This Is Our Blog

In the morning we skyped with Cherie and he played Nighty Night. We got on our way right at 9. Got to the park and went straight to the zoo. He was really into horses today, and claimed that most animals say ‘neigh’, including the goats, which have always said ‘baa’ in the past. So we went straight to the miniature horses and goats. We got to see the porcupines today, as it was feeding time (they usually hide in the dark). There were two babies. 

From there we went to the outdoor birds (the condor was an ‘eagle’) and wildcats (he said ‘roar’ a lot) then sat by the bird building. He ate the sandwich and played with leaves. We then went to the tropical building. He was walking around on his own much more today. He’s been more clingy of late, but that was disappearing, particularly as he went up and down the ramp in the building. 

He was getting tired and needed to be changed, so we went up to the bathrooms behind the amphitheater and changed him. This is also when I realized another major benefit of the backpack: I can put him in it and he just hangs out while I go to the bathroom myself.

From there we walked the path for awhile and he fell asleep. Slept for close to an hour outside the cafe as I read. He woke up and we played in the cafe for a few minutes. Found a cool pop-up counting book there and he really liked operating the elevator in it.

Then went to the stream play area. Played in the shallow stream, the small fountain, and then near the top of the stream. He really walked around a lot there, and waded in the deepest he has before: up to his waist. He played with my sandal for awhile, putting it on his head.

He then wanted to go back to the zoo (‘neigh, neigh’). As we entered, he wanted to go down the path to the right to where the deer are. He clearly remembered. We saw them for awhile, then went to the herbivores next door where he really got excited by the zebra and kept saying ‘zebra’.

We finished by going to the Adventureland Playground. We mainly played with the musical instruments, then went over and played in the train play structure for quite awhile. He was playing really independently, to the point that I was able to read my book a bit. 

Sometime after 3:30 he started saying ‘mama, mama’ so we headed home. Walked past the water education center and the children’s museum, which was a mistake as he wanted to go in both.

On the way home a man started tickling his foot. He got a dirty look from me (I didn’t know he was doing it at first), but August said ‘more, more’ so they played for much of the ride home.

In the evening he did some spinning in circles, did a lot of cleaning, and read the From Head to Toes book with Carly several times.

New words: potato, circle, word for garbage, otter (may have listed before), coati, lemur, deer, deer poop (on his own), zebra, almond, bye goona, subway, lentils, subak (watermelon), sure (copying me), clean up, who (sound of an owl)

 

Nighty Night: 

CGP: 

After his nap: 

Stream area: 

Playground:

Playing independently. Hard to hear him talking the whole time over the noise of the cicadas: 

Home, ready for bed: 

We went out to Uidong to go to the park and the embroidery museum today. Unfortunately, the museum was closed, although the signs would have you believe otherwise. So we spent a lot of time in the park, which was fine, because it is a nice big park with two playgrounds and all sorts of stuff to do.

On the way there we took a bus/subway/bus route. That allowed us to pick up some kimbap for lunch at the subway station.

I was afraid August would fall asleep before we got to the park, as he woke up a little before 6 and it was now 10:30. But he made it there and we ate and he played in the water fountains (which had little hoses for him to play with) and with the car and horse spring toys at the playground. 

At close to noon he started to act sleepy. So I put him in the backpack. He tried to protest being put in the backpack, but his (fake) cries turned to laughter after blocking my attempts for a few seconds. We walked around the park, and saw a butterfly flying around some flowers. We watched it for close to 10 minutes, with August regularly saying ‘navi’. After that I walked up the hill/trail for a few minutes, then came back to the park and he fell asleep.

He slept 55 minutes. He then woke up and we ate some more. He thought it was fun to throw his larabar in the bush, so we got the ball out of the backpack and played with that. I changed him on the bench, then we walked over to the bathroom to throw away the diaper.

We then changed locations, where he had a couple of steps to play with. There were also a bunch of middle school students near us that entertained him, and he liked watching them ride their bikes.

From there we walked up to try the museum, only to find it closed. So we went back to the park, to the other playground this time. Here, there was a pond area with lily pads that he liked looking at, all sorts of benches and seats he liked climbing up onto, a play structure that he climbed the stairs to several times, and yet another pond with fish to watch. At one point he picked up leaves and was flapping them around; he then started climbing up on a bench to throw leaves behind it.. At another point I was siting on a swing and he was ‘helping’ me by pushing. And at one point he remembered the pond area and went running off to see it again.

At 3:45 we caught the bus home. We took the two seats over a wheel well. He sat by the window. He sat there for about 30 minutes, looking out the windows. For the last 10 minutes, he wanted me to hold him. This gave him a view of the people behind us. He spent the rest of the ride being an extrovert. He waved, individually, to each person. He played a hand grabbing game with two women. And he looked at the people right behind us and clapped. As we got ready to leave, he kept saying ‘bye bye’ and waving.

We got home after stopping at the little store at a little past 4:30. August was disappointed that Carly wasn’t here, but made it to 5 okay. At that point, he kept saying ‘mama’. So we went looking for here. We went downstairs once, but didn’t see here. We went back to the apartment, but he was once again disappointed she wasn’t there. So we went to the elevators and played on the bumps. We were waiting about 7 minutes when the doors opened and there she was. He was standing right in front of the door, so it was a good surprise for both of them.

One thing he has been doing lately is changing the words to the ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ song. I’ve already changed it to ‘One for the dada, one for the mama, and one for little August who rides on a llama’. As he has started to learn the words, I let him say ‘dada’, ‘mama’, ‘August’, and ‘llama’ in the song. His first change was changing ‘llama’ (because he doesn’t know what that is) to ‘baba’, then ‘mama’. Today he took it a step further, and instead of ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ sometimes he will call out other people, like ‘gramma’ and ‘tia’. And he has changed the ‘baba’ or ‘mama’ word to ‘backpack’ several times, making me believe he at least understands the ‘rides on a…’ phrase. Of course, his changes don’t exactly follow the rhyming pattern, but still pretty cool.

Oh, and at the park I was trying to teach him ‘pine needle’. He insisted on calling them ‘hoo-haa’s, that is, noodles.

New words: kimbop, pole, yummy, hawk, kaw, pull (pulling my hand), waterfall, tunnel, string cheese

 

Holding his smoothie inappropriately:

Pointing out the window: 

His prson of the day was grampa. He talked about grampa constantly:

At the park: 

After his nap. Sandoo and Larabar: 

Sandwich on his head: 

Pointing at an ant, err, bee (as he now insists on calling them): 

Looking for gaeguli and mulgogi (frogs and fish): 

Climbed up all on his own: 

More frog and fish hunting: 

Sitting on the way home: 

Back in our park, watching the stream actually on:

Ready to walk home on his own: 

Giving hugs before bed: 

Carly was still sick, so called in a for a sub today. It was a rainy day, so I wasn’t planning on taking August out for a long time. Instead, we made it out if he house three times to give Carly some time to rest. 

But in the morning I made banana bread. No veggies, although I added some raisins. August had fun with the bowl and spatula and tried licking the bowl. Unfortunately, he broke the bowl in two when he stumbled and put his weight on it. 

For our first outing, we went to Home Plus to do some shopping. August said hi to the lizard, and pointed out the turtle and said ‘turtle’ on his own. After paying, we went up and walked around the book store for a few minutes. 

One of the things we bought was a scale. So I can now tell you August is 23.6 pounds. 

Carly made lentil soup and August took a nap. He ate some lentil soup for lunch, and in the afternoon we headed out again. 

First, we went to the English Science Education Center. They have aquariums with water bugs, beetles, etc. August really liked those. We went up to the 4th floor and through the ‘Deep Space Walk’ (a room with lights) and started to look around the geology displays, but was then informed they weren’t open. So we left and headed to the art museum. 

We went downstairs and August made straight for the Alice in Wonderland box thing. We then went to the block printing exhibit in the community gallery and a woman gave us a like-cheese cracker. We sat on a bench and ate that. 

We then went up to the play room. We lasted there for quite awhile. He didn’t really go farther in, but he did well with the other kids, and did a lot of hopping on the mats. 

We then went up to the restaurant on top (Cellan) and got a Gorgonzola pizza to surprise Carly with. We then heard home. 

About 5:30 I took him out one last time. We went to the book/lounge area at the movie theater. Alas, the big stuffed animals are gone. And in the children’s room the books are getting trashed and kids were allowed to run wild in there. But August still had a lot of fun looking at books and pushing chairs around. His main activity was probably practicing the stairs – climbing the first flight on his own and needing help to get back down. 

I left at 7 to head over to a meeting with 3 other people who would like to form a writer’s group. That went well and lasted until 9. I had walked over, but took a taxi back to Brownstone with Sarah M. 

August and Carly were both asleep when I got home. He apparently went to sleep around 8. 

New words: eagle (looking at picture of a book in a book), Seuss, bowl (may have recorded this before), turtle, lentils, fan got me

 

Pointing at Abby: 

Putting dough in his hair: 

Licking the bowl: 

Home Plus: 

Pointing at the lizard:

Saying ‘turtle’: 

His phrase of the day, which sounds like ‘Oma I did it’, but probably isn’t:

English Science Education Center: 

Looking at water bugs: 

The ‘deep space walk’: 

In the park: 

In the art museum: 

Free cracker: 

A little crawling in: 

Jumping for his audience, the woman off to the left: 

Pointing at the lights: 

At the movie theater:

Practicing stairs. He loves stairs, and misses them from the states. I obviously need to find him more stairs to work on: 

He was up just a few minutes after 6 again. Pretty soon after Carly left, he wanted to make a smoothie. So we made a smoothie, and soon after that he started wanting to go outside. By 8:30 we were out the door and headed five stops north to Dobongson station.

No specific plans, just to do some walking and find some place to play. I actually thought we might just spend a couple hours and come home for his nap. That wasn’t to be.

Instead, we started by finding a children’s park (i.e. a playground) we hadn’t been to before (Newtown Children’s Park). So we played there for awhile and snacked. A man caught a dragonfly and showed it to us. We also went on the swings and played on the exercise equipment.

From there, we walked up to Bukhansan National Park. We took the first major left, heading up the hill past two Buddhist temples (my parents and I walked down this big hill on our way out). We then took the next left, following the easy-access (built trail) to its end, then a bit further. August fell asleep, so I looked for a bench. I had to double back, and ended up sitting at the top of the stairs at the end of the built trail. He only slept 24 minutes, waking up and pointing, saying ‘more, more’. Not sure if he meant ‘more cicadas’ or if he wasn’t happy we weren’t walking. So we walked some more, taking a left back at the main trail, and walked up to the top (what Carly and I call the ‘cat area’, as this is where Carly and I first saw and photographed the feral cats way back on our first visit). We then headed back down the hill.

We walked around the first temple complex, enjoying the view of Dobongson from behind it. Then back down, doing a shorter walk around the first temple’s grounds. We then found a set of shaded bench right down near where the main trail meets up with the road/trail out of the park. This is where we first spent a lot of time. We ate, and he played. Picking up and throwing a heavy rock (‘heavy, heavy’) and sticks, and throwing our ball off a little ledge (I got it out to keep a woman from mumbling loudly anytime he was throwing around, many, many feet from anyone, mind you, any sort of rock or stick). I showed him the moss on the trees and after that he would touch it. We were there for a good hour.

We then walked down and out of the park. He said he was hungry (again???), so we sat on a bench above the stream and ate. We then went down to the stream, and August was happy to be lowered into it (it went to his knees). We then played in the stream for over half an hour, throwing rocks and gravel and watching the little fish.

We walked out along the stream and followed it a little ways to establish that there was a path along it, and we found another park/playground. Perhaps the destination for our next visit.

We then headed home. He fell asleep as we got on the subway, and stayed asleep until we got home. He slept, perched on the coffee table for a little while. Just over 40 minutes for this second nap.

It was now after 3. We played inside, doing some reading and iPad. Carly got home at 5, and he was pretty attached to her for the evening. I pried him away long enough to give him a bath, then he went back to her and was asleep a little before 8. At one point, I did have him out with me, and he kept requesting ‘Abby, Abby’. The iPad was busy syncing, so not available, so I pulled up the Sesame Street page on her and started watching a video about broccoli. He was watching it intently, but then turned to me and started bawling. Perhaps it was the dancing broccoli heads that scared him.

Carly is sick. She almost didn’t go to work today, and then almost came home right after she was done teaching. She made it through. She went to sleep early, but woke up again. Her temperature is pretty high. Hopefully she’ll be able to get some sleep and feel better in the morning. 

New words: Peter, acorn, bumpy (going down stairs to subway)

Playing at Bukhansan: 

The Bears at the exit to the park: 

In the stream: 

because he didn’t take a nap. And I feel fine. He slept in until 8:30, so he had that going for him. They skyped with Glecy in the morning and we had a lazy Sunday morning around the house (note: I had planned to go hiking on the Seoul Trail but, of course, we had to postpone again…). At one point we were coloring and he wanted to use the purple marker. I let him, and almost immediately he realized he could color on his arm. So he had a purple arm all day. Pretty cool.

Around noon I decided I’d take him out for a walk until he was a bit tired. Before we left, he was staring at the pictures on his Korean poster. He tends to do that quite often.

The walk went well – we just went to the loop behind the youth center and around that area, and admired the mural they’re painting below one of the ramps along the stream. And he seemed pretty tired when we got home.

But he wouldn’t sleep. He nursed and nursed and nursed, but wouldn’t sleep. And just kept moving a lot. At one point he was dragging the iron around by the cord as if it was on a leash. So, about 2:30 I put him in the carrier and went walking around our floor. Did this for at least 20 minutes. He had fun looking up at lights, etc. but seemed no more tired at the end.

So we went home and a few minutes later I took him to the park. We were there for the next hour and a half. He played with the teeter totter, and spent a lot of time near the dinosaurs. First, looking at bushes and flowers. Then we went and played on the rocks behind the playground, throwing the tennis ball into the bushes a lot. From there we went over by the fountain, and when it turned on at 4 he watched for a few minutes. Then he wanted to go back by the dinosaurs (“roar”). So we went back, and he played in the bushes and with the tennis ball for quite awhile. At one point people from a church came by and gave us a bag of crackers. I called them the Jesus crackers as they had a line about Jesus painted on them. We ate several of those, and he still seemed hungry. So a little after 4:30 we went home.

He then stayed with Carly while I went to the grocery store. Apparently, he spent a lot of time cleaning the floor as Carly did the same. I finally found everything we needed for our burritos at that store and came home.

Carly did the cooking while I distracted August. He ate, then we ate and Carly took a shower. Miraculously, he stayed awake until a little after 7. Pretty darn good for his first day without a nap.

He is really loving the Nighty Night game, and has pretty much figured out how to move between all the animals, make them move, and put them to sleep. He was playing it with Carly when I came home from the store, and we played some more while she was in the shower. Time to find the next app or two.

I finished the book I’ve been reading for my book group. It’s called The Slap. Happy to be done with it. Not horrible, but not good either. Also, I finished watching that Scientology documentary a couple days ago. Derek had recommended it.

New words: towel, crack, pizza, hiccup

Park: 

Jesus crackers: 

In the morning he got to Skype with Oma. Then  he got the big pan out of the cupboard and wanted his spatula. I then put a couple of his blocks in it so he would have something to stir. He ended up filling it with blocks and stirring them. I was also teaching him the Sesame Street characters in the Plant a Tree for Me book. I didn’t know the name of one of them, so we found a page online with all their photos and names and he spent a lot of time pointing at the characters and I would say the names.

We headed down to Ttuksom a bit after 9, getting there around 10. We bought tickets and went in the water park, only to find that the infant pool is closed ‘for maintenance’. We went to the shallowest pool and hung out there. Carly got him one step in a couple times, but mostly we ate or walked around a bit. Then, I tried to take him in again. I carried him out farther in the pool, only to be informed by a lifeguard that we needed to be wearing swim caps – even to just wade, apparently. We left at this point, and I was able to get a refund for our tickets even though we’d been there an hour.

We went to the coffeeshop in the design plaza (spirally building) and got drinks. August sat on the interesting bench and liked the k-pop music. We then went upstairs for a little while to see the fish, etc., then headed home so he could take a nap.

He fell asleep on the subway, and stayed asleep for about 20 minutes at home – a 40 minute nap total. Carly went to the store and I hung out with August. In the late afternoon I took him for a walk and let Carly rest. We walked up the river and then into Madeul and stopped at the playground. He played in the sand and we found a little ambulance. He had fun throwing his shovel, ball, etc. into the bushes and saying ‘uh-oh’ and then he or I would get them.

Back home he made another pretend smoothie and ate a bunch of noodles and zucchini for dinner before falling asleep around 9.

Carly and I watched the last episode of season 4 of Game of Thrones. We will be moving on to season 5 very quickly. I don’t know how we’ll manage once we’re all caught up and we have to wait between episodes.

New words: elbow, Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird, Grover, bird

 

Cooking some letters: 

The pool: 

While getting coffee: 

Looking for fish: 

Back home: 

A new favorite saying: 

On our walk playing by Madeul: 

Back home. Making a smoothie: 

Eating with my fork: 

We had planned to go to Ttukseum for the water park today, but Derek was concerned about rain in the forecast. So we hung out around here instead.

August woke up at 6am again. When Carly left today he said goodbye to her a lot and then let her go without getting upset at all. He and I got a lot of cleaning done in the morning after eating slices of banana bread for breakfast. We were going to go out for a walk around 8:30, but I made the mistake of saying we’d go and get a smoothie. He heard the word ‘smoothie’ and immediately wanted us to make one here at home. He got so sad when I kept preparing us to go outside that I gave in and we made a smoothie here at home first. If he’d been angry, etc. I wouldn’t have given in, but with the sad face…

Anyway, when he was done with his smoothie we went out for a walk around the streets east of here. We ended up at the playground in the apartment complex just south of Home Plus. Played there a few minutes, mainly on the elliptical and watching a lift truck, then went to Home Plus and bought bread, then met Derek and Logan in the playground by the dinosaurs.

We played together for over an hour. August watched Logan on the slides and on the play structure. August was starting out his usual clingy, but after some sandwich and watching Logan he got bolder. Soon he was throwing away garbage and trying to climb on the play structure.

We wandered through the center of the park, then went over to the art museum to show Derek and Logan the play structure inside. Logan climbed through most of it. August didn’t really try to climb through, but he spent more time in the trampoline area than ever before, and kind of slid into a crawl area. He spent a lot of time watching Logan and was clearly inspired by him.

It was now about noon and August was clearly tired. We walked with them to McDonald’s, where Derek picked up lunch. They saw August and Logan and gave us free toys. We parted ways from there and I carried August home, hoping he would fall asleep. He was laying on my shoulder when we got home, but he brightened up and played for awhile. So after 15 minutes I put him in the carrier and we went walking around the building. He fell asleep pretty quickly and I was able to set him down for a 75 minute nap.

He played for an hour and a half. Some reading books, general playing with the pillows and couch, etc. Finally, he was ready to go outside, but this time I made the mistake of going into the bathroom. He followed me, and picked up the towel outside the shower. He started ‘cleaning’ everything: the floors, the walls, the doors, etc. So I went and did dishes. He then found the washcloth on the counter from one of his previous cleaning sessions and cleaned with that. Then he asked for the soap ‘soap, soap, soap, soap’ and I gave him a container of dish soap to play with (closed, of course). In all he spent about 20 minutes pretending to clean before he was ready to leave again. But he insisted on carrying the washcloth with him (which was fine – I told Carly I would have drawn the line at also taking the soap).

We went over to the park. This time by the pond area, full because of the recent rain. He spent several minutes just looking out through the railings at the dragonflies. Then we ate a Larabar and walked around a bit. We went to the dinosaurs and watched the fountains and a dance group practice and then headed to the other side. We went in the art museum and down to see the Alice in Wonderland box thing and some of the other art. We then went to Home Plus (again) to get diapers and a few other things. I didn’t have August in a carrier, so when I decided to get more than just diapers I needed to get a basket and put him in the carrier. He wanted to carry the basket around and put things into it. We could have done that for awhile, but he was getting in the way of other people (it was busy) so I put him in the carrier and we finished up.

Got home a little after Carly. She had picked up the big (green) new bathtub we had ordered. She and August tried it out for size (they fit).

We played with his letter magnets, and I determined he can recognize and pronounce at least 10 letters (p d f c u s r o h m) thanks to our Endless Alphabet time (which we generally do for 5 or 10 minutes each day, but not always).

He had spaghetti and raviolis for dinner, then they took a bath in the new bathtub. There was some good playtime on the bed, and he went to sleep around 8:30.

‘Only’ recorded 4 new words today, but also noticed him combining nouns and verbs in his verbal practice, saying ‘baby sit’, ‘gramma sit’, ‘tia sit’.

Carly and I watched a couple episodes of Game of Thrones. We now have one episode left in season 4.

New words: wrapper, Hagye, Abby, squirrel

 

Still crossing his fingers: 

Sandoo: 

Back outside. Carrying his washcloth: 

Watching dragonflies: 

Watching the fountain and playing with the broken trash bin: 

Wanting to do the shopping: 

Trying out the new bathtub: 

His first ten letters (later he would also confirm ‘t’): 

The song we’ve been working on: 

It was a Children’s Grand Park Thursday. He woke up early, right at 6. In the morning he said ‘bye bye’ to Carly a bunch of times before she left. We made a game of throwing the small wooden blocks into (or behind, really) the bucket with the balls in it, he carried around the dog and tractor, we made scrambled eggs together, after which August had fun crushing the egg shells in the sink, we started using the transportation sticker book, and we Skyped with Cherie, who showed August some of his favorite toys from Centralia, including the wooden spoons and forks.

About 9 we headed out. We first went to the zoo. We started at the children’s zoo, where he focused on the horses and goats today. Then through the tropical animals, where he got close to the gibbon (calling it a baboon) and watched a cockatoo taking a bath in the hose as a zookeeper washed the floor. From there we went quickly through the lizards, etc. and over to the water birds. 

In all three places, he had been fine walking around on his own until someone else came around, after which he wanted me to pick him up. Here he was up close with both a black and white swan, but when a man came through with a child, August was done and wanted to go.

So we went and saw the real baboons. We spotted the baby, and it was climbing up the fence, so August started saying ‘climb’. August was getting tired, and letting me know he was done. So we went and saw the big cats for just a couple minutes (they were all sleeping, so not really entertaining to August, but pretty amazing that a lion is sleeping two feet from you) and then found a bench and had a snack. I then put him in the backpack without fuss and started walking to Dream Cafe and he fell asleep.

At the cafe, I set up outside, since I’ve found the noise of the espresso machine wakes him up indoors. They don’t have the umbrellas over the outside tables (due to wind, I assume), so I put a chair under the big overhang. I was reading when it started to rain. And boy did it start to rain. Carly said her students thought it was the end of the world. It was a solid downpour for about 20 minutes. We were a few feet from the edge of the roof, but were still getting wet. I ended up having to drag the backpack about 3 feet over to the side of the building, and then stand between August and the rain in order to keep him from getting really wet. Still, he ended up pretty damp, but slept through it, for a nice 85 minute nap. Got some good reading done on The Sheltering Sky when I wasn’t enjoying the downpour.

When he woke up he needed to be changed (he had leaked). So we went and changed him, then found a garbage can so he could throw away the diaper. We found a covered picnic table and ate lunch, then went to the children’s museum.

We spent a good two and a half hours at the children’s museum. All of it playing, except for changing him at the end. Most in the infant room. He was really into carrying an object around the entire time he was there: first the blue fish, then a teddy bear, then this weird squishy stuffed…thing. He played with the wooden tree construction set (for lack of a better description) for a long time, rode (and I pushed him around on) the ladybug push car (while holding the squishy thing), and just sat in a couple of spots. And he did a lot of organizing, putting things away in the low-ceilinged room, primarily, but also the push car things. He also did better on the trampoline, although he didn’t stay on for a long time.

Around 3 he started to say he was hungry, but it took us a long time to leave. We left the infant area, but then he wanted to go in the book area. We played for quite awhile in there before changing him and leaving close to 4.

Outside, we stopped at a bench for a snack. He got up on it and was basically running from one end to the other. Acting a little fearless. He ate his snack, then we walked towards the exit via the swampy area. As we started to go through it, he started saying ‘gaegul, gaegul’ and pointing, looking for frogs again. I don’t actually think we’ve seen frogs in the wild, so very interesting that he so clearly understands what frog terrain looks like.

We made it to Hagye station, then walked to Home Plus, where we managed to buy string cheese, parmesan cheese, and (finally) teriyaki sauce (hidden in plain sight). August was happy because he got his ‘samples’: sausage and cantaloupe.

We came home a few minutes before Carly at 5, and by 7 he was asleep. In between he ate spaghetti for dinner and played a lot on the bed. He lounged against Carly’s pillow and proclaimed ‘comfy’. He also created a new game of dropping objects through the hole in his stool and saying ‘uh-oh’.

Something he’s been doing lately is saying the names of people he knows and giving them objects. He’s doing that more and more. Today it was things like ‘baby’s apple, gramma’s car, tia’s shoes’. But he also did a couple really silly ones, like ‘banana’s shoes’.

One other thing I noticed was his tone has changed when he’s calling for me or Carly. Before it was more of a ‘mama!’ when he didn’t know where she was, as if he was actually saying ‘I want mama!’ Today, when he was lounging on the pillow on the bed, he turned his head towards the door and said ‘mama?’, as if to say ‘I know you’re here, but where are you?’ He later had this same tone when calling to me.

New words: sticker, people, goat, goat poop, climbing (baby baboon), kids, ah-ge (baby), shinbal (shoes in korean), zoo, animals, zebra, comfy, Kindle. Also working on lemur, fox

 

Pointing at the horses: 

Pointing at the gibbon: 

With the swans: 

His nap: 

Tweety: 

Children’s museum: 

Putting things away: 

Squishy thing in hand while he rides around: 

Sitting:

Speeding on the bench: 

One way: 

Back the other: 

On the bed at home: 

In the morning we made a smoothie, Skyped with my parents, left video messages for Tia and Oma, and played with his Cheerio book (where you use actual Cheerios to complete the pictures). 

We then left for Sinnaedong Park, two stops south and east of us. We’ve been there a couple times before, most recently on May 20th (http://thisisourblog.net/thisisourblog/2015/5/20/wednesday-sinnae-park). 

We set up by the playgrounds but ended up ignoring them completely. We ended up playing with a set of drinking fountains for awhile, then went over by the floor fountain and snacked and played (he was really into climbing on the bench) and used the hose. 

We then walked up to where we had seen the tadpoles to look for frogs. No luck, but August was chanting ‘Gaegul, Gaegul’ and as we walked back along the stream he would point and say ‘gaegul’ or ‘lizard’. 

We went back to the fountain and watched them turn it on and work on cleaning it out. After ten minutes or so it was still spraying full strength and August was telling me he was tired and done so we left. 

I held him so he wouldn’t just fall asleep in the backpack. This worked. He actually say by himself a bit on the subway, and I kept him awake until we were right across the street from home and he fell asleep in my arms. Less than 5 minutes later I had him laying on the bed asleep. This is only the second time since we’ve been back that I’ve gotten him to take a nap in bed. 

He slept for nearly two hours. I had left the door open because I didn’t want him to be hot, so when he woke up he just climbed off the bed and came out to me. He almost immediately wanted to play by the sink. While there he made a pretend smoothie by filling empty milk cartons and pouring them in the blender, putting on the lid and making a ‘grrrrr’ noise. He also used the sponge to clean a bowl and the counter. 

We then went out to the park (after a quick walk through of the grocery store for teriyaki sauce). He was clingy for the first 25 minutes. Got down a little at the dinosaurs and near them, but wouldn’t walk anywhere. We went over by the fountain by the stage and played there for about an hour. Mainly with the tennis ball. Throwing it back and forth, him throwing it in the bushes so I have to get it (this has been a game for quite awhile), and throwing it under a banner, which he would then go under, retrieve the ball, come back, and repeat the process. 

While there, I met a woman, Eun He, who had a 5 year old and 23 month old. 

Carly found us there on her way home and we went home together. 

In the evening he ate a lot of spaghetti (and sauce and veggies from a spoon), I made a game of ‘throwing’ him around the bed while singing ‘baa baa’, we played on the piano (and I started to use his fingers a bit), we found out you can request Siri to play sounds, so we had fun with that, he took an awkward roll off the couch, I piled blocks on him while he lay on the floor, and he got to skype with Tia and Colin. All that and he fell asleep a little before 9. 

Park: 

Looking for frogs (gaeguli):

Watching the fountain: 

After his nap: 

In the park: 

Evening: 

August woke up right at 8, as I was about to put the banana bread dough into the rice cooker. So I got him up and we finished the banana bread. While it baked, he was playing with a set of tongs in the living room. Suddenly, he walked into the kitchen, opened the correct drawer, and put the tongs away. He also tried eating Cheerios with my spoon. He did pretty well, although a lot of milk ended up on the floor. 

A little before 10 we headed to the water park by the stadium. We found a shady spot by a fence and set up our backpack and Pororo mat. We went and walked around the pools a couple times, and I would wade in the shallow one while holding him, but he wasn’t interested in getting in himself. In fact, he was being pretty clingy for much of the day, not wanting to walk anywhere and wanting me to hold him instead. So mainly what we did was eat (sandwich, Larabar, some banana bread), play with the water fountains, watch people use the air compressors, and play around the backpack. At one point he was chanting “hey mamamama.”

We lasted a couple hours, then he said ‘bye bye’ ’sleepy’ ‘all done’ and started to wave. We packed up, but I took him back to the water one more time. This time, I was able to set him down on the edge and get him to wade up to his knees for a few seconds. And then he was done.

He fell asleep as soon as we started crossing the street. I found a nice shaded bench with a wonderful breeze outside the women’s business center. He napped and I read. Very nice, except for the ants crawling up my legs and the woman that came and told me it was too hot for my baby and insisted I take him inside. It was, by the way, only in the 80s. I did not take him inside.

He slept for more than 70 minutes – actually the longest nap he’s taken with me since we got back. We then went into the cafe and got a strawberry smoothie. We sat at a table and shared it. The women came and gave him some free shortbread cookies. I let him eat most of one.

We headed home, now past 2. On the way home I got him to walk half the long block from the stream to Brownstone. He did most of it by doing the tree touching game. So that was a cool first.

We hung out at home for awhile then went to Home Plus for a few things, including grapes. We stopped by the fountain on the far side of the park and he ate a bunch of grapes. We haven’t drawn a lot of attention since we came back, but suddenly there were all sorts of people trying to talk to and touch him.

We got home a little before Carly. When she got home, he had taken some of his pajamas and was using them to wipe the floor. 

Glecy called awhile later and they had a good Skype call. August was very excited, and bouncing all over. After the call he was very hyper on the bed.

In fact, he hit Carly in the face, thinking it was funny. He clearly had energy to burn and was trying out arm swinging motions, as he kept swinging his arms around in circles after that as he played on the bed. But I was also starting to see hints of angry hitting today: once when I closed a cabinet and he got upset, once when I put him in the backpack and he kind of did an angry clap of his hands, and then once at the water park when I put something away in the backpack and he hit the backpack as I closed it. Minor so far, but an interesting development.

New words: glasses, crane (at the construction site), mist, carrot, iPad, magie (iPhone), grater (‘I’ll kee kee’ for some reason), turtle, bump (bumps outside the elevators), stumble (after he actually stumbled and I said something. I knew he knew what it means, because he will pretend to stumble when he says it), Andi (Andrea’s photo),working on ‘home’ (says it really well, with a big ‘o’ sound, but not sure he understands what it means) and ‘circle’ and ‘Africa’ (with Glecy)

Water park: 

He was making a ‘ssssss’ noise while doing this, although I don’t know if he was during the video: 

Sandwich boy: 

Watching me use the air compressor from a safe distance: 

My favorite shirt of the day. It says ‘Where and directed by Woody Allen’: 

The water area: 

Close: 

In: 

Nap: 

Smoothie: 

Walking home. He is distracted by the cicadas getting loud at the end: 

After Home Plus:

Greeting Carly: 

Skyping with Glecy: