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I needed to head to Namdaemun today to pick up my new glasses. But August kept coming up with new things to do at home, and specifically kept grabbing my hand and leading me to the fort. So we didn’t head out until a quarter to 11.

We started our morning by sitting in the fort and playing Endless Reader. We then made a smoothie and did some yoga and exercise. We then did some coloring and August identified a “Hanguel ‘S'” from our writing a previous day. Also, as he was scribbling, he was naming letters and also “sailboat”.

Extending our morning was him keeping wanting to go in the fort. He was really quiet, perhaps a bit tired early as he woke up before 6. He would walk up to me and grab my hand or the hem of my shirt and pull me towards the fort.

He also has been trying to climb up on the table recently. Today, he saw the keyboard I had and got fascinated by it, pointing out the numbers and letter. I grabbed it and I let him take it: first into the fort, then lying on the reading area.

We headed out, taking a bus to Changbong Station, then the subway downtown. He played Endless Reader on the subway and had quite and audience: four people were watching and a couple were clapping for him and encouraging him. I talked to the guy next to me who was a Korean who has lived in New York City for 40 years.

After we got of the subway I put August in the backpack then we went and picked up my glasses, which was quick. Able to see better, we walked up to City Hall. August fell asleep about a block away and we sat in the changing/nursing room in the basement (Citizens Hall) for 70 minutes while he slept from 12:08 to 1:18.

After his nap (he woke up very happy, pointing out animals on the wall), we played in the huge Citizens Hall area under City Hall. We are and played with a ball in the lounge area, got some band aids from a mystery box vending machine, and looked at the art in the gallery. He liked the animal statues and the huge dragon and unicorn made of balloons – as usual, he decided to do some yoga on the floor, and he had done some earlier in the lounge.

We then went and changed him, and headed into city hall and up to the gallery on the 8th floor. Looked around there. He saw the big ’11’ on the elevator and said “eleven”. We walked up and checked out the cafe and sitting area on the 9th and 10th floors. On the 9th he decided to do some yoga.

From there we headed home. We walked up to the 111 bus stop and got good seats for the ride home. We needed them. Took about twice as long as the bus ride yesterday on the exact same route. A lot of Endless Reader time for him though. But as we went by Dream Forest he decided he had had enough. People had to deal with an upset child for a few stops as I wasn’t about to get off early. One woman reached across me to open my window, as if he was upset because it was stuffy, and not that he had been sitting on a bus for 70 minutes and wanted his mama.

Anyway, we got home and I quickly ate some soup Carly had heated for me. Then I went to my writing group meeting. Didn’t get back until after August was asleep.

While we were in the Citizens Hall, he had done some ‘flying’, running with his arms behind him. He did this for Carly as well.

New words/phrases: hangeul ‘s’, Endless Reader, yes and no (when choosing shirts), feel texture feet, bumpy sticky texture, puff, lived by the sea, dragon (repeating words from the song), cat up there. over there, over there (caboo out there), cabin(? Seemed to be calling the fort a cabin, but don’t know where he would have gotten that – may have been saying “come in”)

New glasses (and August falling asleep):

Citizens Hall: 

City Hall: 

Headed home: 

Asleep in the reading area: 

Before his nap, we all went out to the park to play for awhile. I then hopped on the subway to meet a few other people downtown who were all going to get new glasses. While I was gone, August took his nap and then he and Carly walked along the stream and went to a playground, then went grocery shopping.

 

In the morning, August and I made a fort out of Oma and Opa’s chairs, putting them back-to-back with a blanket over them. August took Marshy in, and was laying him down, saying “Marshy sleepy”. When I was in there with him, I sent August out to get me a pillow. The first time he just touched a pillow then came back. But I sent him out a second time and he returned with a pillow.

 

Carly made chicken soup and had it ready for lunch. August ate a lot in the morning: the cooked chicken, Cheerios and milk, and zucchini.

 

He is getting close to knowing the entire ABC song. He regularly does A to L, and today was reciting O to Z. It is just M and N that are tripping him up.

 

I left and made it to Namdaemun a few minutes before 2. Meg and OC (other Carly) were already there. We waited a few minutes for Jodi to show up, then walked up to the glasses place. It went fast. I picked out two pairs of frames, got my eyes checked, and haggled over price (both pairs for $350 – about what I paid for just one pair in the states a few years ago) and was done by 2:25.

 

We all went our separate ways. I was going to go to the money museum, but it is temporarily closed. So I walked up to City Hall, and explored the old city hall building, now the main library. They have some history exhibits in there, and an exhibit to the Sewol ferry disaster. Then found an art exhibit hall in the underground area between the library and city hall. I need to go back tomorrow to pick up my glasses, so will take August to the library/city hall. All sorts of things to see inside there, including an art exhibit in city hall that I didn’t have time for today.

 

Took a bus home. Got home and they weren’t home yet. Remembered I needed to get bread, so went down to Tous les Jours and ran into them as they were coming in the building.

 

He was really into the ‘In the Garden’ and ‘In the Forest’ books, finding the ladybug, snail, etc. in each picture. We haven’t looked at those since before summer.

 

We also played more in the fort and on the bed. Gave him a bath at 8, which he did not want. He fell asleep about 8:30.

 

New words/phrases: hot in there (lamp), texture, Chicken soup, voca, pattern, mole, worm, mushrooms, bunny, slug, more grampa’s shirt on (wanting to put on a shirt)

Art August will like: 

Two outings today with August today. One to the pink building and then into the park for the Halloween carnival thing. That was before his nap. After, we walked over to Lotte Mart and Toys R Us and played in a park.

 

He was awake at 8ish. In the morning we skyped with my parents. During it, August got the blanket we use for ‘ickys’ and dragged it into the other room. He then was pulling it up on the low table we just brought in, and saying “waterfall”. He started this a bit yesterday, calling the blanket a “mul area” (water area) and pretending it is a waterfall when it drapes off something. Not sure how this idea came to him. Pretty cool though.

 

Before his nap, we went over to the pink building for grocery shopping. August wanted to touch everything, so he and I went over to the park and started looking around the festival there. Supposedly a comics festival (it was in the name), but didn’t see anything related to comics. Anyway, Carly showed up a few minutes later.

 

Just then, the two sisters who have played with us a couple times in the park and said hi a couple times, walked up, this time with their parents. So we met them. Their stepdad, Patrick, is from New York. I talked to him for awhile while the girls played with August, and Carly talked to his wife, Jiyun. We then looked around a bit more. A lot of interesting stuff, and a lot of random costumes – a lot of it was definitely inspired by cosplay/manga. And there were a lot of guys in military costumes.

 

We went home and August took his nap. In the afternoon, we put him in the backpack and headed out. We went to LotteMart and bought boots for him using the gift certificate Carly had. We also looked in the pet store a little bit. We then went just north to the park (the one where my parents and I ate our Quiznos sandwiches). The play structure there is small, but there was good sand for letter writing. He was also really into So we did some of that. I’d say plenty, but August definitely wanted more. The sun was going down and it was windy, so we walked home along the stream. But August kept pointing at the dirt along the trail and saying “more letters”.

 

It was feeling really cold, so we put socks on his hands and put on his hat. He wasn’t too happy about this, but he found being called ‘sock hands’ funny. He tolerated them all for a few minutes before pulling off the hat and socks.

 

For dinner, I was dipping bread in the green soup. August really liked this, and said perhaps his longest phrase yet, “more bread and yummy green soup.”

 

While Carly took a shower, August requested a mandarin orange. But then he didn’t want to eat it. Instead, he fed it to me, and inspected my mouth as I chewed each piece. He took a long shower, playing a lot. He also pretended to write letters in the water on the glass. We spent a lot of time stacking the stacking cups and knocking them down.

 

He then helped me make the bed. He liked pushing the edges of the sheets over the edges of the mattress. So after putting on the fitted sheet, he kept saying “more helping”. So we put on the top sheet and a blanket.

 

New words/phrases: more looking (looking at art in bedroom), dada mountain, dada sweep on bed, pumpkin, tattoo, more bread and yummy green soup (that’s a long phrase)

With Mikaela and Claudia: 

Halloween festival: 

Park: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

Peeking out at mama: 

Bath: 

He woke up a few minutes before 8. We had a nice long morning of playing with Duplos, on the bed, coloring, Endless Numbers, etc. because it turned out they were cleaning the floors. August had heard what he thought was a saw soon after waking up, and I said no, I thought it was a neighbor vacuuming. But around 9 I noticed it was still going. At 9:30 I opened our door to find the hallway a lake. By 11 I judged it dry enough for us to go out. We were supposed to have gotten a small table out of storage for the Halloween activity tonight, but they were still working on that hallway.

We stood on the bus to Dream Forest. He did okay, but suddenly started dropping his broom. But he did like me crouching to get it, I think. At one point, right near the end, he let out a really long yell. That was it.

We started at the main playground. We were up on the shaky bridge area when a bunch of bigger kids came. I had to get August out of the way, which he was not happy about. Soon after that, he decided he wanted to play in the sand, so we went over to the other playground, which was deserted. Wrote a lot of letters, numbers, and some hangul in the sand. He surprised me by requesting ‘eleven’ as the first number – he had heard it on Endless Numbers. We ate lunch and did some more writing in the sand, then played on the bench, throwing his shovel into the bushes behind. He bravely dropped down to the other side a few times. It is taller on the backside than the front, so he stumbled and fell once, but bounced back up.

It was getting windy and cold, so we went inside to eventually change him and start a nap. There was an exhibit of African art that had just opened, and it was very colorful, and had stuffed animals (lions, giraffes, etc.) out front. So August wanted to see the art. Timing was bad though, as he was tired and hyper. I couldn’t get him to focus, and he kept wanting to run off and touch the art, etc. And he got down and did yoga, which was fine, but then he was grabbing my hand, and pulling me down, saying “more yogas”. He wasn’t happy that I wouldn’t get down and do yoga with him in the middle of an art exhibit.

One of the women working the desk came over and gave him a free cardboard lion. Very nice. He really liked it, and we went back out front of the exhibit and he was putting it on the floor saying “roar, roar”. Later he was saying “I got my roar” as he held it. The tail came off, and he was focused on putting it back on. He needed my help to actually get it. Then he would take it back off, etc. Eventually, the tip of the tail broke off. He wanted me to fix it, saying “help, help” and doing the sign for help.

We were past the 5 hour mark, so I got him changed and in the backpack, and he was happy to give me the lion for safekeeping. We walked around, going up the road then on to the trail past the observatory, then coming back down, for about 10 minutes before he fell asleep. Went into Dream Cafe and he slept 1:46 to 2:37. He woke up, and we went into the book area, where we looked at books and played Endless Reader. He crawled into the hole in the middle of the hexagon of low benches/tables and played in there for awhile.

We then made a second stab at the art exhibit (we hadn’t seen much of it the first time). Did much better this time. Still, he was distracted by the big stuffed animals out front. We’d be looking at the art, then he’d remember them and say “more animals” and want to leave. Which was too bad, as most of the art had animals in it and was exactly the sort of thing he likes. Anyway, as we were leaving, one of the women asked if we could stay, as they were filming a documentary. There was currently no one else in the gallery. So we did one more tour of the gallery, and August was actually at his most focused.

From there we walked to APIS. A quick walk as we needed to meet Carly and get pizza before the Halloween gathering at 5. I dropped him off with Carly, then went and ordered pizza. Walked back to school, got the two of them, and we all walked and picked up the pizza, where we ran into Jill and Nathalie and their kids. We walked into Lotte Castle to the playground where the gathering was happening.

August had a blast. Mainly, he liked the food. He ate the spicy chicken, a ton of pizza, watermelon, and banana, declaring everything “yummy”. He had a nice staredown with one of the older boys, and really liked it Carly or he would poke the eye on Landy’s minion costume and she would make noises. Also, I up a new game, where I would have August jump over Carly’s head. That was pretty exciting.

It was getting quite dark, and we needed to get the table and some more candy before everyone showed up at Brownstone, so we left. First time putting August in the backpack in his big puffy jacket (Carly had put it on before leaving APIS). But we got that figured out. But then it turned out that Landy was driving, so we rode with her. August found this a bit disturbing, but we were able to sing songs and make it home – Landy is a kindergarten teacher, so that helped.

Carly went to do the storage room stuff and get candy and I took August up. He was not happy with mama being gone again. But I got him calmed down by the time she got back. We got things set up, then August and I were playing on the bed. At one point he said “fun” and “fun with dada”.

The second grade teacher, Kim, showed up first. He responded very positively to her, which was a good sign. I was prepping him, saying “Megan will be here soon” and “big kids are coming”. He was also great with Megan, and when the big crowd of kids came he initially did quite well, greeting them, and walking in with them to the room with the cards and stickers. But then it really filled up and he got overwhelmed. At that point, Carly took him in and nursed for the rest of the time the kids (20+ people in all) were there.

They left, and Kim and Megan stayed for 30 minutes or so. August had a blast with them, showing off his flopping on the bed, how he goes under the blanket now, etc. Megan showed him he could decorate the light switch with stickers. He said “bye bye” to them over and over as they left.

While Carly was taking a shower, he walked down the hallway, saying “change diaper”. Very nice when that happens. We then played on the bed some more, doing the mountain thing. At one point he wanted to find the blue broom and said “Blue broom, where are you?”

Thought he would go to sleep earlier, but a crash didn’t happen. He was still awake at 9:50. We read the Korean counting book and were on a second book when he suddenly got up and started walking down the hall. He said “Nurse, bedroom”, then “want go to sleep.” And he did.

He’s really into making things plurals, including overextending the S. He nows says “more ickyS” and “more yogaS”. He pronounces the S with quite an emphasis, saying “lettersss”.

New words/phrases: wet sheet, espresso machine, Max, Kim’s stuff, see Zinnie flop, a-gee moo (baby cow), monster party

Dream Forest: 

After his nap: 

APIS Halloween:

Back home: 

It was a chilly day at Children’s Grand Park. We were in no hurry to leave the house, as it was still below 40 around 9am. He woke up at 6:10. We started the day with some coloring and play dough, then made eggs for breakfast. We played on the bed, then he confused me by pointing to the blankets and saying “icky”. At first it was just one, and I thought maybe he saw a hair on it or something. But no. He started pointing to the other blanket, then started lifting it up and pointing underneath and saying it. And then it clicked: he was referring to the darkness/being confined under it. He has never really liked being under a blanket or in small spaces. But today that started to change, as I then started putting the blanket around me and he slowly started to get under the blanket more. Then he would have enough and jump out, but then say “more icky”. By the time we played again in the evening he was sitting under the blanket fully with me.

While we were playing on the bed he also started saying “climb dada mountain”, meaning climbing on my knees. And several times he said “Zinnie Dada sit”, meaning he just wanted to sit next to me for a little while.

Anyway, around 10 we finally headed out. What also slows us down is that the whole process of putting on socks, shoes, a sweater is not August’s favorite right now. Anyway, it was another smooth subway day, mainly because we got a seat all the way down and August played Endless Reader.

At the park I asked him what he wanted to do, and he replied “zoo”. When I asked him what he wanted to see in the zoo he said “animals”. When I tried to set him down to walk before we got to the zoo, he climbed back up in my arms, pointing forward saying “zoo”.

At the zoo we started with the horses, then went to the deer, and then to the kangaroos. At the kangaroos he suddenly announced “more yoga”, laid down on the walkway, and started doing his yoga. School groups were also using the narrow walkway, so I suggested we go somewhere else. We went across from the herbivore area to a terraced seating area that is little used. August agreed it would be a good spot (although I can’t remember exactly what he said). He crawled around there and we ate some lunch. He found a couple pieces of garbage and we walked them across to the garbage can.

We then went and saw the zebras and other herbivores, then walked up and around to the outdoor birds. We don’t see them often, so August had fun – he particularly liked all the small “tweet tweet” birds that fly in and out of the cages. From there we went and saw the primates.

It was now 5 and a half hours since his wakeup, so I started to take him up for our nap routine, but he saw the tropical building and wanted to see the lizards. So we went in there for another half hour. At the turtles he suddenly started saying “snapping turtle”. I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly, so asked, “Wait, what kind of turtle?” and he replied “snapping turtle, snapping turtle”.

When we were done w went up and changed him, and put him in the backpack and he fell asleep instantly – just over two minutes after we started walking.

Went to Dream Cafe and had a monster nap. He was asleep at 12:25 in the backpack. At 12:58, a loud group came by and woke him up. I picked him up and he fell back to sleep. I sat down, my back against the picnic table, and he slept like that. Until 2:44. Not the most comfortable position by the end, but not too bad, and I got a lot of reading and other stuff done. At 2:44 he popped awake, saying “waterfall” twice. He was referring to the sound of the wind in the trees behind him. While he slept, the clouds and wind had rolled in. I had my coat around him while he slept, so we managed to stay warm enough while he slept.

He looked at the book I’m reading, as usual, and said “All the letters” and identified the little penguin logo as a penguin. We went inside, and he saw the popsicle characters on the side of the cooler. He has always liked them, but this time he called them “monsters” and named their colors for the first time. We then looked at the cool counting book with the elevator in it for awhile.

Time was running out to do anything else, so we got going. He initially said “animals” for what he wanted to do, but when we walked by the central playground it turned into “More playground”. So we stopped and mainly played in the sand, writing letters. The clouds were getting thicker and the wind was picking up, so I put on his jacket over the sweater. He didn’t fight it, but complained for a little while, letting out one good yell of frustration.

We left a little before 4, changing him near the entrance. Felt a couple drops before we left the park, and when we got out at Hagye there was a drizzle. We made it home about 4:50 – good timing, as by the time Carly came home at 5:15 it was pouring.

After she was here, August was pointing out that we were all together by saying “Mama’s here, dada’s here, Zinnie’s here”. We played on the bed more, and he was getting more and more used to the ‘icky’. Carly fed him, then I gave him a bath. He went to sleep around 9, but later, when Carly was in the bathroom, he suddenly opened the door, walked down the hall, and picked up his yellow broom. Carly came and picked him up and took him back to bed without him making a sound.

New words/phrases: flop, dada’s cords, more dada Zinnie (wanting to sit together), someone’s tea, more yogas, dada carry, over here (pointing to a gecko he spotted), snapping turtle, nah-bees out there, mama’s swimsuit

Children’s Grand Park: 

Sleeping on me: 

After his nap: 

Tree he was looking at: 

Playground: 

Evening: 

We went south of the river today to the Seoul Arts Center to attend the Antoni Gaudi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaudí) exhibit at the Seoul Arts Center. He was the guy who designed the Sagrada Familia church and Park Guall that Carly and I visited in Barcelona.

 

In the morning we read some books, and it was the first time we used Hippos Go Beserk as an actual counting book. We were then watching and listening to the videos and songs that go along with his baby class, as we hadn’t really done that yet. When the song came on that they dance to now, August started sidestepping like they do in class. Finally, we played with the play dough. But we turned it into a letters game as well, as I rolled the play dough into a snake and then we would form letters and numbers.

 

Then we headed to the art center. A long trip, but it went pretty smoothly. When we went over the river, August really looked “out the window”, and pointed to the boats below.

 

On the walk to the art center, we met a nice white cat. August was in the backpack though, so we didn’t visit for long. We got to the art center and got a ticket, then walked around and found a place inside to sit and have lunch.

 

Then, the exhibit. Frankly, it was kind of a bust. Gaudi is best known for his very colorful and extravagant work – the park is famous for its colorfully-tiled lizards, columns, and benches, for example. And they used two very colorful images on all of the materials for the show. But then you enter through black curtains into a very dark room. This did not suit August, and he immediately wanted to leave. The entire thing was dimly lit. Then, almost everything in the show was black or white, or just white, or, in the case of furniture, brown. And the show was also very quiet. If I said something to August I had the feeling everyone in the room heard it. Very, very different from the Mariscal or Tim Burton shows, which is what I expected it to be like.

 

Anyway, we managed for maybe 30 or 40 minutes. He enjoyed a few pieces (mainly the models for apartment buildings or the church) and did some yoga on the floor. He also had found a rubber band on the floor wand was playing with that, but lost it. I then gave him a piece of red yarn, and that entertained him (cat-like) for a little while, but wore off. There was at least a little sticker activity at the end that he really liked.

 

Then we exited the exhibit and he really liked the tiled lizard they had outside. But then I realized you weren’t supposed to touch it (I don’t even think it was a real Gaudi – which is funny, because the real Gaudi lizards are in a park for children). He totally didn’t understand that, so that was the end of our Gaudi experience.

 

We went out and sat on the little stage for a few minutes, then went inside and changed him and got ready for his nap. Putting him to sleep didn’t take long – a short walk up the stairs and towards the calligraphy museum and back. Took a couple minutes longer than needed as a small truck honked at us and woke him back up. It is a huge pedestrian square, mind you, and we were walking down the edge. The construction truck just didn’t want to drive on the rough stones, or apparently wait for us to pass; we had to get out of the way.

 

He slept 1:47 to 2:24 in Cafe Matisse. When he woke up he saw the iPad out and so we played Endless Reader with him at first sitting on my lap. Did that for awhile, then headed out.

 

There was a children’s park just a couple blocks to the north, so we headed there. There were a lot of leaves at the park, so that was the focus of his playing. Although, since he is obsessed with letters, it turned into writing letters in the leaves. Near the end, a couple of elementary age boys showed up, and were sword fighting with sticks. This was the best thing August has ever seen, so that entertained him the last several minutes.

 

From there we headed home. Train went smoothly. Carly had beaten us home. After dinner, I gave him a bath. In the bath he said “Wawa makes it feel better” “Opa”. This is a reference to when we were up at the stream with Chuck and August’s foot was itchy, so Chuck taught him to put water on it. I have mentioned it a few times, when August says something is itchy, but today August really started saying it on is own. At one point during the evening he turned to me and Carly, with a serious look, and strung it together even more completely, something like “If itchy…wawa on it…make it feel better…Opa.”

 

The other thing he started doing today was requesting our custom “Wheels on the Bus” verses by saying in the person AND what they do on the bus. The first was “Grampa…trees” (Grampa says “Trees trees trees”), followed by “Grampa…hamster car”. In the bath he added “Opa…golf”. Then he showed he could actually sing several of them, including “Opa on the bus says ‘I’ll teach you to golf’”.

 

After his bath, he got to Skype with Cassie and Vivi and Colin. And at one point he went down in the bedroom. I saw him down by the foot of the bed, saying “mama’s wawa” and picking something up. I thought it was her water bottle, but then he turned around and started walking down the hall towards me and I saw it was a glass full of water. He got much of the way, but before I could get to him he sort of stumbled and splashed water on himself. He then exclaimed “Oh my gosh!”

 

After that eventful day he fell asleep about 9:30.

 

New words/phrases: trough (with his Duplos), icky nose, washing machine, butter, itchy ankle, elbow, hand, penis, sandoo crumbs, another (ahnuhnuh) hoo ha, flagS, gu-uh-gooS, hear announcements (muh-mouse-ments – pointing up at the speaker when there was an announcement)

E-noooor-mo slide: 

: 

Across the river: 

Seoul Arts Center: 

Park: 

Bath time:

Skyping with Cassie and Vivi: 

Sweeping himself: 

August woke up at 5:40, which didn’t bode well for staying awake until class. He made it, although he was a little loopy and fragile in class, and stayed up long past that.

 

In the morning, we played some Endless Numbers (up to 12), made a mango smoothing, played Duplos (August was pushing around a car and making car noises for the first time, and driving the car on me. I was also putting the Duplo girl down the slide and catching her at the bottom. August thought this was funny, and was saying “dada caught her”), did some coloring, made letters and shapes out of play dough, and did some August-led yoga (with August having fun tunneling under my legs).

 

August was getting sleepy as early as 10, and said as much. He kept lying down on the rug or on the bed. When I gave him the option of class or home, however, he said “Class. Jungbean. Seongsangnem.” We left about 10:40 and made a quick grocery trip first for rice and a couple things.

 

Shopping went fine. We were quick, got a sagwa free sample, and paid with August out of the carrier the entire time. August started to show his toddler-ness though as I bagged groceries. He wanted a grape. I told him I’d get him some when we got up to his class. He saw me put the grapes in a bag and pick it up. Frustrated, he held his hands out and gave one loud yell.

 

Class was about colors, using different colored peas in pea pods. It was only August and Jungbean for the first two songs and start of bubbles before two other kids showed up. August had fun, but was most happy playing with the mat. But he did like throwing the peas around, and was really intrigued when the teacher gave us tongs to use to pick up the peas and put them in a tray. He was really working to get the pinching motion down. Example of an activity that just could have been longer, as he was just starting to grasp it (literally) as it ended.

 

After class he was sleepy, and I thought I’d be able to get him to sleep back at home – sitting up like last week, if need be. It was not to be. More toddler-ness: when I tried to make him lie down or keep him from standing up, he would do more yelling than crying. Eventually, I gave in and we went out in the wind in the carrier. The wind bothered him, making it harder to get him to sleep, but it didn’t take too long. He finally fell asleep at 1:50, basically 8 hours.

 

He had a nice long nap until 3:27. As slow as some of out movements had been earlier in the day (getting out of the house had been slow, since he was acting tired), what came next was one of our smoothest, fastest trips ever. Despite him very much missing mama when he woke up, he calmed down and we left the house about 3:45. We took the subway, walked to Costco, and explored the toys on the first floor, all with him in my arms or walking.

 

We then headed downstairs where we got our feta and cheddar cheeses, and free samples of kiwi, colby cheese, and a whole miniature chocolate bread thing (that August loved). We paid, then went and got food at the food court to take home. August saw the people in front of us get a smoothie (pineapple), so we got one as well.

 

At this point I finally put him in the carrier for the ride home. We headed back, drinking our smoothie, which he loved. On the platform, August was fascinated by a van somewhere overhead that was rattling. He kept looking up and pointing at it, saying “rattly fan”. On the train, August whined at first about standing (but barely), prompting another woman to jump up. I politely declined, then was shocked when she literally grabbed my arm (the one holding on to a handle) and started dragging me to the seat. I loudly said no in English and Korean to her and pulled away. She went back and laughed it off with another woman.

 

Anyway, we also stopped at Tous les Jours for bread on the way back and still made it back to the house right at 5:30: a full Costco trip in just over an hour and a half, with a toddler who wasn’t in a carrier for most of the time.

 

August had refused his sweatshirt on the way down (temperature was on the edge – about 60, but sunny and he was in long sleeves, pants, socks – so I didn’t push it), but on the way back we stopped by the family sculpture outside Costco (this is where I put him in the carrier). Noticeably cooler now, and August accepted the sweatshirt without a whimper.

 

Carly had worked a little later due to a meeting. When I didn’t let August play with the bread, he remembered she wasn’t home. So I said we could go play by the elevators until she got home. We went down (with his blue broom, of course) and played for 15 minutes until she got home just before 6.

 

She gave him a bath (more poop fun, as he pooped while she had him peeing at the toilet, and she didn’t realize it at first) and we did a lot of Duplo playing and the other usual evening stuff. First attempt to put him to sleep after 8:30 didn’t work. He bounced up for awhile, but was asleep a little after 9.

 

New words/phrases: frozen mango, help again, xylophone, shapes, squares (pointing to squares on drawer handles), come on Zinnie Dada class, sleepy time, night night area, I got my librarian, fan up there, “for the mama” (from Baa Baa Black Sheep)

Sleepy: 

Class: 

Costco trip:

Waiting for mama by the elevators: 

Evening:

August woke up about 8:15, missing mama. He stood at the front door for several minutes, hand on the handle, trying to go out to find her. Eventually, he calmed down and cuddled next to me on the little step, hugging Marshy.

 

He then saw the iPad before I had changed him, and he wanted to play Endless Reader. So he played that while I changed him – on his stomach, as that is how he had to be to play it.

 

We’ve been listening to Bob Dylan for the last couple days, and August notices the harmonica when he starts playing. Today, he was also pointing and saying “Bob Dylan”.

 

And I weighed him this morning. 24.9 pounds. Didn’t check his height.

 

We left about 10. Subway rides were a bit rough today, as August now wants to always sit down to look out the window. In fact, he says “Oma out the window” now, remembering when he sat next to Oma on the subway and looked out the window. And if he doesn’t get to sit, he gets upset. Today he got upset as we got to Yongmasan. So we got off and waited for the next train to Gunja. The transfer went better, and he got to sit for the train out to Olympic Park. Oh, and a little girl (at her mom’s behest) gave August a box of Pepero sticks on the first train.

 

At Olympic Park, we entered through the south entrance. Took our time walking (August was down) up the main walk, sweeping leaves as we went. Then walked over to the rose garden and admired that (and swept and threw rocks into the bushes), then found a spot nearby where we ate lunch, then played around, sweeping and writing letters, and did some yoga on a picnic platform. He was getting forceful with his directions to me to sweep, grabbing me by the finger and pulling me around near the exercise equipment to sweep: “dada sweep over here.”

 

We walked north, past the other flower garden, finding some sculptures we had missed on previous visits. Changed his diaper, then walked around until he fell asleep.

 

It was a short nap, 1:44 to 2:20. The coffee place I’d planned on going to didn’t work as the free tables were right by the door and had a speaker right overhead. So I went to the place on top of the Baekje Museum. Ended up sitting in a swanky (for us) Italian place where I paid $6.50 for a small cappuccino. Oddly, the side salad, which was pretty impressive, was only $5. August’s nap was short, and when he woke up he had fun eating the tomato from my salad, using my fork for much of it.

 

From there we went to the west playground and played there the rest of our time. It had the least shaky shaky bridge ever, but it was a nice wooden structure. August did several circles on top of it while I stood in one place. We went down one slide together, but his favorite thing was the steep stairs – he figured out how to slide down them on his bottom. He also rode on a big Jeep shaky toy with another girl.

 

I changed him at the park information center, then we headed home. The trip home started out a little rough. We entered the last car of the train and there weren’t any seats available. August instantly threw a fit, and ended up lying on the floor and pointing at the seats. I quickly picked him up, but both a woman and man jumped up. The woman instantly started telling me to sit down and wasn’t happy when I refused (giving a screaming toddler exactly what he wants the second he throws a fit doesn’t seem like a good idea). The man whipped out hard candy and started shoving it in August’s face. I refused that, then the man went around to my other side and was then touching August on the shoulder and head. Mind you, this all happened in less than a minute.

 

I got off at the next stop and we waited for the next train. August calmed down, but was hyper on the platform, rolling and crawling around on the floor. We got back on the next train and things went much smoother; he got a seat for that train (one more stop) and the next (3 stops), then did okay in the backpack for the longer ride up line 7 to home.

 

In the evening we did some good block playing – Carly made a really big tower and August knocked it down – he ate dinner of funny green soup, took a bath, and fell asleep about 8:30.

 

One thing I noticed today is that August is starting to lose his baby words: he has started to say horse, rabbit, flower, and garbage can instead of his baby words (neigh, sniffing noise, another sniffing noise, and hak-umm can).

 

New words/phrases: oatmeal, Bob Dylan, bus, flower, horse, persimmon, bicycle, tower, rabbit

Olympic Park, pre-nap. Rose garden: 

Lunch time: 

Sculpture: 

Just a really cool sculpture: 

After his nap: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

In the morning, Carly made hash browns for breakfast. August played with the blocks a lot, knocking them all down, and then walking from block to block.

In the late morning we all walked to Toys R Us. The idea was to check out shoe sizes and then look at Lotte Mart, as Carly had received a gift certificate. August was sad that the pet store was closed again (need to remember not to come on Sunday) and it turned out Lotte Mart was as well (because it closes two Sundays a month). But we accomplished looking at shoes, and we went to Toys R Us and bought some new play dough. August also had quite a bit of fun pushing a little chair around. Carly looked at Halloween costume stuff, but everything was a cape or hat – things August would not tolerate.

From there, we walked to Hageulbi Park and played there. He pretty much ignored the play structure this time. Instead, he wrote letters in the the dirt with me, and played on the steps with Carly.

We came home and he took his nap. In the late afternoon/evening, I took August out in the stroller for a walk along the stream. We went to Madeul Stadium and played in the playground there. Again, mainly in the sand and dirt, but he also wanted to climb up on the structure. First time on top, and there was the perfect shaky bridge for him (shaky bridges being the latest thing we are looking for in a playground). We went down the bumpy slide together once, and he seemed to like it, but he didn’t ask to go down again.

While we were gone, Carly had been making Oma’s yummy green soup. So we ate dinner. August loved it, and he saw me dipping bread in my soup, so he wanted to as well. He really liked that as well.

I gave him a bath. He just wanted to keep playing and playing. Eventually, he got out. Carly had made a big tower of all the cardboard blocks. Earlier, he had been knocking down towers she was making (and making a destructive ‘ahh!’ sound as he did so), but he was impatient and wouldn’t wait for her to rebuild a tower fully. So while we were in the bath, she had built the big tower. He knocked the big one down, making an impressive crash.

After that, there was some playing on the iPad (we were playing the Daniel Tiger Day and Night app for the first time, and Carly managed to brush his teeth), play dough, and coloring. He went to sleep around 10.

 

New words/phrases: helicopter, dada slide down, run by, gibbous, harmonica, letters

Toys R Us and park: 

Home: 

Madeul Stadium: 

Bath time: 

Before bed: 

Carly had parent conferences until noon. August woke up, groggy but happy, a little after 8. We played Endless Reader, Alphabet, and Wordplay on the iPad and ate banana bread for breakfast and took down recycling.

Around 11 we headed over to Home Plus. Looked at animals, then went down to do grocery shopping. Did most of it with August down, walking, but put him up in the carrier for the last couple of items, then back down once we’d paid.

We stopped in the park on the way back, first playing in the dirt by the fountain, then on our usual hill by the dinosaurs and playground. I had dressed him in grey pants and a grey long sleeve shirt, which is a little big, and his brown sandals. I decided he looked like buddhist August in that outfit. At 12:30 we headed home and met Carly.

August fell asleep about 1:20 and slept a little past 2:30. In the afternoon, we realized the cardboard bricks that we ordered had arrived, so Carly went down and picked them up. We spent the next hour or so putting together the bricks, while August played around us.

Carly was going to Home Plus, so we all went. In the park, I gave August the option of playground or Home Plus, and he chose Home Plus, pointing excitedly in the direction of it. Again at the other side of the park he had the choice between art museum and Home Plus. This time he chose art museum. He initially said bye bye to Carly, but as he saw her walking away across the street he changed his mind and started saying “Home Plus, Home Plus” and pointing. So we went to Home Plus. We helped a little with the shopping, but mainly looked at pets and got samples (pineapple, mandarin, and a little sausage – earlier he had apple).

We came home and there was a lot more playing – art, books (Kipper stories, Snoozers mainly), sweeping, rolling on the bed. He was also into looking out the window a lot (“people down there”, “hear tweet tweet”) and ‘helping’ sweep up the little cardboard waste pieces – whereby ‘helping’ meant sweeping them out of the pile I was trying to make.

In the evening, I read him the Leo Lionni book, Let’s Play. I paused before turning the page, and he said “pick flowers”, which was the thing the mice do on the next page. I was surprised, because we hadn’t read the book in quite awhile, and I’d never had him say any of the words in it. So I tested him, and found he could say many of the phrases in the book, like ‘read book’, ‘go swimming’, ‘play ball’, and ‘climb a tree’.

He took a nice long bath. He is totally comfortable sitting on the bottom now. In fact, today he was rolling onto his stomach and lying on the bottom. holding his head up by holding onto the side of the tub. 

In hindsight, he probably didn’t have enough outside time today, as he was rather hyper inside. Ultimately stayed up until 10, or a little past, which is a long time after waking up at 2:30. Carly had gone to sleep, at least for a few minutes, and August was playing with the new cardboard bricks, naming off the animals on them, and looking out the window. He turned to me and said ‘ko-gee-lee’, and got a big grin on his face because he knew he said it correctly. That’s Korean for elephant. He also started making the elephant sound/trunk motion today. Funny how he has sort of ignored elephants all this time. The change seems to have started with the Korean book we got last week (we were reading that more today as well), and really changed yesterday when he saw the elephants at the zoo.

We were happily playing there when suddenly August had the great poop emergency of 2015. Less said about it the better, but I woke Carly up as I took August to the changing room and she helped clean up the floor while I dealt with August.

He continues to work on plurals, and has also really been emphasizing the possessive ’s’ noise. He decided the little cardboard scrap pieces belonged to me or Carly. He would pick one up and say “mama’s” or “dada’s”. 

After changing him the last time, he was saying a bunch of things that I couldn’t figure out. This happens pretty regularly now, but this was 5 or 6 things in a row. 

Go outside, all the letters, help with pen, shoe came off, zip dada’s zipper, feel water, have ideaS, home plus, hot sausage, ko-gee-lee

Going out: 

Home: 

Home Plus: 

Evening: