Category: Uncategorized

We wanted to go to Itaewon to hit up the English book stores to get some books for August. We went to three shops and came back with a pretty good haul. 

First, we went to Home Plus to get ingredients for a soup Carly wanted to make. August got to visit his dog statue friends and tell his mom about them: 

Here we are in Whatthebook. He was very excited by all the books:

The store also has a good selection of deodorant for its Western customers:

We then went to dinner at our usual hummus place, Petra Palace. August took his left sock off again:

On our tour of the best changing tables in Seoul, here is the table at Itaewon Station:

Back home. Here is our haul for the day:

August enjoyed his new books:

he also got to gnaw on a carrot:

Due to a slight mishap with the chicken, August and I headed back to Home Plus for more. Here we are stopping at one of his usual park attractions, the vending machines:

Playing before bed:

We went to the store in the morning and in the afternoon we hopped in a bus headed south. We got off at Gongneung Market and walked through the market and then walked west to the river and followed it back north to home. 

Saying goodbye to mama in the morning:

Playing:

New toy. Dad’s belt:

He really likes the balloons at a cell phone counter in the pink building:

On our way to the bus, we stopped in the park to watch the pigeons. While we’re there, this woman came along and the pigeons swarmed her. She poured out 3 bags of food for the pigeons and put out a bowl of water for them. We ended up talking to her, and it turns out she feeds the pigeons every day, in direct violation of the signs that say ‘pigeon feeding ban’ (in korean). While talking to her, Preacher (that is what he calls himself) came up and started talking to us as well. I’ve met him many times (as did my parents – he is an old man who wears camo and carries a walking stick). Anyway, I think you can say you know a park pretty well when you find yourself talking to two of its eccentric characters at once:

In Gongneung Market he got excited every time he saw the colorful fruits and vegetables, which you can see in this video:

He also really loved this dog:

On our way home we found a park with a slide. I’ve helped him down slides a couple times in the past, but he wasn’t too excited by it. This time he loves it and went down about 20 times:

Our lovely, but noise (the highway is just to the left) path home:

He fell asleep about 15 minutes before making it home:

Back home:

When he last played with the 1kg weight a couple weeks ago he couldn’t lift it off the ground:

We met up with Derek and his almost one year old son Derek in the morning. After lunch we walked to APIS. 

Waking up:

Playing on the counter while I eat my cereal:

Play time:

With Logan in Home Plus:

Asleep on the way to APIS:

Awake from his nap:

He carried a ginkgo leaf the rest of the way to APIS. You can tell he knows he isn’t supposed to put it in his mouth, but he wants to do it anyway:

Playing around again back home:

Today we went to two preview classes for classes I might sign him up for on Fridays. I already have him registered for a ‘5 senses’ activities class on Mondays and a music class on Wednesdays. They start the first week of December and run through February. 

Anyway, the classes today were mixed activity classes. One was in the morning and one was in the afternoon. 

But first, morning time:

The first class. 

Paying attention; 

Playing with a toy:

Videos:

As we walked home we saw women in the park making kimchi. It turns out it is gimjang, or kimchi making season (my physical therapist is going to her hometown this weekend for a family gimjang event):

They offered us fresh kimchi, but we decided to go home and eat a banana instead:

Banana time:

August decided to take control of the camera:

Second baby class of the day. I just got photos after an activity involving tennis balls dipped in paint. August managed to taste one of the tennis balls dipped in blue:

Tuesday we twice walked to the park. The first walk, in the morning, we mainly stayed outside and watched the birds and played in the children’s area. The second walk was in the afternoon. We went in the art museum and were then able to meet Carly as she got off the bus.

 

Morning fun: 

Attacked by Eddy:

We had another instance of him insisting on falling asleep in my arms:

Our first walk to the park. Our usual, watching the pigeons:

There really are a lot of them:

There all over the trees too:

He was excited by this statue – one we haven’t looked at before – but then got distracted. Turns out it was the flock of pigeons circling overhead:

Here’s a better view of the pigeons flying in circles:

He has several objects in the park and blocks around us that he will spot and get excited about. They include certain signs, vending machines, barber poles, statues, etc. Here are two of them:

Back at home, eating a banana and having fun:

Second nap:

Petting the dog. We do this every time we walk through the park:

Saying hi to another statue he loves, the camel:

And here he is greeting mama as she gets of the bus:

He slept a lot today, so we didn’t venture out much. My PT appointment was later, so Carly could come home first and we didn’t have to meet her at school. 

More of his first word:

Bath time:

Since I didn’t take a ton of photos today, here are his dailies:

It is ‘banana’. Well, ‘nana’. Or maybe ‘uhnana’. He has been saying ‘dada’ quite a bit, and ‘mama’ as well, but neither has felt like an actual word yet, as he doesn’t seem to use them to call to or refer to us with it. Kind of sort of babbles it in our general vicinity sometimes. 

However, it seemed quite different when I had him on the back of the couch and we were looking at and talking about the bananas. When he says it, his voice gets lower than with his other babbling and it feels more intentional. 

This was recorded yesterday, and he clearly was using it multiple times today, including twice when I first brought him out in the morning and this evening when Carly was feeding him other food and he kept looking towards the bananas and saying it. Yes, he is obsessed with bananas, so it makes sense. 

On Sunday August turned 250 days old. Which is about 10 times longer than it feels. It slows down, right?

We took a nice walk today and did all sorts of stuff around the house. August used his first word, but I’ll put that in another post. His other big accomplishment was using a straw:

First, some playing with a pan: 

Chewing on his hat:

Carly was standing in front of this sculpture, but tried to flee the scene when went to take a photo. Luckily, I snapped a shot before she left the frame:

At home:

He’s old enough to drink soy sauce straight from the bottle, right?

I’d been trying to get him to use the sippy cups for water, as he likes drinking from my water bottle or straight from a glass. But even I couldn’t get much out of the Nuk sippy cups, so we have up. I finally got around to using the cup with a straw, and he figured it out right away:

Carly had lunch with a friend today, so August and I went for a walk and ended up at a harvest festival in the park. Carly made a ton of food for August in all sorts of varieties – most notably she tried cooking a quince since I had bought a couple at the store. 

Playing in his chair while Carly made food:

Snacking on some Asian pear:

We had ordered a cover for the carrier and it arrived on Friday. This was our first chance to test it out. It keeps his legs and arms pretty well covered and toasty:

Watching the music in the park:

Back home, he wasn’t too sure about the quince:

And of course he had fun playing:

With it getting cold, I’ve been trying to think of places we can spend time inside. Today I decided to start checking out the buildings in the zoo. We’ve been to the zoo several times, but we’ve always stayed outdoors. 

One theme you’ll notice in th videos, particularly those around home, is that he is getting very fond of yelling or screeching:

First time wearing the green knit hat. It was knitted for him by April – the woman who subbed for Carly when she was on maternity leave:

Walking to the zoo:

Meeting Tweetie Bird:

The botanical gardens were nice. Warm, not crowded, with nice plants and trees, and a little waterfall:

While we were in the botanical gardens there was a group of five girls who came up and talked to us. They spoke some decent English and were impressed by my very minimal Korean. Anyway, it was nice for a change in that they weren’t smothering August and it was more of a conversation than just talking at him. 

From there we visited the aquatic bird house and then the snake/insect/primate/tropical bird building. That was where we had the most fun:

Other animals we saw:

of course, we hung out on a bench. We had run out of bananas the day before, but I thought we could buy one in a convenience store at the park or zoo. Tried Bree and none of them had fruit. Seems like in a huge park designed for children you should sell some fruit. So the banana had to wait until we got home and went to the store, but he still had fun on the bench:

In the evening:

Playing with mom: