the jackals, and then this happened. I had been using this voice earlier when he was by the lamp in the bedroom and reaching for the cord. He would pull back, turn to me, and act innocent. Repeat.  

So the three of us were sitting in the living room and Carly and I were talking. I saw him start to chew on a book and called out in the same way. He was totally startled, jumped, and hucked the book several feet. He gave me a startled look I’d never seen before and thought he would start crying. Instead, he calmed down, grabbed a book, and turned it into a game:

August decided to stay up until 10 today, so not a lot of writing from me. We Skyped with my parents, tried strawberries and blueberries for the first time, he took a nap, went to class, played in the park, got a bop burger and went back to the park, met horses, and took a second nap.  

He was still sleeping when Carly got home and I went to PT.  

August is starting to be able to give a high five, and he clearly understands sentences like ‘Give Marshy a hug’ or ‘Can I have a kiss?’ and act on them.  

Morning: 

Class: 

In the park: 

Back home: 

The coolest part of the aquarium comes, of course, when you get to all the large animals: the manatees, sharks, rays, penguins, etc.  

Of course, if you have a time limit you know you want to spend most of your time here. Unfortunately, once you hurry forward to this section the layout of the aquarium makes it difficult to double back to see earlier section. Kind of annoying.  

Anyway, August really went crazy when we got to the tank filled with sardines, rays, giant guitar fish, and other fish. The sardines are impressive to watch: 

And here is August at his best. Note that he is mainly waving at himself in the mirror in this video, but looks intently at a ray near the end. We spent more than fifteen minutes here: 

A couple more moments from around this time. He was saying ‘dadada’ in this sing-songy voice quite a bit: 

The rays are pretty cool: 

Here is a view of part of the tank. That is a guitarfish laying on the bottom of the tank off in the distance: 

The grand finale is the moving walkway that snakes through their biggest tank. You get to see sharks and tortoises and rays swim right over you. And when they do there is an interesting optical illusion that makes them appear closer to your head than they actually are: 

A ray going over our head: 

And a tortoise: 

Or is it a turtle? I wouldn’t know because there is a distinct lack of signage here. There was one set of plaques at the very beginning, but then nothing.  

Anyway, that brought us to the end. August had one more fun experience though in meeting the statue of an axolotl and poking its eye: 

I will leave you with one last sign. One that purportedly teaches you about the axolotl and the exhibit:

Sigh.  

We spent about 2 hours in the aquarium. About the right amount for August. A person could stretch out a visit if you lingered over more of the big tanks, or paid more attention to the cheesier elements of the aquarium. But August generally needs a fair amount of movement to keep up his interest, and I have a low tolerance for the cheesier stuff.  

First room: 

August watching these tanks: 

The first section of the aquarium was about the fish of Korea. An okay exhibit, but the English signage was some of the worst I’ve seen in Korea. Particularly annoying for something you’ve just paid 22000 won (about 22 bucks) to see: 

So because the amount of water stays the same the temperature changes easily? And why does this allow plankton and algae to grow? 

At least all the signs have an English name on them (but no scientific name). But for most that is all that is in English: 

But the best thing I learned today was about the particular deliciousness of the long snouted bullhead: 

But these last two were my absolute favorite signs: 

Why? Because that toilet is in an enclosed plexiglass cage with squirrels running around. And it has a big lead or something in it.  

And yes, I just said squirrels. There are two cages with squirrels. In an aquarium. But there is no explanation – in any language – as to why. This is about all the signage you get: 

Alright, one more sign and I’ll move on. The horribleness of this sign (posted dozens of times around the aquarium) speaks for itself: 

One more section of cheesy stuff and complaining, then I promise we get to the cool animals and cute videos of August.  

The low point of the aquarium for me was a room full of fish stuck in all manner of arty aquariums. I wasn’t impressed, not was August. Although he was probably most annoyed by me stopping to take photos of them. This harp aquarium actually made noise as the fish swam back and forth. IANAI (I am not an ichthyologist), but might not this actually annoy the fish?

Refrigerator aquarium: 

You get the idea.  

But then we walk into the Amazonian room and things start to look up. August loved looking over the railing at the cage of squirrel monkeys (note: also not aquatic) and down into the big tank below: 

His view: 

Then we got to go into the touch pools area. August got to touch some shells and coral (he couldn’t reach the sea stars). He also enjoyed using the hand dryers. This first one wouldn’t turn on too well for him, but the one we used as we were leaving did and he had fun with it: 

After this, he started flapping his hands a lot. Perhaps to further dry his hands, or just as more of his usual hand flapping excitement. Here he is looking at baby zebra fish: 

The room this was in was cool as they showed you how the grow live food and breed animals in the aquarium. Here is a tub of baby jelly fish. You can hear August making funny noises in the background: 

I’m actually going to finish this up in a third post as the Squarspace app is getting all crashy on me, telling me the post is too long… 

August and I returned to Gangnam to revisit the COEX Mall, which we first visited a couple months back, and actually go to the aquarium this time. 

We also returned to the bookstore with all the English books and bought a couple new books for him.  

But first, he woke up around 6:30 happier and less stuffy than yesterday. We had a good morning, and he took a two hour nap until about noon. 

 

Playing in the morning: 

Getting tired: 

After his two hour nap we took the subway to Cheongdam (same stop for Yeon and Nature) then walked to the COEX Mall. We went and ate lunch in the nursing/changing area before heading to the aquarium: 

We also went to the book store and bought two new books: 

I also bought a clip/strap thing that allows be to hang my coat from my backpack, meaning we could remove all of our coats and covers and hats, etc. and fit everything in and on the backpack. Here we are walking through the mall wihout roasting in the heat:

The boy that can barely stand a hat on his head got really excited when we passed a stand of hair bands: 

In part 2 we actually get to the aquarium…