Category: Uncategorized

August was stuffy last night and woke up too early today. Neither he nor Carly slept all that well. It was kind of a tired and rough morning. He had a runny nose all day, but at least he wasn’t too stuffy. 

He did take a nap, but only managed to sleep 34 minutes. Seemed to help though. 

Sort of watched/listened to the Super Bowl this morning. Paused it with 10 minutes to go and Seattle up by 10 in order to go to August’s class. 

In his class we celebrated the upcoming new year. He tolerated the hat for a few minutes.  Did well enough, especially considering how many transitions there were today (and the fact he got dressed in an outfit). 

Came home and watched the Seahawks lose. I’m sure the final play will be much discussed for the next 34 years as Seattle waits for another men’s championship (it was 35 years between the Sonics in 79 and the Seahawks in 14). 

August took a two hour nap in the afternoon, which was good, but preempted our afternoon walk. So when Carly got home she was nice enough to let me go out for a walk. 

Mir was this sort of morning: 

August had the wildest hair in his class. Which made him the center of attention when he had 8 to 10 bubbles stuck in it: 

This was for the upcoming new year. Surprisingly, he tolerated the hat for a few minutes: 

Back home, feeling a bit better: 

First time in a couple months I’ve had him use the iPad. He was able to catch on to moving the letters around in Endless Alphabet (although not placing them yet): 

Further perfecting his spoon technique: 

When Carly and I went in to bed we found him sleeping in this position: 

We thought it would be nice to have videos of us reading his favorite storybooks to him. So, for the next few days we will try to record one of us reading to him. First up, But Not the Hippopotamus, by Sandra Boynton, one of our favorite authors: 

Today we went with two friends, Meg and Jeff, to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. I went with Meg and Jeff to an exhibit on the original street photographer and photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson  while Carly took August to the lounge and children’s design museum that August and I enjoyed a couple weeks back. 

After that we got some very Korean Mexican food for lunch before heading home.  

While I was at the exhibit, Carly and August had fun at the children’s design museum. He apparently really liked this handle again:

Nursing in the design lounge:

Checking out his favorite chairs from our last visit: 

Visiting the bench where he played with the woman on her break last time: 

Some very Korean-looking Mexican food for lunch: 

August with his usual straw: 

Our friend Meg took this photo as we prepared to leave the restaurant: 

Back home: 

I had originally planned to go on a hike with Derek today, but he had to postpone. Instead, we went over to their place for dinner (taking a bottle of port and some rice cooker chocolate chip cookies).  

During the day Carly and August Skyped with Cherie and Glecy. Then we went grocery shopping at Home Plus.  

August got his first taste of orange today and showed no hesitancy in getting in the bath today.  

Augist isn’t used to being out close to his bedtime and couldn’t recover after bumping into Logan and falling down. So that was our cue to leave and we walked home. He stayed awake until we got here but went to sleep pretty quickly. 

Begging for Carly’s orange: 

Getting a taste: 

He also loved the raw stalk of the broccoli today. Good for teething: 

Bath time with mom: 

Playing at Logan’s and warming up to Derek: 

Eventually there will be video of Logan and August playing together. For now they are still at a stage where there interactions are usually quite brief and require a good amount of parent oversight – not really conducive to photographic moments.  

My phone tells me I walked eight and a half miles today. August covered most of that with me. 

He made it a two nap day again, so after his first nap we headed to Dream Forest. We first had to walk to the main street to catch the bus, then through Dream Forest as we saw the deer and went to the gallery and cafe. 

We played there for a good while and August ate a full lunch of broccoli, cauliflower, prune, and banana. 

We then walked to APIS and said hi to Carly. He fell asleep for his second nap, so I took him and we walked around the neighborhood for a half hour so as to avoid the bells and other noise at the end of school. 

We met up with Carly when she was done and we hen walked home. As soon as we got to the apartment I said goodbye and left to go back the way we had come to physical therapy. And of course I then had to walk home at the end. 

Minor PT milestone: with the arm getting close to getting the full range of movement back, next week I am dropping to one PT session a week. My guess though is that that will continue until June and I will stop going to PT when we leave for the summer. 

Morning:

Under the table: 

Taking a rest. He has done this the past few days where he will rest on my shoulder for 2 or 3 songs and I will think he is asleep. Then I will look in the mirror and realize his eyes are still fully open: 

But this time he actually fell asleep: 

Brushing his teeth: 

Hugging the bed: 

On our walk. First stop, deer: 

Then to the gallery to see some art: 

Fun in the cafe: 

Back home, lifting some weights: 

Today was our weekly trip to Children’s Grand Park and the children’s museum. After Skyping with my parents, we were about to leave around 9:30 when suddenly August fell asleep. A two nap day! Which made sense since he only slept nine and a half hours last night.  

So we left after his first nap and arrived around 11:30. The toddler area wasn’t busy at all, and we played in the museum for the next three hours.  

The biggest highlight was when August, who has never attempted anything more than crawling up onto our bed, decided to go up a flight of stairs. Kid height stairs, but still impressive. And unexpected. 

From there we walked to the Popeye’s at the amusement park for lunch and then walked around, making it to the actual east entrance of the park for the first time in all our visits (we always enter from the west).  

August was oddly amused by the dead flower planters and the banners for the Peter Pan show as we walked around the park.  

We then went to see some animals. We spent a lot of time watching the aquatic birds, then went to the gibbon, coatis, and squirrel monkeys and then to the outdoor birds. 

We went back to the children’s museum to change him, eat a snack, and do some light playing before heading home. My mistake was changing him in the same changing/nursing room where Carly has nursed him every time. He saw the chair they always used and wanted to nurse and got quite upset.  

We headed home and he fell asleep on the subway just a few stops before home.  

Children’s museum: 

I was dressed and ready to go when August decided he was suddenly interested in the upstairs portion. And he took off up the stairs. This was his first encounter with stairs since he has been crawling and he didn’t hesitate: 

We had been at the children’s museum for around three hours. We finally left to go walk around the park, get some lunch, and see some animals: 

He was oddly fond of these dead flower beds: 

And he got excited every time he saw the banners for the Peter Pan show. Which was a couple dozen times: 

Finally, he really liked watching the water birds. He got impatient when I tried tooling at an old train for a couple minutes, but we spent at least 10 minutes just staring and waving at the birds: 

In particular, there was a mandarin duck preening himself a few feet in front of us: 

Finally, a little silliness from this evening: 

His 3 hour nap on Monday was certainly a personal best. Today he went the other way and stayed awake for just over 8 hours before taking a nap. I can’t remember his previous PB in this category, but I am pretty sure 8 hours is a new best. 

He had his music class today. We did some grocery shopping beforehand and registered for one class during the next session – a continuation of his Monday class. The next session gets us to spring so I decided not to do two classes again. 

He got really tired during his class and I thought he was going to fall asleep right there. I almost left. But he recovered and, in fact, stayed awake for another hour+ once we got home. There was a lot of tired playing on the bed.  

We hadn’t done much walking so we were going to walk and meet Carly half way. But since his nap was so late we couldn’t do that.  

Instead, we all went for a brief walk in the early evening.  

I realized today that August also understands how to shake something if you ask him.  

He also clearly knows the difference between his bear (Marshy), the monster (Green Monster), and the giraffe (GG) as I could say ‘Get Green Monster’ and he would crawl to the correct stuffed animal.  

We also put together the train set that our friend Atsuko gave us.  

Here he is doing the shaking on command: 

Enjoying a teething biscuit and my handiwork: 

Waiting for class to start: 

Music class. He acted crazy tired about ten minutes into class, but rebounded when she got out the toys: 

Clearly a bit out of it, as he is getting distracted by the mat from the bubbles he loves: 

Back home, playing on the bed: 

An evening walk: 

Dinner time: 

Finally, wearing a little thin before bed time as he struggles to get the blocks out of the bag: 

Today was colder again. I think it said 20 when we went out for a walk, and there was quite a wind chill, particularly along the river.

Anyway, highlights today included August waving on demand (see below) and getting into various types of mischief:

– I gave him a can of loose leaf tea that even I find difficult to open sometimes. He opened it.

 – His cup with a straw was loose and he managed to leak most of it out in a big puddle on the floor. He had fun splashing in it. (See below)

– He has totally turned being told to not put things in his mouth into a game. We try to not encourage this, but indulged a bit when playing with the blocks. (See below)

After his nap we went for a walk along the stream, soccer field, and river. Along the way we stopped to play at a new (to us) playground and to have a snack. 

 The morning:

Playing with a spoon and bowl: 

After eating his egg for breakfast, the water cup leaked. By the time I noticed there was a large puddle on the floor. August enjoyed splashing in it:

Hesitant at first, he ended up having a successful bath:  

Back to playing before his nap: 

He took a one hour nap and seemed wide awake when he woke up. But after a minute he just cuddled on my shoulder and kind of took a nap extension for the next 20 minutes or so. His eyes were open most of the time: 

A snack, one of his rice rusks, before we head out on our walk: 

On our walk and playing on the playground: 

Showing off the teeth while laughing on the walk: 

He kept wanting to read the Baa Baa Black Sheep book, but got upset every time: 

He had been waving a ton, but this evening we realized (when Carly asked him to) that he can wave when asked. He will also point out specific things he knows in books  (the caterpillar, shoes, birds, cat, egg, teddy bear…a few others) but those have a visual cue to go along with them. This seems like a different accomplishment:

Finally, by the evening he seemed to get over his frustration with Baa Baa Black Sheep. He had me read it four or five times in a row without a hint of being upset: 

August took a three hour nap today. A new record. He seemed off today; we think something is bothering him. Perhaps teething. The last hour and forty were in my arms in the rocking chair. Last time that happened I didn’t really enjoy it as I was still working on the computer and it wasn’t comfortable. But this time Carly took the computer to work for a PD day, so I had no choice but to read. Got a lot read and enjoyed every second.

Also, his first traumatic memory association: we have a little Baa Baa Black Sheep book he loves to read. Well, for some reason he now starts balling when I get to the pages where the sheep is giving bags of wool to the master and dame. Did it 3 times today. No idea why.

He also had his class today. It was all about elephants. He did quite well despite being off his game this morning. Soldiered through the class and fell asleep while walking through the park on the way home.

Anyway, we start with some clips of his wake up process. Some times he pops awake happy or crying, but it is often a dull process (I wonder where he gets that?):

Step 1: 

Stage 2: 

Step 3: 

Fully awake: 

A yawn and sleepy time before class: 

Mellow during song time at his class: 

Mustering excitement for the parachute: 

Asleep during his epic three hour nap. He woke up after an hour but was obviously still really sleepy. I was having difficulty setting him back down, but he was sleepingng soundly on my shoulder: 

I tried sitting down three times on the couch but he kept waking up. For the fourth attempt I tried the rocking chair. Success. I spent the next 100 minutes reading on my iPhone (Beyond Religion by the Dalai Lama and Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn by John Hattie): 

Finally, some playing around in the evening. The birthday cakes/cupcakes lines are from a book that he likes: 

And this is the book, and pages in particular, that he finds so troubling: 

Yes, the sheep looks evil. But he likes the sheep. It is this page that drew the cries this evening: 

After August’s first nap (he took two!) we walked up to Starbucks in Nowon and got drinks, only to find that all of their seating was full. And it had started to drizzle. 

So we went to Daiso and did our shopping there: found rubber bands, a spatula, more child locks for cupboards, a small laundry basket for August, and a cat hand sponge thing for him as well. 

Walked home. And soon after we got home he took a second nap that was over an hour long.

A lot of videos of him playing with things today:

Playing with recyclables in the morning: 

Trying to take a bite out of a box: 

Playing wih the window cover: 

Unsure of the vacuum cleaner: 

Excited by a bank: