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August’s minor cough continued. I’d say that he is otherwise back to normal, but he took a really long nap and had difficulty waking up, and then fell asleep again at Derek and Jill’s. He then had a somewhat difficult time the rest of the evening before finally going to sleep. 

I don’t think I mentioned yesterday that he has suddenly developed a shriek. It started yesterday and continued today. So we are working on having him sign ‘please’ and find other ways to communicate besides shrieking at us. We will see how that goes. 

Anyway, a bit after 10 we went for a walk first to Home Plus and then north into Nowon. Carly was looking for some storage bins for organizing supplies at school. She had success at Daiso where we also bought a new Avent straw cup for August. We then went to Starbucks and hung out for quite awhile. Not the Starbucks on the way to Nowon, or the Starbucks just east of the Lotte Department Store (the Starbucks where I first changed August on my own outside the house when we walked up there with my parents). No, this was the newest Starbucks just across the street from the department store to the west. Sometimes we feel right at home in this city…

While Carly and August were exploring another part of Starbucks (August apparently liked climbing in and out of the chairs), an elementary school girl across from us said hi and asked if we lived in Brownstone. I thought she looked familiar; I think we rode the elevator with her just a day or two ago. Her name is Jessica and I think her mom was happy for her to practice her English as she kept encouraging her to ask me questions. 

We headed home and August took quite awhile to fall asleep. Carly ended up taking a nap with him and they didn’t wake up until after 3:30. When they woke up I went down to Baskin Robbins and got the ice cream cake we were taking for dessert. We then finished getting ready and took a cab to go to dinner at Derek and Jill’s. 

August was having a rough wake up so it took him some time to be happy there. A few minutes playing with Logan’s toys brought him around. They also exchanged gifts. We gave Logan the caterpillar puzzle I bought at the DDP and they gave August and awesome set of Pororo magnets. 

August and Logan still did interact a ton, but it was definitely much more than in the past. They apparently also had their first argument – over a puzzle – that Carly had to mediate. But mainly their interactions involved playing with something at the same time, or Logan taking something away from August. 

We ate some great lasagna and then fit in dessert as August started to meltdown after 2 hours. We walked home in a very comfortable dusk. August stayed awake until close to 9.

Oh, and August has two more teeth poking through. Making a total of 13. One is coming in in the gap between two of his top teeth. So haven’t figured out which tooth is which, and it looks like he’ll be in need of some dental work, if baby teeth are any indication. 

Today I realized that since August can day cheese I could having say it and take his photo. It worked: 

First, an update on words and whatnot: In the last few days he has developed a word for broccoli (that sort of sounds like broccoli) and SpongeBob. The latter basically sounds like ‘baa’ or ‘ball’, but he is clearly referring to his SpongeBob backpack. And today tooth number 11 started to break through. He now has all 8 front teeth, a pair of molars on his left, and now a molar in the bottom right. And I had him play a few minutes of Endless Alphabet today and it is clear that he is starting to catch on and knows to match the letters. And his ability to move the letters around is much more precise than it was a couple weeks ago. 

August developed a bit of a cough last night that mainly affects him when lying down – so when he is sleeping or on the changing pad. Actually a bit scary when he coughs while sleeping because it sounds like he is choking at first. Hopefully this is just the conclusion of his throat issue and not the start of something new. 

August woke up early, and Carly was going in to work late, so they got to hang out together in the morning and talk to Cherie and Vivian about Vivian’s new brother, aka Floppy Phil. 

He spent a lot of time this morning playing with his fruit and veggies. For a couple days now he has been able to get off the couch pretty easily without grabbing on to the arm of the couch or my leg. He is also taking one or two steps more often. 

We had his government-provided well-child checkup at a doctor over at eMart. August and I walked over and met Carly and Atsuko there. We went early so we had time to use the swings at a new park and then get some photos printed for his photo wall and do some shopping (looking for headphones for August for the plane ride in June). 

His checkup was at noon and went pretty quickly. It was mostly based on the questionnaire we filled out in advance. She noted his cough and asked if we wanted medicine… They really like medicines here in Korea. 

Atsuko gave Carly a ride back to work. August had fallen asleep right after the appointment so I started walking. The idea was to find the pedestrian overpass to the closest subway station and head to Itaewon, but the route I chose was a dead end. Would have required a lot of extra walking to get to a subway so we headed home instead. 

August only took a 30 minute nap and woke up as we walked through an apartment complex. He saw a playground so we went on the swings again (slides were still too wet). 

Back home we had lunch – he ate a good amount of my sandwich. In the afternoon we went to Home Plus and did our grocery shopping. We stopped at the dinosaur park on the way home. We played on the slide and August had fun meeting two women there with their two granddaughters. He interacted a lot with the baby who was a few months younger than him, talking to her and her grandmother a lot and touching her nose and chin. 

Carly showed up and we came home. He was tired, but we managed to keep him up until 7. He didn’t really eat dinner, but didn’t seem too interested. 

The day started out smoothly. August slept in, we learned that Cassie had given birth to a new cousin, he ate a good breakfast that included his last full dose of antibiotics, he played with his bucket of fruits and vegetables for the first time, and we Skyped with my parents. 

But after that I realized that the small rash August had on his stomach now covered his chest, right arm, and neck. 

Long story short, after August took a 45 minute nap and ate a good lunch (salmon, broccoli, and and cheese), I took him down to the doctor for his planned follow up. Turns out is just a usual case of exantheun subitum aka Roseola (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseola). And his throat is all better. So, no more medicine and the rash should go away in a day or two. 

After that, we headed out for a walk. I had planned to walk over by APIS, but we were running late and the rain seemed to be showing up earlier than forecast. It was windy and raining as we crossed the bridge and were on the other side. I could handle wind OR heavy rain, but the wind turned out umbrella inside out once and I didn’t fancy having that happen again if it started pouring and we were a long way from home. 

So we turned back, went across the river, and walked up the river then the stream to the playground with the swings. We went on the swings for awhile (the slide was too wet). August was facing in in the carrier so that was new. 

I really expected him to take a second nap but he never did. I thought he was going to fall back asleep after his lunch and then, in the carrier, he put down his head several times but never fell asleep. 

Carly got home around 5, having walked home in the rain. He didn’t eat much dinner, but overall he ate and drank more today than he had in quite some time. He made it a bit past 6:30 before falling asleep. 

 

How August was sleeping this morning: 

Fruits and veggies: 

His rash: 

Tired after his nap, but not going back to sleep: 

Liking the rain on the umbrella: 

Spring: 

 

August went the entire day without a fever and, especially come the afternoon, looked a lot like his usual self. 

It wasn’t entirely clear sailing. He woke up in the middle of the night, crying and in discomfort, much like how he was acting when we took him to the hospital. But eventually he went back to sleep. He cried out a few times after that, but slept through the rest of the night. 

In the morning he was acting pretty normal, but ate and drank almost nothing. 

Then, around 11 he fell asleep for a nap. 28 minutes later he woke up but clearly needed more sleep. I got him to sleep on my shoulder, but he woke up as soon as I set him down. So then a miracle happened: I got him back to sleep while he was lying down. That hasn’t happened in…months. 

He woke up 30 minutes later again. I assumed that was it for his nap, but he immediately put his head down on my shoulder and fell back to sleep. I knew he would wake up if I tried to set him down, so I carried him out to the couch and held him for the next 70+ minutes while he slept. I got some good YouTube video viewing done.

When he woke up he seemed back to his old self. I let him watch one of his videos while I checked his temperature and now it was down close to 36. I have him a bath; he wasn’t too happy, but it wasn’t horrible. 

And then he has his appetite back. He drank and ate more than he has consumed at a single sitting for over a week. His lunch consisted of broccoli, tofu, peanut butter, and refried beans. He made a nice mess, so he got washed off a second time while I held him over the sink. 

He then ate a good chunk of my peanut butter sandwich before we headed outside for awhile. 

We went to two playgrounds over by the stream: one at an apartment complex and our usual one by the children’s center. They were both pretty busy but August got to play on a slide at each and spent most of his time watching bigger kids playing. 

We went home and Carly came home soon after. I went to PT and then two of them went to the grocery store to get apples. Carly made apple sauce and, what do you know, August loved it and ate a full dose of the antibiotics mixed into it. 

August made some progress today. He woke up at 4:30 and Carly have him more of the fever medicine at 5. After that his temperature stayed between 37.0 and 37.2 the entire day. So no more suppositories for August, at least today. 

He slept an hour in the (still) early morning, but after that he only took a single 39 minute nap the entire day and stayed up past 9. 

Not much luck getting the antibiotics into him. The most I managed to get into him was mixed with milk while he was asleep. But even that only worked a bit. Awake, he basically refused to drink more than a few sips all day. 

He started to put a lid on his head and I realized he knew what ‘head’ meant and that I could tell him to put something on his head and he could do it. Also, he can point at or get a surprising number of things, like his drum, xylophone, crayon, and blender parts. 

And we watched a video that Glecy sent us of an orchestra. Early on there is someone playing a xylophone. When August saw it he said ‘baabaa’ since I always play “Baa Baa Black Sheep’ for him on the xylophone. 

Had to return to the doctor and pharmacist today as I left the antibiotic on the table last night. Went smoothly but was surprised when the doctor did a full reexamination. 

In the afternoon I took him out for a short walk outside (just to the park because he spotted some pigeons from across the street) and then we walked around inside the pink building, mainly looking at furniture, and through Brownstone. 

Carly had her culture club but got home a little after 5 as someone gave her a ride home. 

I went for a little walk in the evening but shorter today as I had at least managed to get out for a bit earlier. 

He was doing well when he woke up this morning after sleeping 12 hours. And he didn’t have a fever in the morning. But around 9 he started to act tired and have a fever. He took 3 short naps through the day and after his last one, around 6:15pm, it had shot to 39 degrees (102.2). 

Luckily, our doctor is 6 floors down, cheap, open until 6:30, and was actually there until well past 7. And the pharmacy is right next door. 

Long story short, they tested for influenza, negative. His throat is swollen, red, etc. so her next guess is tonsillitis or the like. She prescribed antibiotics and, since we haven’t been able to really get him to take the liquid Tylenol or ibuprofen for his fever, a suppository. 

We managed to give him the suppository and get him to bed. Hopefully he will feel better in the morning and I can work on getting him to take the antibiotics (and probiotics) in the morning…

During the day we spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch or with him in my shoulder while we listened to music. I only got him to take two naps – 25 and 38 minutes – but he seemed ready to fall asleep much of the day.

That aside, he did have one big accomplishment today: he started saying ‘knee’ and pointing to his and my knee. He did this without prompting this morning. We have been working on knee, elbow, and shoulders. He will say ‘bow’ and point to my elbow when prompted. 

After Carly got home she let me how for a little walk to get out in the sun since it was close to 70. I feel bad that August once again didn’t get to go outside. Anyway, it was during my walk that he fell asleep for the third short nap. He had just woken up when I got home and that was when we realized his temperature had jumped. 

Relaxed last day of spring break

Carly goes back to work tomorrow. So that was one reason for taking it easy. But the main reason was that August developed a fever again today. It peaked midday a bit over 38 degrees before settling down a bit. But August was clearly off. He slept well last night but took a surprise 2 hour nap this morning. After that we cancelled our dinner plans with Derek and Jill – definitely don’t want to get Logan sick. 

We Skyped with my parents. August spent most of the time sitting in the arm chair and playing with Pooh and SpongeBob and saying funny things like ‘tasty’. 

August took a second nap and woke up feeling better. So in the afternoon we took an easy walk towards the east. On the way back we took a break at a playground in the apartments south of Home Plus where August and I had played before. He went down the flat slide a few times, cruised over to the wavy slide and went down that, rode the bulldozer thing with Carly, and then played with the elliptical machine. 

We headed home and I wanted to do a little more walking so went down by the stream. While I was gone August took a third nap. It was a short one though as he woke up a few minutes after I got home. 

Carly made soup and marinated tofu and August did pretty well in the evening but still had a fever. He went to sleep at a good time but woke up several times and at one point needed to be sung back to sleep. Hopefully he will sleep pretty soundly and Carly can get a good night of sleep. 

August also really liked when we spun the crayons on the floor. And I got to witness one of his huge throw ups this morning when Carly tried to give him some medicine. We really need to figure out a way to get him to take it. 

Oh, and he is regularly using the signs for both ‘nurse’ and ‘more’. The latter he used very clearly and without prompting when he wanted to go down the slide and when he wanted us to spin the crayons again. 

Lovely weather today, so after August took a short nap this morning we took the department store gift certificate and a gift card we had and hopped the train headed north. We went to a small city just north of Seoul called Uijeongbu. August and I had been there twice before: the first time in the rain only to find the department store closed, and the second time where we looked around and played in the kid cafe there. I needed Carly with me to help pick stuff out through and I had picked up a map and guidebook to the city.

So this time we started by walking through some of the nice streets in the city’s downtown. It turns out there is a military base up there as there were a bunch of Koreans in uniform and a lot of American-looking foreigners as well. We ate lunch at Pizza Hut (August wasn’t too fond of sitting at the table, so we took turns walking him around – he liked looking out at the busy street below) and then shopped at the large ArtBox store they had there. The main shopping street was notable because it was a pedestrian street, had some lovely trees down the middle, and had sculptures dotted throughout.

August was getting tired so we headed to the department store as we wanted to change him before he fell asleep. Carly nursed and changed him and he fell asleep. That allowed us to do our shopping. We could have walked away with hundreds of dollars of cool toys, but alas our certificates weren’t for that much. We did pretty well though, getting a Pororo figure, a container of plastic fruits and vegetables, a set of blocks, and one of those square wooden activity things with moving parts on every side and wire loopy things out the top.

He was still asleep so we went and sat in a coffee shop called Carpe Diem in the train station and read. Not a busy place, but horrible acoustics. When a large group came in it got incredibly loud. We did okay, but it was funny to exit out into the busy subway station and be happy about how quiet it was.

Came home and opened the last toy, only to find it is missing one of the four blocks that go with it. Not major, but it was the nicest and most expensive toy we got. So August and I will probably head back up there sometime this week. Ugh.

We then walked to Home Plus to do some grocery shopping: food for dinners and also a new blender as our old one died a few months back.

August only slept 9 (or less) hours and took a short/average nap this afternoon, so today was the earliest he’s fallen asleep all week: 8:15ish.

Morning: 

Uijeongbu: 

Walking home from Home Plus: 

Evening: 

Everyone was pretty much back to normal today and we were able to head out on an adventure and enjoy the nice weather after Carly and August did some Skyping this morning. 

We headed to Children’s Grand Park, which had two clear highlights: August going down the slide with Carly and the zoo reopening.

We played in the infant room the entire time we were at the museum. Carly and August went down the slide together 5 or 6 times. He also played with all of his usual favorite toys. 

He then fell asleep – we thought – while nursing, but woke up when I put him in the carrier. Usually he falls back to sleep right away, but this time he didn’t he stayed awake as we walked through the park, into the amusement park, and. Got lunch at Popeye’s. We sat outside in the sun and August had fun watching the train ride and other rides in the amusement park. 

We did some more walking, expecting him to fall asleep, but still no luck. We were surprised to find that the zoo was once again open, although the ‘dangerous animals’ area was still closed, presumably because it was the sight of the lion attack. But we could stand on a bench and see the elephants as they were out of their really depressing winter enclosure and in their only generally depressing outdoor enclosure. 

More walking and we got to the coffee shop at the top of the old clubhouse (the park used to be a golf course, going back to occupation days). Got our drinks, sat out on the deck, more nursing, and he still wasn’t sleeping. It had been more than 7 hours and he had only slept 9 hours the previous night. So I put him in the carrier and started walking around the abandoned side of the building, and after several songs and about 15 minutes he finally fell asleep. He slept for an hour and Carly and I were able to read. 

I continued reading a book the cafe has on their shelves called The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. My idea is that each week when I go to the park with August I will make sure we are there for his nap. I can sit on the deck and work my way through their English shelf as they had a few books worth reading. They are about the only paper books I read nowadays. Kind of a book group of one. 

He woke up (a bit too early as he was he was really sad when we changed him) and headed home. From the subway station we headed to Home Plus to do some grocery shopping. 

Not much to report after that. August ‘helped’ with the laundry by taking the clothes out of the hamper and dropping/throwing the clothes in the direction away from me. When I was done with the clothes he then insisted on me holding him up so he could pull off some of the socks and diapers so he could drop them on the floor. He then wanted back down on the floor where he spent a few minutes ‘hanging’ the same clothes on the lower bars – although most ended up on the floor below. 

Children’s museum with mama:

Saying ‘tasty’ and ‘eeee’: 

Looking over the fence at the elephants: 

Back home. Helping with the laundry: 

He woke up about 7 – another pretty short night. He took his first of three naps sometime later when he fell asleep on my shoulder. He had a fever and, which climbed to 38.9, and wasn’t happy so we postponed his 12 month well-child checkup and took him to his normal doctor around 11 because a.) we had questions about fever reducers (he had thrown up the children’s Tylenol) and b.) the consultation cost 2 bucks. 

His problem today seemed to be a combination of maybe a fever from the vaccinations yesterday combined with teething: he definitely has two teeth about to come in, and by the end of the day the missing bottom front tooth seemed to be cutting through. 

After that he took a two and half hour nap. On Carly on the couch. When he woke up he was doing better and his fever was down. 

In the afternoon he fell asleep for a third nap and Carly let me go for a walk. When I came back he was wide awake and pretty much back to being himself. A highlight of the evening was Carly opening the ‘magic’ bubbles that his teacher gave him for his birthday and using them for the first time. 

He had difficulty going to sleep though so he and I were up until about 10:30 again until I took him into Carly and he fell asleep with her. 

He started saying ‘knee’ pretty clearly in the evening and is all about standing up for a few minutes at a time.