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Wow. August slept 13 and a half hours, until close to 11. 

I had made banana bread in the morning, so after he ate banana bread, grapes, and some cherries for a meal (brunch, I guess) we finally made it out of the house. We took two cars down to Beebe Springs Wildlife Area. 

By the time we got down there it was 3 hours after he woke up and he soon fell asleep. Rather surprising given the circumstances. We walked around, seeing the new pond they made. Walking back we found the path turned to a stream thanks to the beaver pond. We waded through and kept going. As we walked through the north end of the park (which we hadn’t done before), August woke up. 

We went to a little beach area and went wading. August had fun throwing mud and rocks – particularly at Carly’s legs. 

My parents and Paul left before us to go to the store. We left a bit later. We first stopped at Walmart to get sun screens to put in the windows of the car to keep the sun out of August’s face in the car seat. We then went downtown and made a stop at Bear Foods to buy tea and then at Safeway to get salad stuff. 

We went home and had salmon and salad for dinner. August ate salmon, asparagus, and artichoke. 

He stayed awake until 9:30. Late in the evening he had fun playing in the pool outside. He was dumping water out of the cups and bottles and much of it was going down his front. He was very soaked by the time he was done. 

He is saying ‘Paul’ now. And he got to pet Celeste and touch her nose when my dad held her. 

Waking up enough to see a stream: 

Throwing mud and growling: 

He has practiced with one of these tins back in Korea: 

Peek-a-boo using his water: 

Asking for help: 

Watching the fan: 

Still working on August’s jet lag. Carly was up with him until he fell asleep at 1:30. She stayed up even later chatting with Glecy in Barcelona. 

So I had a few hours in the morning to myself. I went for a walk by myself and listened to some podcasts. 

The woke up a little before 10 and Skyped with Cassie. In the morning my mom and I took August on a little walk around the neighborhood. He also discovered the little shovel (but big for him) that is used for the fireplace and played with that a lot through the day. 

My mom and I also walked up to the Habitat for Humanity store to drop off some bags. We came back with some random toys and a few books for August. 

August took one long (one hour 45 minutes) nap. 

After his nap Mom, Carly, and I took August for a walk into town while Dad worked on the boat. We first stopped to look at the new chamber of commerce, which is really impressive. August enjoyed exploring the video and walked around with a brochure. 

From there we walked to the city park. He played at the playground, then in the puddles from a sprinkler. We walked down to see the beach area and August was upset we wouldn’t let him get in the water. 

We went back up the hill where we sat at a picnic table and he ate and nursed. While eating he would drop a lid on the grass and I would tickle him. One time he threw the kid and took a dive off my lap. Luckily, I kind of caught him and it wasn’t a big crash. He played in the puddles again and nursed then we walked back through town. 

We stopped at the grocery stores and managed to get ripe bananas at Safeway for banana bread. 

We then went to the farmers market. Carly bought a couple bags of cherries. August and I listened to the musician – a guy playing keyboard and singing – and August enjoyed putting two dollar bills in his tip jar. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t keep going after the two bills. The musician was playing a slow cover of “1979” by the Smashing Pumpkins as we left. 

We got home and had meatballs, asparagus, and rice for dinner. August sat in the high chair at the table with us for the first time and ate a lot. 

After dinner we managed to keep him awake until close to 9:30. The last 40 minutes or so were a walkabout I did with him outside. He kept wanting to go outside the yard again but I didn’t have shoes on. He likes his walks. We explored the garage and played in the water again. 

Walk around the neighborhood: 

Long hair: 

Walk through town: 

Getting photo bombed while wearing his new Reading Rainbow shirt:

Bear statue: 

Back home: 

Momentarily upset: 

Back to playing: 

It was a fun first full day in Chelan. He has so many things to explore and play with here. 

The big thing this morning was the blow up pool. 

Sprinklers were also big. He got a little wet with me in the sprinkler here in the yard after playing in his pool. Later, out at 25 Mile Creek, he and Carly got even wetter. Finally, he went through the sprinkler with me at the Alpenhorn. 

Anyway, after his nap, all of us, Paul included, drove out to 25 Mile Creek State Park. He got to see a bunch of butterfly, went wading in the water, threw a bunch of rocks in the lake and the creek, saw some ducks, played in a faucet, and we walked around the park and out on the piers. 

We were there until about 5, then stopped at the Alpenhorn drive-in our the way back to town. We got dinner and milkshakes, and mom commenced spoiling August by feeding him marshmallow milkshake. August practiced walking up and down a small ramp area, and we met a 6 or 7 year old boy who thought August’s dinosaur shirt was weird because the dinosaur wasn’t realistic. He kept looking at the shirt and going ‘Huh?’ I asked if he knew a lot about dinosaurs, and he said he was almost a dinosaur scientist. 

We drove back to town, and we went to Safeway for a few things. August was getting tired and starting to get impatient. When we got home he and Carly both fell asleep for a couple hours. 

He woke up at 9:45 and is still awake. I’ve been up since 6:30 so am going to bed. Carly at least slept in with him and took that two hour nap. Still, we will want to nudge him towards a normal schedule. 

 

Wading pool: 

Playing with Grampa’s tools: 

High chair: 

Doing pretty well on the drive to 25 Mile Creek: 

25 Mile Creek: 

Alpenhorn Drive-In: 

Evening: 

Augudt woke up after a couple hours and was awake until a little after 2am. Carly was up with him, and Chuck and Cherie were up with them for awhile. I slept until I heard him crying at 2 and took over August duty, only to have him fall asleep after about 5 minutes. So I stayed up for awhile, drinking my tea, reading, and writing email. 

August and Carly finally woke up at 10. We ate, packed, and I did a walkabout the house and yard with August before Cherie got home. She returned around noon with the keys to Glecy’s apartment (which had been left in Chuck’s car) and played with August out in the driveway. 

We drove first to the Tacoma Mall. August had fallen asleep, so Carly stayed with him while I went in to the T-Mobile store and activated our phones. I went back out to find them both asleep. I went back in to the Apple Store to see about getting my phone battery changed, but they didn’t have an appointment until 4. I went back out and they were now awake. We went back to the Apple Store so Carly could try out the laptops, then Carly changed August and we headed out. 

We stopped twice more on the drive. Once along highway 18 so she could nurse him and at Arby’s in Wenatchee for dinner. He fell asleep after leaving Wenatchee and slept until Chelan. 

He woke up slowly in Chelan, but perked up when he saw toys. He played in the living room then we all went out to see the wonderful new deck. Dad had left a pile of sand for him to play in, and August was soon scooping sand into a bucket. 

He went surprisingly strong until sometime after 10 before falling asleep. 

I have set up my Apple Watch and we set up our beds and everything. A lot of settling in to do. 

August seemed to know and say the word ‘grass’, which surprised me as we haven’t seen much grass in Seoul. Carly and my mom were also surprised to hear him reciting the last word of each line of “Old King Cole”, which he has been doing for a week or two when we read the book. 

Some unhappy times in the car seat today, but overall he did really well. Much, much better than we feared. Don’t think we will have to limit our driving. 

 

Awake at 2am: 

Skyping with Tia: 

 

The flight went smoothly. He was the quietest baby (out of 3) in our part of the plane. We got two bulkhead seats together in the center. The woman to or left managed to move to a different empty seat, so we got a free third seat. August liked all the new foods – I gave him cranberries for the first time in the airport, then on the plane he had a broccoli/cheese thing and an apple sauce/something mixture. And then he gulped down a good chunk of Carly’s beef and pasta and vegetables dinner. He slept for 8 hours. All on Carly. 

We got off the flight, got our luggage (with a little delay as the conveyor belt got stuck – but that gave us time to change him and me, as he leaked on me when Carly went to the bathroom) and were greeted by Chuck and Cherie. 

Some difficulty and crying getting August in the car seat until Carly figured out how to adjust the straps, but after that he did surprisingly well, although Carly did a lot to entertain him as we went. 

We made one stop to pick up the keys to Glecy’s apartment. I slept maybe 20 to 30 minutes along the way. 

We made it to Centralia. Surprisingly, August didn’t fall asleep in the car. He was excited by their house and went immediately to playing and interacting with them. 

The three of us went over to Steve and Claremay’s for about 45 minutes, where he had fun with them and the box of toys Claremay brought out, but we headed back when he fell asleep nursing. 

He fell asleep in the car, and then transferred easily out of the car and into bed. 

Boarding soon. Here’s the day so far… 

 

When he he woke up I found him on the other side of the door with a cup in hand: 

A little outing to stretch the legs: 

Watching a woman sweep: 

Trying out a broom: 

Ready to leave: 

On the bus: 

Playing around the airport: 

As we’re about to head to the airport and leave Seoul for awhile, I figured I’d post a video of August’s second year so far: 

Most of out day was dedicated to packing and cleaning. 

But despite that, August and I went out twice, and in the late afternoon we all went for a walk. 

On our first trip August and I just went to the grocery store to get a couple last items. Unfortunately, it isn’t the grocery store I usually buy diapers at and I ended up grabbing these liner things, not diapers. 

So awhile later we went out again. This time we first went and played in the stream/Rock area in the park, then went and saw the new show at the art museum. It is probably the best show yet for August. It includes three pieces by the same artist that had these plastic creatures that breathe in and out hanging over the stairwell when the museum first opened. I got August to start raising his arms when the creatures breathed in and extended their tentacles. 

Before returning home we stopped once again at the store and picked up diapers this time. 

In the late afternoon, packing pretty much done, we all went for a walk. First we went to the art museum so Carly could see some of the art. We then walked back to the west and across the stream and went to the playground by the youth center. 

We were there for about an hour. There was water under the grates this time due to a heavy rainstorm this morning. August had fun reaching his skinny arms down there and touching the water. He also did a lot of wandering around and threw a lot of leaves and little rocks into the water. As he walked around he usually held an object, be it his ball, a brochure he found, or something else. 

‘baby’ seems to be a word today, after we looked into the playroom at the museum and I said something about a baby we saw there. 

He walks around the apartment saying this over and over sometimes. He only says it once here, but you get the idea: 

Our second outing: 

Back home: 

Afternoon outing: 

August and I accompanied Carly out at 8:30 this morning, taking out the recycling. Instead of heading back inside, we spent the next 90 minutes exploring the area and the park. 

We started by walking around the building, then I let him decide where to go next. There are a couple of ‘baba’ lights (the red lights that turn on when a car is coming around the corner) in the parking lot of the pink building and we ended up there since the lot was empty. Usually, we couldn’t get too close to them. 

We then went across the street to the park. We went to the ‘mama’ statue and then to the fake stream area. We went in the empty stream area (boo, drought), and played with the rocks. We then went to the other end to the little bridge where he had thrown rocks before. We loaded up on rocks, and he found a discarded paper cup to play with. He played on the bridge, then eventually we moved on to the exercise equipment area, cup and a couple rocks still in hand. 

There he played with the exercise equipment. He even managed to climb up on his own on the one that swings side to side. 

From there we headed to the middle of the park and played in the faucets, then up and over the little walkway to the playground. Here he found a nice stick that he kept hitting on the ground. Here too we had our only negative feedback, from a woman on an exercise machine who was upset he wasn’t wearing shoes (most of our trip had been in vacant areas of the park, but we had seen three or four other women along the way who were just fine). 

We then walked around the north end of the park and came back to the playground, where we went on the swings for a few minutes. 

We got home at 9. We played Endless Alphabet and had a good laugh using our noses to move the letters around. He took an hour-long nap starting a little before noon. He woke up tired, however, and was still drowsing on my shoulder when Carly got home a little before 1. 

In the evening we all went for a walk up the stream. We tried to go to the new coffee place on the second floor across the stream, but it was closed. Instead, Carly got an iced latte at the cafe in the women’s business center, then we walked up to and around Madeul Stadium. We ended up at the water faucets. 

August had a blast playing in the water. We quickly stripped him down to his diaper. He played with his ball, a shovel, and Carly’s empty plastic coffee cup and straw. The only bad moment was when he walked around the large set of faucets and hit a slippery spot. His legs slid out from beneath him and he fell on his back. Scary, but he bounced back pretty quickly. 

He was getting tired on the way home, and fell asleep right at 7.

 

Morning exploring:  

Home: 

Evening walk: 

Discovering clouds for the first time: