This Is Our Blog

August was up nice and early. He and Carly group skyped with Vivi and Chuck and Cherie, then at 8:30 I had my book group meeting via Skype, discussing Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. One of the few books we all really liked. That lasted until about 10:30, then I popped downstairs to get my hair cut. While I was gone, August had been helping Carly build towers out of the cardboard bricks, counting the bricks as he handed them to her. They also set them up as dominoes.

 

After his nap, we all went for a walk. He rode in the backpack. We walked up the stream, stopping at the women’s business center to get a coffee. Continued on to Madeul Park, saying hi to the horse statues and looking at some of the exhibits. Walked over to the exercise equipment and took him out there. Spent quite awhile climbing on the exercise equipment, then went over to the playground. Did some writing in the sand and dirt, and went up on the play structure and walked across the shaky bridge. Carly was on a swing, and August wanted on the other one. I was getting him to hold on while I pushed him for awhile. Before we left Carly went to the bathroom. While we waited for her, he climbed on the exercise equipment some more and just sat on top for several minutes, watching soccer.

 

We walked home along the other side of the stream, checking out progress on the apartment complex that is close to done. We all went to the pink building and ordered from the Vietnamese place. I headed home with August. One of the Spanish books she bought is called ‘100 Palabras’. Until now, August always points at it and says “numbers” because of the ‘100’ on the cover. But today when we got home, he saw it and started saying “palabras, words” on his own.

 

Carly did some shopping and picked up the food and brought it home and we all ate. She then headed over to Home Plus for more grocery shopping (and to get August’s present). After she got home, we gave him a bath and  I left about 8 to go meet up with Derek. I walked across the river to meet him, making the first real use of the wireless headphones I had backed on Kickstarter a couple years ago and just got a couple days ago. Very nice to not have cords.

 

We hopped the bus and took it most of the way to Hyehwa, getting off a few stops early to go to the bank. We then walked to Hyehwa, stopping to get chicken on a stick along the way. In Hyehwa we found the restaurant he wanted to review, but they were full. So we went instead to his favorite Korean barbecue place, where we ate way too much food. We stopped at the 1999 place for awhile, then I took off so as to make it home not too insanely late after midnight (and so I could take a bus home instead of having to take a taxi).

 

August had been heading to bed when I left, and fell asleep about 8:15. While I was gone, Carly made the very yummy peanut pasta recipe she got from Cherie.

 

New words/phrases: mama dada says that, marshy in the bed, dinosaur oh my goodness, jam, Yoshi, Tuttle, palabras

Playing with his horse (neigh neigh): 

Playground: 

Home: 

Another nice day. I keep thinking we’ve had the last 50+ degree day of the winter, then we have another one.

He woke up at 7:17. Upset at first, but I started reading Kipper and he got drawn in. Then wanted to play with chapstick, putting it on himself and me. From there we played with the kitty cat puppet – he really likes the bumpy soft texture of the back. We did some art, then played with the Duplo people on his car puzzle. Earlier, he had been asking for his eraser for the whiteboard. I had said I didn’t know where it was. Quite awhile after that he opened the art drawer and found it and exclaimed “Aha! I found it!” We then played some piano – he does a nice version of ABCs while pounding on the keys. I then brushed his teeth while he watched songs on YouTube and let him watch some more while I got our snacks ready. I looked over to find him kind of doing a pushup with his legs on the arm of the couch while watching it.

We have a new game the last couple of days called ‘Bzzt’. It is the sound of being shocked. He touches me and I make the shocked noise. He was really into it today, particularly as we were getting ready to leave. Then, when I had him in the backpack and were about to go, I realized I hadn’t put his shoes on yet. I said something like “Oh, I still need to put your shoes on” and he replied with a big “Oh my.”

We got to CGP and he wanted to go to the playground. So we went to the Adventureland playground and spent an hour or so playing in the sand, writing letters and words and twirly twirls. Near the end, he heard a big group of kids walking up the main path and he walked away to go see them. A second group came by and he just started up the road, following them. I told him we needed to get the backpack and he stopped. He found a long stick and played with that all by himself for several minutes, then wanted me to use it to draw letters in the grass over and over again.

I changed him and put him in the backpack. He was hungry so he had a snack. And kept eating. Finished one string cheese, all the strawberries, and most of the leftover quesadilla. Only took 7 minutes to put him to sleep.

He was asleep from 12:47 to 1:56. When he woke up and was walking around the cafe we met another woman and her 19 month old son. She has seen us there before and doesn’t know how I get any reading done while taking care of a baby.

From there we went to the zoo for a little while. Went to the horses and goats, where he petted the horses and then fed the goats some food that other kids had dropped. That went well until one of the goats bit his finger a bit – not enough to cause damage, but I think it startled him. From there we went and watched the baboons for several minutes. He then wanted in the backpack. We went and saw the deer before we left.

We went to the children’s museum for a little less than an hour. Stayed on the first floor. It was later in the day, so not nearly as crowded as when there are school groups there. He spent a lot of time at some new stuff he hadn’t played with before: a little tunnel with displays that light up, little drawer things that show you different rocks and minerals (he was saying ‘selenite’), etc. We also spent time making letters out of the magnetic strips. When I made ‘Q’ he said “Q, quack, quickly.” We spent a few minutes over in the ball area before changing him and leaving.

On our way home we stopped at the pink building and went to the stationary store, looking for notecards. Only found a tiny little set. Don’t know why there are so difficult to find here. August saw the display of stickers and I let him choose a set to get. He first saw a set with piggies, but then I saw a pack of sheep and alpaca stickers. He chose that one, handing the other to me and saying “hold this dada.”

Carly was a block away when we left the building, so we met her and walked home together. August spotted her across the street and a good distance away, repeating “see mama!” At home he ate a little pizza for dinner, but not much else; he had eaten a bunch during the day, finishing the last of the sandwich as we left the children’s museum. Oh, and on the subway there was a boy about his age sitting next to him. The boy hurt his hand somehow and was crying. August started comforting him, patting his leg and shoulder. As we got off, the boy gave August an orange. August ate all of it on our walk home.

He did quite a bit of reading with both Carly and me. He used his new stickers to decorate both my chair and his chair, then moved several to the table. A quick bath. He didn’t fight it, but he’s gone back to not sitting down in the bath, so he doesn’t do much playing at all. He kept trying to climb up on the back of the couch, so we were teaching him it was an area just for the stuffed animals. He got tired a little after 8 and went to bed pretty quickly. When Carly suggested it was time to turn off the light, he got up and did it himself. He fell asleep about 8:20.

New words/phrases: knock at the door, stickers in class, becoming a dinosaur, giraffe, mama says that, selenite, it’s working (shapes sticking), hold it dada (giving me stickers to hold), Santa Clause, Q is for question, stuffed animals, becoming (neighbor, cow)

Playground: 

Zoo: 

Children’s museum: 

Comforting the boy on the bus: 

Home: 

He woke up a little before 6, which made it a long stretch to his class today. In the morning, he knew Carly was going to make a quesadilla when they went into the kitchen, announcing “quesadilla!” Then, as he was standing on his stool, he was trying to get Carly to go get his water for him, which was over on the coffee table. Finally he gave in and got it himself.

 

When it came time for Carly to go to work, he said bye bye and actually started pushing her towards the door. After she was gone, we were reading Let’s Play and he was obsessing about the chicken. I asked him if he would like to have a chicken and he didn’t respond. I asked him what animal he would like to have, and he said “elephant.” In the evening he repeated this as we were reading the book again. But after a few seconds he changed his mind, saying “No, giraffe.”

 

When playing on the iPad today he really got into recording his voice saying letters and listening to his voice. We then skyped with my parents. But first, when he saw Skype it reminded him of Carly. We typed a message to her, but he was still missing mama when we talked to my parents. He finally got better as we were talking to them.

 

After that, we tried to go down for his immunizations today (flu shot and Hepatitis A). It was pretty busy though, and after close to a half hour of waiting we left, as we had to get to his class.

 

We went to class. At first, August wasn’t too excited, although he wasn’t afraid or upset this time. He was acting really tired. But once class started, he really got into it. There were the songs and bubbles at the beginning, then a bear activity using big paws to pick up fish, a whale activity, where they walked whales across a walkway to free them in the ocean, and then a penguin activity where they slid down a rolling slide. There was also a bear hat and a penguin hat and outfit along the way. He was actually wearing the hats, but said no to the penguin suit.

 

He wasn’t too into the fishing activity, but started to really get into the whales, and he loved the rolling slide. He went down 5 or 6 times. Waiting in line to go down was a little hard on him, but he started to get used to it.

 

After class we went downstairs to look for a couple things and get some sandwiches for lunch. We went home and ate lunch, then put him in the carrier and walked the 8th floor until he fell asleep at 1:03. After about 35 minutes he cried out and I went in. I put my hand on his back and he squirmed for awhile, but fell back to sleep. That has never happened before. At 2:21 he woke up, was actually sitting up and said a couple things. then laid down on his stomach and put his head on my leg. And fell asleep. That has definitely never happened before. I was phone-less, so had no other choice than to gather the blankets behind my, lie down and take a nap with August.

 

At 2:56 I woke him up. He howled for mama a bit, but calmed down. We then went back down to the doctor. He can scream really loud when they take his temperature, weigh him, and examine him and give him the shots. But a nice change: he now knows when the bad part is past, and calmed down once we were back in the waiting room. Before, Carly would have to take him and leave to calm him down while I waited to pay.

 

We came back up for a little while, then got in the backpack and went for a walk. Were thinking go going to the playground, but it was a dark, damp 50, and we didn’t have a lot of time. Instead, we walked across the river and met Carly and Megan and walked back with them.

 

We ordered pizza for dinner, and August had soup. He also had a cracker which he asked for, but mainly just carried around much of the evening. Didn’t finish it until close to 8:30. He was still carrying it when he took a bath, and he was not happy at all with being separated from it for the bath, so his bath was a quick one.

 

On the iPad, he is also doing the activity where you trace a letter, then toggle off the letter you were tracing over. He will do the tracing, then look to see how his version looks. He’s not very good yet, but if you printed them and put them on the wall, you would probably figure out it was the alphabet.

 

We also read Kipper, and August wanted to get cozy, so I made a little nest for him in the corner with the blanket. We played ‘badger hole’ with the blanket as well. Then we did a lot of blowing up of balloons and letting them go – he will hold the balloon for a couple seconds as it deflates before pushing it away.

 

He did some typing to Vivi with Carly, then headed to bed a little before 9.

 

Taught me two things today: that you can swipe anywhere on the iPad or iPhone screen to unlock it – all these years and I’ve been swiping where it says ‘Swipe to unlock’. And in the Papers app we use to draw, he figured out how to change the background color of our drawing.

 

Asleep 1:03, 2:21, 2:56

 

New words/phrases: quesadilla, Jihong, thank you sangsaengnim, elevator (clear pronunciation), big numbers song, rainy, becoming sandcastle (continuing his joke series)

 

Watching mama get ready to leave in the morning: 

Smoothie moustache:

Class: 

Home again: 

Holding his cracker: 

A very nice day (for December): sunny and hitting the low 50s. He woke up at 7:37. A few “miss mama”s, but then he saw his new books from class and wanted to look at those. He keeps wanting to do the stickers in the book, but I have to remind him that the teacher keeps the stickers and we do them in class.

Oatmeal for breakfast this morning. He demonstrated that he knew more of the Endless monsters’ names. He also played with his dump truck and backhoe. We used the dump truck to haul magnets, and then used it for Duplo animals. We then played Duplos for quite awhile before we left. We expanded the farm and rebuilt the zoo, with individual cages this time. Although August chose which animals went in which cage. I feel a little bad for the camel he put in with the tiger.

We left about 10:30. When we got to the CGP station he chose to go to the children’s museum, which meant I didn’t have to put him in the backpack, since the museum is right by the entrance. We went in there and played 45 to 60 minutes down on the first floor. Inundated with school groups, so he was surrounded by big kids, but it didn’t seem to phase him. He bounced around the floor a lot – there are a ton of things to do, and a constant stream of sensory input. He spent the most time (5 minutes, top) at a nature sounds corner, where you could push buttons to hear things like frogs, cicadas, and bees. He also found the puppet theater area at the end, but it was overrun by bigger kids. He seemed really interested in the puppets though, and I’m sure we’ll be back.

By this point it was about noon and I was wondering if he was hungry. But instead he wanted to go to the “little kids area.” We went and played there for about 20 minutes. His favorite thing was a new stuffed triangle and square. He would grab the triangle and do a little dance with it, waving it in front of him. He also liked putting them away and picking up the stuffed worms and putting them away back in their holes in the big apple.

It was approaching 12:30 and he was getting both hungry and tired. We put our shoes on and went up to the eating area. Ate lunch and then put him in the backpack. Took less than 10 minutes of walking to put him to sleep. Went to the first floor Peace Cafe for his nap, but he only slept 1:09 to 1:36. I held him and walked him around until 2. He was silent, lying on my shoulder, but wouldn’t fall asleep. Finally, he wanted up. He also then pooped. He’s still dealing with the stomach thing that is bothering him, so that may have been what woke him up.

We played in the cafe for a little while on the iPad and typed a message to Carly. Then we left and went to the zoo. Spent most of our time with the pumas and bears. He was getting more into talking about the animals, trying to say how many animals there were (“There’s one (monkey)”, for example), what they are doing (sleeping, eating – this led us to doing some basic math: “one jaguar lying down plus one jaguar walking equals two jaguars”), and if they were all there (at first we only saw two asian bears, when usually there are four. So he said “missing, missing”).

From there we looped past the jaguars, leopards, tigers, and lions and watched the primates a bit more. He thought he wanted to see the water birds, but changed his mind once we went inside. We then went in to see the lizards for a few minutes. Back outside we pondered what to do. One thing he didn’t want was the playground – I offered it to him about a dozen times during the day and he didn’t want to go. We sat on a bench by the primates for a break, and he decided he wanted in the backpack. From there I let him direct us. He pondered things, then decided on heading home.

So we headed home, getting here about a quarter to 5. Carly wasn’t going to be home until 5:30ish as she was helping a student with an application, so I prepped August a lot on the way home. At the subway I explained it to him and asked what he wanted to do until mama got home. He said “Duplos.” We reviewed at the elevators, but then it started to sink in that she wasn’t home. I think it all worked, however, as when we did get home there was some initial sadness, but no crying. He played with magnets and we did some coloring and stickers, then Carly got home.

We ate soup for dinner, then gave him a quick bath. There was some fun time where I was sliding him back and forth on his back on the floor between me and Carly. After his bath, about 7, he started to nurse and was asleep around 7:15.

His big accomplishment today was singing the entire ABC song, all 26 letters and pretty much to the rhythm/tune. He has really been working on the M-N-O-P-Q section the last few days.

New words/phrases: loading, Dapper Dan, Scampi, Rocky, in slipper, takes care of animals, gorilla fall out truck, GS25, sign, little kids area, sausage, another one, pine needle, there’s one (six), cougar, missing

Children’s museum: 

Eating a gummi bear: 

After his nap, Qing the O: 

Watching the pumas:

Climbing on the leopard photo zone: 

Headed home: 

Carly got this for helping a student: 

He woke up at 7:29 – way too early as that was less than 8 hours sleep. The big activity of the morning was vacuuming. He instantly wanted to vacuum on his own, and spent at least 5 minutes on his own vacuuming in the parlor. Then, when I was vacuuming, he was helping crawl under things, particularly the rocking chair, to guide my vacuuming. He would also squat or lie down next to it and just start doing his counting thing on the ground – and if I turned it off he would make me turn it back on.

I didn’t think he was going to make it to class at 11:10 and, indeed, at 10:30 when we started to get ready to go he started crying and when I asked him if he wanted to nap or go to class, he actually sad “nap” a couple of times. But after changing him and he had calmed down he changed his tune, excitedly mentioning “class” a couple times.

So we headed out with him facing me in the carrier. Figured if he fell asleep on the way we could just come back. But he made it. Class went amazingly well. He spent much of the beginning standing by the door, but no crying or needing to go out or be held. He really perked up when she brought out a stuffed bunny rabbit and started using it to tell a story. And when she brought out the textured squares…well, he was in heaven: “More textures!”

After class it took a surprisingly long walk to put him to sleep. He fell asleep at 12:35. He was silent for about 20 minutes. We walked over to the stream, then back and south to the pink building, then back towards the stream. Came home and got him in bed. New technique: keeping him in the carrier and lying down over him, then taking the carrier off. Here he is before I then slipped the carrier out from under him and took off his coat.

He was asleep 12:35 to 1:22, woke up and had some milk and fell back to sleep on me from 1:33 to 2:11, at which point I woke him up. I turned on the phonics song for him and he got really excited. I made a teriyaki salmon sandwich for lunch. He had salmon, his leftover french toast, cheese, tofu, and strawberry.

We got ready to head out and went to Home Plus. He was requesting the carrier over the stroller, so I put him in the carrier for the walk there, pushing the stroller. It reminded me that he is getting to big for facing out in the carrier – getting awkward. Once there, I put him in the stroller. We did our shopping and then headed to the art museum.

There, he played in the little play structure. It was nice as we were the only people there to begin with, although then it got crowded. He did more crawling through it than he as done in the past, going to the back, and climbing up to the second level in one part of it. He didn’t want to get too far away from me though: I said I wouldn’t fit in the entrance, then he started insisting “dada fit.” I slid partway in, then he would climb in and say “Dada fit, Zinnie fit.” We had to go move our stroller, and when we came back realized that one of the girls playing there had a very bad cough and was coughing everywhere. Didn’t have to decide whether to let August back in, as he suddenly realized we were in an art museum and wanted to see art. So we went through downstairs, counting the steps down on our way, but mainly he got the idea that he wanted to climb on the fake grass-covered part, which was off limits. He did have fun for a few minutes revisiting his favorite piece, and identifying the letters and numbers in the off-limit area.

We looked at a little of the other art, then he wanted to go outside. Spent several minutes just playing outside, walking along the yellow lines, then making a loose ditch cover rattle back and forth. He then walked alongside me all the way across the park to the library. Actually, first he wanted to go home, but after explaining a few times that mama was still at work, he started requesting “library.”

We went there and looked at the English books. He spent a few minutes with the robot book we saw last time that has pieces you can turn. We then went upstairs into the Korean children’s area and looked at a few books. About 5:30 we headed out. Carly met us by the pink building. She took August on up and I stopped to get bread.

He was pretty funny this evening. He continues his “Becoming a…” joke. His big one today was “Becoming ‘Q’!” We also got his new book and CDs and DVD from class today (he was very excited and went right up to the teacher today when he saw her get them out). So we watched part of the video. He seems to like it more than the one from the last class. He was also doing some “climbing yoga” on me while I sat on the couch. Green Monster had been lying down on the back of the couch, so for the past couple of days August would point to him and say “sleeping.” We were playing with him on the couch, and August threw him on the floor and said “Sleeping on the floor.”

Carly gave him a quick bath as he was getting tired. He went to sleep around 8:30 without a struggle.

New words/phrases: more textures, coats on (we both have coats on), Home Plus (pointing at sign on store), net, up there inside (where he wanted to go in the play structure), climb up, dada fit Zinnie fit, someone’s dada (‘someone’ is dada – in the play structure he had poked me through the netting and said “someone” – when I said it was me, he replied with this), i see ‘6’, sleeping on the floor

Class: 

Nap: 

Art museum: 

Across the park: 

Robot book at library: 

He woke up at 7:17 crying, as if from a bad dream. Carly said it seemed like he was having a bad dream a couple times last night. In the morning we played with his banana shaker, both using it to shake and to write letters on the ground, his hammer, and organized all the magnets on the door. We ate cheerios and strawberries for breakfast.

We went outside around 11. He wanted the backpack, but I convinced him I could just carry him. We were going to go to the library, but once out in the park he didn’t want that. He wanted “park”, but then was unclear what that was. We walked around, visiting the camel statue, then went back to the playground. Played there a little, but mainly he wanted up in my arms. As we were walking, I was trying to sing the phonics song he likes on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffeZXPtTGC4) but couldn’t remember a lot of the words. He supplied several of them, including dog, fish, hat, lion, nose, pig, and sun.

We went home, then walked around the 8th floor to put him to sleep at 12:53. Unfortunately, he woke up when I tried to put him in bed. So we did it again, this time without the carrier, just holding him, but with the same result. Tried keeping him in the bed, but that just led to a lot of crying, so eventually we were back up.

We did a lot of playing with stickers and ate lunch – strawberries, sandwich, and string cheese. Sometime after 2 he seemed a bit tired, and he was agreeable to the carrier, so we went walking around the floor for 10 minutes. He was calm, but didn’t fall asleep. Finally, around 4 he first dragged the regular backpack down the hall, then started asking for the carrier. But I thought we should get out and use the big backpack, so we did that. We walked around the block basically and he was asleep. He slept from 4:31 to 5:07. He had just woken up and was still in the backpack when Carly got home.

About 6:30 I left for my writing group meeting. While I was gone they did some more playing with stickers, and a lot of alphabet and numbers writing. August was very aware of neighbors – when he heard footsteps from above while in the other room he ran back into the living room.

When I got home a little after 9 he had not yet fallen asleep. So they were back up. Then Vivi called on Skype. He made a game of dropping some stickers that were stuck together from the chair, then was paying pretty good attention to Vivi for awhile. I was also reading the Eric Carle ABC book with him, and found out he knew most of the animals in it, including crocodile and quetzal.

Around 10 we all headed to bed. Carly changed him one last time, and he was really working on his “Becoming…” joke, taking time to look around and think about it, and come up with sentences like “Becoming a shirt” and “Becoming a door.”

Finally, about 10:50 he fell asleep, as did we.

New words/phrases: close the door, forward roll, nope, quetzal, send, fall, throw, return (key on keyboard)

Playground: 

Home: 

Finally asleep for an actual nap: 

Before I left: 

What I missed while I was gone: 

Late evening: 

Made lazier as I wasn’t feeling totally well. Slept a good amount though, and felt pretty well by the end of the day. August got up around 7 – he didn’t throw up during the night, and was fine all day – and he and Carly skyped with Vivi and Cherie at the same time. After I got up, I put his new hangeul poster on the wall and he had fun looking at that. Carly made chicken soup in the morning, and he took about a 90 minute nap.

After he woke up, I took him out for a walk in the backpack so Carly could do some work. We walked south along the river, a little past the bridge. There was a flock of about 50 cranes resting along the river, so we stopped and watched them. We then went back up to the bridge and walked towards home along the back street. We walked through the small park close to the pink building and he wanted to get down, so we stopped there and played. He spent a little time walking back and forth on the shaky bridge, but mainly the playground was an opportunity for more letters, either spotting them on signs, looking at graffiti, imagining them in the shapes on the ground, or singing and pretend drawing the letters over every surface. Oh, and he watched people playing soccer, pretending he was turning the soccer balls into Cs, Os, and Qs.

Around 4:30 he wanted to head home. I think he was getting a bit cold, but he still wouldn’t wear his hat and mittens. August was really processing where Carly was and what she was doing, since usually when she is working she isn’t at home. He would saying “mama working.” And he would do his usual “mama at work, no, mama home” and then switch it to “mama at home, no, mama work.” We headed home and had chicken soup for dinner. I pulled him around in the laundry basket for awhile. And he got a little scrape on his toe when he tried to take down the whiteboard from its hook. Unfortunately, he doesn’t lift it off the hook and just pulls. This time, the hook broke and the board hit his foot.

After a messy diaper I drew a bath for him and Carly gave him a bath while I picked up around the house. While Carly was changing him he started joking, instead of saying “Becoming a big kid” he said “Becoming a baby.” Then he was saying “Becoming Dada” and ‘mama’ and ‘Zinnie’ and ‘A to Z’.

I read ‘Kiss Goodnight’ and Kipper to him before bed. There are lots of words and full sentences he will now recite from Kipper, including the last line of the ‘Toybox’ which ends “they nibbled everything!” and the last line of ‘Birthday’ which is “It was a cake!” and then make the deflating balloon sound, as there is a balloon flying around on the page and we make that noise to end it.

He went to sleep about a quarter to 9 without much of a fight.

New words/phrases: I hear Vivi, hit the window, it’s working, heard it, mama working, Alphabot, becoming a baby, magnet from megan, houses

Waking from his nap: 

Our walk: 

Playground: 

Home: 

So we’ve had a pretty good run of us all being healthy recently. That ended this last night as August started throwing up during the night. Three times. No other symptoms, and he otherwise seemed fine throughout the day.

 

He was up about a quarter to 8, and skyping with Vivi when Carly had to go do a work-related health check. She left and we continued to Skype for awhile. August and I were reading the Kipper story “Splosh” to Vivi when their internet cut out.

 

After that, August wanted frozen mango. He ate some of that and some Cheerios as I was cutting strawberries to put on our cereal. Then he threw up again. Quite a mess, but right in the kitchen near the sink, so easy to clean up.

 

We played some more with the box of blocks we opened this morning (think I got them clearance at Toys R Us some time ago), and Carly came home a little later. He continued to act fine, and a little after 10:30 we left on a walk up the stream to Logan’s birthday party at the Tayo Cafe. August and I were there once way back before he turned a year old, and we recently went to the children’s library in that area. Got there about 11:20 and commenced to playing. In addition to Logan and Rosie, Chloe and Cora were also there, and a boy they know from their apartment building.

 

We were there about an hour and a half before he needed to fall asleep. Did a lot of climbing, playing in the ball area, playing with Tayo bus toys, and scooping up bead things with a rake and shovel. On at least 3 occasions he found balls from the ball pits out and about and picked them up and took them back to the ball pits. He ate some french fries, chicken, and pizza for lunch and did fine.

 

Close to one is when he decided to sleep. He fell asleep nursing, but woke up in the rather complicated process of getting our stuff, putting it on, getting him in the backpack, and out the door. We had a nice walk home back down the stream, and he stayed awake until he got home, then nursed and fell asleep from roughly 2 to 3. I fell asleep during that time as well, and went into the bedroom to sleep a little longer after he woke up.

 

In the late afternoon we all went to Home Plus for grocery shopping, along wither everyone else in Junggye. August did pretty well in the stroller, aided by a couple sample orange slices. Let him out near the end though when we were looking for Carly and there were too many carts for us to move around quickly. Headed home and started putting groceries away and preparing dinner. Carly gave him the cheap backhoe I bought at Daiso and we played with that a bit, but then he threw up, the first time in 10 hours. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to bother him, and he did it again on the wood floor and not the carpet he had just been standing on. He also missed Marshy who was in the vicinity. I changed him and Carly did cleanup, then we ate some ravioli and have all been playing iPad together on and off since then. I drew a bath and Carly washed him and got him ready for bed.

 

 

August was just playing Endless Numbers when Carly got out her floss. Her floss always makes a loud squeak and he says “Hear something.” This time he didn’t, and she kept saying “Hear something” and he didn’t respond. So I started throwing the stuffed animals at him and saying “Hear something.” Finally, I threw Smokey and he picked Smokey up, got up and set him on the couch, then went straight back to the iPad without acknowledging me. Finally, when I threw Angeles at him I got a good response and he looked up and said “Hear something.”

 

Carly took him in to go to sleep a little after 9, but then his stomach was making noise and it sounded like he might throw up. So they came back out and we played a little more until his stomach settled down. He went to sleep about 9:45.

 

New words/phrases: mama in closet, clean up clean up, Mama changed your diaper, head home, Monster Party, cupcakes, by accident

New blocks: 

Massaging mama with the brush: 

Tayo Kid Cafe: 

Home: 

He woke up a little before 7 today. While reading Kipper after Carly left, he surprised me first by repeatedly counting the mice, even thought there were just two of them. It was very intentional. Then, at the end of the “Splosh” story, he pointed to ’squelch’ and twice said the word. It was never a word I had called out or spelled for him.

 

Later in the morning he got out some stickers and said “For mama.” So we decorated a piece of paper for him; he was really into Qs and wanted me to draw a bunch of them as well. We Tried out the new Endless Learning Academy app and also found a new phonics song on YouTube.

 

At some point we were talking about being happy, and he said “Happy letters. Happy ‘q’.”

 

We left for the subway about 10:15 only to get there and realize he didn’t have his shoes on. First time that has happened. When I saw he didn’t have shoes I said “Oh my” a couple times. He repeated me. When we got back to the apartment, I said “Let’s get your shinbal (shoes)” and he said “Oh my.” He still remembered it in the evening, randomly saying “Shoes. Oh my.” So back home for shoes, then back to the subway.

 

At the other end, we sat on a bench to get our coats back on and put him in the backpack. But he climbed on my lap and cuddled. I realized he was looking over at the billboard sign by the subway doors, reading the letters. I said “This is about the letters, isn’t it?” He started saying “About E, about V…” But this lasted several minutes, and he said “More cuddle” a couple of times.

 

By the time we got to CGP we were getting to the 5 hour mark. Had time to go to the horses and goats. He had fun feeding leaves to the baby goats and petting them. That lasted several minutes. We then went and saw the snakes, lizards, and turtles. After awhile there we were getting close to 12:30 and time for his nap. We initially were going to go look at other animals briefly, but he started to get tired, so we headed to get ready for a nap. He changed his mind, and started saying “playground”, even though that wasn’t an option I gave him. I explained we would do his nap, then could go to the playground. He processed this and was saying “nap, playground” as we walked to the bathroom. We went to the heated bathrooms Carly likes so much. Changed him in the nursing room, then put him in the backpack for a nap. Took off his coat so he wouldn’t get too warm while sleeping. Don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do that, as we walk outside to put him to sleep.

 

He fell asleep after a few minutes of walking, and slept exactly an hour, from 12:44 to 1:44. Woke up and we looked at books for a few minutes. Found a book in English about Korean art that I might read, and another of historical maps documenting the claim to calling it the Sea of Korea as opposed to Sea of Japan.

 

We then went over to the children’s museum. Spent a few minutes on the second floor playing with the Hangeul alphabet magnets. He was starting to put together simple Korean syllables and sounding them out. Very cool and unexpected.

 

We then went up to the water table area and played there most of the rest of our time – over an hour. He can now aim the water cannon things – just caring about aiming them is a development since last time we were here. Crowds came and went, but he handled all the kids just fine. Wandered away from the water a couple times to look at the culture play area and the pneumatic ball pipes, but those didn’t last long.

 

Finally, a little after 3:30 I convinced him we should eat. He hadn’t shown much interest in food through the day so far. We went and ate in the lounge. He was running around doing his flying maneuver (bent over, with his arms behind him) when two slightly larger boys came in and started pretend fighting him Pokemon or Dragonball Z style. He was initially surprised by them, but then was just amused.

 

We left a little after 4. As we were leaving, I said “Let’s put on your coat” and he responded with “Okey dokey.” He then let me put on his mittens. He pulled them off once, but the second time they stayed on, and he kept them on until we were to the subway. Then, when we were at this end of the ride and putting all our coats, etc. back on, he also let me put on his hat. It was 5, so we called Carly and met her on her walk home, with both his mittens and hat on for the first time.

 

At home he had a good long hyper time. I was talking about his new class, which is called Teuni Teuni Kid Champ, and he found ‘kid champ’ incredibly funny and he was ‘attacking’ Carly. I was eating my dinner sitting in the reading area, and August started sliding off the couch, into my lap. He then did some forward rolls this way. But when I made him tofu and heated the leftover eggs and broccoli for him, he got very serious while eating.

 

Carly did some art with him and got his bath ready. He wanted to listen to music on his iPod, so we were doing that and he started to cuddle with me, pulling my arm back around him when I took it away. This lasted several minutes, then I took him in to his bath. That went well, then he went and read books with Carly, namely Wild About Books.

 

We read a bunch of Kipper to him. After Carly took a shower, he went in with her and he found one of his water bottles under the bed. He came running out to me, saying “I did it” about a million times. Went to sleep awhile after that at 9:20.

 

New words/phrases: two mouse, other mouse, squelch (reading it), oh my, nap playground, Zinnie turn (wanting me to hold him so he could turn the spiny thing in the water area), cold outside, found mama, turn light on, nurse reading area, here

Headed to the subway. Hands sort of protected: 

Zoo: 

Children’s museum: 

Wearing mittens, then also a hat: 

Adding the hood: 

And now hat: 

Home: 

He was awake at 6:30. In the morning played some Duplos, iPad, walked on the bricks, coloring, and skyped with my parents. Vivi tried to call to Skype but it was when we were already skyping. August was in the mood for skyping later, but by then she was probably going to bed. So he typed a bunch of messages to her instead. Got ready to go to his new class and it was starting to snow really hard. August really made it clear he wanted the backpack, but we stuck to the stroller for now.

 

Got to class right at 11 when it starts. There ended up being a total of 12 other kids in the class. The teacher is a guy, and we know 3 other people in the class – the two we signed up with, and then the wife and daughter of another teacher at APIS. At first August was having nothing to do with class. I stood and held him during the first couple songs and roll call. When the instructor tired to say hi to August he would whine and turn away. But then he got out the ramp and started to have kids do forward rolls down it. August first wanted down on the ground, then would edge closer, come back for me, and edge closer. Eventually, the instructor was able to have August do the roll. August yelled and complained when he did it, but it was a start.

 

After that, they got to push foam cylinders into plastic pigs and turtle shells. The instructor brought out one pig and pieces to demonstrate. He saw that August was interested, and motioned him over. August walked over to him and tried it out. This guy is really good. August really took to this activity. The instructor came over and showed August how to use his thumb to push him in, and August picked that up right away. At one point, he walked across the room to play with three other kids and parents. One of the boys we know, Jihong, was crying and upset, and August kept going over and patting him on the back/shoulder.

 

Next, they got to use the big french fry shaped blocks to push them over and then walk on. That was fun, although August kept pausing to read the letters on them. They then made a big path with them, which ended at the angled piece. They could walk along it, then slide or do a forward roll. It was good for August, as we had to take turns, something he isn’t used to and hasn’t really been an issue in his other classes. I had him do a forward roll once, and the instructor did one as well.

 

That pretty much went to the end. With knowing so many people in the class now (I think at least one other woman knew us from maybe his first class) saying good byes at the end took a long time. But we got out of there and went down to do some grocery shopping. While there, I got a call from one of the moms, as the other boy’s mother thought the class was too easy for her son. Cutting through the drama, she’s moving her son to the more advanced class, while the other two of us are staying put.

 

We went home, again in the snow, but lighter. August was ramped up after class and in a great mood. Close to 1, more than 6 and a half hours, he finally seemed on the road to a nap. I put him in the carrier, but he kept requesting Kipper. So we are making it a routine to read 3 stories before his naps at home. He chose the toy box story, then the birthday story, twice. After that, we got in the carrier without too much fuss and walked the halls a few minutes and he fell asleep.

 

He slept 1:16 to 1:56 and woke up with a cry. I got him and he fell back to sleep on me from 2:01 to 2:39 while I sat and read. Didn’t want him to sleep too long, so I woke him up at that point by laying him on the couch. He woke up gently, just lying there for awhile.

 

We then got in the backpack and went for a walk up to Daiso. Wanted to get some more whiteboard markers and some small gifts for an upcoming party. August doing a lot of singing as we walk. Not much snow, but it started to come back near the end. On the way back we had some time before Carly would get home. I gave August the choice of library or art museum and he eagerly chose library. We went to the library for about a half hour. A the a snack first, then went and looked at books. August had a lot of fun, but started to get really loud. And he was talking more and more about both mama and the iPad, which was at home. Anyway, they have a really good selection of English children’s books, so I will look into getting a library card.

 

We came home and ran into Carly and Megan as we were picking up the package with our new Hangeul poster at the guard station. We went home and used the new big dry erase markers, had eggs for dinner, did forward rolls on the carpet, took a bath, and read some Kipper. He talked a lot about “class fun.” When we were using the dry erase markers, I cleaned crayon off the table from earlier. He kept pointing to a spot I missed. I asked who did it, and if mama did it. He said “Yes.” But when asked if I did it, he said “No.” But later, as we were getting him into bed I asked again. This time he wouldn’t accuse Carly and said that he was the one that colored on the table. He fell asleep at 8:10 after some protesting that he wanted “More dada, Kipper.”

 

New words/phrases: sauce, jars, kipper trying to sleep, pushing dada, handle, crack in there, ick in there, library, cats, okey dokey

 

Morning: 

In the snow: 

Teuni Teuni class: 

Walk to Daiso: 

He wanted his own blue broom after we got one for Logan, so he carried it on the way back: 

Library: 

Home: 

Hugging, kissing, and patting mama’s leg: