Today we took a bus over to the Mia area, west of APIS. We walked around and then walked east to Dream Forest where we sat and ate our lunch. We then found the deer park before walking to APIS and surprising Carly with a visit.
Hurried home because August was tired and due for a nap. But then he decided to not sleep. It was over six hours by the time he fell asleep – easily the longest he has been awake at one stretch.
Morning bath:
Dream Forest:
That would be going to our favorite store (Home Plus) during the day to get whatever it is we need (today it was a knife, because Carly an oddly obstinate onion broke one) and to watch the fish, rodents, and other other animals, and then walking to APIS in the afternoon to see Carly. I then drop him off with her and walk to physical therapy.
Going to Home Plus allows August to see a whole section of his favorite food, bananas. He saw the bananas from across the store and started laughing. We then walked to the bananas and I turned my back and he started to get upset. Then I shot this video:
Another one of his favorite things to spot on walks besides trees (he is particularly fond of certain dwarf trees – I’ll try to get that on video sometime) is vending machines, because of the flashing lights:
Climbing on my legs in the morning:
Being happy:
Playing in the chair:
Sunday, Carly had grading to work on, I scanned and sorted piles of papers, and August had some serious playing and learning to get done. However, we found time in the afternoon to go for a nice walk along the stream.
Because we are crazy, we went shopping in not one, but two packed stores today. It was worth it, however, as we replenished our cheese supply and got ingredients for nachos.
The usual:
After Costco:
Kitchen fun:
Playing around:
We hit up four museums/galleries (Insa Art Center, Gana Art Space, First Post Office in Seoul, and the Central Buddhist Museum) before going to the big Buddhist temple downtown.
But firat, at home we found a new toy:
We had an uneventful ride downtown on the bus, and after a few minutes of walking we were at the Insa Art Center. August got into the art, starting with this solo show on th first floor:
We chose the balcony at Insa Art Center for our lunch location for the day:
This was one of his favorite pieces of art today:
We rested on a bench outside for awhile. He was gathering a ton of attention, as usual, but he played hard to get for a couple minutes and paid attention to the tree behind us instead:
We then went to the first post office in Seoul, which is now a little museum:
We then went to the Central Buddhist Museum, where he started to get tired:
And while we were looking at this really cool Buddhist bell:
He fell asleep:
He was still asleep as we walked around the Buddhist temple and rested on its stairs. An annoying woman came up shortly after this and, without asking, tried to put up his hood and woke him up:
On the way home he was really entertained by these two boys:
I posted the rest of the Halloween stuff already, but here is one more for you:
Here is some of the other art we saw at Insa Art Center and Gana Art Space:
Kind of a repeat of last Thursday: an immunization for him in the morning, and then walking to the school to drop him off with Carly so I could go to PT.
Most impressive thing today was pulling himself up to standing in the crib:
He had fun in the clinic waiting room standing at an ottoman and warning other kids:
Back at home:
This is his complaining voice:
A taste of blueberry/banana smoothie:
Cute sleeping:
Spinach face:
New game:
August practicing his dragon noises:
Not appreciating the hood:
Being a dragon:
Some photos:
With no appointments or events scheduled today, we had a mellow day. We went to Home Plus after his first nap, and after the second we went for a walk along the stream and hung out at the park up by the soccer field.
So in the morning we had time to lay around in bed and be silly:
And play in the crib:
It was a nice day for a walk along the stream:
Looking at his reflection at the park:
Fun on the swing:
And on the way home he did this thing which he does on most of our walks now. He gets excited by every tree we see along a street:
Finally, in the evening he was playing with Carly and played his game that he plays with her, which is to slobber on her so that she will laugh:
He started this with Carly on Sunday. He’s been practicing and has it down pretty good:
August and I went back to Hoegi and Kyunghee University to try the Philly Burger place we saw and to go to the art museum, which was closed on Sunday, and today was the last day for the two shows that were there.
We ended up going to all three museums (art, history, and natural history).
But first, we had to get there. August enjoyed walking around and practicingr his raspberries as we walked:
At the art museum, this was his favorite piece (he actually got excited when he saw it):
But this was probably mine:
From there, we walked to the history museum. In front of the building, there are two statues of people the steps. August thought they were pretty cool, and had to meet both. A Korean guy actually took our photo at this time, and was happy with the photo and showed it to us. Alas, I didn’t get it from him:
Before going to the history museum, we stopped to eat a banana and play:
Carly and I had been to the history museum our first year, but not all of it was open. It is a pretty large collection, although almost entirely in Korean. Luckily, I know enough about Korean history and enough Korean to not be totally lost.
This is one of my favorite pieces, in part because the ‘elephant’ is more like a tiger with a trunk. A rather unique mythical creature:
I could bore you with all sorts of photos of historical artifacts, but I will just include one more, this carving of a bird:
August had been awake for four hours, so finally fell asleep:
Then to the natural history museum. We had gone through this one completely (Carly would say too completely) before, so I didn’t spend as much time. We did, however, find some benches on the top floor (plant fossils) and had a drink and played on the floor. We were there for over 20 minutes and not a single person came to that floor:
On the way home, 4 teenage girls became August’s good friends. When seats opened up next to us, two came over to join us. August warmed to them, and started talking. Soon before we got of the train, he reached over and grabbed the girl’s hand, which really won them over. The girl on the left is covering up the curler on her bangs. Why she has a curler in her hair at 4:15 in the afternoon on the subway, alas, I do not know:
