Category: Uncategorized

He slept until 7:25. They Skyped with Cherie and Vivian. I heard him sucking up slime. Vivian apparently knows that August likes poop jokes. Cherie said “Vacuum cleaners are your favorite thing.” Vivian added “And poop!” August later found the tongs and played with them a lot, picking everything (clothes, his water bottle, etc.) up. I was joking around with him about something and he did a ‘grr’ to me. He wanted to do robot cleanup of something, and we ended up cleaning up most of the toys strewn about. Carly and I started clearing out the kitchen stuff. Of the plastic Spongebob mug he said “I don’t want this anymore.”

He remembered a conversation he and I had had the other day (it has come up a couple times) about how accidental spills, etc. are okay, but it isn’t okay to add to the muss on purpose: “Accidents are okay?…Squishing a banana peel is okay?…Not the part that you eat…” Big discussion of what/where it is okay to squish things on purpose. He went down with Carly to take out compost, and they had to stay there a couple minutes so he could play with the foot pedals. Also, Carly let him sit on the kitchen counter for a couple minutes, which was fun.

We all then did a lot of packing-related stuff. I cleaned out some of his toys, Carly worked on the closet and hallway. August and I took a break to do a little art with the glass crayons, which we haven’t used in a long time. He was a little put off by their messiness at first – and he commented about how he didn’t want the ‘art’ that was on the crayon box, as younger Zinnie had written all over the box.

They had had oatmeal for breakfast. August and I later had crackers and salmon and cheese for a snack. He was taking it in to Carly in the closet so she could smell it. He didn’t really like salmon though – it was a flavored kind with mayonnaise in it. After that, he played in sink for a long time.

We all left at 12:40 to walk over to the science center. August kept commenting on how we were all wearing our sunglasses.

Our visit to the science center was quicker, at first, mainly due to the crowds. Not packed, but their were waits for most things. And Carly and I were really noticing how the exhibits as a whole don’t really have a lot of capacity (the river thing with binoculars only does two people at once, the brain exhibit just one, etc.) Anyway, he did a little K’Nex on the first floor, then on the second ran over to look at the cockroaches and rats in the pests area. Carly went to go sit down for awhile, and August and I went and waited for the microscope. He did a good job waiting, then we used it to look at his shirt, hair, the counter, etc. and did a good job giving it up to the girl next in line.

A little more frustrating on the following floors: he did the pixelating camera, but then wanted to run to the front in front of other people. And the wheel on the garbage power plant display had a long line of people, although he watched the lights.

So a little before 2 we found ourselves at the top. He wanted to play with the drinking fountains, but that one didn’t work. We went down to the third floor, and that one (the Tayo one) didn’t work either. So then down to the first floor where the Larva one did. And there we spent the next 40 minutes. Mostly he did a great job letting other kids come in and use it. He kept running over and wanting Carly to come and see it. There was a smaller boy next to him at one point and his mother was leaving, and the boy was a bit upset. August seemed concerned about it, and kind of followed him at the end to make sure he got to his mom. Randomly, at one point he asked me “What color is my hair?” After playing for awhile, he went to the bathroom with Carly and I got coffees for me and Carly.

About 2:45 he wanted to go in the cafe/gift shop. He looked at the rocks. He picked one dark blue one up and said “It looks like space?” I wouldn’t let him get crazy with them, and he used the excuse like “But that boy is doing it!” with me. Finally, he spotted the Mini Melts ice cream and said “I want to get it with mama!” But when she pointed out they had cake or popsicle at home he wasn’t happy. He did a frustrated “No!” and bumped his chin on the case, making things worse. She then took him to the bathroom before we left, and hurt him a bit more by getting his fingers in one of the doors.

He had recovered pretty well by the time they came out with the bike to me. We left at 3:00, and he wanted to pause and look at the stream and the fountain. We then walked south to 충숙공원. Walked past the playground, but then August wanted to go back to the playground to have a snack. So we went back and sat and had some crab and apple. He then needed the bathroom again, so we went to the bathrooms. There was a hose at the entrance of the women’s restroom and he played with it for a long time, using it at a vacuum and sucking everything up.

We headed home and stopped at GS25 for eggs and sugar and milk and were home at 4:05. For food I mentioned something about the peanut sauce and he said “I don’t really like peanut sauce. I prefer teriyaki sauce.” Carly made him an egg pancake with broccoli and cheese and he dipped it in ketchup. He wanted to squeeze more ketchup on his own, and when he squirted it out he said “What brain is that?” He thought the ketchup looked like one of the brains at the science center. And out of nowhere he said “I want my fingers painted.”

After he ate he helped me scan a few more things, and he kept talking about how the scanner is a machine. He then wanted to go outside, so I took him out. A bit after 5. We rode around the park, then stopped at the playground. He went on the teeter totter, then climbed on the blue wall part. And then the tube slide. The bridge is missing, so I had to lift him up to the platform. He did the tube slide 6 or 7 times. I was spotting him at first, but then when he had figured it out he went down entirely on his own a few times. The last time he fell off about half way down. His bottom slipped off, he hung by his hands for a second, and then he landed on his feet.

He spent some time trying to climb up the bars after that, and then pulling on a broken ribbon from around the broken bridge. And then he played around on the bar around the swings and waited for a swing. And waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, he got a swing. I was giving him 10 minutes (although he was saying 100 or a million) and the girls in line kept sighing (although given that we had waited more than 20 minutes, and people were spending longer than that on them, I wasn’t feeling guilty). But he got off after about 7 and ran over to the spinning exercise equipment. Played on both of those, then headed home at 6:25.

Carly said he had grown, and he wanted to measure himself against her. He said “You’re about as tall as mama?” Carly had caught what looked like a flying ant under a Tupperware container. He and I looked at it while she went downstairs to look for masks for a school project. We were in the hallway, dropping it out the window, when Carly came back.

Carly was in the hallway closet, and August wanted up on the counter in there again (he had also sat on that earlier). So he sat on there and I was sitting on the floor while Carly took a shower. He was reaching for the outlet and I told him to be careful with the outlets and he asked why, so we ended up discussing electricity the whole time. He had a serious look on his face.

Carly started her bath, and I went in to actually do the washing and wash his hair. He got through it okay, and without a video, as he sat on the edge of the bath while I washed him and he thought that was amusing. When we came out, Carly was taking her tree down from the wall in the bedroom. August helped a bit. Unfortunately, the darker paint we have in those rooms has really faded, so you can still see the tree. Taking down the art on those walls reveals dark squares. August was asleep abo
ut 8.

Photos. Tong’s: 

K’nex: 

Pixelated: 

Space rock: 

Carly had to go to work today to run a Civic Mirror training for a group of Korean teachers. He was up just before 6:40. He did some playing in the sink, then was wearing her shoes and shuffling around the house. I took a photo. As he shuffled away he turned back, sort of pointed his finger in the air and asked “You got it?” He then watched Beethoven’s Ninth and video about bubbles. He was then wearing the nursing mittens, and wanted his gloves, so we got those out and he was trying them on. He did a lot of sneezing while I was taking photos of him in the nursing mittens, then he wore her shoes some more.

Carly left at 8:40. He didn’t want to let her leave, but was distracted by Sesame Street Art Maker. After he went to the bathroom he asked about how to put his underwear on by himself. He’s been doing more and more on his own: he washed his hands twice this morning on his own and wanted to pour mango by himself with Carly. We read To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. He was then playing on the reading area and stuck his whole leg down my shirt. As I tried to get away he said “Knock it off”. Not quite sure where he learned that one.

We skyped with my parents. He was sucking his lips in at one point, which he hasn’t really done. He also didn’t want to play piano. He hasn’t been playing songs on it recently. After we hung up we got going. We had eaten some leftover pizza for a second breakfast.

We got walking and walked up north, towards the parks we had talked about going to yesterday before we ran out of time. At one point I started singing “Ants Go Marching” until he told me to stop – he hasn’t been into the songs like that and Yankee Doodle recently. Up the main street, and then we walked along the green path to the right, past the park and then up to 원터근린공원. We first went to the middle playground, where he went on the swings for a bit. He saw a hole that other people had left in the sand, so we got our shovel, etc. and first made it bigger, then were filling it in.

He took his shoe off and was having it (a whale) spit out sand, then wanted to play in water. So we walked over and found the water fountains. Played a couple minutes, but he didn’t like a noise that the faucets made – either the high pitched noise of the pipes in the wall, or the loud noise of the water going through the grate and hitting the ground.

He needed to use the bathroom at some point and we used the bathroom there. We then got going, but saw the funny faces on the sculptures on our way out. He wanted to take a photo, so we did. He then saw an old little playground at the apartment complex so we stopped there and he went on the swings.

On the way there we had seen a sort of carnival happening at the Bible university. He liked the idea of looking for food there, so we went in and found the food section. They actually called it a ‘flea market’, but in addition to used stuff there was also activities for kids and food. We got a Korean pancake and an orange slushy. We sat on a bench and ate those – I was impressed with how he ate all the veggies without trying to avoid any. He went and watched the slushy machine turning, then we went and looked at the rest of the food. We decided on getting some bibimbap. He was a little concerned by the red spots he saw in it, but it was just barely spicy, and he ate it just fine. As we were finishing up, he ran off around the circle part and started to go down the stairs. I went and retrieved him, and told him we needed to clean up.

We then walked down and looked at the big world map on the ground. He wanted to go in through the open doors, and we found the cafeteria area and a theater (well, church). And we refilled his water bottle at a water machine (he mainly did it on his own, until the tray underneath started to come loose and he was concerned about it).

We headed out, walking through the unversity to the southwest. We found a little fake stream and a couple of fish ponds that we didn’t know about. To get to the second pond we had to go off the main path, but he wanted to take the bike, so we went off-roading.

We got to 당현천근린공원 at 1:00, the park where we had earlier turned off to go on the green path, and he made up a song to “I don’t want to live on the moon” “My vacuum sucks up everything…again, and again, and again…” He played with a drinking fountain for a minute. Then he needed to go to the bathroom, so we went to the bathrooms with the outlines of a man peeing and a woman squatting. We headed out at 1:15 to the south, back to the green path. He pointed at something and said he wanted it – I thought he was pointing at a balloon that two kids playing on some exercise equipment had and kept going, telling him he couldn’t have it. But he made me stop, and said “I don’t want their stuff.” I had misunderstood. He wanted to play on the exercise equipment like them. He went on the spinning one on his own, then climbed on the sit up/back stretching things, and finally was able to push himself on the leg press ones a bit.

He wanted to go down the big set of steps to the stream, so I carried down the bike. He sort of played on the edge of flower bed area and looked at bikes and at yellow flowers.

We started walking home along the stream and crossed a bridge. By Chrysanthemum Park I saw a girl, about 7, trying to push her bike up the ramp. She wasn’t getting very far. I asked August if we should help, and he jumped off and we both went and helped push up her bike – me from the back, him on the right, and her on the left. He then wanted to play at Chrysanthemum Park. He played around by the swings and tried climbing the poles, then ran and leaped on a swing when he realized it was free.

Then he ran over to the play structure. He needed help starting on the climbing wall, then hurried around the entire rest of it. I helped from below to get him started climbing down to the shaky platform, then I helped lift him down through the ropes when he wanted down.

From there it was to the sand, where he reluctantly allowed me to put on some sunscreen and his hat. He remembered sitting on the little table thing and me drawing shapes, but when I did it now the sand was all dry so didn’t work well. We got the bucket and cup and were filling them in the drinking fountain, and he was walking them over to the enclosed area and dumping out the water. He kind of made it into art by picking up dry sand and putting it on his shapes. A girl showed up, and then we saw a cat come out of the bushes. The two of them followed the cat as it walked across the playground.

About 2:30 we finally headed home. Carly was home already. He started singing “Mama’s coming home from school” to Ode to Joy.

At home they nursed and hung out for awhile, then Carly took him with her to the store. They left at 3:40. I realized that would be a good time to make a smoothie, as August is really opposed to the blender now. But I was about to turn it on when they came back to drop off groceries. They left again, and I was able to finish my smoothie. They went over to the park, where there were some games and stuff going on. They played some sort of kid darts, but then Carly wanted to leave as it wasn’t easy to understand the rules and what they could/couldn’t do. August wasn’t too happy about that, and made less happy when they walked around the building past Baskin Robbins and he wanted to go in. That was where they were when I called, about to leave the house to come find them. Instead, I met them at the bottom of the elevators.

Back in the house, about 5, there was lots of nursing and he was whiney. Finally, he helped me make banana bread. There was a lot of “I want to do it on my own.” After he’d licked the spatula, he was doing headstands on the couch on his own. Carly said something about how he should take gymnastics in Israel and I mentioned how he wanted to do dance thanks to the Tallulah books. He said “I want tap AND ballet in Is
rael.”

I also cooked broccoli and rice while we made banana bread and he ate rice and broccoli and cheese for dinner. I asked how he liked it and he didn’t really answer, but he was eating it, so I said something like “Well at least I’m not going to starve.” He had fun saying that, then said “I want you to say ‘Oh Zinnie.’” So we turned it into a little movie:

“How’s you’re dinner?”

“Well I won’t starve.”

“Oh Zinnie.”

We read the Tallulah tap book and Loch Mess Monster and Carly gave him a bath, and he was asleep about 8.

Photos: 

Filling up his water: 

Exercise equipment: 

A big day downtown, as we went to the branch of the MMCA at Deoksugung Palace to see an exhibit on Egyptian Surrealism, then went and walked across Seoul’s newest park, Seoullo 7017. Finally, we walked up to Pizza School to get some pizza before Carly got home.

I remember he had a bad dream at some point in the night. Carly was up before 5, and right before 5 August woke up, said a couple things, then crawled over to me and fell back to sleep. He watched videos about bees on her computer, then was typing on her computer. Carly came over and he said “You smell like quesadilla.” She had just been making her quesadilla. He was sitting on the toilet when she left. He had Cheerios and banana for breakfast, and I made French Toast for myself. He ended up eating a good amount of it. He wanted to watch Pink Panther. We watched a new one together, then he watched ones he already knows and I exercised and took a shower.

After that, I had music on and he was dancing to Tuatara. He was ready to go outside and we left at 9:30. We went to catch the Nowon 9 bus. He spotted a truck he wanted in Israel, then was singing a “Just one perfect truck.” song. A few times I’ve brought up the idea of getting just one perfect car for us, instead of every truck he sees.

The bus was really slow, as we were in rush hour traffic. We played I Spy to pass the time. Got off at Kwangwoon University. On the train we looked out the window. We saw a colorful train. He said “Oooh, I like the colorful train.” The train got more and more crowded, and he said he didn’t like it and was uncomfortable: “That makes dada happy?” There was a woman next to us that was trying to touch him. He turned it around and was tickling her on the arm.

We got off at City Hall and went to Deoksugung Palace – the first palace Carly and I went to and we haven’t been back since (where they had one room with little kind of rolling chairs). He chose to go see art first, and we went to the branch of the MMCA that is there. We were there to see the When Art Becomes Liberty: The Egyptian Surrealists show. Continuing their anti-kid friendly attitude in art museums here, within two minutes of being inside we were asked to be quieter (I was holding him in my arms, talking about the art in a quiet voice) and told twice that I needed to hold his hand (by two different people) – something I’ve never heard before, and doubly odd that there really wasn’t any art he could reach in this show, outside a couple of sculptures in other rooms.

So we moved a bit quicker than we would have liked, as he didn’t like being cooped up. After we were done with the first floor we went to the gift shop and I bought the book for the show (less than 10 dollars) and a small print and three cards for Carly. Except in the middle of that August needed to use the bathroom. So we set down the stuff we had so far and went and found the bathrooms (oddly, not labeled at all, so we had to ask). Went back to the gift shop and while we waited for her to ring it up, August suddenly had poop on his finger. A wiping problem. I wiped it off with a tissue, then when we had paid we went back to the bathroom and cleaned up properly.

August was ready to go outside, but I got him through the second floor by saying we’d only stop walking for pieces he wanted to look at. After that, there were several pieces he wanted to stop for.

So then we went outside and found a spot to eat lunch. It was near a big hose that he played with a few times. As we ate, there were tons of high school students wandering around for…something. There was also music playing from a stage that was being set up. While we sat there, a few of the kids came over with one of the round tasteless snack cake things piled with the things that look and taste like big Trix. Then, a few minutes later another group, including a girl dressed as a bee, came over and wanted to take their photo with August. He agreed, and sat on the spot we’d been sitting on and they sat around him and I was just able to get photos with both of our cameras before he jumped up and ran to me. They kept talking to him and he was feeling uncomfortable, so I had him starting to say goodbye, and got him to give high fives to all the kids and he had fun with that.

We got going, walking around a bit and looking at the stage (he had heard Sarah McLachlan’s Angel playing earlier and said “Add it to my playlist!”). We then got in the backpack (on a bench he said was sticky, and he wanted me to clean up the bench after we got up) and headed out and south. As we walked past Sungnyemun Gate (the big historical one) he was singing his new tune. When I had to stop to cross the street he sang it slower and slower, then stopped. When we got walking again he was fast and loud.

We got down to the start of Seoullo 7017, a kilometer long park that is built on an old overpass through downtown, based on that park in New York. Along the way they have hundreds of different plants and trees planted in round planters. We liked looking at all of those. But August had two definite favorite features:

First were the three circles on the bridge where you can stand on glass and look down at the cars/etc. below. He spent a lot of time standing on those and pretending to fall through.

Second, there is a little performance stage, and there was an actor dressed in clothes, with a coat up over the head, making it appear that they were clothes with nobody inside them. We spent probably close to a half hour here, first watching other people go up and touch it. He spent a lot of time plugging his ears until he realized that it wasn’t going to make noise. He was yelling at one point, trying to wake it up, then he wanted me to touch it. Once I went and shook hands with it, then August kept wanting to touch it. Twice August was startled by it and let out a wonderful “Oh no!” I compared it to the Dr. Seuss story about “the pants with nobody inside them” and we had a wonderful talk about empathy and how the clothes with nobody inside them must feel, being surrounded and touched by all these strangers. When it didn’t respond to August touching it, but then swiped at someone else and startled them, I explained to August that it must be getting comfortable with August, but was still uncomfortable with all these other strangers, just like August often is.

We eventually left, and went over to get a drink and played with the drinking fountain for awhile. We then headed off the west end of the bridge and headed north to a park, only to find that this other park is all under construction until 2018.  We went back across the bridge, and August spent more time looking down through the circles. While we waited to take the elevator down to Seoul Station to find a bathroom we saw someone walking a turtle/tortoise wearing a sweater. On a leash.

We went down and found August’s second favorite piece of art today: Shoe Tree. A massive structure covered with hundreds and hundreds of old shoes. First we went down into the station and found a bathroom though, then came back up and August was touching the shoes, putting his hands inside them, and then taking off one of his shoes and putting his foot in a pair of boots and in a Hello Kitty shoe. A guy came over and gave us a brochure for the artwork, and was talking to August. He was really nice and August said “I’m not uncomfortable with this guy. I’m comfortable with him.” August had previously hidden his hands in his shirt when the guy tried to shake his hand, so I suggested that if he was comfortable with him he should give him a high five. So August did.

We then went and enjoyed the pink light cast by a plexiglass piece built as the entrance to an art exhibition area. He liked that, then we went into the free exhibit. It looked really promising, but then disaster: The first big room had all these plexiglass figures with cool lights on them. Each was surrounded by a barrier rope. No problem, right? Except we couldn’t. Even. Touch. The.
Barrier. Ropes. Tell a three-year old they can’t even touch the rope right at their hand level and see how that goes over. I was not happy with the guy that kept telling us this at all, and as calmly as I could told him exactly how I felt. August was quite upset as I picked him up. We went to the side of the room, and I set him down. August held onto a rope (wasn’t even shaking it, mind you), and I was kneeling down next to him, talking about it, when the guy came over to us again and told us we couldn’t touch the rope. I stood up, pointed at him, and said “Back off. Now leave us alone.” We tried to proceed to the other pieces, but August kept saying “I want to go back there!” Too bad, as the last room had a motion-activated video screen thing that made these really cool animations when you moved in front of it.

Anyway, we headed out and caught line 1. As we waited for the train, August put his head on my shoulder and was falling asleep. Don’t blame him. I woke him up by telling him I’d brought a grape and a mango squishy candies from the bag of goodies that Jenny had given him at the end of class. He ate those, then said he had to go to the bathroom. So one stop north we got off at City Hall. We went to the bathroom, then he got a little upset when I washed his hands for him. He wanted to do it himself, so he washed them a second time. It was one of the short sinks, so I think he really liked that. Earlier we had seen one, but a guy was washing his face and taking too long, so eventually August let me wash his hands in another sink (oddly, at that point all three sinks had been taken by men shaving/washing their faces).

Anyway, back on the train we stood for the ride home. When the train exited onto the surface he stood at the window and looked out. We got off at Kwangwoon and he spent a few minutes watching freight trains go back, plugging his ears the whole time.

We then went to Daiso to find a cutting board (our apartment checkout list says we were given two of them, although we only remember one, so we wanted to buy one just to be sure) and some small caribiners to use on the broken zippers on the suitcase we got from Chuck and Cherie. I let August look around, but that was a little nerve wracking as he wanted to play with the breakable little milk containers, etc. pretending to pour things back and forth. He kept saying “But I’m being careful.” As we paid he saw candy things at the counter. I took him out and set him down to put things in the backpack. He ran back into the store. I thought he’d just gone there, but he’d actually made his way halfway through the store, back to the back scratchers he’d looked at.

Then, as we waited for a bus, he found someone’s old coffee drink under the bench and poured it on the ground. We got home, dropped off the backpack, grabbed our other backpack, hopped on the bike and walked up to Pizza School to get pizza. Three pizzas this time: pepperoni, the noodle pizza, and a sweet potato pizza.

We got home just before 5 and ate a few slices by the time Carly got home. They nursed and ate more pizza (and I had him eat some banana) and he climbed on her on the couch.

He and I then read Curious George Cleans Up, To Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street, Yertle the Tirtle, and The Cat in the Hat. I then gave him a bath and washed his hair. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean and the bathtub and Granny’s Pizza episodes of Pink Panther. After his bath he watched one where they are cavemen.

He did really well in the bath, letting me wash his hair. This was mainly because he was so focused on Pink Panther. But Carly asked him about it and he said “You were used to that bath? Like Vivian? I like baths.” It would be really nice if he started liking baths. Months since he’s sat down…

We took him to bed and he was asleep by 8.

 

Photos. Scarf bandage: 

Tickling: 

Art museum: 

Group photo: 

Bridge:  

Walking: 

Shoes: 

Turning pink:

Falling asleep: 

Washing his own hands: 

Looking out: 

Watching trains: 

Daiso:

Kiss: 

We had a very busy day. Early in the morning I had put on the American Beauty soundtrack, as the first track was one of the songs from the blue blocks area at the children’s museum yesterday. August instantly recognized it and wanted to go back to the children’s museum to play with the woman again. Given that the children’s museum didn’t open for a couple hours and I also didn’t want to spent my whole day inside the children’s museum again, we came up with an alternate plan, which August wasn’t all that happy about at first: we’d head to Olympic Park, and then on the way back the train goes past the back entrance of Children’s Grand Park. We’d go to the children’s museum for awhile in the afternoon, after the big school groups started to leave.

He was up about 5:40. He was typing on Carly’s computer. Think he typed ‘much’. He was okay saying bye to Carly when she left at the door. She had gotten him some Cheerios but he said “I want to throw them away. I don’t like them. I don’t like the taste of just Cheerios.” Don’t think there was any banana. He wanted to get going, so I got him to play Mammals and I took a shower. When I came out he had gone to the bathroom and was yelling “I’m done!” He was upset about not going to children’s museum right away, but got distracted looking through the kitchen drawers: “I don’t like eating with forks because because they’re boring.” He ate part of the peanut butter sandwich. I was being really allergic this morning and stopping to sneeze from time to time.

A lot of talk about things he likes and doesn’t like today: “I don’t like the slurpy thing because I don’t want soft things. I want hard things.” And, out of nowhere, he said “I want to plant a tree, dada.”

I had to email Carly to tell her about this one. He heard me blowing my nose in the parlor and came in and said “Ha. I thought it was mama.” Me: “Because I was blowing my nose?” Him: “Yeah.”

He played with cups in the sinks, then we brushed our teeth and went to the bathroom. He said “I want to go to the children’s museum and see the woman.” We left by 9:00.

On the first train he did a good job of using his words to communicate with a woman that kept touching him. First he said “I don’t like that. Don’t touch me.” Then, when she did it again, he got off the seat and said “I’m uncomfortable.” We transferred at Gunja and August stayed in the backpack most of the way on the second train. At one point he was staring down the train and doing a biting-his-thumb action repeatedly. Then just sucking his thumb, which was funny because he’s never sucked his thumb.

We got out at Olympic Park and went to CU and got the least meat-filled meal thing and a macaroni salad thing (which we wouldn’t eat today so would save). We talked about how he didn’t seem to like kimbap much recently: “I don’t like kimbap” “I’m getting tired of kimbap.” We then walked into the park, and he saw the big thumb sculpture and said “I like that sculpture…it’s coming out of the bottom to show how messy the poop is.”

Part of the park was closed at the south end for some concert or festival they were setting up for. Also cut off our easy access to the east, so we headed to the west and north. He saw a truck and started a “I want that truck, I want that truck, I want that truck in Israel” chant that turned into a song about how the truck had beans and ladders in it.

We walked up to the sculpture area south of the Baekje Museum and ate lunch by the alien leapfrog sculpture. We ate lunch and had a lot of fun. He saw a big golden retriever walk by and said “I want that dog in Israel because it’s not barking.” I had gotten a coffee drink at CU and he said “I don’t want the coffee because I don’t like coffee.” He got a stick and was poking me: “Poke, poke, poke. What your brain is saying? What your nerves are saying?” In talking about wanting a dog he said “I want three dogs in Israel because three people.” I also noted he didn’t want to get sandwiches at CU recently: “I don’t really like sandoo…I’m getting tired of sandoo because I don’t like it.”

We then spent a long time looking at sculpture as we walked to the north. We spent a lot of time at a piece called Childhood Memories. It is an odd, rusted sculpture with a horse in a metal box, a door that is only partly open, a face next to the door, a pair of footprints in front of a chair, a switch on the chair, and a wire going from the chair to the leg of the box that the horse is in. August squeezed through the door, compared his feet with the footprints, then sat in the chair and tried the switch and pulled on the wire.

We saw a few more sculptures and August took a couple photos of them, and he noticed some trees that had bark splitting open. And we stopped at my favorite sculpture, Elephant Man. August stood next to it and patted the little robot at the bottom. At a sculpture called News he pretended it was an instrument and made music. Then we found a sculpture called Bells. He pushed on the big metal pieces and was startled when it made a big noise. He then went and looked through a sculpture that is a big outline of a head with the words ‘Love Me’ cut into it. Next, we came across a sculpture that was called ‘Mama’ and he particularly liked the sign. Finally, we found a series of 4 nude metal sculptures in a row that look like they might be by the same artist that did the ones over on the other side of our park. August was amused that you could see all the bottoms.

We went to the bathroom, then made our wat to the playground at noon. He went across the rope bridge a few times. He fell a bit on it the first time, assessed himself, and said “I’m okay”. He then went to the Jeep and was shaking and jumping on it with other kids. He then went to the triangular climbing structure and zoomed up to the top. He then needed some explanation on how to get back down, but then did it just fine. Then back to the Jeep for a long time – swinging on the bar, a mother shaking it. It was really full and he seemed to like all the kids there. Back to climbing, and he went up and came down on his own. And then to the Jeep. It was packed and he stood on the bumper, humming the Smurfs song. Then got in the crowded back. Out at 12:35.

Back to the top of the climbing structure. Helped him over the top and he climbed down the black side a bit before going back up over the top with a little help and down the yellow side, and back to the Jeep.

About a quarter to 1 all the kids had left, then a few minutes later a group of teenagers came over while he was sitting in the back of the Jeep. He gave them high fives with his foot. When they started shaking the Jeep too much he wanted out. We went over to the bathroom and saw the poop bread place. So after the bathroom we went and got one, then finished it as we got him in the backpack.

We left at 1:05. We walked through the big square and then down by the lake, looking at the fountain and then the water wheel. He had a lot of questions about it, and we went back and forth from the wheel to looking at the inside part where it was turning the big hammer things. An old Korean man asked me to take his photo on his phone with the water wheel in the background. I figured there must be a story there I wish I could have heard.

We then walked back to the south end of the park, retracing our steps from earlier. We stopped at a stage to look at the disco ball (which he knows from that Cookie Monster song and someplace else). He was wearing his sunglasses and said “It’s shady over there, but it isn’t. That’s an optical illusion? Why? Why dada?” We said “Goodbye, Olympic Park” before we left.

We took the train to Children’s Grand Park and got there at 2:10. As we walked in the back entrance he said “Mama was a baby?” And was pointing “That one was a baby? Everyone was a baby? That bike was a
baby?”

He was hungry and said “I want a chewy thing. Can you please buy me a chewy thing?” To people at random he was saying “Do you have candy? Do you have candy? I want candy.” As we walked past a market area, a woman gave him freeze-dried apple and strawberry. We got to the big fountain and watched it for a couple minutes as the show ended. We went into the children’s museum and were playing with the blue blocks at 2:35. He added onto a fort a couple other kids were making and said “I’m building together.”

The same woman he had played with yesterday came and they played together. I told her (with the help of Translate) that August had wanted to come back to play with her. They played together most of the 40 minutes we were there. When he had built something he said “What that is?…Dinosaur with bones.” When she walked away he said “Where’s she going?” When she came back he told her “I made a curve.” He made a sculpture: “It’s a dragon coming out of someone’s bottom…” It continued from there, and I said I was happy she didn’t understand him too well.

He needed to use the bathroom, so we got ready to go, but then he was running around to other things in the basement. They played with the magnets for a couple minutes. He said  “One more thing…the robot!” We left at 3:25 and headed upstairs to the bathroom. He said “I’m comfortable with that woman, but not the other ones…I like all the people that work here.”

We then spent another 45 minutes up at the water area. We spent a lot of time with the tubes, making water turn the little water wheel and full up the shapes. He also figured out how to pull a rope hand over hand for the first time as we pulled up the bucket and dumped it out.

We left about 4:20. He wanted to look for turtles in the pond. Didn’t see any today, but saw bugs walking on the surface and we saw fish. Finally, at the UNESCO Little Prince/elephant statue/stairs thing he saw a bunch of bigger kids playing on it and wanted to go up and through. He couldn’t at first because it was full, but when it cleared out a bit he was able to do so. He then saw the kids sitting down in a row on the edge and ran over and sat down with them and scooted right next to a girl in a blue shirt. He then drew a crowd of them.

We headed home and got to Hagye at 5:10. On the platform he was looking up at the lights or something and said “If you had a very long  extendo arm you could tech that high?” He was then pointing at people and things: “That one used to be a baby? The elevator used to be a baby?”

We were home after 5:20. They nursed, then he ate some veggies and tofu, Not a lot, but he’d been eating good all day (we had stopped outside the children’s museum and he had eaten a bunch). Carly gave him a bath and skipped a hair washing day. We read Loch Mess Monster and Tallulah’s Tap Shoes. He told me he didn’t like me smelling like tea, so I went and got a breath mint and he said he liked that. He saw Carly slicing some cheese, so had some crackers and cheese. He then read part of a book in bed with Carly and went to sleep at 7:35.

Photos: 

Sculpture: 

Playground: 

Poop bread: 

Walking out: 

Children’s museum: 

Sitting with the kids: 

He was up before 6, then fell back to sleep on the couch for 10 or so minutes. He was just waking up when I came out. With Carly he took care of pillow, yellow circle thing, drumstick (that had eaten an insect), etc. as a doctor. We were playing

Animal Doctor while she left. We then went into the reading area to read: Loch Mess Monster, Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site, Frog and Toad, and Tallulah’s Tap Shoes (he wants to do both now). We had Cheerios and banana for breakfast. We then played a lot of the Doctor game taking care of objects. It kind of went on and on. Watched some Pink Panther and exercised, then more Pink Panther and showered. Followed by more taking care of objects. One was the box for the Teuni Spin Monster game and he wanted the cups to do the rolling like the picture on the box.

As we got ready to go he saw his tan hat and claimed of both his hats “They’re both getting small.” And he said “I want to go outside and eat letter cookies. Cookie Monster doesn’t eat then cuz he’s in Sesame Street.” When it came time to choose which shoes to wear he tried to choose my shoes before settling on the water shoes. I remembered to grab the picnic mat before we left, he said “I want TWO picnic mats.”

Got to Children’s Grand Park around 11:30. Got some kimbap to add to our lunch then went to find a picnic spot. But suddenly he decided “I don’t like picnics.” He’d seen a picture of a picnic in one of the books we read (Frog and Toad?), so quite a turn around. We ate by the rectangle pond, and he continued to talk about not liking things: “I don’t like trees because they get big. I want them small. I like SMALL things.” And he sang about how he didn’t like the smoothie drink (he doesn’t like the green one as much) “I don’t like the smoothie drink because of the flavor…It tastes like lemon…I don’t like the lemon…the lemon taste is unbelievable, unbelievable…”

We looked at the books, still no Ants Go Marching. Headed to the bathroom at 12:10. The big fountain was on, but he didn’t like it and put his fingers in his ears: “I don’t like the loud noise.” And in the bathroom he didn’t like the soap things (they have bars of soap on long rods that rotate up and down) being down:  “I like UP things.”

As we walked out of the bathroom he covered his ears for the fountain and for the tennis ball a guy was bouncing. I asked if he really didn’t like the sounds or if he was just being silly, and he said “silly”. We looked at the flowers on the way to the playground. He went up on the play structure for a minute, then was tagging kids going the other direction as he ran back down the ramp. He told me “I’m going under.” and we went to the underneath part and played with those rotating toy things, particularly the one with the balls stuck in it. He found a plastic bottle under the slide but needed my help to grab it.

We then went over to the faucets at the west end of the playground and played there for quite awhile. The only complaint was that August wanted the lower faucets to turn, instead of being push faucets, although he figured out how to do them on his own. We then sat at a covered bench and had some letter crackers, after which he saw older kids playing in the other set of faucets, the ones in a circle. When they started to clear out we went and played in that water. He particularly liked making one of them spray out of the water area and onto the sidewalk. Had to be careful that he didn’t spray anyone walking by.

We were done there at 1:30. He found a stick and asked Found stick “Is this our sticky?” He then wanted to hear all the stories about our lost things: “What happened to the buried one?” (Referring to a tennis ball we were burying and then left) “What happened to sticky 1?” “What happened to the shoe?” (The shoe we lost on a train) He put his shoes on his hands and was rubbing them on me, asking  “I’m sharpening dada?” He then sat on my lap and we took photos of his shoe hands. A tractor drove by again and he plugged his ears for it again (after it had gone by the drinking fountains earlier).

We then walked to the children’s museum. He got up on the deck area and said “Walking on boards where…played with bubble gun.”

We started playing at the children’s museum at 1:55. She showed him the handstamp and he said “Alien!” He ran into the Idea Transformer area and first went to recycling, where a bunch of kids were playing with it. He got a bit frustrated as he couldn’t get in to play, but then that group left and we played with it. From there he ran over and was playing with the black shape magnets on the board, and made a big L-shape shape out of them. He was just stepping back and telling me a couple times to “Look at my shape!” when a smaller girl came up and started playing with the magnets. He got so upset as I picked him up and comforted him: “I want MY shape!” “I liked my shape!” “Its mine! It’s mine!” After they left we went back and remade his shape (I’d taken a photo just as she she was about to play with it).

We then went to the building blocks area and spent a long, long time building what he said at one point was a city, although later he told Carly it was a playground. That was really a lot of fun. That kind of ended when he was stepping in front of a sensor that turns on a fan to blow some pinwheel things. He didn’t like the noise and was covering his ears and walking halfway across the room, even though it was a quiet sound. I showed him what was happening, and how he just needed to add to the opposite end of our city, but he was done. We played a bit more with the recycling, then went downstairs at 3:05.

There, he was able to turn all the robot wheel things for the first time, then finished up with a long stint playing with the blue blocks. There, he really liked the three songs that repeat: Thomas Newman’s Dead Already from American Beauty, Michel Portal’s James from the album Anyway, and a piano piece Aria Mit 30 by Sara Davis Buechner (although I listened to this later and Shazam got it wrong…need to find this one though, as he said “I really like it.”). A woman that works there came over and was playing with him – they were swinging the big long blue pieces at each other, and building things out of them. He played with one as an extendo arm and said “I can reach high with my extendo arm”.

We left because he needed to use the bathroom. Went up to the second floor for that, then he wandered up to the construction site and played with the lift belt that takes the bricks to the second floor. He said “It’s like an extendo arm.” I thought that was a pretty cool connection to make. He then went to the little garden area and was planting things. He wanted the watering can. There used to be one, but it has vanished. I got out his water bottle and he was happy with that: “Water this. Now it will grow.” Back in the construction area he did some light drawing, then ran off. Which was a problem, because by the time I extricated myself from the small house area with the backpack, I wasn’t sure if he’d gone on the down ramp or the up ramp. Luckily, a worker instantly told me he had gone up.

Up by the water area I took him aside and got him to focus and talked about not running off. He said he understood. He mainly played with another of the ball shooters that shoots the balls up a jet of water, then they roll down a track and into the tub with a funnel of water in it and fall through it. However, kids keep putting more than one ball in at once, meaning they then don’t have enough pressure to get over the top and get stuck in the tube. You have to stick your hand in and grab them out, and try to not get squirted by the jet of water in the process. You end up getting squirted by the jet of water in the process.

Anyway, around 4 I was trying to tell him it was time to go home. He kept saying “Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Don’t do th
at!” We agreed on 3 more minutes, but it was more like 10, and we left at 4:20.

We had a snack out front. He stole my apple slice from me at one point. At 4:38 I said it was time to go. “No. I don’t like leaving.” We walked across the pond and I spotted a turtle. After it swam away he didn’t want to leave: “But I want to look for more now.”

We were on a train at 4:50 and he ate most of a Larabar. We got home a bit past 5:20. He was falling asleep when they nursed, so she put on Beethoven’s Ninth to keep him away. He ate a little dinner, then they had some popsicle. I tried to get him to repeat what he’d said earlier about trees, but he changed his story: “I like trees because they’re not the people.” Carly gave him a bath, and afterwards he was plugging his ears as he continued to watch some Pink Panther. We read Hole in the King’s Sock before he went to sleep a little before 7:30.

Photos. Picnic of sorts: 

Plugging his ears: 

Smelling flowers: 

Tractor: 

Shoe hands: 

Tractor comes back: 

Girl playing with his shape: 

Building the city: 

Blue blocks: 

Planting: 

Watching Pink Panther: 

He was up around 6:00. When I got up and came out of the bathroom a couple minutes later, he excitedly said “Happy Birthday!” as he jumped up and down, half naked, as Carly was taking his diaper off. We walked Carly to the elevator a bit later, then took the next elevator down, sans bike or backpacks. Walked across to the park and patted the mama statue, then we spent some time throwing rocks off the wooden bridge, then he came down and got more and threw them around. He asked about animals eating rocks: “Ants eat rocks?…All animals doesn’t eat rocks?”

He then led a walk that led us across the street to the other side of the park, then through it, up to the crosswalk, then by Home Plus where we looked at all the pipes and at three bicycles locked to the fence out front. He kept trying to get on the last bike, and got upset when I wouldn’t let him. I took him across the street, back to the park, where it took him a few minutes to calm down. He kept trying to head back to Home Plus, and would do his skip/shuffle thing as he slowly went that way, then I would go get him before he could get to the parking lot.

He calmed down and found a round plastic thing that he was able to roll a bit. We were then turning on the water faucets and watching it go down the drains. We walked to our side, and he found a pink bottle on the bridge and wanted to fill it with water. As we walked to the faucets on our side, he sung “I don’t like those three people. I sucked them up with my bottle.” About people sitting on the covered benches. He filled the bottle with water and poured it out for awhile, then we headed home at 8:10.

He played with some of the random toys (plastic circle things, drumsticks, etc.) on the floor for some time, then we had oatmeal and blackberries for breakfast. He was hungry/liked it as he basically had two packs on his own. Watched Pink Panther, exercised, watched videos about oats, and I took a shower. Before I took my shower he had come in and grabbed one of his bath cups. I’d then made sure he was back on the iPad, playing something. But when I got out of the shower he came in, put the cup back in the container of toys, and said “I was playing with this cup. I was filling it with water.” He had been in Carly’s bathroom doing it.

He played with his extendo arm for awhile, then said “I want to throw this away…I’m done with it.” and we put it back in with the plastic recycling, where he had gotten it from two or three weeks ago. He then played with bottles in the sink, went to the bathroom, and I got snacks ready to go. We left around 10:15.

We walked east, winding our way through all the construction over past Home Plus. When we walked by the buddhist temple he saw the lanterns and said “I want more lanterns at gramma and grampa’s.” Walking by the construction site, we smelled a burning smell and he said “Well, I don’t like that smell.” And when he saw a lift truck he said he wanted it and “I want to lift the fake grass in Israel.”

We got to the science center about 10:50. Inside, we first admired the lockers set up like the periodic table of elements. The building itself is pretty impressive, although as a science center it was a little sterile and had some big gaps (nothing really about physics or astronomy, for example).

Before we got in to any of the exhibits we could tell that the place was still a work in progress: the escalator to the second floor was cool because you can see through the side to see how it works. However, they weren’t yet operating.

The first floor was called ‘Harmony’, and about the Han River environment. There was a binoculars thing where you pointed them at different parts of the Han River and videos played in them, some exhibits that weren’t working yet, and a promising sign: a place where you could build bridges with K’Nex and then test them to see how much weight they could hold. Well, sort of. There was a two or 3kg weight, but nothing beyond that. We played with those for a couple minutes, then he wanted to go to the next floor.

The second floor was called ‘Life’ We looked at the spectrograms (I think that’s what they’re called) of a few elements and liked the colors, and then at these kind of cool growth charts that show you how people age. He also used a microscope camera to look at his shirt and his hair and skin.

Before the next floor he found a Tayo water fountain and played with that for probably ten minutes. Third floor was ‘Network’ and had a whole section about units of measurement: length, mass, light, temperature, etc. He measured his height and arm span, then played with the weights and then the camera that shows you pixels. But by far the best part was the exhibit on brains. No real brains, but a display that charted the brain size and mass of animals, and you could guess which was which. He really liked the little tiny mouse brain.

Also on the third floor, although I think we found it on our way down, was a display on motors. You could make the jet engine go and the model of a plane would fly around a pretty cool display (there was also a train). August didn’t like the noise though, and in fact didn’t like a lot of noises in the science center, so had his fingers in his ears a lot of the time and kept saying “What you said?” when he then didn’t understand what I said.

On the fourth and final floor (‘Circulation’) there were exercise bikes that generated electricity (unfortunately, as was most everything here, only in adult sizes, so he couldn’t do it on his own). There was a moving sculpture (showing big data) that he liked. Then the best thing: a display about how they generate power from the gasses from a landfill (August and I have been to the parks on top of it). You turn a wheel and then these colorful lights go up and through the pipes. He wanted to see that over and over.

Finally on that floor was a place you could pump air into a chamber until it built up pressure, then push a button and it would release the air into tubes and force up a couple disks.

He needed to go to the bathroom, so we did that. He was amazed that everything in the bathroom (except the soap dispenser, oddly) had a sensor and he played with the faucet. We went back to the fourth floor and did the lights thing some more. Then went up to the roof, where we admired the view back towards our apartment and also looked at the flowers. The path on the roof goes in sort of a U shape, then down stairs on the other side to a different set of doors. Which was locked (they also hadn’t figure out how they were letting people in for free today: generally, to get into exhibits they have turnstile things that only open if you have a wristband. They didn’t give out wristbands, so some floors had the wheelchair doors open. Others had the turnstiles open. And at others the attendants seemed confused why they weren’t opening for you and then you had to ask them to pus their buttons. As we left, they had decided to give people wristbands, so we skipped going back in the first floor again because I didn’t want to get a wristband for two minutes). Anyway, we retraced our steps and went back in and I went and unlocked the other set of doors for the next person.

We looked each of the floors (except the first) on our way back down because he wanted to see them again. He liked the temperature sensor. On the first floor he played with the Larvae drinking fountain. I mentioned looking in the coffee shop and he said “I’m going to get coffee. Zinnie’s going to get coffee.” We looked and they had some sandwiches, but he really wanted Korean food for lunch. He played with the polished rocks in the gift shop then we got going.

Outside, there is a place where you can lift a bus by yourself using the magic of pulleys. I pulled it up as much as it will let you (the tires just barely start to get off the ground), then he was pulling on it. Oh, and he was wearing his sunglasses both going and coming back. He a
lso really liked the fountain by the entrance so we went and looked at the little stream.

On the walk home we were looking for a place to eat. I spotted a Chinese place and he changed his mind and wanted Chinese. We were the only people there, and ordered the beef fried rice (which came with a bean dark sauce thing that he really liked) and friend mandu (after they were out of two other kinds). It also came with the usual Korean sides (including kimchi that was pretty good) and a bowl of spicy soup. For less than 10 bucks. A ton of food. As we ate, the cook brought a bowl of egg drop soup out for August as the other was too spicy.

We then walked to 골마을근린공원. He got on one of the exercise machines where you swing your legs forward and back and could do it on his own (although it made me a bit nervous). Then down at the playground he went on a swing. There was dog poop under the other swing though, and he didn’t like the smell, and wanted to leave the playground after he spent a few minutes throwing rocks around.

We walked back through our park and across the rainbow bridge. At some point we saw a baby and I said something about being nice to it. He said “I don’t want to be nice at the baby. I want to be MEAN at the baby.” On our side he heard a dog barking and spotted a separate big dog. He sat on his bike backwards and watched them. He said of the big one “Stop licking. I don’t want it to lick me.” It wasn’t close to him. He then said “I want the barking one in Israel.”

We got home at 3:30. We had talked about where meat comes from at the restaurant. He decided he likes meat and now said “I’m going to buy a steak. I want to buy meat! I want to buy bubble gum ice cream!” There was a lot of talk about getting me a cake as he knew we were thinking of getting one later and couldn’t wait: “I want to buy you a cake. I want to buy a cake now because it’s dada’s birthday…” I took some time to rest, then we both worked up energy to go outside and left at 4:30.

We stopped at Juicy Juice. He got mango and I got mixed berry. We walked over to the Bye Fuzzy playground and finished our juice. He then watched some kids playing a card game, but then really wanted to join in, but we didn’t know how to play. He kept trying to grab the box and got upset when I took him away. He calmed down and ran over to the play structure. Up top he found two jump ropes tied to a post, seemingly abandoned. I was down below. A girl spotted him and she and another girl ran up to retrieve their jump ropes. August was NOT happy about this at all, and was strongly holding onto one when I got up there. I got him and took him down and talked to him. He had just calmed down enough and wanted to go back to play. He ran about 10 steps back towards the play structure and stumbled and fell on his knees, scraping his left one a bit.

When he calmed down a bit we headed home. He wanted to look at cakes at Baskin Robbins, so we did that. I realized I wasn’t too impressed by the flavors of ice cream in the cakes. We then walked down by the pink building, as it was just 5, and met Carly at the corner. Talking about cake, we walked by Mainz Dom and smelled what smelled like fresh brownies. Sadly, there was nothing so good inside. August and Carly liked the popsicles though, and I saw individual pieces of cake. So we got those in lieu of a cake. Sadly, the woman didn’t get my cake order correct and we didn’t realize until we got home and I didn’t really like one at all. The other was okay.

At home they nursed and he was falling asleep, but perked up at the mention of cake. Ate some dinner first, then had the cake and popsicle. After that he said “I want to nurse because nursing is a treat.”

Carly gave him a bath, and he was asleep a bit before 7:30. Carly had him say “Happy Birthday” one more time before going to sleep.

Morning walk: 

He came out at 7:05. Sat in the hall several minutes waking up and started to act kind of silly. Didn’t want underwear on. We went in on the reading area and read Loch Mess Monster. Carly Skyped with us for a few minutes. He got a hair in his mouth but we got it out. After we said bye we finished reading the book, then he wanted to play Mammals. Did that, then Human Body and found a Korean app that he watched/played with a bit. He wanted Cheerios and banana for breakfast. He got his headphones out of the bowl and wanted to listen to them. We were listening to Erasure (which he liked: “Add it to your playlist!”) and listened to some with his headphones. He told me to talk, and that he couldn’t hear me: “Dada say something…I can’t hear you! I’m plugging my ears!”

 

He played on the iPad and exercised, then took a shower. He had started to play Elmo’s Animals though and wanted my help, so came and waited somewhat impatiently for me. We played that for a few minutes. He acted out the animals, then there is a sort of memory game, where you match cards with animals on them. He liked that, but when we went up to the second level there is a timer. He did not liked the idea of a timer at all, so that was the end of that.

 

I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich and he ate a quarter, and had some peanut butter on his spoon. He got the red and white soccer ball and was throwing it around. I got him to kick it, and we were kicking it back and forth pretty well. He also said “I don’t like bouncy things because they roll away.”

 

He was sort of playing with his ‘skateboard’ and out of nowhere said “I don’t like Megan.” I was asking why, and he then said “I don’t love Megan.” So we discussed the difference between like and love, applying it to all sorts of things. At one point he asked “Dada LIKES this song? Dada doesn’t LOVE it?” “Why dada doesn’t love it?” And he went and did something to the garbage can and said “I’m playing in the garbage.” “Dada doesn’t like Zinnie cuz Zinnie was playing in the garbage?”

 

And he also, on his own, was saying “I’m not comfortable with Megan.”

“I don’t like Megan. I’m UNCOMFORTABLE with Megan.” “I’m uncomfortable with Uncle Paul.” And ended with “I’m uncomfortable with a lot of people.” I was then asking him who he was comfortable or uncomfortable with. His answers changed a bit through the day, but at first he said he was comfortable with sangsaengnim and Jenny, but uncomfortable with Cora. And he sometimes gave reasons. When I asked about Olivia, the girl from the playground, he said “I’m UNcomfortable with her. BECAUSE I wanted to play with the toys.” I asked who else he is comfortable with and he said “The trees…the trees are people.”

 

We spent some time rolling up the bandage. He’d then unroll it, but wanted it rolled back up, and without any bumps. Did it a few times, then brushed his teeth and we left at 10:50. We heard someone being loud in an apartment across the hall – singing or chanting or something – and August was interested in that. On the way through the park we forgot to pat the mama statue. When I mentioned it he wanted to go back and do it, so we did.

 

On the train up to Dobongsan he ate some banana bread, then sang “More is a number…counting more…more and more and more…” to the tune of “It’s O.K.” We went to get bop burgers at the station, only to find that the bop burger place has been replaced with a Korean snack food place. We got some kimbap instead and walked into the Iris Garden. As we walked through the sun he sang, to Ode to Joy:

 

It’s not shady

It’s not shady

It’s not shady

It’s not shady

 

(Repeat)

But it’s shady over there

It is shady over there…

 

We went up to the picnic tables in the trees and ate lunch. As we ate, he said “I want peanut butter. I want the song.” Meaning the “Peanut, peanut butter, and jelly” song I only knew one line of. We found the lyrics. When he was done with his juice he said “pretty much gone”.

 

At about noon we headed to recycling and stopped at the water faucets to play. He could press the faucets on his own. I put his hat on him and he wore it for a few minutes without complaint. He was done at 12:10 and we went to the bathroom.

 

We got walking up to the stream. Stopped at our hat stand (where I got my tan hat) and he liked a bright blue hat that he tried on with the help of the woman that worked there. Later, as we walked up, I mentioned his glasses and he asked where they were. I said “In my pocket.” He asked “It’s closed?” I assured him “Its closed.” Him: “So it won’t come out?”

 

At the stream we started playing. I was floating the boat down, but he was concerned that it would escape. We used a rock to block up the stream in the one place it could keep going. He threw rocks for awhile, then was unhappy when I put sunscreen on him. He wore his hat for a bit before taking it off. He was scooping water into the boat and into his shoes. I got him to put his hat back on by saying “Wear it for ten seconds.” He counted to ten , then said “That means you’re getting used to it?” and kept wearing it. He continued to playing on his own, filling his shoe “the fish spitted it out. The whale is spitting it out.”

 

Then a couple of kids showed up. August picked up all his toys and his shoes and watched them. They were wading in the water, and he started to wade like them. He eventually set his stuff down except for the blue cup. They boy and girl had a white cup, and August really wanted it. I think he was almost ready to trade at one point, but it didn’t happen. Eventually, he wanted to put all of his stuff in the backpack, so we did that.

 

The boy was throwing rocks, so I was getting rocks for August, and the grandmother gave him some too. The boy showed August a rock and he took it, then the boy gave him a second rock. I suggested August give him two rocks as well, and August did. August then slipped while throwing and got a bit wet, but recovered.

 

Played for a few minutes, then we got going in the backpack and headed up to Bukhansan National Park. We washed our hands, then sat on a bench over near our usual lunch spot. He called him his “bread snacks” as he had finished up the banana bread, the quarter of leftover french toast, and the peanut butter sandwich. Unfortunately, he didn’t really like the kimbap. When those were gone though he ate some apple. A little bug was bothering him, so we got going, first using the bathroom. Then he spotted a little trail down by the stream and we went and looked down there a bit.

 

On the way out of the park he spotted the fire danger scale and we spent several minutes discussing it. Difficult, as he’s quite unclear about fire in general. Very curious about it and the sign though. Then we got our last Seoul Trail stamp. We walked back down the hill. He didn’t want to stop at a coffee shop. As we went through the shops area he commented on all the shoes he liked. I wanted something to drink though so we stopped at what used to be the Mug and Spoon and is now a convenience store and I got a cold latte drink. August said he needed to go to the bathroom, so we got going quick. As I paid he looked at the guy and said “I like that guy.”

 

We got back to Iris Garden at 3:30 and went to the bathroom. He then played with the drinking fountains again, doing the footprint game. I asked him why he liked the guy “Not sure. I just liked the guy.” At 3:50 he wanted to go up to the coffee shop and have a look. I sang the “so much” song and he was changing to include other people, like me, grandparents, etc. like our “loves August, loves Zinn” song. At the coffee shop I was g
oing to let him have either apple juice or a San Pellegrino, but he pointed to just a bottle of water and said he just wanted water. So I just got out his water bottle and he was fine with that and we didn’t stay at the coffee shop. Out on the deck area he looked out at the Iris Garden for a few minutes and we left at 4.

 

He was still hungry when we got to Hagye Station so we sat on a bench on the platform and he ate the last of the pine nuts. He then asked about losing our Stickies – that is, our sticks that we keep in the backpack for writing in the sand, etc. We lost the first stick when he dropped it as we walked to Dongdaemun.

 

We were home at 4:35. We listened to his playlist, and he liked it – he said he really liked one of the Woody Guthrie songs. He was then shaking the Listerine from Carly’s bathroom, and I was out in the hall seeing if we could fix the foot platforms on his bike. Got them on, and he wanted to try it out, so we went over to the elevators, waited a minute, and surprised Carly when she came off.

 

Back in the apartment they nursed, then he played in sinks with bottles. Ate some food and had some orange juice. Then played Mammals. I complained that he just fed the bats over and over again and he said “I want Dada to do it. But it’s my favorite.” He then was on GarageBand when Carly wanted to take him in for a shower: “But I’m playing GarageBand!” Carly lured him to the bathroom with Sesame Street songs. He played for quite awhile in the bath, then we read Mulberry Street and half of The Butter Battle Book before he was clearly ready for sleep. He was asleep by 7:50. 

Photos: 

Stream:

Holding all the things: 

Hiding the cup in his shirt: 

Snack: 

Fire danger: 

Footprint game: 

Looking out at the Iris Garden: 

He was up a bit after 7. Carly took down the blanket to the fifth floor to put it in the washing machine, then made him scrambled eggs. They then added to their door ball path and Skyped with Cherie. When I got Cheerios August wanted his own bowl so I got him some. I went and moved the blanket to the dryer. I spent quite awhile trying to find the Allen wrench to take apart the rocking chair. And they did some art together, decorating their drawing with stickers. When I found the allen wrench August helped to start taking apart the rocking chair.

They went down and got the blanket and I took a shower. They then went outside and I finished our taxes and did dishes, etc. They went to the Spiderweb Playground where he rode around on an abandoned bike a bit then they got Bugles at the little store and went and ate them on a rock in the park. They then played at the Madeul playground before heading home. Along the way they found one of those carts with a broom in it and no one around so he played with the broom. There was some exercise equipment he had wanted to play on but they walked past it, but he remembered it at home.

They were home at 12:45. I was listening to a Yaz album and he wanted to add it to his playlist. They went in and nursed and he locked me out of the parlor. He wouldn’t tell me what they did so I had to get it out of Carly. I gave him a few lunch ideas but he didn’t like them. I asked “Are you being picky?” Shook his head, gave me a thumbs up, and said “Yes”. But I made a grilled cheese and broccoli sandwich and he ate it just fine.

He then spent a long time helping me take things apart and pack. First, we took apart the rest of the rocking chair. Carly made us a smoothie while we did that and he really liked it and told Carly a couple times. On the chair, he was getting better and better turning the wrench. We then took apart one of his sets of green shelves. He used the small screwdriver and got a couple screws, then helped get the rest out with his hands at the end. Carly was cooking and he walked up and said “I like the smell.” We then took down his growth charts (but first measured him – nearly 96cm) and rolled them up and put them in a small tube. We took down his Korean posters. Threw the one ripped one by the door away, but kept the others. He particularly talked about how he likes the one in the changing room: “I still like it though…I like the colors…I like the pictures.”

While we were doing all of this we were also ripping his Teuni Teuni CDs to iTunes and listening to them. He liked hearing the songs from class and added them to his playlist. We then took down the photos from the wall and the refrigerator. His job was to put them in the big envelope. At first he needed help opening the envelop to put in photos, but then he figured it out. He seemed amazed that I had a big envelope and kept talking about that. He was also asking about and identifying people in the photos. 

At some point he found his hat in my shorts pocket and took it out. He said “I don’t like the feeling of hats.” But he’d seen the “Let Zinn Zinn do it for now” video and had been saying he wanted to wear a hat again. So he tried on his old hat and said it felt better. So we’ll try that in the coming days and see how it works.

Out on the couch talking to Carly I mentioned we had three weeks before we leave. August said “No, 4 weeks.” So some moments of hesitation, but still doing quite well with all the talk of going to the United States and Israel.

We all headed out on a walk at 4:30. In the elevator he started to say “I don’t like that person” to the other people in the elevator. When we got off we talked to him about it. He said “I like mama and dada but I don’t like strangers.” Carly got him to say “I’m uncomfortable around strangers.” and he seemed to like that sentence.

We stopped at Mama Juice. He got banana and Carly and I got coffee drinks. I sang Lost My Helmet on our walk. August plugged his ears but kept demanding I sing it. He kept asking “What you said?” as I talked to Carly, even as he had his ears plugged.

We got to Chrysanthemum Park. He said “I don’t like to share.” as he went over to the play structure. Carly watched as he climbed the climbing wall then went around the structure. He even walked the board alongside the rope bridge all on his own. When he got around to the top of the shaky platform area I got up to help and Carly went and sat down. He stood on the shaky platform, shaking it around for a few minutes. He then climbed back up to the top on his own. Next thing I knew he ran off across the bridge and went down the slide and ran over to the water.

I saw a guy help him turn it on as I went down the slide to join him. But then August was doing it all on his own, standing on tip toes. Early in the week when we went I was holding him up so he could do it. He then ran over to the empty swing and climbed up and on it quickly. I said he did it “so fast”. So he then ran around the swing several times, jumping on. After a couple minutes he got off and ran over to the exercise equipment and was able to hang on and do the swinging one on his own. He’s definitely gotten taller… He wanted the back massage ones, so I held him up and rubbed him against those and he started laughing.

He then ran to Carly and it looked like we were going to go. but as we walked across the playground he spotted an orange bike and wanted to get on it. The grandmother next to it encouraged him, and I ended up pushing him around the playground several times. It was a bike with training wheels. This, at least, was just a little too big for him, as the pedals were a bit too far away for him to turn completely. There was a girl that got hurt and he was concerned about her. When she and her mom came out of the bathroom he wanted to ride over and take a closer look.

He got off the bike and ran over to the green catepillar thing. There were girls playing on it who had been up on the shaky platform earlier. He sat on the end while they made it shake. He then needed to use the bathroom and Carly took him and I sat down and did some reading.

I continued to read while they went and played in the sand. He was digging and throwing a little ball around with another girl, but he had a couple of the small yogurt drink containers that he was being very possessive about, holding on to them so no one else could use them. August went over and climbed into the hexagon area, then played there for a long time, filling the containers and pouring sand back and forth. Then he was pouring sand down his shirt.

We headed home and I went to Lucky Mart to get some groceries and they headed home. I bought frozen mandu and peanut sauce, and when I got home I made that for me and August to eat. But he only liked the outside of the mandu, so ate some of that. I then heated up some broccoli and and dipped that in teriyaki sauce for him and he ate a little of that as well.

Carly gave him a bath, then he brought the whale to me and wanted to take care of it. We removed the plastic from its stomach. I had to find the AAA batteries to get his flashlight to work. He then put a bandaid on the whale’s stomach. In bed we read Seuss’s Mulberry Street and he went to sleep about 8:15.

Photos:

Out with Carly:

Helping roll the growth charts: 

Turning the water on: 

Taking care of the whale: 

He was up at 7. He had Cheerios for breakfast then they nursed and then looked at his visual dictionary. Read Frida at some point. He wanted a ball so he could hold it under his arm like a girl in the book. He then saw a picture of math, and wanted to do math on paper, so they did that. They then skyped with Vivian and Colin. August saw one of them wearing boots and he wanted his snow boots and was upset to find that we had already given his snow boots away. I got recycling ready to take down, repairing our paper bag with tape when it was falling apart – it just needs to last three more weeks. August wanted to go down with me but wasn’t dressed. Carly got him ready and they took down the garbage and we came back up together.

He wanted to stay in the hall so we stayed and Carly went inside. We looked at a bike for several minutes. We then went in and all got ready to go to Hongik University as Carly was getting her hair cut at noon.

We left at 10:15. We took the bus to Kwangwoon University, then line 1. He sat on a pink seat the whole time and speculated about who he might have to give it up to. At some point he and I read a couple books on the iPad, including Peppa’s Ballet Class and Loch Mess Monster.

We walked to Hair and Joy. Just before we got there he saw an orange cone on the side of the street and wanted to play with it but was upset when we wouldn’t let him. It was about 11:50 and Carly went up to Hair and Joy. I stayed with August outside. He was frustrated I wouldn’t let him go back to where the cone was. Eventually I picked him up and carried him up to the park. Took awhile for August to calm down. When he did we had some of the leftover french toast and apple for a snack. It is kind of an odd park, as most of the people you see in it are walking through. One older woman was really bothering August and eventually the man that was with her was yelling from the other side of the park for her to get going. Then a younger hungover/drunk couple wandered through and were talking to him. They went and sat a little ways away.

August was singing on his own, then playing the vacuum game. The drunk/hungover woman tried talking to him from where she was and he was telling her to go away. August was distracted by a still construction crane across the street and played with his broom, pretending to sweep the crane. Carly said the hair place was running late, but luckily he was doing okay, and a slightly older boy came and got on the teeter totter. August wanted to get on the end and they went up and down for awhile. The boy left and we played with it a bit more, then he climbed on a couple of shape things that are in the sand. He took his shoe off and used it to scoop up sand.

August was starting to want to go find mama. We talked about how he could see her, but then we’d have to sit and wait. Eventually he seemed okay with that. And good timing. A guy came along and offered him an ice cream bar in a box. I gave it back and tried to explain we were about to go eat lunch. The guy wouldn’t desist, and took it out and opened the package and tried giving it to August. Eventually he relented, but the damage had been done: August knew I wasn’t letting him have ice cream.

Luckily, he didn’t get too upset, and just kept talking about it as we walked to Hair and Joy. The boy had had a gold balloon, and as we walked I figured out why: there were people handing out free ice creams and gold balloons.

We got there at 12:50 went up and saw Carly and then sat down. A worker instantly came over and set a bowl of candy right in front of August. Sigh. August had two chewy candies: a strawberry and peach. A bit later he found a white squishy one and we shared it because I was curious. Carly was done sometime after 1.

We headed to the west, making our way across the main street and up some back streets. August slowed us down, but we finally made it to Jil’hal Bros, a little Middle Eastern fast food place. We got a lamb over rice bowl and a combo bowl and headed to a nearby children’s park. Found a nice walking street, with grass and trees in the middle, along the way that we didn’t know about.

Got to 동교어린이공원 and sat down to eat. August ate a little but didn’t seem impressed and ran off to play on his own. He found a plastic cup and could turn on the water on his own and was happily filling the cups and pouring them on the sand. The food was okay, but drowning in a white sauce. But it was fun for us to be able to sit and eat while August played.

Eventually, Carly went and played with him and they went over to the play structure and then one of those exercise bikes/game things. He could sit on the bump in the middle and figured out how to pedal correctly and made some of the lights light up.

Back in the sand area over kids had shown up and were playing with the numerous plastic cups. This caused problems though, as August wanted to brush some sand off a platform that another boy had put up there, then he wanted the big full cup that another boy was playing with. Tried to distract him by having him pour water down a pipe thing, but two girls were packing it full of sand. We did it once, but then it was too full to put more water in and he got really upset. Took him over to our bench and we almost left as he just kept watching and being upset: “But there’s not even a kid…but, but, but…NOW GO…go back…”

But then the girls moved on and I thought it would be good to end on a happy note, so we went back and worked together to get as much sand out as we could, then went and got water and poured it in and eventually cleaned out the pipe. We did a few more cups, then I was tired of lifting him up each time so I just brought him cups of water. He said “thank you” to me a few times when I brought them. There was a smaller girl who got up and played in the mud we were making and would squeal with joy when more water came out of the pipe.

After a few minutes I negotiated how many more cups. He said 10. I countered with 5. He said 7. I said 6. He said 7. Tough negotiator. We did 7 more and then he was fine with leaving.

We got in the backpack after they went to the bathroom one more time and left at 3:20. We walked south towards Hapjeong Station to make the trip back easier. We considered getting coffee along the way, and August certainly wanted to go to a coffee shop, but decided we were full enough.

As we walked he wanted to stop to look at some octopuses in a tank. He said he wanted one in Israel. I said “You want a pet octopus in Israel?” He said “A soft one. Not one in the ocean.” I figured out he wanted a stuffed octopus: “Like Marshy?” I asked. That was it: “I want a stuffed octopus in Israel!” I then asked what he’d name his stuffed octopus and he said “88”. We joked about just calling it 8, or he suggested “eightypus” or “eightpus” at one point, but I think he settled on ‘88’.

We got home at 5:15. Carly went from the bus to the store for a few things. They nursed and I made him rice, broccoli, and cheese for dinner. He played Mammals and ate a good amount for dinner. We read part of Green Eggs and Ham and Carly took a shower. He watched some Pink Panther, then Carly gave him a bath. He filled the bath with toys and played with them. And played with them. And played with them. Standing up, of course. Eventually, about a half hour later, at 8, he started to put them all away. On his own.

We went in to the bedroom to read. He wanted to choose books in the parlor. I told him not too many, and he asked how many. I said three, and he came in with three books. We read one Bob Book, about tomcats, and we got him dressed and he was silly for a bit, then Carly got him to sleep at 8:30.

 

Another bike:

Sitting on the pink seat:

Sweeping the crane: 

Shoe off: 

Smelling candy: 

Watching the water go down: 

Mud tower: 

Getting to pour water: 

He, and by extension Carly, was up from 3 to 4:30. He then woke up at 7:20. Opened the door but then closed it when he heard me. Opened it again to whisper “Where’s mama?” and got upset when she wasn’t here. When he calmed down he wanted to go out in the hall. I offered him the black pair of sandals and he said  “No. The ones for when you’re in a stream or lake.” We put those on him, then I put his black shoe on my toes and he flatly told me “Well that doesn’t even fit.” We went and wandered the hallway. He sang a little song: “Which letter you push, which number you push, dada push a number…” We stopped at a set of bikes. He sat down and studied a bike lock. Then kept pushing the bike across the floor as he studied it. That lasted several minutes until I was tired pulling it back across the floor. On the way back he hid behind a bag hanging from someone’s door for milk deliveries.

Back inside, he wanted to go back outside, but after some banana bread he wanted to play Mammals, just as I had changed and was ready to leave. He played that, I exercised, and he wanted the other new app: Space. We played that, and he once again read ‘Jupiter’ on his own. Really don’t know how he learned to read that one (he did it once at the children’s museum as well). He played with the vacuum cleaner while I hung up laundry, then I took a shower.

After my shower we used a music app called Lily to make a sort of song, then listened to that for awhile and he played with the blueberries. For lunch we had a quesadilla and teriyaki chicken sandwich. I realized we’d be having Tospia sandwiches for dinner and that August wouldn’t really get veggies, but then I realized I could add broccoli to both the quesadilla and sandwich.

We talked about going outside a few times, but it didn’t happen until after noon. We were talking about what to do, and I said that if we went to Dream Forest the water might be on. He replied “I don’t want to do that. Water is wet.” Finally, we got going at close to 1. I had the backpack ready to go, but then he decided he wanted the bike instead. So I switched to that. It worked out, as it made our meandering trip to APIS a bit easier, as we could stop and take our time along the way more easily.

As we walked we sang random songs, and I sang our even numbers song. He wanted it to go to 100, so we extended it. Then I realized it could also be an odd numbers song and we went to 101. I like when I see him extending rules/testing hypotheses, and this time he asked “201 is an odd number? Because it ends with 1?”

We got to the first park before 1:30. We were to get sandwiches and meet Carly at 4:30, so we had about two and a half hours for playing and exploring. Unfortunately, August knew the plan but just wanted to jump to the meeting mama part. So he didn’t want to stop at 매봉어린이공원 until he saw the faucets. We played in the water and got the blue cup thing out of the bike and played with that, pouring water down the drain. When he was done with that he went to the play structure and climbed up the round steps once, then went down a slide. Spent a little time on a swing, then went and got on the bike. I had left the backpack on the seat, so he climbed on with it and had me push him around. He was kind of crouched down so his body made a Zish shape: “I’m Z!…I’m a P!…I’m an upside down V!” He was remembering the song from Poli class. We ended up over at the apartment playground just adjacent. Didn’t play there, but he found a feather that we guessed was from a pigeon. Played with that, then he opened a zipper on the backpack, put the feather in, and closed it on his own.

We then got going, and he was pulling the cover down far to give him some shade. We went through Wolgye Station, then were walking by the construction site. I was suggesting a coffee shop, but he kept rejecting them (we passed at least 4) as he wanted to get to mama. He hopped off by the showroom building, and played with the green netting that is used as a fence around it. He used his hands as monsters on it, and said they were eating plastic in the ocean, then wanted me to take care of them (remembering a few days ago when we took care of a Duplo whale that had eaten plastic). Played with the fence for ten minutes or so, then got going.

Our next stop was Sinchang Children’s Park (신창어린이공원). There, he was excited about going in the toddler swing. He wanted me to do it, but I told him I wouldn’t fit. He stood up in it and was swinging. We went and had some dried mango for a snack, and he was sitting on his bike and picked up a cone-shaped ice cream wrapper and played with it, putting it on the ends of the handle bars before calling it “Elmo’s vacuum cleaner” and then was breaking up sticks to put in it: “I sucked up the icky sticks.” There kept being an occasional sound from an apartment building – kind of sounded like a lift, but we couldn’t see it – that he didn’t like, and we left at 3:15.

As we were walking today I realized he was humming the Pink Panther song a lot, and also that “Sentimental Wars” song that he likes.

Finally, we got to our third park,  각심어린이공원, the sometimes-water park across from APIS. The water wasn’t on (didn’t really expect it). He went down and ran around it for a minute, but then needed a bathroom. We used the little bathrooms there, then walked across to the faucets to wash his hands. He was done with that playground, so I pushed him to the other end of the park and to playground #4 on the day. This one finally stuck, in that he played there for more than 10 minutes. But first, we took quite awhile eating banana bread. And he took my hat and put it on his head, first forwards, then backwards. But then he saw some girls go start climbing on the spiderweb thing and he went and climbed on it for several minutes with them. Then up on the play structure, where he played around and then tried out the periscope after another boy was using it.

I had to remind him of seeing mama to get him going. We walked up to Tospia, and ordered three sandwiches. August saw the smoothie drinks on the menu, so got a strawberry yogurt one. While we waited we watched a bit and Igot out the notebook and he was drawing spirals.

Got to Carly’s classroom at 4:30 and ate and they nursed and August started playing around. But he was happy to go see some music and art. First to the auditorium where we saw the orchestra play Ob-La-Di and then selections from Wicked. August clapped his hands after each piece. Then up to the gym, where he went right in to look at art. No hesitations about the gym this time. Carly went to the bathroom, so we were looking for pieces he wanted to show here when she got back. She came back and he showed her a couple, then kept looking and saying “I like that one, I like that one”. But his favorites seemed to be a black and white portrait where the face looked funny, and a big colorful one that kind of looks like an eye (but I think is a crystal) that he said was his favorite at the end. He started sneezing as I took a photo of him looking at it. It was also the one that he kept trying to tell Carly about when she was talking to War.

Then the most fun part: down in the art room were small musical performances and you could do art: there were some flute players, violins, etc. We started by drawing on the paper on the tables, then the three of us together colored a stained glass thing of the Mona Lisa. He really liked one of the pieces of music, so I went and asked Emmalee what it was, and it was Bach’s Hungarian Dance No. 5.

He was ready to go after that. We went to Carly’s room and he nursed. And wanted to just keep nursing, and fell asleep just after 6. I was tickling him a little to get him to laugh in his sleep, then Carly said he could get a cookie downstairs. And boom, he was up. He and I went and got two chocolate chip cookies on the third floor and then met Carly at the entran
ce. The cookies had nuts, so August kept asking “Mama likes chocolate nuts?” Which was funny because he knows she loves chocolate but doesn’t like nuts. Carly was talking to Kevin, and August was asking what the CLC room was, then saw students with instruments, so we went in and watched them rehearsing on flute and trumpet.

Headed home about 6:15. Had the bike so I couldn’t take the bus, but after he got upset when we didn’t stop at a playground he and Carly almost took a bus home. But he calmed down while we waited and wanted back on the bike so we kept walking. He got off the bike a couple times and was a slow walker, but we made it home about 7.

Given that he had fallen asleep at 6, he showed some impressive resiliency to sleep in the evening. On the toilet he said “I don’t want my sleepy. How many minutes you sleep? 30?”

I gave him a bath, which he was opposed to: naked, he stood between the couch and the coffee table and then pulled the table towards him, barricading himself in and even picking up the metal spatula that he’d been playing with earlier. But he then followed the iPad into the bathroom when I started playing the music from Frozen. In the bath he was figuring out how to fill up the squirt cars on his own. After he was out of the bath he got the bag of letters and was playing with it in the water as a vacuum:”I’m catching the water from going down the drain.”

We took him into bed, had some silly time, and he was asleep at 8:20.

Photos. For mama: 

Park 1:

Pulling down the cover for shade: 

Netting by construction site:  

Park 2: 

Park 3: 

Periscope: 

APIS Arts Night: 

“Mama likes chocolate nuts?” 

Walking home: