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A nice slow morning to recover from our trip. August slept in until around 8. In his sleep earlier in the morning he had said ‘please, please’ and ‘Give me art!’

In the morning Chuck and Cherie went grocery shopping, after which Carly, Chuck and I took August to Dream Forest. Carly was going to go to the coffee shop and work, but they didn’t have wi-fi, so she ended up heading home.

Chuck and I took August up the observation tower, where we discovered there was another floor we have never been to – actually the roof of the tower. August found a coffee cup and its cardboard insulator and played with those. We went down, then walked over the hill to the observation point I first went to with my parents when August was only 6 months old. We stopped in the pagoda and had a snack, and then put August in the backpack for his nap. We walked down the trail (where I noted where August was first playing with the rope along the trail) and he was asleep as we got back around to the center part of the park.

I was going to go to the rooftop cafe above the children’s art museum, but it was closed. Walked up to the playground, but it was a zoo. So I found a nice spot over across the wading pool area near the street and sat there. Chuck went off exploring for a bit then came back and also read.

When August woke up at 2:20 after a 50 minute nap, he wanted to use his shovel to play. So I had the idea of going to the other playground, right around the corner, that is small but built on sand. And almost no-one uses it. We played there for about an hour. August did his usual of pouring sand on our feet, but then he got into throwing rocks over the long bench into the bushes, then his ambulance so that I would get it, then he wanted to get on the other side himself and explore through the long grass. We also went back to the sand and I made a mountain, which August happily destroyed.

We headed home at 3:20 or so. The two busses we could take, the 100 and 111 came at the same time. I had the brilliant idea of skipping the 100 as it was packed, and sure enough the 111 was nearly empty. So we all got big comfy seats for the ride back. August was in a great mood; in fact, this was when he started saying ‘happy’ several times.

Back home, he nursed and played with Carly. She started rolling on the exercise ball, and he thought it was hilarious, and started rolling around on the floor as well.

Cherie had made soup and prepared things for nachos. We made nachos for dinner. August really liked the soup, saying ‘more Oma’s yummy soup’. Carly taught him to say ‘green soup’, so then he was saying ‘more yummy green soup’.

After dinner, I gave August a bath, then Chuck and Cherie went for a walk to Nowon. August read books with Carly, then climbed in the stroller with Marshy and I was pushing him around. Carly took him in to nurse, but they were soon back out. He went back and forth from me to her, until he made it clear he wanted us close together, then he wanted up in my lap. A bit later, he went and got Carly, saying ‘climb on ball’, wanting her to go back to the ball. After she rolled on it, he came and got me and wanted me to roll on it to. We had a lot of fun as I pretended to run them over with it.

Chuck and Cherie came home at about 8. He was hanging out with them and started throwing some of his Duplos. Carly taught him to set them on the table, so he started setting things on the table, saying ‘set down’. He watched some ABC songs on YouTube with Chuck, but wanted to keep watching and watching. This was around 8:30. Carly took him in to nap and he was sleepy 8:50.

New words/phrases: Oma’s yummy soup, yummy green soup, yippee, coloring, climb on ball (wanting Carly to lie on the exercise ball), set down (Carly teaching him to set down his Duplos instead of throwing them)

Dream Forest: 

Back home: 

We packed everything up in the morning and went down for our now-usual breakfast at Starbucks. August got to try some of Chuck’s cinnamon roll, which he really liked, saying ’cinnamon’ several times.

We plugged a beach out east, Woljeong Beach, into the iPhone and GPS and headed out there. Took about 45 minutes. At the beach, he first went out wading in the water with me, then went up and was playing with (destroying) the sand castle that Carly and Cherie had made. We spent a lot more time in the water – he got more and more comfortable, and I took off his shorts as he was getting farther in. 

I saw a shipping boat heading out on the water and pointed it out to him, saying it was going out to sea. He really liked the phrase, and kept saying “out to sea.” Awhile later, Carly had a bottle or something and August saw a ‘C’ on it. He pointed to it and said ‘C’, then pointed out at the ocean and said ‘sea’.

Chuck and Cherie had gone for a walk along the beach, and while doing so started picking up garbage. When they came back, August joined in in picking up garbage. One of the things they had brought back was a mess of buoys. So Cherie taught him the word ‘buoy’, which he says with his big round O sounds.

A little past noon we figured it was time for lunch and to head back to Jeju City. So we changed August and started walking along the shops. A couple really nice looking coffee/ice cream shops, but no luck. Foursquare told us a there was a taco place, Taco Massim, a little farther along, so we went and found that. A quirky little place, with a broken guitar August liked playing with, and a John Lennon album playing on a portable record player. We got the build-it-yourself black pork tacos and Coca-Colas in bottles. August liked the tomatoes, pork, and tortillas.

We drove back along the coast, stopping for gas, and made it to the car rental place a little after 2. Along the way Carly kept August pretty entertained, either with his videos on the iPad, the Sesame Street art app or Nighty Night, or food. But he would keep taking his arms out of the straps. Chuck told him to ‘Help mama’. August took this the wrong way, and each time he managed to free himself he would say ‘Help mama’ and do the sign for help.’

We took the shuttle to the airport, made it through check-in, and August fell asleep right before security. Again. That is 3 out of 6 times (at least) that he’s been asleep when we’ve gone through security.

Our flight was delayed about 25 minutes. We made it through our long trip home: through Gimpo Airport, on the airport express train, then line 6, then the #9 bus. August was understandably getting a bit tired of it all by the end, but not too bad.

We made it home about 7:30 and made our own burritos for dinner – Carly made beans and Chuck made eggs and hash browns. Chuck and Cherie gave us a small dol hareubang (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dol_hareubang) since I had joked about decorating our apartment with them. August really liked it (he had enjoyed the feel of the rocks when he played with them at a shop the day before) and beeped its nose a few times.

Everyone headed to bed, and Carly tried getting him to sleep for quite awhile around 9. I thought they had both fallen asleep, but around 9:40 out they came. He stayed up with me for awhile. We mainly read books (he was really into the baloons in both the Thomas Goes to the Circus book and the Blue Bus Red Balloon book), and he lay on the floor a couple times. Finally, close to 10:30 he decided it was time to go back to mama.

New words/phrases: ear, circus, to the sea, seaweed, buoy, tiger (Duplo), Thomas (said bye bye as we finished reading it and I was taking him to bed)

Throwing sand between Opa’s legs: 

Learning how to say ‘buoy’: 

Letters with mama:

Squid: 

Eating lunch: 

Watching a video in the car: 

In the plane: 

Subway home: 

Present: 

Carly went down right at 8 to get us drinks from Starbucks, then we met Chuck and Cherie down there for breakfast. 

We went back up to our rooms for a short time then left, headed to old Jeju City. We parked near the coast and walked down to the rock. We then walked up the gorge area and stopped in a park for awhile. 

Next, we walked over to the complex of wooden government buildings and took that in. 

From there, we walked back west, past where we were parked, to a restaurant on the coast. August fell asleep in the carrier on the way there and we ate while he slept. We got nachos and a caprese salad and shared a fruit plate with Chuck and Cherie. Had a lot of time to read (Leonardo and the Last Supprr). When August woke up after 80 minutes he nursed then ate the food Carly had set aside for him – a lot of the fruit, in particular. 

Chuck and Cherie went ant brought back the car. We drove along the coast a little then back to the hotel, where we split up for the rest of the evening. 

We went to the room for awhile, then walked a few blocks to the kid cafe. It was outing and windy. We wore our rain gear and I had August in the carrier facing me. We did pretty well, considering, but were a little damp by the time we got there. 

We played for about 90 minutes. August loved it. There were so many things to play with. He started crawling under/into things for the first time – he has always been afraid of hitting his head. 

When we left, about 6:30, it had stopped raining. We walked down in the vicinity of Lotte Mart, looking for a Pizza Hut, but couldn’t find it. Found a Papa John’s, but it was inexplicably closed. Ended up at Domino’s Pizza across the street. While we waited, August played, mainly on the two steps they have so kids can watch them make pizza. 

We walked back to the hotel, stop in along the way to eat a piece of pizza. We ate – August loves pizza – and played for awhile. Around 8:30 he was tired, but he did not want to go to sleep. He did his sad crying, saying ‘more, more’ several times, but eventually went to sleep at 9. 

Oh, and the last couple of days I’ve been giving him showers in the morning. Today was the easiest, as I didn’t even hold him. He just stood and played with a Duplo and with the water on the ground while I washed him. And he didn’t complain about getting water in his face. 

New words/phrases: whistle, cleaner, more ladybug (requesting song from Cherie), sit on chair, airplane, tiger

Kid cafe: 

Developing a very important skill: how to eat pizza: 

It seemed like a slow start to the day, but it was incredibly full. August slept 12 and a half hours. So by the time we got going it was about 8:30. We went to Starbucks for breakfast. August liked watching the rain falling outside. 

We returned to our rooms for awhile, and I took August downstairs for a few minutes because he wanted to see the Hello Kitty figures on the bench. He also browsed the tourist flyers, and found the one for Hello Kitty Island. I said he should show it to mama, and he took off across the lobby saying ‘show mama’. 

We then met for a planning session. We decided on the indoor botanical gardens and the Hello Kitty place. 

We headed out. Made it down to the botanical garden area and first went to KFC for a little lunch. August enjoyed eating all the things Oma and Opa have him and the egg tart thing I had – he wasn’t fond of the chicken though as it was too spicy. 

We then went to the botanical gardens. We were all impressed. August particularly liked the pineapples and banana trees, and the dinosaur statues and all the ponds, including the alligator statues. And he wanted to go outside, so we went out for a little while in our coats and he threw rocks into the bushes. By the way, he fought his coat yesterday, but is already accepting it. 

We all met up and went to the top of the observation tower before heading out. The weather was good (i.e. Not raining) so we attempted a beach, but it started pouring when we got out of the car. So a quick viewing to see the waves and scenery and we left. 

It was now 3 and August had not taken a nap, and he fell right asleep in the car. We drove back north – no Hello Kitty Island today. 

We went and checked out the Little Prince Cafe. Chuck did a wonderful job to find parallel parking, only to find that it was closed today. So we went back to the hotel. 

Awhile later we all went to eMart. We split up there (with August in the front carrier). The three of us bought a few fruits and yogurt, then went looking for dinner. Food court didn’t look appealing, so we checked out a place across the street. Nice, but we didn’t think August could handle a sit-down dinner. So we walked to the kid cafe I saw yesterday, only to find they only sold coffee and closed at 7 (it was past 6). I spotted a Cafe Pascutti, which I knew had some sandwiches, but they weren’t very healthy. So we got a strawberry yogurt smoothie and headed to Burger King. We shared with August, who kept saying “yummy dal-gee.”

We got sandwiches and onion rings and headed home. August did marvelously this whole time, enjoying the walk. He kept singing and pointing out letters on signs. When singing the ABC song he would conduct, then do a wild pointing thing when he hit G. I suggested he wave to the cars, so he started doing so. And when we approached the hotel the wind was in our face and e was holding one fist out in front of him, like he was flying like superman. 

We ate dinner. August primarily ate from the mixed fruit bowl and the strawberry yogurt we got at eMart. It turned out Carly had been given a fish sandwich, so I ate that and she finished what was left of mine. 

We took August down to the lobby for a short see Hello Kitty and play with flyers time, then went back up. 

I tried to keep August up and running while Carly took a shower. After that, he had a few Duplos and was pretending they were a vacuum cleaner. And when they broke he was very focused on putting them back together, which he managed to do a few times. 

Carly had unplugged the phone so August could play with it. He was really excited about talking to Cherie on it earlier in the day and wanted to play with it. In the evening he was walking around with the receiver, wanting to call them. 

Finally, he went from laughing with happiness when he got the Duplos together to getting frustrated by them to crying for mama in the course of a couple minutes. Carly nursed him and he fell asleep a little after 9. 

New words/phrases: here (pointing to water on floor), cold wawa (drinking water that had been refrigerated and he really liked it), brush my teeth, crack it (breaking his toothbrush), hello phone (playing with phone with Cherie), numbers (pointing at wall in KFC), alligator, crocodile, bye bye garden, phone, dada says so, sit up

In the morning: 

Botanical garden: 

Back at the hotel: 

A long day it was. The morning was of course about packing and getting out of the house. August had a lot of fun playing with Duplos with Cherie while we got things ready to go. We were out of the house by 8:30 and on our way. First the bus to Seokgye, then line 6 to downtown to catch the Airport Express train to Gimpo, then through the whole airport process to our gate, then a shuttle to our plane, then the plane, then the shuttle to our car rental place, and, finally, to our car.

Along the way, August started playing with Cherie’s suitcase and liked how the handle went up and down. As the other got us and the luggage checked in at the airport, I was with August. The ropes they use to direct people into lines are just at the top of August’s head. He had fun walking beneath them, saying ‘under’. He then fell asleep as we headed to security, so was asleep as we went through. Luckily, all I had to do was take off my backpack and hand over my phone and watch and walk through.

He woke up before the flight, which went smoothly.

Once we were in the car, with me as navigator, we headed south to the Seoul Art Park. The park claims to be the largest sculpture garden in Asia. It is impressive, but seems like it saw better days back in the late 80s and maybe early-90s. Still, a really cool place. Chuck and Cherie stayed with August near the entrance while Carly and I walked around. They met us near the middle as we came back. I then walked up to the observation tower and took some photos, before going back and hanging out with everyone else for awhile.

Carly had the idea of going to a beach, so we drove towards the water and found a beach. Chuck and Cherie again stayed and played with August while Carly and I walked to the other end of the beach and back. They had a cool freshwater pool area at the other end which was, of course, closed by now.

We got in the car and headed back north to the hotel. Carly was doing an excellent job of keeping August happy and entertained, but just as we were a minute or two from the hotel he decided he had had enough. He started crying and repeating ‘all done’ again and again. We let Carly off in front of the hotel and she went into the lobby and nursed him. By the time Chuck and I had parked and brought up the luggage, he was asleep before 7pm.

After getting him to bed and setting up the room, Carly and I started watching season 1 of The Wire. Might be our replacement for Game of Thrones. Only made it 20 minutes in, so too early to tell.

New words/phrases: follow dada, what next, Itsy spider, cow, airplane, flag, fur, pig, seatbelt, car seat, cookie

Airport: 

Plane: 

Car seat: 

Jeju Art Park: 

Beach: 

I didn’t go hiking again today, but we met up with Derek and Logan in the park on our way to do some shopping at Home Plus. We played around the playground for awhile – Carly went down the slide with August and got attacked by the bump in the slide – then went over to the museum side for a few minutes. They headed home for lunch and we went on to do our shopping.

At Home Plus I took August to the animals while Carly shopped. He got out of the stroller and started requesting the bap-kit when he was next to the dog food – this is where he’s had the basket before and put cans in it. Carly came over and he got to play with the basket for awhile. He also walked up and down the dog section pointing out all of the dogs.

At home, he surprised us by saying Sandra Boynton – his fourth author. He took a nice nap.

In the late-ish afternoon I took him out for a walk in the backpack. We walked up the river about a mile and a half to Nowon Bridge, crossed the bridge, walked down the other side of the river, and crossed back over at the bridge to Madeul Stadium, then back home. We had a lot of fun singing songs and pointing at things. He now knows ‘egret’, and surprised me when, crossing back over the bridge and seeing people below us, he said “people down there”. I didn’t believe my ears at first, but he kept saying it and pointing, and was very proud of himself when I got it.

On our way out, there was little water flowing down the stream, and where there are usually little waterfalls over a small drop, there was no water. He was pointing and saying ‘sad’. On our way back, there was more water and it was flowing like usual.

Everyone kind of did their own thing today. Chuck went on a nice walk up the stream and to temple. Cherie made stir fry for dinner. And Carly got some work done. And of course we all packed for the trip tomorrow.

Carly was teaching him ‘upsy daisy’, and when she finished his bath, he turned to it and waved and said “Bye bye, mul area.” And, as usual, he wanted to take his washcloth with him when he left the bathroom. We wring the water from it and he uses it to clean around the house.

Sandra Boynton, ketchup, basket (bap-kit), egret, street, people down there (!?)

 

I had initially planned to go hiking today, but that fell through. So the decision to head to Insadong took some time. But in the morning I was reading a Sophie book to him, and he recognized Kiwi the bird. Also, he has learned ‘upside down’, as Carly was holding him upside down yesterday.

Anyway, we headed to Insadong around 10. We got of the subway and first went to Tapgol Park. I let August get down and play while they looked around. He tripped as he started to walk to Cherie and scraped both knees. After washing them off, he was mainly interested in the pigeons, saying ‘hi dulgi’ and following them. He sort of scared off a couple, so I was holding his hand and we were carefully walking close to them when another kid came and scared them. Think it will be difficult to keep him from chasing the birds as he sees kids do it all the time here.

We walked up Insadong. Had August down at first but that was too hard, so put him in the backpack. Not everything was open, due to Chuesok, but Chuck and Cherie were successful. The saddest part, for me at least, was that all the art museums and galleries were closed. At the end of Insadong we walked around the corner and down to the temple. August fell asleep as I walked up to it.

We sat on some steps west of the temple while he slept and I read. I also walked around the temple and looked at more of the artwork while the others sat by him. We were given som sangpyeong and then bought more ourselves – fresher and better than the stuff from his class last Tuesday.

He woke up after 50 minutes a little after 12:30. We went to the little park west of the temple so he could nurse. While there, he got to see an orange cat hanging out there, and some nice people gave Chuck and Cherie some more food.

We then went in search of food. We went up to the burger place by the MMCA art museum, but it has turned into a furniture store. We walked by the museum and went behind it, walking up the narrow street, and found a Chicago Pizza and Pub on the second floor of a building. The food was good – we got sweet potato fries and a spinach and cheese pizza. August really liked the sweet potato fries.

From there we walked down the narrow street and took the subway from Anguk Station. In the evening he was playing with Cherie on her phone, and saw a photo of her doctor in the address book. He would click on the photo and wave and say “Hi, doctor.” Around 7 I felt like getting outside a bit, so I took August out. We spent a few minutes by the fish tanks at the restaurant because he kept saying “kid, kid, kid” and I figured out he meant ’squid’. And he really like looking at the eel, which is right at his level. From there we went into the park and walked around a bit, watched kids on the swings, used his shovel to put sand on bushes, threw away some garbage, and pushed buttons on the vending machines.

We went home and gave him a bath, and he was asleep around 8.

Upside down, Kiwi, find mama, Oma shop, Oma bathroom, Oma hiding, carry me, dada’s bathroom, hi doctor, Snoozers, squid (kid), eel

Morning:

Tapgol Park: 

Temple: 

Chicago Pizza and Pub: 

A little shoveling in the dark: 

This morning August managed to climb onto the brown chair for the first time, and made it look easy. 

We skyped with my parents, as they were about to leave for Everett for 9 days. We then Skyped with Peter, although August only put in a small appearance as he was being shy. 

We then headed to Hoegi. We walked the back road and the rest of them got sandwiches at Subway. I got a salmon bagel sandwich at Mono Cheese Cafe. We walked into Kyunghee University, and looked for a children’s park that shows up on Google Maps. Alas, it doesn’t seem to exist. So we ate lunch sitting on the grass to the left of the church on campus. But before we put August’s shoes on he stepped in some sort of poop, causing quite an incident.

That cleaned up and done with lunch, we walked in front of the church (August liked going up and down the stairs with Cherie, and she would say ‘uff-da’ with ), then across the pedestrian bridge and down the hill on the other side. There were big leaves on the hill and he liked stomping on them.

We stopped and changed him on the grass, then put him in the backpack and started walking. He fell asleep on the way up to the art building. We looked around up there at all the outdoor sculptures, then headed back down the hill and out of the university and went to 8 Street, the coffee place we really like. I tried the Saigon Cafe today (basically a fancy Vietnamese coffee – last time I think I had the Vienna drink) and we went and sat upstairs for the first time. When August woke up about 1:20 (50-some minutes), I took him around to see some of the art (the gallery downstairs was all photographs of animals) and to meet the big fluffy dog, which was sitting outside the front door at the time. He spent a few minutes with the dog, and petted it a little, but he really loved the small aquariums, particularly the water flowing in the top and the bubbles it would make on the surface of the water.

We were there quite awhile, then headed home. At home, he played throwing the ball off the couch, spent some time studying the insects on his pajamas, lay down on the floor a couple of times, and read the baby book – he surprised me by being able to identify several of the babies on the emotions page (happy baby, etc.)

He and I then went with Carly to the pink building to get pho for dinner and a couple of groceries. We came and ate dinner, and then at 6:30 Megan and Torrey came over and we all went down to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. August got to eat a lot of ice cream, mainly from Cherie and some from Megan. 

We came back home and played some more. At one point he was sitting on the edge of the table holding his water bottle. He went to slide off, but lost his balance while doing so. He kind of rolled to the floor, but got up, still holding his water bottle pinned to the side of his head, like it was a football and he was trying not to fumble.

I gave him a bath and then he went to bed a little before 8.

Home: ball off table, studying his pajamas, lying down on floor couple times, baby book

Twice today he went and lay on the  changing pad when we simply asked him to. Also, sometime before bed he requested the ABC song on the computer. So we pulled it up on YouTube. The video is hosted by Eep the Mouse, and he could identify Eep by name. And when playing with his spatula, blocks, and a frying pan he was saying ‘sizzle, sizzle, sizzle’.

New words/phrases: water, got the icky, water bottle, hi tweet, mama get it, sit on mama, grumpy baby, happy baby, sleeping baby, tired baby, more Google, soak-Joon (korean for sprout), Eep

 

Eating some of Mama’s sandoo: 

At 8 Street: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

Ice cream: 

Home. His new comb from Oma:

When he woke up he really wanted mama again, and ended up standing at the front door trying to get out. I sat down on the little step, and he calmed down a little and sat down next to me. I did “This little piggy” with his toes and he started laughing. He was then looking at our shoes, and could tell all of them apart (which belonged to Opa, etc.). For his own, he said “ZZ shoes, Auggie shoes, August shoes”. He then wandered into Chuck and Cherie’s bedroom, where he found a water bottle. Chuck said it was Oma’s, so August took it into the other room to her.

I made eggs for breakfast, but he ate some Cheerios, and then a lot of broccoli and cheese as I was making them, so he didn’t eat my eggs. When Cherie made eggs for herself later, however, he was happy to eat some.

He then played with Chuck on the bed, putting credit and other cards into a travel pouch, then went downstairs with me to do recycling. I let him put the milk cartons in the big bag one-by-one, and later wanted to take a carton out the front door.

Cherie was going to a yoga class with Atsuko and then she and Chuck were planning to go to Nowon. So August and I went to Children’s Grand Park by ourselves. At the zoo we first went to the conservatory, because when we were walking by it August pointed to it and seemed to say “go there” a couple times, then started making fish sounds. We went in and saw the fish and waterfall, then went to the outside area with the little streams and ponds. I let him out, and he liked looking at the fish. Then he managed to throw a little rock in the pond and got upset that there were no more to throw. We walked around a little more, but I then realized he was wet. So we walked up to our usual restroom and changed him.

Then back to the animals, stopping at the goats and rabbits as a zookeeper was feeding them. Then in to see the horses and meerkats, then to the tropical building where we spent most of our time, with the lizards and snakes and turtles, primarily.

He was getting tired but hadn’t yet eaten, so we went up to our picnic place. He was too tired though, so we got back in the backpack and he ate some sandwich in there as we walked and then he fell asleep, sleeping for 80 minutes and waking up at the cafe at 1:50.

From there we went to the Adventureland Playground and played there for the next hour and a half+. Mainly with sand, using his shovel and the ambulance and his little spoon and piece of a shuttlecock, but also going over to the musical instruments, hanging on a fence, and throwing things into the bushes. There was a school group from a Canadian international school at the park. We ran into them 3 times, the last at the playground. August would have liked hanging around them at the playground, but they were leaving as we got there.

We headed home, and stopped at the pink building for a couple groceries then headed home. He likes the little prints of paintings they have in the elevators, and I always tell him who the painter is. Leaving the elevator today, he said ‘bye bye Millet’. When we got home I took him out of the backpack and he laid on the floor. I laid down next to him and we lay their for a few minutes – at one point he said ‘more dada’.

We were home about 4:50. Chuck and Cherie were home a few minutes later. August was a little upset that Carly wasn’t with him. We started to get his shoes on to go look for her, but he calmed down and got distracted so we didn’t have to go.

He was making up a lot of songs today, including the Oma Opa song, the Uncle Dee Dee song, and No Wawa song, and the I Got My Dada song.

In the evening he was really into giving things to Cherie: First, he was giving her all the crayons. Later, he started handing her Duple animals one-by-one. She cooked some eggs, and he stole her fork and was doing a pretty good job of eating eggs with it. When he ate a piece of egg, she would say ‘Amazing!’ and he would laugh. He was then in on the bed with Chuck, dumping things out of a bag, and chuck would say ‘Yippee!’ August was laughing hysterically and almost rolling off the bed.

Carly gave him a bath and he went to bed around 8. Before going to bed he really got into putting his Duplos away.

New words/phrases: for Oma, I see a baa baa, hook, driver, Eric Carle, see a stork, go here (?), hear wawa (hears waterfall), baba light, chip (he’s used it for awhile – don’t know if I mentioned it), alligator (al-gay-ter), cook egg, my dinosaur (and other Duplo animals), washcloth, fall down, yippee (Chuck taught it to him)

On our way. He spots this sign in the subway stations and calls out “dada’s sandoo”: 

Zoo: 

Hanging on the railing as he watches the meerkats: 

Sleepy time: 

After his nap: 

At the playground: 

Headed home: 

Back home: 

He woke up at 4:20, and Carly got up with him. He was singing ‘ABCDEFG’ and as they left the room he said ‘Dada sleeping’. He went back to sleep a little after 6.

He woke up again at 7, asking for water but clearly wanted to nurse and go back to sleep. He kept pointing back into the room and saying ‘more’ but wouldn’t go in. I took him back in on the bed and sang to him and he calmed down and actually lay down for several minutes. We were in there for 20 minutes before he first started looking for Green Monster and then wanted to see Oma and Opa. By then he was very happy. He got his spatula and wanted a bowl, then went and played with his blocks with them. We spent time naming things on the blocks – now working on snail and violin as he knows most of the others. 

Oma shared eggs with him again, which he really liked. And he played with tape with me as I fixed his poster. He was then playing with Duplos with Chuck and putting them all away. Then came out and put things away in kitchen and living room. 

We read Curious George Goes to the Aquarium and he was flapping arms like a penguin when Curious George does it. Then, he surprised me by saying “Play soccer”. He then got a ball out and was saying “kick” a lot. Finally, he has been repeating words he hears in songs. Today he kept repeating “summer” and “April” in a Jason Webley song, “My Love Left Me in April”.

Cherie had gone to the store and then came home and was chopping vegetables for dinner. August got a lime from her, and was pretending it was an egg, trying to crack it everywhere. She decided to not come along, so the three of us left about 10:30. We went to Dobangson and first hiked up towards the peak, towards the temple I went to with Derek. Went about halfway, then went back down and continued the loop we’ve done several times, walking up into the first temple for the view. August fell asleep, and we walked back and sat by the stream area. He slept 51 minutes, from 12:37 to 1:28. Chuck came back from looking at the shops just as he woke up.

August was wet so I changed him, then he pooped, so I changed him again, then his nose was running, then a random woman tried to hug him/pick him up. We got through that, and he ended up playing with Opa and me in the stream for over an hour. He wanted to play on the downhill side from the concrete block bridge we walk across. It is sloped, so there are kind of waterfalls and little pools. The main thing was throwing his ball and rocks in the water and splashing us. He also really liked knocking down rock towers I tried to build. After a couple of those, he said “happy”. At one point, his foot was itching, and Chuck showed him how to splash water on his foot. August got really in to this, and a few times said “feels good”, which Chuck had said.

Anna, the student that likes to play with August, had to do homework, but Chuck wanted to walk home with Carly, so we went anyway. We walked down the stream and took line 1 at Dobong Station, then transferred to the 1161. We arrived a little early, so went to GS25 for a drink, then went and saw Carly at 4:25.

August really enjoyed pushing in the chairs on her desks, and he had a lot to do as Chuck and I helped rearranged the desks after her Culture Club.

We all walked home, then ate the delicious rice/lime/chicken dish that Cherie made. August took a bath and looked to be going to bed around 7, but finally came back out of the room, running to me, saying a mystery word: davo. We read some more, particularly the Head to Toe book. I accidentally skipped the seal page, and he noticed, clapping at the end of the book (that’s what the seal does). So we went back and he thought it was hilarious. He kept finding that page over and over. We also played with the cat hand puppet. He took it from me, put it on his hand and was saying ‘meow’. He was then rubbing it on his head and making a purring noise, which is what I do to him.

He wanted to go to bed around 8, but first had to come out and get his water. He then wanted the cat hand puppet, so I took that in to him.

Dada’s sandoo on subway poster

New words/phrases: dada sleeping, ABCDEFG, green monster (gree gonsta), blocks (bla), cook, rubber band (rub bee-uh), fork (thork), block, rooster (ooster), cock-a-doodle-doo (cock-a-doo), street cleaner (saw a truck out the window), swimsuit, crack (trying to crack a lime), house (hou-suh at first; in tree kangaroo book), wawa pipe, fishes (pointing to my shirt)

 

seeing a a street cleaner truck: 

Cracking a lime: 

At Dobongsan with Opa: 

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