This Is Our Blog

We headed downtown around 9:30 and got off at Gwanghwamun Station. We went to the palace and looked around a bit. August was most excited because the ground was entirely sand. So we sat and let him play in the sand a bit. We then went over by the south pond, and he was looking for frogs, watching fish, playing with the chain, and mainly stepping back and forth over some rocks in a semicircle around a tree. While there, a Chinese family with a 26 month old girl came over and she was playing around August. They interacted a little a couple times, but mainly they played in the same area. August was really interested when she walked along the rocks, and not just over them.

Chuck and Cherie went to the gift shop, but after a couple minutes August wanted to go find them. We ended up sitting outside the gift shop and had a snack. August ate a whole string cheese and a banana. I changed him, and he saw Cherie lying down on the deck, which he thought was funny. So he went over and started lying down as well.

We left the palace and walked around the east side of it and up to Samcheong-ro (a street). We walked along a couple blocks and August had fallen asleep. So I found a bench and sat there while Chuck and Cherie continued on and found an Indian place to eat lunch.

August woke up after 40 minutes. He was okay at first, but while eating pineapple he got a big chunk stuck between his front teeth. He then bit his lip and started crying. Pretty soon, there was drool, blood, snot, and tears all involved. This incident went on for quite awhile. Cherie helped try to get the pineapple out, but to no avail. As this was going on though, he would want to throw away garbage. So after I wiped him with a tissue or wet wipe (which he hates, so he would cry more) I would take him across to the garbage can and let him throw it away.

Finally, he calmed down and we headed towards the Blue House. We saw that, then entered the palace from the north end. He wanted to play in the sand again, and found a little piece of a badminton shuttlecock to play with, like a shovel. We went down next to the north pond this time and played there for awhile. We then walked out, along the east side, stopping at those bathrooms, where I had stayed with August in his carseat while Carly and Cherie had gone into the bathroom during our first visit with him. Anyway, August and I ate some of the leftover sangpyeong and then I changed him and we left.

We went to the square, and to the center strip this time. There was a food fair going on, and Chuck and I both got a potato/egg/cabbage thing called jee-jim. August really liked it, except for the cabbage, and he also got the seed/candy thing that Cherie got.

From there we walked to Junggok Station and headed home, transferring to the bus at Kwangwoon Station. August spent most of the trip singing to himself, or playing with Chuck using a handle in the subway. Chuck and Cherie went to Sing Sing Mart for bananas, and we went home. Carly had beaten us home by a few minutes.

She cooked zucchini and August ate a ton of that; not surprisingly, he didn’t eat any spaghetti a bit later. She gave him a bath, which went very smoothly, and he fell asleep a bit before 8.

 

New words/phrases: sugar, empty, coffee, too hot, camel zoo, Oma up, it (I see it), Carly, come on mama, bread

 

Morning. Rice milk (had gotten it free at Home Plus and he saw it in the  fridge):

Messy face: 

Palace: 

The incident: 

Feeling a bit better: 

Back at the palace: 

Food festival: 

Headed home: 

 

August was restless last night and has a stuffy nose. He was okay when he woke up, but after Carly left his nose was running, which he finds upsetting. He then was coughing on phlegm and had two small throw ups. After he calmed down, he had a nice time with Cherie skyping with Cassie and Vivi and then watching videos of songs on YouTube, particularly the ABC song and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

He has been learning more of the tunes to Itsy Bitsy, Baa Baa, and ABC and spent much of today singing nonsense words or portions of them. But he is also applying random words. For example, after someone said ‘okay’, he sang much of the ABC song using only the word ‘okay’ over and over.

He was doing really well watching videos but got overwhelmed. When he calmed down again, he and I did a lot of reading. He surprised me by saying the name of the author of the Hole in the King’s Sock – I say it every time I read the cover. The author’s name is Dot Meharry – he says it one word, ‘Dotharry’. He also started requesting the Under the Sea with Me book by saying “Under the sea me”.

Before we left for his class, he was lying on the rug, on his back, and Cherie lay down next to him and was singing to him.

Chuck and Cherie went with us to his class. It went really well. It was the Chuseok class, so they put on traditional clothes (well, strips of felt) and a hat (August did not wear his) and did some drumming, then did traditional games, with four stations. So, his first time throwing the arrows in a bucket. Except, the kids turned it into all picking up the arrows and putting them away in the bucket. But his favorite was throwing the bean bags into the board with holes in it. Oh, and the teacher gave them songpyeon – a rice cake dumpling with a filling. It was a big hit with all of the kids, who were all tasting it for the first time.

After class, Chuck went over to 2001 Outlet, and the rest of us went to Home Plus. Cherie did most of the shopping. I grabbed soy milk and ethernet cables and headed home. August fell asleep on the way home and I was able to lay him down. Just barely, as he did a lot of whimpering, but his eyes didn’t open.

He slept for 66 minutes. We ate and played and then the Beautiful Store showed up just before 3 to pick up the donations. After that, Chuck and I took August on a walk. We walked up to Nowon, through the streets around the station, and then back down, stopping at a park August and I found in May or so. We played there for about 45 minutes. August with his shovel, of course, for much of it. There was an older boy with a baseball bat and mitt that Chuck ended up playing catch with. August loved this, so we got his ball out and we played with it a lot.

We came home at 5:35. Carly wasn’t home, so August and I went back down. We found her a few minutes later as she walked up to the building.

Cherie had made spaghetti for dinner; August ate a ton, along with broccoli. Carly gave him a bath – he was not in a good mood about that. He went to sleep around 8 again.

New words/phrases: hot tea, Dot Meharry (Dotharry), crab, Under the Sea with Me (under the sea me), clock, big (fish noise), sand shoe (sand in his shoes), get dada (about to pour sand on my foot)

 

Morning:

Class: 

Eating songpyeon:

Shopping: 

On our walk with Chuck: 

Looking at fish: 

 

One of the things he said last night in his sleep, or as he slightly woke up to nurse, was ‘heeby jeeby’.

In the morning, he sang some songs with Cherie. “Row row row your boat” was his favorite, with the back and forth body movements. He also helped me make a smoothie and we read a lot of books before we left, particularly Mother Goose and Hop on Pop. He is working on the full Jim/him and ‘we see a bee’ lines.

We left a little before 10 to Itaewon. After our transfer, the train was pretty empty so we got 4 seats together. I took August out and he enjoyed sitting between me and Cherie. When we got to Itaewon we came out by the Hamilton Hotel. August was still out, but a bit upset at first because he wanted to just walk around. We headed up to the foreign food places where I was able to let him explore outside a little, then got him in the backpack and things went smoothly from there. 

From the foreign food marts we took a walk past the mosque then back down the hill. August fell asleep, so I went and got a coffee and read in Caffe Bene, while Chuck and Cherie went to a hummus place for lunch. August slept 45 minutes and woke up soon after they showed up at the coffee place. 

We went to a playground close to there, and August and I ate and we played on the playground. He really liked the play structure for the first time, and played on it first with Chuck, then with Cherie and me, throwing his shovel off the platform and into the rope webbing area.

We said bye/thank you playground as we left, and went to High Street Market. August was getting a little antsy after awhile, so we made a game of trying to find Oma and Opa, but I would point at cheese, or in a fridge and ask if they were there. He picked up on it and started pointing at random things and laughing. We then tried to head to the used book store. Unfortunately, it was closed. 

So we then walked west across Itaewon. We walked the street behind the Hamilton Hotel and then went to Whatthebook. We looked awhile there, and August enjoyed sitting on the stools, but nothing jumped out to us to buy. Before leaving, I had to change him again – the third time on the trip. The first two were at the playground. This was in the bathroom of the book store. While I set up, August kept himself busy in there by using a small broom to sweep the bathroom.                                     

I put August in the backpack and we walked back to the station and then headed home. As we got to Hagye we got a text from Carly asking if we could get a few things, so Chuck and Cherie headed to Home Plus. August and I stopped at the pink building to get frozen fruit, then went home. 

August really wanted the mango, so I was thawing some and he was eating it. He had been upset when we got home and Carly wasn’t there, then got a bit upset when Chuck and Cherie showed up and it wasn’t her, but he recovered quickly.

Carly did get home soon after that, as August and I were finishing up mixing the banana bread. Chuck went for a walk by himself along the stream/river. We ate dinner, but August wasn’t into eating dinner. He did eat some of Cherie’s sagwa (apple), some pineapple, and a good amount of avocado (first time he’s really liked that). And of course he ate two slices of banana bread when it was done. He also did a lot of drawing, and went to bed around 8.

New words: Dream, bubbe band, pig, ah-gee hoo-haa (baby noodle – for a small piece of string cheese):

Heading to Itaewon: 

Playground: 

Book store: 

Sweeping the bathroom: 

Headed home: 

Back home: 

Banana bread: 

I left about 8:30 to go meet Derek for our next stint on the Seoul Trail. We are to the south end of Seoul now. But there was time this morning to read The Hole in the King’s Sock a couple times with August. It has been one of his favorite books the last several days and we’ve read it a lot.

The hike went well. A much nicer part of the trail than the last day. We got back to Hagye a little before 2 and grabbed lunch at McDonald’s and ate it in the park.

I then hurried home and then caught up to everyone else playing at the playground at Madeul Stadium. While I was gone, Chuck and Cherie took August to Home Plus in the stroller and Cherie made soup. They used the stroller for taking him to Madeul, and he really likes the novelty of it. We played in the sand, and then on the exercise equipment before heading home. I pushed him on the way home. On the way, he was singing to himself chunks of ABC song, and later reciting the ”see bee, we see a bee” part of Hop on Pop.

In the late afternoon evening Carly taught him ‘heeby jeeby’, which he found hilarious. And he had me recite the Elmo and Abby lines from Plant a Tree for Me over and over again. We played Endless Alphabet, and he is now doing 8 letter words on his own with little problem. Showing a growing attention span, as much as anything else.

The funniest moment was when he climbed on the couch and sat down, said ‘nat nat’ (nurse nurse) to Carly, and forcefully pointed two or three times to the seat next to him, telling her to sit down.

Carly got him to sleep about 7:30. She puts him to sleep most days now by singing or humming the ABC song.

New words/phrases: clean, get mama shoe (as in trying to put sand on it), ha dumpty (humpty dumpty)

 

On my hike: 

Madeul playground: 

At home: 

When August woke up, he started practicing his words: ‘tummy’ and ‘come with me’. He then sat on the bed and chanted ‘fan’. 

We all left to go to the zoo a little after 8:30. We first wen to the conservatory and then saw the primates, then let August out of the backpack at the horses. Instead of walking around like usual, he sat on the steps for several minutes and ate Cheerios.  We went through the children’s zoo then went to the Burger N Shake place for lunch. Chuck and Cherie both had their first burgers in a long time, and August got to eat french fries with ketchup.

While we waited for the food, he twice tried to walk off back into the zoo. And as soon as we were done he was headed back to the zoo, but not until after sitting in the middle of the entrance for awhile.

From there we went to the tropical building, where Carly was really impressed with how much the sloth moved.

After that, we went up to the pathway I usually use for putting August to sleep and changed him, then went to the coffee shop. It was the first time August has been awake when going there, and he was really excited and wouldn’t nurse. So I walked him around for awhile then Carly took him outside and he finally took a nap, over an hour long.

Next, we went to the very busy deer area and then the zebras. August fell walking to the zebras as I tried to get him out of the way of a guy taking up the entire walkway with his stroller. He scraped one knee then, and then his other knee when he fell later going from one playground area to another while we were at the playground a few minutes later.

As he was playing in the sand area, he set down his shovel. Another boy took it and started playing with it. August got incredibly sad, and started crying quietly. I got out his other toys, and he played with them, but very quietly. But as we left that area we got the shovel back from the boy, and August was very happy again. 

We then went down and played with/around the musical instruments and then changed him and headed out. We walked down Subway so Carly could get a sandwich, then stopped at a tea place in the subway station where Chuck got a drink.

We came home and had leftovers for dinner. August and Carly did some good coloring, and I introduced him to the Sesame Street art app on the iPad. Carly gave him a bath, and he was asleep sometime after 8.

A new game today was holding the final ‘me’ of the ABC song for a long time. He would hold it for a long time, then I would copy him, then he would do it, I would do it short, etc.

New words/phrases: tummy, lemur, statue, cucumber, crying baby (‘cry baby’ – new construction; used to say ‘baby crying’), give me urt (his word for the small foam pieces in the playmat, which he likes me to squeeze with my fingers so they go flying), color paper, twirly (he and Carly were drawing them on paper), brown

At the zoo: 

Climbing on the fence like a big kid: 

Lunch: 

Chuck and Cherie eating burgers: 

At Peace Coffee: 

Watching the big kids play down below: 

Playground: 

Showing me a rock. Shovel thief in background: 

New game: 

Home: 

For our second full day with Oma and Opa we again stayed in the neighborhood. August woke up just as Carly was going out the front door at 7. He didn’t make any noise; he simply opened the door and walked out and was ready to play with Oma and Opa. 

After 10 we all went to the pink building. We first went to the book store where I bought him a larger pack of crayons (12 – I’ll save the pack of 36 for later), a set of glass markers, and three big pads of paper since he has filled up the first one. 

We then went to the grocery store and got a few things for the stir fry Cherie was going to make for dinner. 

He wasn’t going to fall asleep at home again, so I took him for a walk outside in the carrier and simply sat in a bench (reading) meet the ‘mama statue’ while he slept. 80 minutes – his longest nap with me in a long time. 

We went home but Chuck and Cherie weren’t there. So I changed him and we went for a walk up the stream and checked out the construction site. Not much there, so we headed home. Still no Cherie and Chuck, so we end to Home Plus. We saw the lizard, got a grapefruit sample, and bought diapers and paper towels. On our way home we caught up with Chuck and Cherie as they were crossing the bridge. They had also been at Home Plus and had run into Atsuko, who figured out who they were and helped them with their shopping. 

We went home and Carly got home a little after 5. Cherie made delicious stir fry stuff for dinner. Carly gave him a bath and he went to sleep about 8:30. 

So today he applied his new vegetable knowledge. When we got to the veggie stand by the stream, he got excited spotting peppers, zucchini, and caboo (cabbage). 

And as we enter Home Plus he has a whole routine of things he spots: the balloons and soaps on the first floor, owl figurines, perfumes (he says ‘soap’ and makes sniffing noises), fake flowers (sniffing), and the vegetables (he has a random word for them)stacked outside the restaurant as we enter the first basement, horse pictures (neigh neigh) and pictures of strawberries (dal-gi) as we go down to the second basement. 

Finally, after we brushed his teeth in the evening, he was walking around sucking/chewing on his toothbrush. When he was done, he walked into the bathroom, stretched on his tiptoes, and put it away on the counter. 

New words/phrases: hole king’s socks, on box, come with me, uncle dee dee, swiffer, zucchini yummy, doggie there (pointing out dog across the stream), people hop, by lizard, baby diaper, top

Skyping with Cassie and Vivi: 

Fans in the grocery store food court: 

Riding in the shopping cart: 

Waiting for kimbap and mandu for lunch to take up to Oma and Opa:

We are working on holding the crayons pointed down in the hand: 

Our walks: 

Asleep with Camel: 

Evening: 

Showing Opa Nighty Night: 

August had a blast with Oma and Opa on their first day. We spent most of the day at home, letting them recover from jet lag. But we went to Dunkin Donuts and Home Plus in the morning, then I took him out to the park in the afternoon. And after Carly got home we all went out to the park.

It was a long day for August (and Carly and Cherie, for that matter), as he woke up at 4am and they got up with him. I was able to go back to sleep for awhile. He took a nap from 7 to 7:50, but then got really tired around noon but just wouldn’t take a nap.

A little after 9 we went to go to Home Plus, but the grocery store doesn’t open until 10. So we went to Dunkin Donuts and got coffee and donuts. Well, August and I got a bagel with cream cheese and a banana drink. August really liked the bagel, and sat quietly for a few minutes on a chair eating it. Then he continued to eat it as he explored the store a little and looked at himself in the mirror.

Then we walked around the block and went to Home Plus. I took a carrier, but didn’t use it at all this trip. August walked a lot, out of the building, across the parks, and in the store – I could get away with it because Chuck and Cherie were doing the shopping and I could corral him.

He saw the lizard and guinea pigs and had his grapefruit sample, as usual.

We went home and played there. He was looking really tired, and kept lying on the floor. But he wouldn’t go to sleep with me on the bed. Chuck and Cherie went in and read him stories but also had no luck. So I did my walking thing with the carrier and he fell asleep but woke up 4 minutes later when I tried to put him down. Chuck and Cherie were resting, so I took August back outside and walked around for 20+ minutes. Thought he was falling asleep, but no. So we played in the park.

We were there for about an hour, then went home and ate a tuna sandwich for lunch (he liked tuna for the first time) and played. Cherie started something where she would lift August up so he could put magnetic letters near the top of the door. She would then drop him down and say ‘zoom’. He loved this, and through the day would say ‘Oma zoom’ or ‘Dada zoom’.

After Carly came home well all went out to the park to try to keep August up as late as possible since he hadn’t napped today. We played a bit on the dinosaur path, then went over on the other side of the dinosaur to the hill he’s played on several times. We were there for a long time. Chuck and Cherie went in a little after 6 and we made it until sometime after 6:30. He stayed awake until right around 7.

New words/phrases: pig, dinosaur, zoom

 

With th his new Duplos: 

Sitting on Opa’s foot: 

Eating a blueberry bagel at Dunkin Donuts: 

Walking home: 

Back home: 

With me in the park: 

At home again: 

Watching Oma chop cabbage: 

Evening walk to the park with everyone: