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Carly and I went to the dentist today. That involved a rather long subway trip to south of downtown Seoul. After our appointments we went to the National Museum and then walked up to Itaewon for lunch before heading home. 

Carly and August at the dentist office. We had forgotten the diapers, so while Carly was getting her teeth cleaned August and I walked to a store to buy diapers: 

 One of the more memorable pieces at the museum today:

It was a luxury changing area at the National Museum. The mobile was still broken, however, as they always are:

This chair was in the nursing area, and August loved it. He is a blur because he is rocking back and forth in Carly’s arms in excitement:

In the park next to the museum there is a circle of flags. August loves flags and it was quite windy, so he had a lot to look at:

We walked some narrow back alleys on our way into Itaewon:

We ended up eating at a Vietnamese place. August really ate off our plates for the first time, having some of pretty much everything. I think the pickled carrot was his favorite thing from my plate. He also loved his high chair, as he could easily rock it, requiring my hand on it to keep him from tipping over:

August loves coffee packets, and this is one we got at the dentist. He started a new game of offering it to me and then laughing hysterically when it was in my mouth. This game was repeated later back home:

Dancing again, this time with a shirt of Carly’s that was on the chair:

All seven teeth:

New pajamas from Costco:

Another fairly new game. Taking the diapers out of the bag:

But new today: trying to put them back in:

A few other new things today, or just recently started, that we don’t have on video:

– Today he was fascinated with the snaps on Carly’s sweatshirt and the buttons on my shirt. He spent a lot of time looking at both.  

–  He has started to grab our hands and direct them toward things. He did this to Carly yesterday when he wanted her to turn a page or lift a flap in a book. Today he did it repeatedly to me as we were looking at the collage that Glecy made us. The collage has 7 photos of Carly and 5 of Glecy. I will point out all of one of them and he will get excited. He kept grabbing my hand and shoving it towards the collage so I would do it again. 

It was a busy day. August took an early nap (falling asleep in my arms for th first time since Carly has been on winter break) and then he had his Monday class. From there we went straight to the subway and down to Costco to refill out cheese supply. August fell asleep for a second nap in the carrier as we left Costco. We were home for awhile before I had to go off to PT. 

After August went to bed, Carly and I watched Fury. An awful movie. It is basically the Rambo of tank movies. Whoever told us it was good was very, very wrong. 

Anyway, back to August. He has started to be able to navigate around the house by just using the wall. That is, he doesn’t need a ledge to hold on to. This just started today and I’ve only seen him do it a bit in the kitchen and across the refrigerator. He also started this hitting thing in the washing machine, which he just does for a moment here:

At his class. It is really interesting how well he focused on the teacher. He is fascinated by her. Good sign for school later. 

Today was about musical instruments:

More parachute. Ready to play with the parachute, but was a but hesitant about getting under it today:

Here he is sleeping on the way home from Costco:

I think I mentioned this yesterday, but here is a better video of him trying to put the dot back in the number:

Today was (relatively) warm (mid-40s) so we had to get out. We took a short bus and then a short train ride and walked through two university campuses. 

But first, August cuddled with mama and Marshy while Skyping: 

And took a bath, which he didn’t like, but felt better after the fact:

After getting off the train we took Carly on the Obama Trail at HUFS (Hanguk University of Foreign Study). Carly was quite amazed:

And August and I took a photo standing next to the president:

From HUFS we walked a couple blocks to the back entrance of Kyunghee University. We’ve walked around this university several times before. August really likes these statues on the steps to the library. This time, someone had dressed them for the season:

We returned to what might be our favorite coffee shop in Seoul, 8th Street:

They have an art gallery and a really big and really fluffy dog. It has recently been trimmed, so isn’t nearly as fluffy as last time:

He (August, not the dog, although the dog was also asleep) fell asleep after the coffee shop and stayed asleep through walking around Hoegi and ordering cheesesteak sandwiches before waking up on the way home:

 Finally, some videos of August playing at home. He has started to out the sit back in the center of the number, throw his shapes around, and play up/down a lot:

Carly needed to get some work done, so after August’s one and only nap for the day, he and I headed to Dream Forest. August loves to reach out and touch things as we walk. Mainly trees. But this post with a ribbon tied to it was also a good target for his mittened hand:

First stop at Dream Forest, the deer park. We watched the deer for 15 or 20 minutes:

For those of you that have been to Dream Forest (did we take Glecy there?), this is the big pond, frozen over. And yes, there are children playing on it. That is the observation tower on the hill across from us:

Turns out there is an art gallery in the performance center at the north end of the park. There was a cool exhibit happening. This was my favorite piece:

This was August’s favorite piece:

Looking at the piece:

Book cafe:

This is actually looking out through that round hole at the people in the regular cafe area. I ran around the wall to surprise him:

He didn’t get too concerned with me walking across the kid section:

Read the bottom line closely:

Walking to the playground. Nothing exciting about this video really. You can see the big windows to the cafe in the building behind us:

Enjoying the slide:

Ending our adventure for the day. Nice lens flare here. August is looking longingly at the fancy merry-go-round full of older kids that he got really excited about but he can’t go on:

Another cold day. We ventured out to the post office and then had a nice little walk to the east of that. We Skyped and FaceTimed with a few people. And I had PT. Oh, and cake. Did I mention cake? There was cake. 

The day actually started with cake. I had asked one of the cakes in the rice cooker last night, but waited to make the second cake and the frosting until the morning when August was asleep (for blender purposes):

Playing with Marshy (originally his name, according to the factory, was Marshmallow; I have since decided he is actually named after the first conservationist and author of The Earth as Modified by Human Action, George Perkins Marsh. As such, he tends to be a rather depressing bear as he likes to teach August about all the horrible things people are doing to the environment):

Skyping with Steph, Nate, and Ruby:

On our walk. In addition to the post office, we wandered through the community services building (which has a cool little library), went to the top of a building, and stopped at the playground:

The rest of the day was usual fun at home. August discovered a fun new noise, there was a lot of playing in the closet, and he practiced his standing:

And he played with the laundry basket:

And when Carly and I went to bed, we found August in this very typical pose, sideways on the bed with his hand and feet up on the pillows:

It was mid-20s and windy today. We braved the cold to walk up and catch a bus to Eunhang Junction and walk around a bit. We stopped at an Ediya Coffee and sat there and had a drink. August got to explore a bit. 

 

At home:

Carly tried him in a bath again. He was still opposed: 

But he was his usual helpful self  with the laundry:

On our walk, at the coffee shop. The up and down thing is brand new today. He kind of started it at home when he was playing the plopping-on-the-bed game and he was doing it more slowly. But it was really at the coffee shop that he put it all together:

He was also fascinated by a little pad on the corner of the table:

Skyping with grandma and grandpa. You will note a couple of repeats from the coffee shop: the fascination with something on the corner and the up and down game:

It was a laid back day. August had his music class at 12:40. Carly made lemon chicken in the morning, and went in to work after his class. I went shopping after the class and had fun with August – although he woke up 45 minutes into a nap and I spent the next 35 minutes holding him while he kept sleeping as every time I tried to set him down he would cry. 

Watching Carly in the kitchen: 

Lemon!

And asparagus:

Music class. August continues to get more comfortable. Evidence: we actually had to keep him from crawling away from us a couple times and he let the teacher hold him:

Before the fretful nap, a burst of energy:

A successful meal of food destruction and foot finding:

The weather was lovely so we went to Children’s Grand Park so Carly could see some of the things that August and I saw on our last two trips. 

Morning: 

This boy likes to laugh: 

And brush his teeth. Here he ia actually sucking on the lid to his toothpaste:

At the zoo. Sitting by the goldfish and waterfall in the conservatory:

A moss elephant:

He likes the water features:

Watching baboons:

Carly watching the marmosets, sloth, and tortoise:

Lunch time. August ate a bunch of vegetables and some rice:

Watching other kids run around:

We finished by walking around the ‘fierce’ animals exhibit. On the one hand this is a depressing zoo. On the other hand, being able to hold your child six inches away from a mountain lion, gibbon, or serval is pretty amazing. Of course, then they go and have a hamster wheel for the asiatic black bear, which is basically full acknowledgement that the cages are way too small but you aren’t going to do anything about it:

Mountain lion:

We also found out that August is free up through 3 years old at the children’s museum – and adults are 4 bucks. The weather was too good today for that, but I am sure we will be back soon. 

August slept a nice long time last night, but that made it so that he was getting tired around the time of his class. He made it through, however, and fell asleep on the way home. 

in the late afternoon/early evening we walked up to Nowon to run a couple errands. 

Morning: 

Playing with toilet paper and eating some pepper: 

Class:

Needing a little cuddle as he was getting tired:

Afternoon fun:

On our walk:

Practicing his standing in the evening:

I was doing some editing of my genealogy database today due to my mom’s family getting a letter from a not-too-distant relative in Sweden. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to update the family tree for August and ended up putting a fair amount of work into it. You can check it out here and I will put a link up above. The site is not password protected, but it is set to not show details on living people. For example, my mom’s birth certificate and date of birth don’t show up even though I have them in the database. Please let me know if you have any concerns.

As you might expect, it is Carly’s side of the family that needs the most work. I have most of the basic info for the Rileys (thanks to the book), but the Hoelzers and Althausers will need some work – a good project for this summer. But let me know if you have anything to add.

Today we had fun around the house, particularly with Skype: Carly skyped with Glecy in Sierra Leone, and then August and I skyped with my parents and my mom’s side of the family as they celebrated Christmas.

In the afternoon we went for a walk to the south, passing (and visiting, to change August) the hospital where Carly had her fingertip sewn back on. We stopped in a nice little coffee shop and sat and drank a latte. It was the first restaurant/etc. where August was able to stand on the floor and (sort of) walk around. Kind of a glimpse of things to come…

Around the house in the morning: 

We went for a walk and stopped in a nice little independent coffee shop. The were playing American music from the 70s, which was a nice change from the many coffee shops that blast annoying pop music. We heard Van Morrison’s “Brown-eyed Girl”, the Foundations’ “Build Me Up Buttercup”, and Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy”, among others, while we were there. And August got to do some exploring:

They don’t move, but I guess they are colorful. August has been fond of these inflatable things when he has seen them:

Carly would like it to be known that she was joking in the following video. You can hear her laughing but it is hard to hear:

This is in the hospital lobby. I had noticed it back when we were first going here, but don’t know if I posted it here. Check out the signage:

Being destructive:

He hasn’t been eating much recently, but he was a big fan of the veggies Carly offered him this evening, including red pepper, onion, bok choi, and zucchini: