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Carly stayed home from school today to recover, and August was clearly feeling sick this morning so I didn’t take him to his class. So we all skipped our classes today. Luckily, everyone got a good night’s sleep. August was restless, but slept until past 7. Carly and August spent a lot of time in the morning relaxing in bed, watching videos. August was watching a lot of ABC songs, and found new ones I’d never heard before. At some point we decided it was break time from the iPad. August started saying “Miss iPad”, but then turned it into a running joke, saying “Miss Kipper… Miss Qs… Miss Ñs.”

He was drawing with me for awhile, mainly Qs, before wanting to go back in and nurse. He fell asleep about 10:40, and they slept for about an hour.

He wanted a “sandoo” for lunch, so I made him a peanut butter sandwich, but he didn’t eat much during the day. He requested Timmy Time, so we watched the beginning of that again before coloring while Carly took a shower. We brushed his teeth, then I had my pen out to make notes on the class schedule for next session. He wanted to draw with it, and ended up taking a lot of time drawing on the extra pages of the flyer. Eventually, he was starting to want to draw on other things, like the couch, or the door and I kept stopping him. He knew I didn’t want him to, but he kept having the urge. So finally he handed me the pen and said “all done”. We switched over to the iPad, using the stylus to write on it for the first time in awhile.

August and I skyped with my parents sometime after 3. They are getting more and more snow, while we stay dry here.

He was looking like he might take a second nap, and kept requesting to nurse, but mainly he was just being very clingy with Carly. Finally we decided I should take him to a play area so she could rest. He warmed to this plan and did a good job getting ready to go. Rejected the stroller though, so I just carried him across to Home Plus where we went to the play area. Carly took him there when I was sick, but I hadn’t yet been. It sounded similar to the one at Toys R Us, but is actually nicer, although it costs a bit more too. But you also get 3 hours, as opposed to 2.

As we were about to cross the street to Home Plus, August said “B O O K book.” Came out of nowhere. I asked him where he saw book, and he pointed up at the building and said “Book there.” There was no ‘book’ on the building, so I said “Nooo.” He then turned it into a joke, pointing at random things and saying “Book there”: the street, the little food vendor, etc.

At the play area he initially wanted to go to the sand. But he got upset when he had to wear boots, so he wanted “something else” and never wanted to go back to the sand area. Funny, because when Carly took him he didn’t have a problem wearing the sand boots. So he played a lot in the baby play area (small ball pit and soft things to walk and climb on) and on the foot piano. We played on the big teddy bear for a couple minutes, then with the pin board thing and with a grocery cart. A woman who works there had tried to get him to play with it while he was pushing the the pin board thing (I don’t know why, because he was perfectly content at the moment). He kind of ignored her, but too a plastic chicken from her. So it was funny to see him holding this plastic chicken while he did the board thing and wandered around a bit.

Played in the big ball pit a couple times, interesting in that he refused to go in there with Carly, and with the wind ‘fountain’ thing that blows balls through a tube. We also played in the block area. Dumped a bunch of blocks out on the floor. Spent some time making letters, then I was making stacks for him to knock over. Working on the patience thing, and spanish numbers, as I was trying to get him to wait until I had stacked diez (10) blocks before he knocked them down. Pretty successful, with him only knocking them down early once out of the 6 or 7 we did.

After about an hour he started to want to go home. So we took a break, first for a snack, then we got the notebook out and sat and colored and did stickers. After that, he lasted for another hour. Our longest activity occurred when I convinced him to crawl up into the climbing area with me. There were these sort of pod areas you could climb into and look out over the ball area. He wouldn’t go in them, but they were plastic and hitting the rim of them sounded like the plastic drum at the Adventureland Playground at Children’s Grand Park. I have him sit on the drum and we hit it and sing songs. So that’s what we did. We sat there, drumming, singing English and Spanish ABC songs and, mainly, the Big Numbers Song that he likes.

Eventually though he was done with that. On our way down he wanted to go down the rolly slide. Carly had told me it was uncomfortable, but I’d figured I’d give it one try. With him on my lap, we went down. Not horrible, but not comfortable either, mainly on my feet as they hit the metal rollers.

He wandered around for a few more minutes, played in the baby area, then decided it was time to leave. It was a little longer than 2 hours, so around 5:45 when we left. As we left Home Plus, we ran into Preacher, who apparently doesn’t wear his signature camo outfit during the winter. He turned around and walked with us, warning us about the upcoming cold spell (highs of 16 on Saturday and Sunday, with lows down to -1) and telling us about a citron tea we should be drinking to keep warm. When I told him that Carly was sick, he got concerned, and really wanted to make sure I knew what the tea was. So he walked us into the art museum so he could borrow a pen and write it down. I’d figured out how to spell it on my phone by then, and that he was talking about citron tea, which comes in a jar as a sort of syrup that you spoon into hot water. I have a quince tea that is similar. Anyway, it was still very nice of him. He walked us to the intersection before saying goodbye and heading back the other way. Preacher seemed to be doing pretty well: health seemed pretty good and he didn’t ask for money, nor complain about his health. He did say his home gets quite cold, so he hangs out in the art museum for warmth sometime. We will have to try to keep a look out for him. Carly ran into him with August once, but I hadn’t seen him in a couple months.

August was NOT very social today. Whenever someone tried to talk to him at the play area, he just kept saying “No”. The same with Preacher. As we walked with Preacher, August just kept repeating “No, no, no, no…” He was, however, very polite when saying goodbye, and even gave preacher a little wave. And he said goodbye to the people at the play area, but refused to say “Thank you, play area” or “Bye bye, play area” as he used to do. He would, however, say “Play area fun.”

After leaving Preacher, August put his chin down on my shoulder and rested there as we walked home. He perked up as we crossed the street though as he saw letters on the street. He then saw the moon, and remembered we were stopping at GS25. We went to GS25 to get some things for Carly, then headed home.

August wanted to fall asleep right away, but Carly had his bath ready so she gave him a quick bath. That perked him up for awhile, and we were able to eat a little dinner. She had cooked mushrooms for him earlier in the day; despite eating tons of them in the stir fry and chicken soup, he now was chewing them and spitting them out. However, he eventually ate several when I let him dip them in teriyaki sauce.

He ended up falling asleep about a quarter after 7. Woke up coughing once a bit later, then was Carly was down the hall he actually got up and opened the door. That was close to 8. She went in to put him to sleep and go to bed herself. I’ll be going to sleep her now too in case he w
akes up early.

Oh, near the end of our time at the play area, I commented on how he had had more energy later in the day and that he seemed better. He said “(something) feel better”. May have been “Zinnie feels better” at first, but when I asked if he said “I feel better” that is what he started repeating. So might be the start of the using the pronoun “I”.

Also, earlier in the day I had called him ‘Zinnius’. I’d used it before when calling him ‘Augustus Zinnius’, but never on its own. He picked up on it, and said “Becoming Zinnius.” I used it a few more times and he was amused by it. We will see if it sticks around.

New words/phrases: this is for paper; this is for whiteboard, scribble all the words, sea horses, hopscotch, dada loves you a ton of Qs, I feel better

He noticed the shape in the iPad case looked like a Hangeul D (ㄷ) :

Home Plus play area: 

Holding a chicken: 

Water from the ceiling. They got the bear out of the way quickly: 

Offering me a bite: 

Coloring with two crayons: 

Our singing spot: 

Awake a quarter to 1. Stood up and then wanted his diaper changed. Carly took his temperature, which seems a degree or two high. She went back to bed and k stayed up with him. Played and drew on the iPad. Then spent most of our time with markers and stickers on the paper. Back to the iPad for Endless Spanish, then close to 2:30 he wanted books. He grabbed the Palabras book and he sat on my lap and we analyzed the book, multiple times, looking for Qs (2 of them) and Ñs (7, I think). He was starting to occasionally rub his eyes and say “Miss Mama”, but if I asked if he was ready to nurse and go to sleep, he would say “No” and go back to playing. Snacked on crackers and strawberries I cut up. Finally, I read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. After that, he was sitting on the floor rubbing his eyes and yawning, but still saying “No” to going in to Carly. I opened the door and carried him in at 3:08. When he saw mama he said “Nurse”. I left, hearing him say “Miss Dada” a couple times as I closed the door.

 

Despite the wakeup in the middle of the night, he didn’t sleep in, and was awake at 6:30. I took a shower, then Carly let me go back to sleep until she was leaving for school, a bit later than usual. Once she was gone, I got out the big box of Crayola crayons we bought yesterday. He was excited by them, but initially frustrated, as they aren’t as bright as the markers or Korean crayons. But he used them more and more throughout the day. When we brushed his teeth, he then did a lot of brushing on his own, moving the toothbrush back and forth.

 

We watched Timmy Time, or at least parts of it, a few times through the day. Always the same story, the one about the puzzle. We made a smoothie, then spent a lot of time making art on the iPad and listening to Teuni Teuni. Tried to Skype with my parents, but they weren’t online yet. But August wanted to send a message to Carly. So we sent her some messages. He typed “Hi” twice, once backwards and then once “in order”.

 

At one point, he thought I had my cough drops in my pocket, but didn’t I told him they were in the bedroom. He responded with “Get it. Get cough drops.” We did, and he had a lot of fun just playing with the package, and kept saying “Yummy cough drops”. He’s never tasted them, but he has smelled them, and he’s seen me eat them a lot, so that is a logical conclusion.

 

We read some books and he had me read Humpty Dumpty about a dozen times. He started saying “Que Paso?” (What happened?) and I would reply “Se cayo” (He fell). Also, he said that the boy in Skip to My Lou with his arms out looks like a T.

 

We ate an early lunch of stir fry, and I was about to put him in the stroller close to 12 even though he was still saying he wasn’t ready for a nap when Carly came home a little before noon. He laid down with her from about noon to 12:45. Nursed a lot, but didn’t really fall asleep. At 1 I got up and stayed with him while Carly rested. We did some coloring on both the paper and iPad, watched Timmy Time, and then ABC songs, which we haven’t done in a long time. A bit after 2 she got up, and then nursed him again. He rested for awhile, but again no nap. It is like he doesn’t need sleep when he is sick.

 

We Skyped with my parents for about half an hour. August likes to say “No” to skyping now, but then e was all smiles and laughs. He did some art for them and played Endless Numbers and Cursive on the iPad for them.

 

My one excursion from the house was to go down and get some supplies (milk, juice, and cough drops) from GS25 and pick up our latest iHerb order from the guardhouse. I took the opportunity to do a quick walk around the building. Yep, still cold.

 

August finally did fall asleep from about 5 to 6: just under an hour. When he got up he wanted to draw on the iPad, and suddenly he was drawing capital Bs. Slowly but surely he’s getting the alphabet down.

 

The evening was full of a lot of ABC songs on the iPad. He hadn’t watched them in a long time, and when I suggested them to him he knew just where to find YouTube Kids on the iPad. Also a good amount of drawing and nursing and some eating of dinner.

 

At 9:20 he was still up and he was joking about stepping on Carly’s computer, and that turned into a running joke: “Step on the popcorn”, “step on the table”, “step on the home” (just on the wood floor), “step on the pattern” (the carpet). He and Carly were then playing a game in which she would tell him what to touch and he would repeat it and go touch the object or, “touch dada.”

 

Finally, after 10, still acting like he wasn’t ready for sleep, Carly made him stay on the bed and he fell asleep by 10:15.

 

New words/phrases: no stepping in the markers/crayons/iPad, climb up there, Smokey up there, ABC songs with Mama, run to mama, yellow chameleon, corner, bebe (baby), cochecito (stroller)

Up at 1am:

Rest of the day. His new owl pajamas:

Trying out the new crayons: 

Dumping them out: 

Brushing his teeth: 

Playing with Marshy: 

Dada’s cough drops: 

Acting sleepy, but denying it: 

Playing with the lamp: 

Singing along with ABC songs: 

The day started kind of rough. He, and thus Carly, was up at 3 something. They were skyping with Vivian when I got up at 4:30 and Carly went back to bed. But in that time August had suddenly started drawing big Ds. He also stacked all the pieces of the puzzle on the puzzle board and said “I did it.” With me we put numbers stickers on paper. I wasn’t up for long, as he went in to nurse just before 5. But he was awake again with Carly about 5:40.

 

In the morning, we were listening (not watching) Teuni Teuni a lot. When the song about helping your mother/father came on he said “help your mama.” He’s been really good about cords lately. Not an issue at all. But this morning he took the computer cord and put it in his mouth. I of course stopped him, then a bit later he said he said “Yummy” I said, “What’s yummy?” He replied “Cord.”

 

He quickly built on his drawing of Ds by also drawing As and Ps, and little ‘b’s.

 

It was cold, cold, cold today. It said 6 degrees when Carly left, but a bit later my phone said it was 3, while weather.com said it was 10 but ‘feels like’ -2. So we weren’t going to spend any extra time outside. We left the house about 10. He of course has reverted to not wearing his hat or hood, and refused both all day today. Luckily, we didn’t have any long walks. We walked across the park with the intent of going to the art museum play area for a little while, but he didn’t want to go, instead wanting to go straight to Home Plus (“Home Plus fun”).

 

So we went to Home Plus. Got a big box of Crayola crayons. He gave up the basket, which he had been carrying, and carried them around the store for several minutes. We then went downstairs and got a few groceries, then headed up to his class. We were early and we had bought some dried persimmons which he was excited about, so we tried those. He liked them, but he didn’t like the skin and kept picking that out of his mouth. So I don’t know if he’ll keep eating them.

 

As we went up to class, he was excited about class once, saying “Yes” multiple times when I asked if he wanted to go to class and see his teacher. Class was a little tough though, as he was getting tired. He’d already been awake 5 and a half hours by the time class started. Class was all about shapes today, and by the end of class he was starting to learn the Korean words for square and triangle, in particular. He even asked what square was in Spanish (I told him we’d have to look it up or ask mama later). Twice in class I had to pick him up and hold him for awhile as he was getting tired. But he kept rebounding, and about halfway through class he started talking about the stickers he knew were coming at the end. At one point we were stacking shapes on larger shapes (categorizing what was in our bag) and he sort of did one. He then walked to the door. I went over and then he pushed me back, saying “Dada do circle.” I took him back and I did it, but then he really got into it, and sorted all sorts of shapes. Then, when we were done with that activity he was really into sorting the shapes back into sets in the different bags. The next activity, shape drums, was less to his liking, I think because of the noise. He didn’t want to drum at all. He loved the stickers though, and the final song. At the end of class he said “Class fun!” He’s also doing really well about saying “thank you” to the teacher and bowing, both at the beginning and end of class. He still hasn’t caught on to saying “chu-soy-oh” (please give me) when she hands things out though.

 

Back from class, he surprised me by saying “Timmy Time. Makes a puzzle.” requesting the cartoon we watched yesterday. I had tried showing it to him again this morning and he just said “No.” He only lasted a couple minutes though before saying “No” and turning it off though. We ate stir fry and strawberries for lunch though and watched the rest of it while we ate.

 

He was really into saying “Patience grass-“ and waiting for me to say “-hopper” Carly started it this morning as she was saying it to him.

 

Finally, after eating lunch and lasting a bit longer while coloring, he was happy to get in the stroller and fell asleep in about 7 minutes of walking the halls. He slept from 12:59 to 1:36, then woke up. I picked him up and he fell back to sleep on my shoulder. I had been laying down for a few minutes to rest when he woke up, so I sat/laid back down in the reading area and slowly shifted to the ground in all the pillows. He slept on my chest from 1:39 to 1:53. Not long, but it was nice. And when he woke up I pretended to still be asleep. He got up and looked at books, then played with Duplos, then found the iPad and started drawing on it. I lay there for about 10 minutes before he left the room and I had to follow. And then he continued to draw, on paper this time, by himself for several minutes.

 

I gave him the choice between staying home and going to the Namu play area and he chose the play area. But first, we needed to get some cleaning done. He helped vacuum a little, and drew and played Endless Spanish while I picked up and hung laundry. We left about 3:45 and got to the play area at 3:50. He did all the usual things, but he is getting a bit more independent in his playing. At one point I was sitting up in the play structure, and he climbed down into the ball area, then out of it, then was playing around the play area for several minutes by himself. I had a good vantage point from which to watch him. At one point we were by the big octopus and I was holding him up so he could touch it. He then rested his head on my should and said “more sleep”. He rebounded a bit, then around 5 was starting to miss mama. We then sat down on the ground near the octopus for several minutes and were ‘drawing’ numbers on the floor and resting. He perked up again and made it to our end time at 5:50 without getting tired or mentioning mama again. He turned our new line “Dada loves you a ton” into “Dada loves you a Q”, which makes sense in his world, since Qs are the coolest thing ever. The air hockey table has the word ‘speed’ on it about 30 times, so I taught him the word, then he would walk by, pointing to them, saying “speed, speed, speed…” Finally, an interesting moment was when he was putting his arms back and doing his flying. He said “becoming eagle” and “flying”, then said “eagle” a couple more times. It is the first time he’s pretended to be a specific animal.

 

We left right at 5:50. He did a good job of saying “bye bye” to the man working there (although he isn’t saying “hi” or waving to anyone to greet them nowadays). When we got there we had put our shoes in locker 14, which is one of his favorite numbers. And I told him to remember it. Sure enough, as we walked to the lockers I asked “What number did we put our shoes in?” and he said “14”. We got home just after 6 and he was happy to see mama. She fed him and gave him his bath while I did the dishes. He surprised us a couple times in the evening: he called his water “agua” for the first time. And then, when drawing on the paper, he was suddenly drawing and saying “oval”, a shape I taught him, but weeks ago (and it wasn’t part of his class today).

 

Pretty much all of his playing this evening involved drawing on the paper or putting on number stickers, either by himself or with me or Carly.

 

Carly took him in to go to sleep about 7:45 and he fell asleep quickly. He’s been doing well today, only coughing a little, and most of that when we were out in the cold, dry air, or when we just got back inside from it. In fact, we were going to go to Costco this afternoon, but because the cold air was so rough on both of us this morning I thought better of it. He has never liked cold, windy air – it has always woken him up if he is sleeping in the carrier, and when he gets wind in his face,
even much warmer, he kind of does a panting thing like it is uncomfortable to breathe. Supposed to be really cold the rest of the week, so will be staying inside as much as possible for the next couple of days. At Children’s Grand Park tomorrow we’ll stick to the children’s museum, coffee shop, and maybe the tropical building. No playground for us.

 

 

New words/phrases: 5 in the D, how bout (number sticker), push 1 first floor, home. More go home and see mama (after I was pointing out Home Plus through the window of the play area), coches here, agua, oval

 

3am: 

Zinnie’s tea: 

Carrying his new crayons: 

Playing in his letters area: 

Class. A little tired as he watches sangsaengnim introduce shapes:

Kids gathered around: 

Asleep: 

Drawing with two markers. Right handed: 

Doing his part: 

Namu play area: 

As we were playing in the ball area, this classic and racist (as you count down the Indians, it is about them dying…) song came on. Carly and I had just been talking about this song the other day, as the tune is based on “Michael Finnigan”, like the One-yuh song Carly and August made up. Anyway, of course because it has numbers in it August picks up on it and instantly starts singing it: 

Hanging out on the floor: 

Qs: 

Numbers: 

Climbing up: 

Pondering: 

Knocking down my tower: 

“Speed”: 

Happy: 

Now Carly and August both seem to be suffering from at least minor colds. August was up just before 6:20, after sleeping fitfully. My ribs were still bothering me today, so we had a lazy morning. Carly said it was time to break the rules and try some video out on August. So we started with the first episode of Timmy Time and watched just the first story, involving Timmy trying to put together a puzzle, but missing a piece. It was cool, because I’d tried to watch it with August many months ago, but of course back then he didn’t follow it at all. But now, he understands puzzles, and teachers, and toy boats. He found it very funny, but in the last minute started to cry – kind of his overwhelmed cry that he used to get back in late summer if we watched a Sesame Street video. But then he started to say “Miss Mama.” So I don’t know exactly what caused it. What I do know is that he didn’t want to watch any more video after that. Later, I tried showing him Puffin Rock on Netflix and he said “No” and kept pausing it after 2 seconds. In the evening, Carly tried to show him Daniel Tiger, and I tried Puffin Rock again, but they were both no-goes.

Anyway, we had banana bread and strawberries for breakfast. Then I gave him his vitamins in the shape of a square. He took one away and called it a “Hangeul N”, then took another away and called it a “Hangeul E”. We then did some puzzles on the Very Hungry Caterpillar app. He is getting them down, and has done all of the puzzles on ‘easy’ (only 6 pieces) himself. We’ve worked through several together on ‘Medium’, and one on ‘Hard’.

We then read some Kipper and made a smoothie. It was now past 9 and I had opened the blinds. He had looked out the windows a few times, but right at 10 decided he wanted to go outside. And he was in a hurry. He started talking about changing his diaper to get ready. So we went outside. There was a dusting of snow on the ground and it was cold – low 20s all day. I set him down by the floor fountain and he slipped after about 5 seconds when he stepped on the stone part. It wasn’t a bad slip, but after that he didn’t want to walk or be set down. I set him down by the buttons, but he wanted right back up. It was the first time I’ve heard him say “Upping”, although he has used it with Carly a few times. He directed me across the bridge, but then couldn’t decide what he wanted to do. Well, he wanted to go to the play area, but the museum is closed on Mondays. Everything else elicited a “No”: shovel, library, ramps, etc. Eventually though, we were close to the crosswalk to Home Plus. When I turned back towards the park, he got upset and pointed across the street, saying “that way.” So we crossed and went to Home Plus.

We spent a lot of time roaming around the first floor. He spotted numbers on price and aisle signs, we looked at the animals (particularly the “funny iguana lizard” that he Qed), we wrote ABCs on the ground, and he requested I get a basket, which he then played with a bit.

We went downstairs and got a few groceries since we were there. He wanted to get kimbap and a sandwich for lunch. Got the kimbap, but decided to get some frozen mandu and make that.

On the walk home, I used Carly’s line “I love you soooo much”, to which August said “No.” I don’t think he wanted me stealing Mama’s line. So I tried out different lines, and landed on “Dada loves you a ton”, which he thought was a hilarious.

Back home we ate lunch. He liked dipping the mandu in teriyaki sauce, then requested dongatsu sauce. The only problem was he was mainly just licking off the sauce. I got him to start eating the mandu, but he would mainly eat the dough. If he got a good bite of the filling, which actually had veggies, he would spit them out. So much for the mandu idea.

He requested the stroller again for his nap. I didn’t know if he would then insist on going outside, so I bundled us up. But I just pushed him around the 8th floor, and just under 10 minutes later he was asleep. Slept 12:15 to 1:27 in the stroller in the living room. A good nap, but when he woke up it was a sad wakeup. No clear reason at first, but as it continued, it turned into “Miss Mama.”

Eventually he calmed down and ate some more strawberry and was drawing in the notebooks. I asked if he wanted to go to a play area or stay home, and he chose a play area. So we got in the backpack and headed to the bus stop and up to Nowon. We went to the play area in the Lotte Department Store. I knew it was small, but it was really small. Not too impressive, but it was cheap – I just needed to buy a coffee drink. So it was more like a very kid-friendly coffee shop.

Started out okay, but after a couple minutes a much bigger kid ran right into August and knocked him down. No parent in sight, of course. August wasn’t happy about that, so we went out into the seating area. Got him drawing in the notebook, then we took it into the play area and were drawing and doing stickers. He started to play a bit more, but when he was playing with a coffee pot, a little boy came over and grabbed it from him. August wasn’t in a great mood, and that made it worse. We went back out again. At one point, he started walking back to towards, I thought, the play area, but then he kept walking out the exit. I was just a few feet behind him, but one of the workers was closer. I told her it was okay (in Korean) but the still tried to stop him and pick him up from behind. He wasn’t fond of that either.

So we took another break, this time playing on the iPad – caterpillar and then art, I think – and eating our snacks. Finally, he was done with that and cheered up and ended up playing in the play area again, with the kitchen stuff (some cooking “sizzle” and then with numbers on the microwave) and with the letter magnets. He’d played with the letter magnets earlier, but in the meantime one of the kids (the one who took the coffee pot) had made a mess of the letters and his mother hadn’t cleaned up after him at all and we couldn’t find the ‘Q’. There was a red ‘Q’, but August wanted the blue one he had earlier.

So that was the end of things. August wanted to go home, so said something about changing his diaper first. We went and did that, then looked to see if the rooftop area was open, but it is closed through February.

We left. As we walked through the perfume area, he spotted the ‘Q’ in ‘Clinique’. We went to Daiso, where we bought pads of paper, and a couple small cups for him to practice drinking from. He also spotted a little puzzle with the alphabet on it (another ‘Q’ spotting) so we got that.

We walked to the bus and took that home. We were getting home around 4:45, so before Carly, so I was telling this to him several times and that we’d have to wait for Carly. As we walked to our door, he then said “Wait for Mama.” When we went inside, he was hopeful she was around, saying “Mama here” as he saw the blankets in the reading area, for example, but he didn’t get at all upset when she wasn’t.

We called her a few minutes later to tell her something, and August of course said “Hi” and was waving to the phone. After saying goodbye, he reached out and pushed the red button to hang up. He knew she was close, so wanted to go wait for her at the elevators. I convinced him to try the new puzzle once, then we went out. He wanted me to hold him the whole time again. Took about 5 minutes before she got there and we surprised her.

Really fun game in the evening when he was having me write letters. I would only write a few of them, then he would grab the marker and dribble them out, I would protest and try to keep him from getting the marker. He thought it was hilarious. Later, it turned into “circle letters” instead of scribbling over them.

Ca
rly fed him and got his bath ready, then I gave him a bath. He was really stalling before his bath: drinking water forever, then saying “more pictures” (on the fridge) when I tried to take him in, then standing on the toilet not peeing, but wanting to keep trying (“try again”). He is a sneaky one already.

He had done quite well all day, high energy, and just a small cough a couple times, but in the evening after he first nursed when Carly got home he threw up. He was also looking pretty tired early on, but lasted until about 7:30 before falling asleep. We will see how he sleeps and feels tomorrow.

New words/phrases: dog bears have robot (referring to the print on the wall in the changing room that we’ve been looking at again recently), favorite word (referring to ‘Todas’ in Endless Spanish), soy (Spanish), no pausing, fresh clean diaper, take a wawa (we were packing the backpack to go outside, and I said we should take the shovel and stick, then he said “Take a wawa”), scream outside, scribbling, circle letters, pee on the toilet, try again, mama holding

Not too happy outside: 

Wandering around Home Plus. Animals:

Numbers: 

Shoe  

Lunch. Eating mandu: 

Nap time: 

Ppi Ppi House play area. Hitting things with a doll house lamp. The blur of a kid in the background is the boy who knocks him over a minute later:

Taking a break to color in the notebook: 

Sticker stuck to his finger: 

Q and U: 

Numbers on the microwave: 

Walking home from the bus. Saw this and said it looked like a ‘C’: 

Back home: 

Sleeping: 

Carly was up first, then August around 6:40. I started to get up just a little before 7, but stayed in bed reading while Carly skyped with Cherie. I haven’t been coughing much, but a couple ribs/muscles got more sore over the night. Very annoying.

Carly went to Home Plus and I stayed home with August. August wasn’t too happy with her leaving, and after he calmed down I got an orange to eat. August wouldn’t let me eat it though, saying “no” and taking it out of my hand and putting it on the counter. I managed to eat it a few minutes later and he ate a little. We did a lot of drawing, then shared a couple pieces of pizza and watched Teuni Teuni and brushed his teeth. Started his new container of toothpaste only to realize it is a different flavor. He wasn’t happy about the change, but seemed to get used to it after tasting it later in the day.

When he was holding two markers he saw a ‘V’ and then ’11’. He did it again later, saying “Hold it 11.”

When Carly was back, he was drinking water from his dinosaur cup. He still isn’t entirely used to it, as water comes out faster than his other cups. He coughed, and threw up some water, then told Carly “Wipe it up.”

He and Carly did a lot of drawing together then. Carly was teaching him to draw ‘D’ and ‘B’.

He then fell asleep for a nap from 12:30 to about 1:40. Carly was skyping with Glecy when he woke up, so they got to Skype for awhile.

I was slow to get moving due to the sore rib muscles. Also, Carly was making chicken soup, so we waited until she was done with that and he could eat some. But eventually I took August out so Carly could do some work. We left at 3:15. I intended to take a little walk (he was in the backpack) then go to a play area. But it was 41 – cloudy, but 41 – and it felt good to be out. Temperatures are supposed to drop this week, so plenty of time for play areas later. Instead, we walked up along the stream to Madeul to play outside.

As we crossed the stream, August pointed out “duckies”, then I pointed out fish. Everything was funny today, so he said “funny duckies” and “funny fishies”. He also did his fish noises a couple of times. As we walked into the park we saw a magpie fly away and he said “funny magpie”. Passing the apartment complex that is under construction, he saw a forklift and said “funny cars”. Or maybe it was “funny coches”. We saw a sculpture and he said it looked like an “upside down U.” As we walked through the park, we saw a sign, part of their outdoor science exhibits, that had a big ‘Q’ on it. He liked that.

As part of his random singing/chanting as we walked, he suddenly spelled “C A T cat” and “B O O K book”. He saw puppies walking along the stream (he also called them “funny puppies”). I counted them in Korean “Hana, dul puppies.” He then said “Hana, sul, set, net.” That shocked me – I’ve said the Korean numbers to him, but since there are two sets of numbers, I’ve never worked too hard to teach them to him – I’ve never had him repeat the numbers back to me. By the time we were done in the park, he had added 5 and 6 (dasot, yosot) and was saying 7 and 8 (ilgop, yodel).

In the park, we first played all over the piano sculpture. We got out our stick and plastic shovel, and he was hitting the metal and other surfaces to make noise. We eventually went down to the playground and played in the sand, mainly letters. The last week+, thanks to Carly, he has really been into us holding two markers at once and writing ‘ABCs’. Today he wanted me to hold the shovel and stick at the same time and write them. We also climbed up on the play structure and went back and forth on the shaky bridge.

Eventually he tired of the playground. Wandered around a bit. Going by the soccer field, he was pointing out the numbers on their jerseys. We changed him in the heated bathroom, then headed towards the main street around 5:45. On the way, he started pointing and saying “Fun, fun”. Sure enough, there was a beer/cafe that had ‘fun, fun, fun’ on their awning. He then said “That say N U F fun.”

We went to Coffeenie, the new coffee shop in the building with Pizza School, but up on the second floor. I got a black tea latte and we shared a bagel and cream cheese. He played Endless Alphabet on the iPad, then for the second half of our time he sat on my lap and we drew together. Actually, he did most of the drawing, only having me write some letters near the end. When drinking water, he liked going over to the display case and looking at the “yummy stuff”. The last time, he was spinning in circles and getting dizzy. Finally, he said “Miss mama” and was done with the coffee shop – I’d asked him previously, but he chose to stay at the coffee shop and draw.

We headed home. Back at our building he was pointing out the 7-11 and wanted to see GS 25. So we walked around the building a bit before going in. As we did so, we spotted the moon up above through the haze. First he called it “banana moon” but then “D moon”. Then he said “Funny D moon” – I assume because it was fuzzy. Got back right at 6:15.

At home, he wrote a pretty decent ‘A B C D’ on paper. I was giving him strawberries, and he joked that they were sausage pieces from our kimbap, so he kept calling them “sausage” when I would hand him a piece. He heard a notification from my phone and said “dada’s email.”

I went to get his bath ready and he said “Dada take a bath.” Carly gave him his bath, which went pretty well. He came back out and typed on the computer with me a bit, then nursed. I was singing our pronoun song to him and he kept requesting more, then was looking pretty tired, so Carly took him in to bed and he fell asleep around 8:30.

New words/phrases: mama take it (telling her to take something away that he was done with),yummy in my tummy, listening Teuni Teuni, sticker on the paper, mama go finish up the food (she had been drawing with us but explained she needed to go finish the soup. He processed it, said this, but still got a little upset), doesn’t turn (kind of a running joke about all the round outside exhibits at Madeul park – he wants to turn things, but nothing turns, so now he just points at an exhibit and said this), dada pick up (wanting me to pick him up), 1 to 6 in Korean (counting numbers), That say N U F fun, dada take a bath (when I went to prepare HIS bath)

Frozen smoothie Popsicle: 

Madeul park: 

Flying across the shaky bridge: 

Where he read ‘fun’: 

Coffee shop: 

Playing with Marshy: 

Carly was up early – too early to mention. I was up about 6:40, and August was up just a minute after me. He had a nice long Skype call with Vivi in the morning. Then, looking through his notebooks, he was able to read ‘se cayo’. Carly Skyped with Cherie for a bit after that.

 

Around 11 we all went out and headed over to Home Plus. Carly did most of the shopping while I watched August. First, he just wanted to look at all the “yummy” fake food at the food court. Then he found a shape in tape on the floor that looked like the hopscotch area he was playing on yesterday (I have know idea why this design was on the floor in the middle of the supermarket) and wanted to write ABCs. So we did that for quite awhile. Then he wanted to carry the basket around. Yes, so Carly did most of the shopping.

 

We finished that then headed home, walking through the park. Snow had been falling when we left, but really started falling now. August wanted to stop in the park and draw in the dirt. Carly had a pen (pluma) that he used for drawing. It was very pretty and a good opportunity to stand in the park and watch the snow. When he wanted one of us to draw, it was mainly Carly, but he had me drawing at the end. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned our new game, where we switch back and forth between English and Spanish as we write the alphabet. I’ll be writing “A B C D…” in English, then he’ll call “Espanyol!” and I’ll say the next few letters in Spanish, etc. It is definitely helping both of us master the Spanish alphabet. Anyway, so we were doing that, then we decided to move along, as it was time for his nap. He wanted to walk by the signs first to push the buttons, so we did that. But then he went into stalling mode, wanting to go up on the bridge, or watch the people on the ice (the ice rink thing opened up yesterday), so I basically had to drag him inside.

 

Inside, he was really tired, but hadn’t eaten lunch yet. He was really confusing Carly as we got food ready for him, because he would go back and forth between wanting to eat and wanting to nurse. Eventually though he was in his seat and settled down enough to eat lunch first.

 

He fell asleep a bit past 12:30. I left a little before 1 to meet our friend Meg and we went down to the Seoul Art Center for a show Called Picasso to Francis Bacon. It was a pretty cool art history show, with works from about 15 modern painters, all from the Venezuelan Museum of Art. The lighting and signage were bad (Meg and I rarely like how the SAC presents their shows), but the art was really good and that made it worth it. Afterwards, we went across the street to Starbucks and got coffee (well, I got and Earl Grey latte and a scone) and sat and talked for about an hour. She accepted a teaching position in Moscow for next year, so that was a major point of discussion, as was the Patti Smith book I’m reading, as she’s read some of Smith’s other books.

 

While I was gone, August slept an hour and a half, the last 30 minutes on Carly. They then called me because August wanted to “call Dada” and then they went over to the art museum. August spent most of his time in the play area doing forward rolls and being social – only going in the play structure a little but and wanting “Mama fit.” He was going up to multiple bigger kids and saying “Hi, baby”, which people found amusing. And when another kid got upset August was again very sympathetic and patting the kid.

 

From there they went up to the cafe on the 2nd floor. Unfortunately, the woman had just shut down the cafe for the day, so Carly couldn’t get coffee, but they were able to sit up there and play on the iPad together.

 

Anyway, we headed back to Nowon on a very packed train. I got home a little before 6. Carly made stir fry for dinner. A lot of drawing with August, and playing the brand new Dr. Seuss A to Z book/app on the iPad (they had also played it at the cafe). At one point he spent a lot of time by himself flipping through the notebooks and writing ‘H i’ over and over, and then Qs and other things.

 

I gave him a bath, then Carly took him to bed. He was asleep around 8:30.

 

New words/phrases: pluma, upping (invented word for wanting help up on the bench)

Home Plus: 

Walking to the park: 

Park: 

Ice rink in operation: 

Art show I went to. It says ‘Picasso to Francis Bacon’: 

Evening: 

He stopped nursing this morning to say “lowercase”. Woke up at 6:45, right as Carly was about to head out the door. She stayed and hung out with him for 15 minutes though. He did really well when she left, saying “Mama work, Dada do ABCDs” and he didn’t cry. A bit later we were playing Endless Spanish and August said “favorite one” when he chose ‘todas’, in which he watches the cartoon at the end over and over.

 

For breakfast we had banana, strawberries, and banana bread. Everything was on the coffee table, and I got up for a second to do something at the table, I turned around to August right behind me, holding my lukewarm coffee mug by the handle, saying “Tea for dada.” He’s done pretty well carrying things to this point – no major spills except for Carly’s salad once over winter break; he grabbed it off the counter and dumped it on the floor. Actually, Carly’s salads have been funny – August has never liked lettuce in anything. But he always things Carly’s salads look yummy, and will repeatedly point and say “Yummy salad!” He will just never eat them.

 

While watching Teuni Teuni I brushed his teeth and also cut his hair. He kind of knew what I was doing, and would keep looking back and grinning at me. Otherwise, went pretty smoothly.

 

Before we were ready to leave I told August I needed to go finish the snacks. I said “Can I go finish the snacks?” August replied with “Zinnie do it (type on the computer, which we had been doing together). Dada snacks. Bye bye, dada.” Then he pushed me out of my seat.

 

He requested to listen to Teuni Teuni, so we were doing that. He said “Listening to Teuni Teuni.” As I was changing him, he had additional “Becoming…” jokes: “Becoming kitten,” Becoming funny funny.” After I changed him he needed a shirt for the day and I asked if he wanted to choose. He walked out of the room saying “Dada choose” and was happy with the shirt I brought him.

 

Finally, as he was drawing right before we left he was chanting “baby bunny funny” on his own, and “up down” as he drew.

 

On the walk to the subway he was spotting “coches” in the street and singing the Spanish alphabet. He’s really into Spanish now.

 

While we waited for the train, he wanted Camel off the backpack and played with him. As we walked into the park, August pointed at the empty flower beds and said “all gone.”

 

We first went to the children’s museum, where we first went up and changed him, then played for awhile on the second floor (in front of the screens with the numbers counting down and the spaceship) then went downstairs where we played with the big blue blocks and a few other things. His favorite thing was the little spot with a pencil and pieces of paper. You were supposed to write the gift you want and hang it on the wall, but of course he wanted ABCs. So I was writing ABCs and singing the song. We drew a bit of a crowd, and one boy started singing the ABC song as well, just not in toon or in rhythm to me – i.e. he was being a little annoying. So I switched to Spanish to throw everyone off. Think it worked. But after that I forced August to give up the pencil so other people could do it. He was very sad about that. There was a little screaming.

 

It was also past the 5 hour mark (about 12:50) so it was time to head towards a nap. We went upstairs and ate lunch. I filled August’s water bottle from the machine near our table, but he preferred drinking from the little paper cup I had. He totally knows the routine by now, and usually goes along with it, no problem. But today he was resisting the nap, saying “no fall asleep” as we left the museum. Outside, he wanted to keep going back in the children’s museum. But once I picked him up and put him in the backpack he gave in. Took less than 10 minutes of walking to put him to sleep. I asked what I should sing – before he was in the backpack he just kept saying “No”, but once in the backpack he requested our 1 to 30 song. At the end of each song he’d say “more” until the one time he didn’t and he was asleep.

 

He slept 12:33 to 1:22. Woke up and spent a few minutes in the coffeeshop (we were upstairs this time). He wanted to go back to the children’s museum, but agreed to first go to the new playground. We went and played there for maybe half an hour. He wanted to take a shovel with us today, and we got it out. He played with it alone in the sand for quite awhile – he hasn’t played with sand/shovel like that in some time. Then he was drawing on the ground. He wanted to play on the hopscotch area, but was upset I wouldn’t let him as people were actually playing hopscotch. On both of them. Full on hopscotch with a bean bag and everything. Can’t say I’ve seen that before. Anyway, we roamed around a bit, then I noticed one had opened up. So he played on that, then wanted me to write the alphabet over and over again on the hopscotch area with the shovel. Eventually, we made a game where I would trace a number, like “trace 7”. He would then look at me until I said “step 7”. Then he would step on the 7, saying “step 7” and we’d move on to a new number.

 

He roamed a bit more, then decided he was done with the playground. As we left, me carrying him, he said “playground fun.” I tried to get him to say “goodbye playground”, something he used to do a lot, but does much less now, and he just kept saying “No.” Finally, I asked if he could wave to the playground, and he did, back over my shoulder, as we walked away.

 

We stopped at the first floor Peace Coffee on our way. I got a couple bars of soap, and we picked out a new bag of snacks, sweet potato (gogumah) this time.

 

Back to the children’s museum. This time to the little kids area. First up to the kitchen area to make soup. Then back down to the main floor for a variety of things. He liked the clock (kept saying “No 14. Up to 12”), he liked the animal hand puppets (cow, lion) that were out and would pick them up and hug them and hold them. There was a girl a little bigger than him that was very upset, and I could tell he was interested/concerned. I asked if he wanted to go give her a pat to make her feel better, and he kept saying “No”, but in a shy way. I then asked if she was too big, and he said “too big, too big.” If she had been a little baby he would have been fine. We were playing with one of those baby cube things. It had a squeaking thing on the side, and he was saying “S Q for squeak.” It also had a spot next to it where something was obviously missing. He was saying “No squeaky. Broken.”

 

Near the end he headed back up stairs, telling me “Make soup.” When we got up there, another boy had the ladle. August first tried taking it out of his hand, which I wouldn’t let him do. He was a bit upset about that, then I found a good spoon for him to use instead. He was happy about that, but turned back to the kid and kind of reached for him again, but looked at me, as if seeing if he could get away with it. I said no, and he settled for the spoon.

 

We left at 3:30, a little early as we were going up to Pizza School to pick up pizza for dinner. Took the subway one stop further north than usual and walked to Pizza School. Waited for the pizza, then put August in the backpack and walked home.

 

As we were approaching home, about 4:45, August started saying “call mama.” When we got home we tried calling her. She didn’t answer a couple times, but then called back. That kept him happy until she got home. As did eating pizza. We got the kind with noodles on it, which August really likes, calling it ‘hoo-ha pizza’.

 

We all ate when Carly was home. Then August was down doing his art. He went to Carly, saying “Mama do vaca,” meaning he wanted her to draw another cow. Evening was pretty focused on doing his art and writing things for h
im. I gave him a bath around 7.

 

We were sitting by August and he was writing in his notebooks. Suddenly, he was singing the ABC song and drawing along with us, and he shocked us by drawing about half the letters – several letters we’ve never even see him draw before, like J and K and M and a little N. We were already figuring he could write about half the letters, now it is a little over half.

 

A few minutes later, I was asking if he wanted to read stories because we hadn’t read books yet. He said ABC books, so I was getting them together, but then as he came close to the reading area he hit his head on the counter. A kind of sad end of what had been such a happy evening for him. Carly comforted him and he nursed and went to sleep about 8:45.

 

New words/phrases: favorite one, pala (shovel in Spanish), No 14. Up to 12., s q for squeak, goguma (sweet potato), falling asleep, vaca (cow in espanol), Little Blue in the zoo, ewww, yuck

 

Hair cut: 

Camel in the train station: 

He said the bushes looked like an ‘O’. He then said the boards were ‘I’s: 

Children’s museum. Holding the membership card while in front of the screen: 

And still with it at the spaceship: 

Downstairs: 

Looking through our tunnel: 

Found the pencil: 

Playground: 

Hopscotch: 

Qing the cat: 

Little kids area. Making soup with the ladle:

Saying hi to the snail: 

Holding the cow: 

He spotted a number on this sign as we walked into our building: 

His evening’s work: 

I heard him laugh over the baby monitor about an hour before he woke up. When he woke up at 8:02, it was a very happy wakeup. He wanted me to leave him alone for a few minutes, but there was no crying. Then, he said “dada go in” and wanted me to go in the parlor. We ate banana bread, strawberries and leftover smoothie for breakfast. He must have been impressed by the banana bread, because he was saying “dada make that.”

Spent a lot of time writing on the whiteboard. I played music on the computer at one point, and he requested “Teuni Teuni music”. So we listened to that. It was on repeat, so every time it got to the last song he would say “Teuni Teuni all done.”

Around 10 we left the house and first headed to the sign area by the bridge. We pushed the button, he did some watering, climbed some steps, and then wanted to “call mama”, since that is where we did it yesterday at 5. After awhile we headed to the art museum play area. We only played in there a couple minutes, then he wanted to drink water, during which he started roaming the hall and going out in the lobby. He went in the gift shop and started pointing and saying “present for mama.” I was shocked, as I haven’t talked about getting her any presents for quite some time. We did get those presents for Logan, and stickers for Megan in the last couple of months, so maybe the concept of ‘present’ has stuck pretty well.

About 10:30 we headed out and first did some grocery shopping at Home Plus, then went up to his class at 11. Class today was all about shooting things. Yes, a bit odd. The first activity involved shooting crossbow at poop on a toilet target. I could not make this up. August was a bit miffed by all this (as was I). He mainly wanted to inspect the crossbow, and didn’t see the point of shooting things. When the teacher put on a big costume and the kids could shoot him, August was completely uninterested.

However, the next activity August loved. They were this plastic blow up cannons. You stuffed the barrels with plastic balls, then jumped (or dropped a kid) on the platform to make it fire. He caught on to this pretty quickly and had fun loading the cannons and then being jumped or dropped (none of the kids can jump well enough to do it themselves yet) by me or one of the teachers. At the end of class found out that Jungbin is going into kindergarten at the end of this session, so he won’t be in classes anymore. But Jihong will be, so we will coordinate to be in the same classes again.

We came home and ate kimbap and a sandwich and oranges for lunch. And we skyped with my parents right after they had returned from 3 days over in Everett. August was saying “no” to any idea of Skyping before we called, but then he was very happy to see gramma and grampa.

I changed him and said “let’s see.” He got excited and started saying “Let’s see. Mama says that.” He was saying it several times after that.

He rejected the carrier again, and any idea of a nap. He slept a long time, so I didn’t expect one. But he wanted to get in the stroller, so we got in that and went for a nice walk – about 45 minutes and close to two miles. As I put him in the stroller he said “Don’t fall asleep. Mama says that.” I was like, “No, no. You can fall asleep this time.” Up the stream then down it, then down the river, up at the bridge, and home via streets. He kept eating crackers and pumpkin snacks from yesterday. As we were coming back on the road, he screamed once. I didn’t say anything, but then I heard him saying “No screaming. Mama says that.” Very much into the “Mama says…” today.

As we got home and I got him out of the stroller he said “Dada feels better.” Once he was out, he laid down on the hardwood floor and said he was sleepy.

We did some more coloring, then he once again started talking/joking about “call mama.” Right before 3 we headed over to the pink building to the Namu Kid Cafe. We used our full 2 hours, leaving at 5:05. He spent a lot of time on the trampoline; I would roll balls up and he would go try to get them, then he would run back down and throw the balls off. If he grabbed two balls, or picked two up, he would say “both, both!” He also slid down the ramp a lot. I pushed him around in the car a lot – the same car, as it is the only one with a cell phone with numbers on it, so he didn’t want the other cars – and I pointed out the way he has never used where he could climb up to the play area behind the trampoline. Eventually he wanted to do that, so we went up there, and he played a lot up there with stuff he hasn’t played with before.

Several times he would be playing, then come over to me (I was up in the play structure, too) and say “hi” and sit next to me. If we slid down the ramp together I would lie back, and he would follow suit and lay next to me for awhile.

He totally has the pneumatic ball thing down. He knows how to turn it on and only use the small balls to put in it. Later, there was a slightly smaller kid standing next to it. August went over to him and said “turn it on” and showed him how to turn it on. He then pointed at where the balls go, and grabbed balls to show him how to do it. Afterward, I thanked him and told him he was being a teacher just like Mama.

Near the end, he went into the food area where a girl was with her grandparents. August had started out there again today, cooking food and making soup. They had the table covered in food, and August stood there and the grandfather gave him foods and was telling him the names in Korean. Very cool.

Oh, and when we were in the ball area I must have coughed, because suddenly he started imitating me, even holding his elbow up by his mouth and making coughing noises. Quite the joker.

Right about 5 August started wanting to go find mama. When we got there, we had put our numbers in locker 26. About 10 minutes later I had asked him where we put our shoes and he said “26!” But by the end he had forgotten. So it became a game of him guessing a number and we’d look in that locker to see if our shoes were there.

Eventually we found them and we headed home. Carly had beaten us by a few minutes as she had taken the bus. He ate spaghetti for dinner and Carly gave him a decent bath. A lot of writing on paper and the whiteboard in the evening. We watched Teuni Teuni and brushed his teeth. Carly tried to put him to sleep about 7:30 but he wasn’t ready. So she took a shower and we all sat on the bed and read stories together. Finally, he fell asleep a little after 8.

New words/phrases: dada go in, found the wawa, drink over here, call mama, talk with mama, August silly goose, hi sweetie

Art museum play area: 

Home Plus. August spotted the Q, and then two others, from across the store: 

Teuni Teuni: 

Shooting dada: 

Playing in the park on the way home: 

Sticking his hands out on our walk: 

After the walk, saying he is sleepy: 

Namu kid cafe. Cooking first: 

Looking down at the park: 

Ball area: 

Playing up top: 

In his favorite car:

Helping the boy: 

Back in the ball area: 

Food:

Home. Hugging a book while Carly reads: 

He was up at 6:51. Sad that mama wasn’t here, but stayed by the parlor door and didn’t go hang out by the front door. Cheered him up with the markers a few minutes later. Ate banana, Cheerios, and a smoothie for breakfast. At one point we were playing together on the iPad and he was holding Baby Q. Later, when he was playing by himself, he got down Eddy and was holding her in his lap. Headed out a little after 10, as he had one good coloring session in him before we left. When putting on his shirt this morning he had strong opinions about what shirt to wear. I actually had to take the first shirt of as he kept complaining. He rejected my second choice, then we were finally successful when I took him in and he helped choose.

 

For the first stop on the way down he say by himself, with me standing. He’s getting pretty good at this subway thing, especially considering this is our first subway ride in quite awhile. Exited the station and August got down and walked most of the way to the children’s museum. At the museum he had to be a bit patient, as we needed to renew our membership. After we got our new card I let August hold it. He wasn’t happy about giving it up to have it scanned, then carried it around for 5 or so minutes before I could get it back from him.

 

He walked up the ramp way to the second floor, then realized that wasn’t the water area. I carried him up to the third floor. We played at the water area for awhile, but he wasn’t happy about the wearing the apron and eventually he wanted it off. He wanted to go to the little kids area from there. In the little kids area he initially wanted the wooden clock, as it is apparently the only thing in the entire little kids area that has numbers on it. We checked. Eventually he was happy in the upstairs area cooking some soup. He walked up the stairs and then back down the stairs as if it was no big deal.  These were the stairs where he was first trying to climb stairs for me.

 

After awhile he was done there and was hungry. It was also getting close to 12. So we went upstairs where they only had the big eating area open. We found a table by a window. I sat, but he stood up and looked around the entire time we ate. Good amount of sandwich, some apple, and string cheese.

 

We changed him and and got ready for his nap. Got in the backpack and did our usual walk. Took less than 10 minutes, and he slept from 12:35 to 1:31, at the downstairs Peace Coffee. He woke up and carried Camel around the coffeeshop, looking at the letters and words. Identified ‘is’ in the collage of words. He wanted these pumpkin snacks (he calls them crackers) they had there, so we got a bag of those. We were sitting down eating those and playing on the iPad, and the woman brought over some very hot little pancake snack things for free. A nice treat.

 

After that, he wanted to see animals and go to the playground. We went out and saw that the fence was down around the new playground. But as we got close we saw they were literally doing the ribbon cutting ceremony. Speeches being given, etc. So we walked on and went in the tropical animal building. He looked at the lizards, turtles, and skinks, and wanted to see the naked mole rats so I held him up for that. He spent a good amount of time at the coatis and talked a lot about them (“coatis funny”, “uno dos coatis”). He spent a lot of time hanging out by the zookeeper door that so intrigues him. Eventually we went upstairs, where we got to see a zookeeper go in and feed the lemurs.

 

From there we exited the building and stopped by the goats and horses for a couple minutes (he also said they were “funny horses”). After that, we went to the new playground. It was full of kids. It is an inclusive playground, with all sorts of features for special needs kids. The coolest is a ground-level merry-go-round thing with a bench and a spot for a wheelchair. There were still people in suits and news crews, etc. wandering around.

 

This whole time it was snowing. Lightly at first, but good-sized flakes. The snow continued to slowly get heavier until we left about 3:45 and it was starting to actually look white in the air. The kids mainly disappeared after 20 minutes or so. At one point, it was just August and one other kid playing in the entire playground. A snowstorm and 31 degrees isn’t exactly the greatest time for a grand playground opening.

 

Anyway, August had spent most of our time there drawing in the sand and on the ground with a stick. Eventually, he was having me do it. I got him to walk up the ramp to the play structure once, then he went down the slide with me, but then he was back to letters. He also once wanted me to help him climb the netting on the small structure, then he walked down the steep stairs before going back to letters.

 

Then, suddenly, at 3:20 he put down the stick and started exploring. Walked around and under the play structure, and saw a net you could stand on and jump on. So I helped him on that and we played on it for awhile. Then, before we left he really got into touching the balloons they had hung up. One even popped when he touched it.

 

We took off about 3:45. Pretty simple trip home. I told him in advance we were beating mama home. He understood that, and was upset when I told him, as opposed to waiting until we were home and he saw she wasn’t there. But he got engaged in writing on the whiteboard and did fine until she got home. He loves the sentences “The cat meows”, I think because it is kind of hard and fun to say, and he had me write it ten times in a row.

 

When Carly got home I went straight down to the doctor. Got 3 days of refills for the cough and got my flu vaccine while I was there. Not again. Got my prescriptions filled and came home. Did our usual dinner stuff (Carly also made popcorn). After that, Carly and August were watching Viv and Colin videos. A lot of “Again” “this one” “like this” from August.

 

I made banana bread and they did a lot of writing. At one point, August went to the cupboard and got the wipes and cleaned some earlier marker action all on his own – he also tried to wipe up some smoothie he had dropped. Carly drew his bath, but I took him in today. I haven’t given him is bath since I was sick. It went well. A lot of laughing on his part, as he kept trying to water me with the watering can.

 

He and Carly had a really good session of drawing 3s before he went to bed. He was drawing them of different sizes (enormo, big, tiny) and of course dotting them. Carly would then wipe the whiteboard when it filled up. She was saying “wait for it” when she wiped. Then he started saying it himself. Very funny.

 

He wanted to nurse and fell asleep pretty quick, a little before 8:10.

 

He was doing a lot of “Zinnie…” sentence construction today, like “Zinnie walk” when I asked if he wanted to walk or be carried to the children’s museum. And “Zinnie cold” when I let him open the closet door.

 

New words/phrases: Zinnie sad, Zinnie walk, cooling down, go in, for zookeeper, zookeeper funny, fishes, coatis eating, wipe it off, Zinnie cold, wait for it

 

Morning: 

Subway: 

Walking to the Children’s museum: 

Children’s museum: 

After his nap: 

Step O: 

Zoo. By the zookeeper door and looking at the skink: 

New playground: 

Home: 

Cleaning: 

After his bath. He just had Sophie kiss Puff: 

August was awake at 6:30. He drew on the iPad with Carly until she left about 7. He wasn’t happy her leaving, but after he calmed down, he went straight to the markers. He wanted to color with the black one first and said “black first.” In the morning we did some cleaning and vacuuming and laundry, then since August was up early I wanted to do our shopping before his class, so we got ready and left about 10:30. At Home Plus we bought August his first pairs of scissors, then went down and got some kimbap and a sandwich for lunch and some other groceries.

 

In talking with August in the morning and telling him we would go to class and see his teacher, he kept saying “No”, as if he didn’t want to go. He said the same as we were on our way up. But when we got to class he did pretty well. There was some standing by the door and looking out the vents, but for the most part he participated in class and had fun. It was about spiders and elephants and counting. He really liked the little play spider he got to play with. She made a web out of tape on the floor for them to have the spiders crawl along, then we pulled the tape off the floor and it turned into a big spider web parachute game. He was sad to see the toy spider go. Then we each got a spider web on a felt board that we could attach elephants to and work on counting. The most exciting part, of course, was the stickers at the end. He went through the stickers quickly today and wanted more. At the end of class, he did a really big, deep bow to the teacher (with some urging from me, of course).

 

We came home and ate lunch and were doing something at the couch when I asked him if he wanted to get in the carrier to fall asleep. Instead, he surprised me by saying “want to sleep (at) home” and he got up and ran in and climbed on the bed. Well, we tried, but he wouldn’t go to sleep on the bed (kept missing mama, for one). Eventually he was relenting on the carrier, but once I had him in the carrier he was just squirming to get out. Instead, he chose the stroller for the first time. He calmed down, and was patient while I changed him and got us ready to go outside. Outside, he fell asleep right away. Drove him home and parked him in the living room, where he slept from 1:22 to 2:03.

 

He woke up and I took him out of the stroller, but he wanted back in. Perhaps he would have fallen back to sleep if we had started right away, but I needed to get coats on, etc. Still, he was mellow as we went for a walk along the stream and to see the progress on the new apartment complex. He had colored on his hands with markers before his nap, and he would stick his marker-covered right hand out between the zippers of the cover when he wanted another cracker.

 

A package of crackers later, we were back at home. I was pretty worn out, so this was the lazy part of the day. A lot of Endless Spanish and Very Hungry Caterpillar. Finally roused myself a bit and we did a lot of writing on the whiteboard. He is drawing decent 3s now. I was writing words, and we made up our first silly rhyme: baby bunny funny, funny baby bunny. He also was very amused by the sentence “The cat meows” and had me write it several times.

 

Sometime after 4 he looked out the window and decided he wanted to go outside. So we went out to the park. He first went to the playground, but we only played there for a couple minutes, then headed to the usual spot at this end of the bridge: pushed the button a few time, did a lot of watering of rocks and water and bushes and bricks with his water bottle, then kind of practiced going up and down the first couple of the steps of the bridge and people watched, saying “people coming” when he saw someone. Finally, he decided he to climb the stairs to the top of the stairs. This took us to about 5:15. At this point he started wanting to find mama. So we tried to call her, but she didn’t answer.

 

So then we started to walk back, figuring we’d meet her and Megan at our usual spot by the pink building. Along the way we ran into Cluadia and Michaelina and their father. August saw them, and knew it was interrupting finding mama, so he started saying “No, no no.” We talked for a few seconds, long enough for them to tell me that the baby (Rogan) had been born. August handled it.

 

Anyway, we walked to the benches along the pink building. Now 5:30. August wanted to “Call Mama” again, so we did so (I now let him tap her name to make the call). They were a few minutes away. Met them at the corner.

 

From there, we came home. Carly fed him dinner. I laid down for a few minutes. During that time Carly tried to talk to Glecy, but August was having none of that, breaking out in screeching and writing with marker on the curtain. Luckily, it turns out the marker wipes right off.

 

After some Endless Spanish and drawing on the iPad, Carly took him for his bath about 7:30. After that, he was doing a lot of marker drawing in his notebooks. He is drawing pretty good 3s today, and this evening decided he should ‘dot’ each 3, like an ‘i’ or a ‘j’. I think it comes from seeing the electronic keyboards, or all the letter options in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, that show accent marks over letters.

 

He has continued to spot letters and numbers out and about. Today he spotted an ‘H’ in the yellow bricks/tiles in the sidewalk by a crosswalk, and then as he walked up the wooden walkway from the playground to the center of the park he realized it forks and looks like a ‘Y’.

 

New words/phrases: black first, having fun, want to sleep (at) home, pause, people coming, dada’s cough drops

 

Right to it: 

Helping: 

Class: 

He was excited there were numbers on the elephants: 

Shaking them off: 

Letter and number spotting. Here is his ‘H’: 

And here is the once (11) he always points out: 

Marker-covered hand:

Out in the park: 

His ‘Y’: 

On the stairs: 

Home: 

Getting comfy while holding “dada’s cough drops”: