This Is Our Blog

August pretty much back to normal today. Carly is close. 

We Skyped with my parents this morning and then August fell asleep for and early nap. 

After his nap we walked up to Nowon and looked for two possible kid cafes. Negative on both. We ran into one of the Korean teachers and her daughter near the top of the Lotte Department store and did some shopping in the basement. 

We then went to Daiso and bought a few things before heading home, stopping at Starbucks along the way to get a drink and feed August. There, we ran into a mother and a son from his class. 

We stopped at the dinosaur park on our way home and went on the swings and the slide. The first time he went down the slide he fell forward at the bottom but caught himself with his arms and didn’t hit his head. He kind of whimpered and needed to be held but didn’t cry. A minute later he was ready to get back on the slide. He started to use the ‘more’ sign on his own multiple times to let me know when he wanted to go on the slide again. 

He drew a bit of a crowd at the slide and interacted pretty well with a 15 month old. 

We went into out building and went to his doctor early. He didn’t have a temperature today so he got his shots. He really does not like them and fell asleep right afterwards. 

I then went to PT. I came home to find Carly making a lentil dish. August had fun eating it and started saying ‘tasty’ in imitation of Carly mocking the way I supposedly said it. 

He is now also doing a bunny noise, and I may have taught him the monkey ‘ooh ooh ooh’ noise. He did it several times this evening. We will see if it sticks. The same with ‘wawa’ for water and the sign for milk – both of which he seems to maybe be using regularly but maybe not. 

He went to sleep earlier (9 something) after dancing with me to 6 Hozier songs and then nursing a bit.

Lotte Department Store chairs: 

Starbucks chair: 

Meeting people on the slide:

Getting a shot: 

“Tasty”: 

In and out: 

 

August woke up a little before 7 – less than 8 hours of sleep. 

Carly said she now has a fever and thinks she has what August has, but said her stomach and headache were better. But awhile later she had to go take a nap. 

I got his tub out, filled it with a couple inches of water and let him play with it. Eventually I started getting his hair wet and he let me wash his hair. In fact, he was kind of zoning out and enjoying it. He let me take off his shirt and only started to whine a bit when I started washing his back. That was also when Carly came out.

A couple hours later she went and took a second nap. 

During this nap August surprised me by walking 15 steps. Later in the evening he  was doing more standing and walking a few steps at a time. Not far away now…

August fell asleep while I had him and he and Carly traded places, with her waking up. I then went to the pink building to pick up some pho and a couple groceries. 

When I got back he was still asleep but had woken up for ten minutes. 

He took a long nap and woke up a little after two. August and I then went for a walk and visited two parks he hadn’t yet played at: one behind Carly’s hospital and one east of that that looks like a pirate ship. 

At the second one he really got into using his hands to play with the sand for the first time. He just sat there dropping handful after handful of sand. We also went on the swing. 

We then came home and August played with Carly a lot. He seemed to not have much of a temperature today, but was feeling a bit warmer in the evening. Also, despite waking up a little after 2 he then stayed awake until about 10. Carly went to bed around 8 so it was a repeat of last night, although thankfully not so late. 

Morning: 

Playing with Carly’s socks: 

 

Playing in the tub:

On our park walk:

Playing with sand:

Vocal fun on the way home:

Back home. A conversation:

Playing Endless Alphabet with mama:

 

So today was a rocky start to Carly’s spring break. August continued to have a fever and it got worse in the afternoon. And Carly has a stomachache. 

August took an early nap, which was good, as he woke up just in time to make it to his class. Class was all about colors and, as usual (and actually worse than usual) he was shy at first. But he warned up and ended up having a lot of fun. 

Carly had to leave right at the end of class to head to APIS to work with the NHD students for a couple hours. August and I looked around Home Plus for awhile (the pet section is like a field trip for him) and got a couple things. We then played at the playground on the way home. 

August fell asleep again, but only slept 25 minutes. When he woke up he felt warmer and just cuddled on my shoulder in the rocking chair for 20 minutes until Carly got home. 

At 5 we took him down to the doctor. It was a scheduled appointment for his next set of shots, but turned into a consultation and shots were postponed until Wednesday if his fever goes down (they measured it at 101). 

He was pretty shaken by the appointment, and fell asleep again and slept a long time. In the evening we had a long Skype call with Vivian, Cassie, and Cherie. We thought he would be getting sleepy after that but the long and short of this is that he ended up staying awake until 11. I stayed up with him and Carly was able to get some sleep but isn’t feeling well herself. 

August is really into the long ‘e’ sound. In particular he was doing it with his new favorite book, the one about cats, and saying the end of ‘catastrophe’. 

Morning: 

Class: 

 

 

It was another mellow day. August has been sleeping longer at night, although more fitfully and he has a slight temperature; all probably because of teething. So this morning he and Carly were up from 4 to 5:30, then he slept until 6:30 when I got up. 

I made a scramble for breakfast and we Skyped with my parents. 

He then took a long nap in the middle of the day. So when we got out of the house we just went for a walk along the stream and river. The wind was blowing hard enough that it was bothering August, so I turned him to face in on our way back up the river. Before returning home we stopped in a park and sat on a bench so we could feed August. We then stopped for a few groceries at the pink building before returning home. 

I believe I forgot to say yesterday that ‘Oma’ is now an official word, as he was using it during the Skype call. 

Today he started saying ‘thee’, or more specifically the ‘eeee’ sound. 

I left at 4 to take a very long subway ride (35 stops, but only one transfer) to the other side of Seoul for a free concert. I had fun, and before the show started Skyped with Carly and August. He was very excited by that. 

 

Today was a nice start to Carly’s spring break. It started with a lot of skyping. I had a two hour books group meeting and Carly and August Skyped with the PA gang and then Glecy. 

Sometime later August fell asleep listening to Hozier, as usual. After his nap we went for a walk along the stream and then back east. Along the way we visited to playgrounds but August wasn’t quite right. It was a Goldilocks thing, as the third playground – the one we found last weekend – was just right. We spent a lot of time there, and he spent a good 20 minutes or so entertaining three teenage girls while he sat on the slide and played with the water bottle and performed all of his skills. 

We walked towards home and did our grocery shopping at Home Plus. Carly made stir fry and we ate dinner. August was getting really tired, but made it to 6:40 before falling asleep. 

I had never really heard August talk in his sleep, but just a little while ago he gave a full laugh while Carly and I were out in the kitchen with the door open. At first I thought he was awake and laughing at us, but he was clearly asleep. 

 

 

Today it hit about 70 again. We stayed at home until he took a nap and woke up at 12:15. We then headed to APIS by walking up the stream, across the river, past the dump, and up and over the hill and down to APIS. 

Along the way we saw a crane fishing on the river, watched a backhoe at work by the park (he made me stop twice when I started to leave so he could watch longer), watched a big drill as we went up a hill, and then played at a playground before going to APIS. 

We went to APIS and saw Carly and helped Atsuko fill out the questionnaire for his 12-month well-being checkup. We then walked across the street to two playgrounds (but NOT either of the two playgrounds we played at last time we were at APIS) and played. 

A little before 5 we met Carly and went to Doniburger and picked up dinner we then walked into Lotte Apartments for a meet-up of families at yet another playground. The play equipment at this playground was actually roped off for some reason, but August could still sit at the bottom of the slide. 

He was having a bit of a rough evening, having been awake for over 6 hours. He took awhile to recover from falling off the foot of the slide and then when he was admiring the big white dog (which he called baabaa) it barked once and that was enough. We left and walked awhile and he fell asleep it was really early (a bit after 6), so we will see what the morning brings. 

His accomplishment today was stacking four food containers. He has never really stacked anything more than two high. His success even stunned him, as he kind of stood there giggling to himself. Once he knocked it down and tried again he couldn’t really even get to two, so it was a bit of a fluke. 

He also was very helpful doing his laundry. He took a full basket and methodically put each item into the washing machine. Of course, when he was done he started doing the reverse so I had to stop him.

Morning:

Before his coffee: 

Doing his laundry: 

Giggling to himself: 

Trying again: 

Hitting the back of the couch: 

Taking a rest in what is becoming one of his favorite spots: 

With his favorite toy, the iron: 

On our adventure: 

Watching the backhoe: 

With the baabaa: 

Slides of the day:  

Slide 1: 

Slide 2: 

Slide 3: 

Slide 4: 

Asleep: 

His sleeping schedule was perfect (slept until 8:30, took an 80 minute nap in the carrier) and the temperature hit 70 so we had a wonderful time at Olympic Park. We played at two playgrounds, walked through a kids’ history museum, and sat on a bench in the trees while we napped/read. We also saw a lot of sculptures, walked along a stream, and scouted out three museums (art, photography, Olympics) for future adventures. And August got to be social with a whole lot of people. 

Developmentally, notable today were:

– starting to point things out. He has done this with his books for quite awhile, and a couple times he has pointed to things outside if I first prompt him, but today he started to do this on his own, starting with a pond and a crane (the bird kind). He then proceeded to do it several times during the rest of our trip. 

– spotting his first plane. There is almost no air travel over Seoul. He has seen a couple of helicopters when I have pointed them out, but you almost never see planes unless they are military. In fact, I took a photo a few days back of several contrails we saw as we walked to Home Plus. It was notable because I had never seen that. They were probably a result of the joint US/SK military exercises going on. Anyway, Olympic Park sits under the flight path to (I guess) the US base. As we ate our second lunch, August spotted a big cargo plane through the trees above us. He watched it and then had a quizzical look on his for a few seconds. 

– climbing up on benches. He has started climbing up on the couch at home just the last couple days. Today was the first time during our trips that he has climbed up on benches. 

– using the word ‘river’ as we crossed the Han and as we looked at a model in the history museum. He’s only used it (I think) to refer to the river near our house (albeit in two different locations).

– getting more confident/solid as he comes to the end of a slide. He can basically plant his feet on the ground, although he still has a tendency to topple forward if he is moving too fast.  

– finally, fingers crossed, but I think he is starting to pick up the signs for ‘more’ and ‘please’. And ‘Oma’ is sounding more like a word and being used more often. 

 

Waking up: 

Today’s outfit. It is a shirt I bought him at 826 Seattle last summer. You might remember the red onesie from 826 Seattle which I had purchased the previous year and given to Carly for her birthday: 

Getting his own seat on the subway. Growing up:

First playground: 

Lunch. Again, sitting on the bench like a big boy. I tried to stand him at it, but he insisted on climbing up, like he can do with the couch at home: 

Nap time: 

In the history museum, very excited about the deer baabaa: 

And here is where he really started pointing at things as we walked: 

At the second park. He pretty much had this big slide mastered. After this slightly rough landing at the bottom he started getting better at sticking the landings by landing on his feet. He still has a tendency to topple forward so I definitely need to be there to catch him each time, but he is absorbing much of the momentum:

He definitely didn’t like the fake grass where we stopped to eat second lunch. He probably gets that from Marshy: 

He lasted a couple minutes on it once food was brought out, but then climbed on my lap for the rest of the time: 

Then he saw himself on the camera and remembered he was wearing a hat he didn’t want to be wearing: 

And this is what happens when you tell him to stick out his tongue while he has food in his mouth: 

Finally, he spotted his first airplane today. This is pretty much what he saw, although his plane was a larger military cargo plane: 

It took a team effort to get August to sleep. He took an afternoon nap and his teeth are definitely bothering him. After a lot of music, chewing on my sleeve, and nursing with mama, he finally fell asleep around 10. 

Today he took an early morning nap after Skyping with Cherie and Vivian so we headed to Hyehwa after he woke up. It wasn’t raining yet, so first we went to see the show at the Arko Art Center (after looking at a photography exhibit in the station). We didn’t take too long as we will probably come back with Carly next week. 

We then walked around a bit and went to the Seoul Science Museum. It is shoeing some age, but was nice and empty when we got there and worked well for August. There were a lot of machines and exhibits that he could appreciate. We also say in a kid lounge area and ate lunch and he played with two Pororo pillows. 

Starting to rain when we left, but we went up to the roof to see what was up there and had a nice view of downtown. 

Then walked back into Hyehwa and took the bus home. We got a seat after a couple stops and he ate the whole way home. 

Soon after we got home he started to look tired and fell asleep soon after (to music, of course). Carly got home a few minutes later and I headed to PT. 

In the evening he really enjoyed playing on the couch and surprised us by climbing up on the couch as if he had done it hundreds of times before. 

He also seems to maybe have ‘Oma’ down as a word. He will say ‘Ma’ while looking at the wall of photos – maybe with a slight ‘oh’ at the beginning. When referring to Carly he has always used both ‘ma’s. He wouldn’t yet confirm this by actually pointing to Cherie while saying it, but we will see. 

Morning: 

Science museum: 

Headed home: 

Home: 

He wasn’t looking tired by 10:30 so we were ready to head out for the day. All that was left to do was to change him, put on my shoes, and put him in the carrier. But as I changed him he started to yawn. Picked him up when I was done and he laid his head on my shoulder. Turned on Hozier and he was asleep after a couple songs. 

He woke up at noon, but like yesterday he was still sleepy. He spent another 25 minutes on my shoulder as we listened to music. Unlike yesterday, however, he didn’t fall back to sleep but instead eventually woke up. 

So now it was too late for our original plan and the air pollution had pushed into the red category. Finally, I decided we would jump in the subway and head to the children’s museum. 

Next piece of bad luck was finding that the museum is closed for renovations this week. 

So we went to the conservatory, as usual, and confirmed that the zoo is still closed. We also stopped at the playground and went on the swing (on the way there) and the slide (on the way back). When he was sitting on the slide I took off his socks so he could play in the sand with his feet for the first time. 

We then left the park and crosses the street to Sejong University, where we had had lunch with Carly alongside a pond a few months back. We went to the history museum on the other side of the pond and when we came out August was hungry. So we sat by the pond and ate lunch and watched the ducks. I was hoping to make it quick (pollution levels), but he kept eating and eating and eating. 

A half hour later we were on our way to Costco as we still had time and it was on the way home (sort of). At Costco we restocked our supply of cheese and bought some monster clothes and a magnet set for August (I’m sure you’ll see them in future posts). 

August was hungry again while we were in Costco so I was feeding him Cheerios as we walked around. But once I got the cheese I was going to need both hands to carry everything. So I set everything down and fed him in a corner for awhile in hopes he would make it through checkout. This was when he decided it was fun to bend his head back, look up at me, and then offer me a Cheerio to eat. He found it hilarious and would sometimes give me the Cheerio but other times he would fake me out and eat it himself. 

He repeated this after the checkout when I bought food for Carly and myself and he decided he needed another full meal. This time it was both with Cheerios and tofu. 

Anyway, so we headed home, getting back a few minutes after Carly. She had brought home a ball that my aunt had given him for Cheistmas that Carly needed to get blown up at school. It was definitely the toy of the evening. 

August’s other new thing (besides feeding me) was making a fish noise.

Morning: 

Our adventure: 

Back home: 

Today’s outfit: 

It hit 63 today, so I dressed August in a short sleeve shirt for the first time in months. And in the afternoon he only had to wear one sweatshirt. 

His class today was all about horses. He wasn’t at all shy at the beginning of class today and he had a lot of fun. But absolutely refused to wear the cowboy hat she gave us. 

After his class we bought a bunch of groceries and then went on the swing for a long time. 

We came home, I played two songs from the Hozier album, and he was asleep. He woke up 70 minutes later. 

This is where things got a bit odd: it was a tough wake up. We were lounging on the couch for a few minutes, but then he started to get upset. I ended up standing up and singing to him and he calmed down. I then turned Hozier back on and he listened to 3 or 4 more songs and fell asleep. He had been awake for close to a half hour, but fell back to sleep for 40 minutes. That had never happened before. 

It was the aforementioned 63 degrees when he woke up so we wasted no time getting outside. We visited two playgrounds in the big apartment complex to the south of us, swinging at the first one and then sliding at the second. This slide was the longest/tallest slide he has taken by himself (I catch him at the bottom though) and he took it several times. 

We then kept walking and found Carly at the post office near the school and walked back home with her. We stopped at the same playground to nurse and to show her how he can go down the slide. He really didn’t want to leave this time. We stopped by the other grocery store on the way home. 

Morning: 

Class: 

Trying to put on his cowboy hat. It doesn’t go so well:  

At Home Plus we found a Pororo picnic mat to keep in the backpack. Needless to say he was excited about it after his nap: 

Enjoying the weather. Here is his biggest slide so far: 

Photos from the day: