Category: Uncategorized

Note: I am posting two days tonight to catch up. Generally, each night I have been posting about the previous day. This allows me to simply post about the current day.

 

We went to Children’s Grand Park again today. There is so much to do there, and still so much to figure out,  that I am sure we will be returning several times through the winter and into spring. 

But first, I have to start with this photo, taken as we were getting ready to go on our adventure:

It looks like a photo of him standing on his own without holding on. But that isn’t it at all. 

What had happened was that I needed to brush my teeth. So I had left him on the mat, about six feet away from here, and run into the bathroom to get my toothbrush. I was hurrying back with the toothbrush to brush my teeth in the living room, as I didn’t want him sucking on the bottom of a shoe (he has a tendency to do that).  

But I didn’t find him sucking on a shoe, I found him standing at the table. It happened very quickly. Luckily, he was focused on a crumb of food on the table and hadn’t gone after the computer or its cord (yet). 

He was quite proud of his accomplishment and was standing there for a few minutes. So I got my phone to take a photo. On seeing me raise the phone to take a photo, he got excited and kind of did his excited arms waving thing. This of course took both of his hands of the table.  

I snapped the photo at that instant. What came next was he instantly fell backwards. Luckily, he first landed on his butt, then kind of rolled backwards. So when he managed to miss the mat and hit his head on the hardwood floor he wasn’t traveling too fast. A little crying and comforting ensued before we could continue getting ready. 

 

Taking a step back, this is a video of him on the changing pad pounding the pad with his right hand raised over his head. He does this quite regularly, at least when I change him: 

Sitting in a chair and eating his lunch:

My lunch:

August eventually bumped his head on the edge of the table. This woman instantly appeared next to us and wanted to pick him up. Apparently she thought she could calm him down. Right. Anyway, I picked him up and calmed him, and then let her hold him. She responded by kidnapping him and taking him behind and down the counter to see the other women. You can see me catching up at th beginning:

This is actually the same place where August stole his first straw when my parents were here. So it was funny when one of the women reached to the same straw dispenser and gave him one this time. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that on film. 

We spent most of our time watching seals underwater. Here are the fur seals:

I call this the sad ball because it floats around the pool that used to be the polar bear exhibit. The exhibit was always sad, given the small, isolated, concrete nature of it. But the bear has been missing for a couple months now. I don’t know what happened to it, but this ball still floats around, with polar bear teeth marks:

Spotted seal:

More seal watching. Spotted seals this time:

And we of course saw deer. Because every big park in Seoul has to have a deer park:

August spotted the haechi statues (the mascot of Seoul, based on the mythical creature that defended Seoul) as we were both entering and leaving the park. A note to my parents: they have removed three of the dwarves, meaning that now four are missing:

A rather odd new game on the subway. What is great about this video, is that you get the new biting of the hood thing, some trying to hit me in the chin with his head action, and then him getting startled by the subway doors near the end:

A nice long video of a little playing/crawling around the floor:

Finally, standing at one of his favorite places, the washing machine:

August had his second Monday class. It went quite well; August cried less and the teacher commented on it at the end of class (I can’t believe I am already havin conversations with a teacher about his behavior). 

Anyway, there were all sorts of little bits and pieces we were dealing with during class, so j didn’t think to take any photos or videos. But plenty else to see from the day: 

His first new thing is using a block to make plenty of noise banging on a pan: 

His second new favorite toy is the salad spinner. And he is now starting to really like lids. He has played with the lids on the salad spinner, pots, and on his bottle:

Walking through the park after class:

He didn’t take his second nap until late, so we were in a rush to get to the school to do the handoff. So we took the bus:

At his class we got a big packet of materials. Some of it stayed in the classroom for later use in the class, but there were a book, CD, and DVD for us to take home. Here he is looking at the book:

Shaking his crinkly book:

Some nice work on his hands and feet before a face plant:

Playing in the kitchen before bed. More banging of stuff:

It was our second first birthday party, this time for our friends Derek and Jill’s son Logan. 

But first, around the house. August now gets excited for his baths:

Here he is wearing his new sweater and pants from Home Plus and sitting with his shapes from Costco, the Sophie and Panda bear books from our recent Itaewon haul, and the firefly book from the COEX Mall:

At the party. We found our little spot in the kitchen and avoided most of the craziness of the party. It was still plenty loud and exciting though and Augist had fun playing on the floor:

Headed home, here are a couple shots of him wearing his ‘new’ hat:

I don’t think I have mentioned that his fifth tooth, the top left front, is now coming in. It is starting to look and feel like a full mouth of teeth. 

We went shopping at Home Plus and did a lot of cleaning and cooking and playing with August throughout the day. 

In the morning, August enjoyed Skyping with his Oma and Opa:

A random photo, but this is the pattern made on my tea when I put in cream:

At Home Plus and then in the park, the new cover for the stiller at work. August seemed to generally like it and it worked well at keeping it warm:

Last time Carly vacuumed August liked it. Not so much this time:

In the afternoon Carly was cooking stir fry and food for August. He was fascinated, and spent a lot of time standing at the back of the couch just watching her work:

While he watched, he got to try raw yellow pepper:

Dinner time:

Playing in the evening:

We went to Costco today to replenish Carly’s cheese supply. 

Here is August, awake in the morning and ready to play with/ mess up all his toys: 

We sat at the desk and looked at this Feely Bugs book for a good 20 minutes before his nap:

As we walked through the park on our way to Costco, the pigeons started to crowd around us. Then, as we walked through/past them I turned around to see the walking after us. Disconcerting. I assume they were waiting for the pigeon lady to come and feed them:

He was incredibly mellow during the entire trip to Costco. I had him facing me in the carrier, as it was only 19 degrees when we left the house. He didn’t make a single noise during the entire subway ride. When we got off the subway I said something like ‘You are really mellow today, boy’ and he replied with a single ‘meh’:

Our first find at Costco. A set of eight shapes for August:

As we wew leaving August was excited by the statue outside Costco. This is one of those times that he was more excited before I pulled out the camera, but you get the idea:

The statue he was looking at:

Playing with the banana before we eat it:

Our haul from Costco aside from the set of shapes for August. Two feta cheeses, three cheddars, a beef burrito, and a hotdog:

Playing with the new shapes. They will be good for learning both shapes and colors:

Finally, playing in the crib before bed. Quite the laugh:

A fun leisurely and productive day around the house. He helped me hang laundry by taking each item out of the basket one at a time again. 

His other big thing today was offering Sophie (the chewy giraffe thing) to me to chew on multiple times. 

Our adventure today was walking to APIS to hang out with the 7th grade girls while Carly ran her after school activity. He knows a couple of them quite well from hanging out with them with Carly after school on Thursdays when I was at PT. So it was interesting to see how they could hold him and he wouldn’t get upset, whereas with most other people he will only last a few seconds or a couple minutes before needing to go back to mom or dad. 

 

Morning time: 

Carly used to let the 7th grade girls hang out after school on Thursdays and visit August while I went to PT. Now that she runs an activity with K to 2nd graders at that time I have had to change my appointments to Friday. But I still want August to interact with more people, so I took him in to school so they could still hang out with them. 

First, he was kind of mobbed outside the library, where we went to hang out: 

But once we were in the library and it was a bit calmer he had a blast:

Chewing on his hat on the way home:

From the evening, a new game that has developed. Going into the clothes in the closet. You get to see him doing his arm pointing thing at the beginning:

There was both snow on the ground when we woke up and then a thirty minute snow storm around 11. 

At 12:30 he had his first music class.  

Morning:

He insisted on falling asleep in my arms again. Here he is sleeping on my shoulder: 

Watching the snow fall outside the window:

Video:

What we were looking at and the noises he was making:

Before his class we had a few minutes to walk through the art museum and say hi to some of his favorite pieces, including this one, which probably both reminds him of the two giraffes he has as well as a banana:

His first music class. Went very smoothly overall except when she pulled out a shaker shaped like a banana and showed it to the class. August was very excited, standing and doing his arm waving routine. Then she put it back in the box. He started crying and I had to turn him around and comfort him. Then when I turned him back around e saw it sticking out of the box and started saying “nana nana nana” and crying again. Luckily, when she handed out shakers and his was a red pepper he didn’t seem to mind:

He basically ignored me when we were supposed to be playing with the shakers together. Instead, he lay across my lap and watched the woman and baby next to us. Which is fine, since my goal with the classes is to expose him to other people, not just me:

Like every class there, they spray bubbles at some point. He loves it:

We also got to play with a balloon:

After the class we went down to the store and found bubbles to buy. We also did our usual time watching the fish and birds:

Bubbles at home:

Chewing on his sock before his final nap. Note the name tag:

Playing in the evening:

After his first nap we headed south on the subway to check out the COEX Mall for possible indoor activities. There is an aquarium there that we will probably go to at some point, but that wasn’t our plan today. We also went to the Bonguensa temple because it is literally right next door. That is Korea for you: 1200 year old temple site next to a ginormous modern mall/conference/trade/aquariumcomplex. 

But first, the day got off to a rocky start as he woke up crying and still tired: 

But he woke up and got better:

Eventually he was getting ready for a nap, but he has started new pfft noises. So here you get some of his new sound and some crying:

He fell asleep on my shoulder:

He woke up happy. I found him awake, playing with the Boppy pillow:

Getting dressed in two pairs of pants for our outing:

We took the subway to Cheongdam – the same area August was born. But instead of walking north from the station, we headed south. First we went to the Bongeunsa temple:

Huge Buddha statue:

At the base of the statue there are glass boxes of offerings. One had plants and the other had candles. This was August’s introduction to fire and he loved it. We watched the candles for several minutes:

We then went to the huge COEX mall across the street. Failed to find an indoor playground, but the changing room was huge and we found a huge bookstore that had a large section of English books. The English books were the same price they would be in the U.S. So we had to buy him a book. 

Also, he loved the Moleskine notebooks: 

He fell asleep after I changed him in the mall:

And woke up 50 minutes later during the subway ride home:

At home he practiced crawling, but then refused to perform for the camera:

We ended the day with some silliness in the kitchen:

An eventful day! August had his first official class (the five senses one) and as we left the building he experienced his first snow storm. It was also windy, so it wasn’t a very pleasant snowstorm. 

In the afternoon we walked to APIS. August was literally asleep in the carrier before we left the apartment and napped the entire way there.  

Also, I took a lot of good photos, so this should be a big one.

In the morning: 

Playing with a coffee packet for the first time:

Before his nap:

When he woke up he didn’t make any noise. I went in to find him just laying there, playing with one of his socks:

His class. Not a lot of opportunities to take photos or videos. The class went well, although he cried a few times. He really got excited though by the bubbles and the song at the end, during which we stood up and moved around. He also preferred watching everyone else as they did the activities over doing them himself. Here he is holding the goat hat that he refused to wear:

Watching the mom/baby off to our right:

Snow! I stopped filming to help block his face and ended up walking backwards across part of the park. But he seemed to handle it just fine and made it in one piece:

Pink cheeks and nose:

Back home:

In the evening:

i lowered the blinds and doing so makes a noise he doesn’t like. I was holding him and he enjoyed touching the blind, so I thought I would offer him the chain to touch. He initially reached for it but pulled back his hand. He would then only give it a cautious look and never did touch it: 

Dinner time silliness:

Pajamas:

But he was hyper and wouldn’t go to sleep. So it was time to practice crawling:

Garbage can head: