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A pretty normal morning. August ate well and we played a lot. He figured out how to climb over the pillows on the bed to get both off and on. 

He fell asleep a bit before 11 and slept right until 12:30. His last music class started at 12:40. I was all ready to go and changed him, put him in the carrier, and headed to Home Plus before he knew what was going on. As such, when we got to the class he was very mellow and clingy for much of the class. He turned outgoing and started crawling around the room right near the end of class. 

We went downstairs and did our shopping. We bought a mask for the next time pollution is bad and we need to go outside. If I can get him to wear it. I am trying to break it to him slowly, using it as a game as we walk around. We will see how it goes. 

It helps that it is a Tayo mask. Tayo has invaded our lives. The kid cafe we went to yesterday was a Tayo cafe. I got home and opened the new YouTube Kids app and found out that Tayo is a full Korean cartoon. Today I realized the little kid rides near the entrance to Home Plus are Tayo characters, and now the mask. What is Tayo about? It is kid of like Cars, Korean style. The characters are city buses and taxis and other vehicles. 

Anyway, the plan was to drop off the groceries and eat, and then head back out for a little adventure. But after practicing putting things in and out of the backpack, August started having a hard time. His nose was also runny, necessitating wiping, which he hates, which leads to more crying, which leads to more mucus, etc. He ended up crying and resting on my shoulder for a long time and I thought he was going to take another nap. 

But he didn’t, and eventually we headed back outside because it was so warm (50 or so). We walked around the park and went to the playground. We ended up surrounded by and playing with a bunch of elementary school girls. They were much calmer and helpful than at the kid cafe on Saturday. Two of them, sisters (Miguela and Claudia – their dad is Spanish but, alas, they don’t speak Spanish), played with him the most and even took him down the slide and held him a bit. 

Came home and he proceeded to eat another big meal. He loves broccoli and ate a ton of it today. Carly came home a few minutes later and I headed to PT. I didn’t see him much after getting home as he went to bed right at 7. 

 

Morning: 

Waking up: 

Class: 

Back home: 

His mask: 

At the park: 

Watching all the kids play (it was busy) before deciding he wanted to join the fray:

First off, August has two verified new words. The first is ‘baby’. It basically sounds like ‘baa baa’, but with a different intonation. He uses it primarily when reading the ‘Where is Baby’s Belly Button?’ Book. 

The second is a word for pigeon. It sounds like ‘gamma’, so basically what he started saying a couple days ago. But he used it repeatedly when reading the Korean birds book and we come to the pigeon page. Also, he has said it several times when we have been in the park. I thought maybe he was thinking ‘garden’, as he has also said it when we read the garden book, but it seems very clearly connected to ‘pigeon’ now, so he was probably seeing or looking for them in the park.

So for our day today, with the pollution index 1/8th what it was yesterday and the sun out we spent much of the day outdoors. 

But before that his sleep was a little weird. He (and thus Carly) woke up at 3:15. And stayed awake. I, luckily, blissfully slept through all of that. But he fell back asleep a little before 6:30 and took a regular nap. Pretty much a regular day for us after that. 

We left the house a bit after 11 and returned close to 6pm. Perhaps our longest outing. We:

1. Took the subway north to Dobongsan to find the guide and stamp books for the Seoul Trail. We first ate some food and he tried to follow a pigeon that came close. We found the books and he fell asleep as we walked around the iris garden.  I sat on a bench swing and read in the sun while he slept. 

2. When he woke we took the subway south and east to Danggogye. We walked up to the stamp box we had seen on our hike and got the stamp we couldn’t get for lack of the stamp books. There was a pagoda nearby so we went there and ate some more and played and waved at hikers. 

3. We walked to the Sanggye area. We found an art/toy store along the way and looked around. We will have to go back. We then found a new park and played on a slide. August liked spotting the magpie in the tree and waving to some girls sitting on a bench. Oh, and practicing his standing and sitting sans hands. 

4. We walked across the street to the Tayo kid cafe. He was free (until 12 months) and I only cost a buck fifty. We played for an hour. It was pretty amazing and much nicer and bigger than the one next door. 

We then headed home via bus and arrived at the elevators at the same time as Carly. 

At home, August used his new words with Carly and enjoyed some soup. He also started making an ‘s’ sound. He managed to stay awake past 7 for a normal bed time. 

Random thing: I forgot to mention about a week ago that he sneezed 6 times in a row. A record from my counting. 

Waking up:

Kicking during breakfast: 

Saying ‘baby’: 

Word for pigeon: 

On our adventure: 

Iris garden: 

Pagoda: 

Playground: 

Pointing/waving at a magpie: 

Tayo Kid Cafe: 

Back home: 

I had planned on spending a lot of time outside today, but a dust cloud from China changed those plans. We stayed at home until his nap, only going downstairs to do recycling and walk around a bit on the second floor. He took a bath before his nap and ate a lot while working on talking and opening cupboards.  

The craziest thing to happen today is that he fell asleep as I placed him on the changing pad to get him dressed after his bath. He hasn’t slept on the changing pad in months. He did it a second time this evening when he fell asleep early and Carly had to change him before putting him to bed.

After his nap we went to the kid cafe. It was a zoo as it was after the elementary schools get out (which seems really early and I haven’t figured out their schedule yet). But we had fun and stayed a bit over an hour.  

The dust levels dropped quickly in the afternoon, so we then went out and enjoyed the sun by walking around the park and going on the swings.  

We got back home just a little before Carly arrived. August fell asleep while nursing a bit after 6:30, so we will see how his night goes. I should get to sleep now to be ready for an early rise. 

And I forgot to mention it, but he has an eighth tooth coming in. I felt and saw it a couple days ago. It is in the back left of his mouth.  

Our pollution level: 

Waking up: 

Before his nap: 

Still entertained by the washing machine, although the freezer and various cupboards now take up more of his time: 

Eating blueberries: 

Contemplating the bath: 

Nap time: 

Waking up: 

Kid cafe and walk: 

Not his mess: 

Getting a lot of attention: 

Watching flags: 

Evening: 

 

We’ve had four busy days of Carly’s break so today we took it easier. And August continues to be a bit stuffy and off. So we stayed around home until after his nap, and in the afternoon we went for a walk to the south to play at two playgrounds I had walked through when we were first back in Seoul and to find a third I had seen on a map.  

The first playground is big and amazing but really busy and August got upset. So we walked to the second, which was nice and empty, but the one slide was full of water. The third park turned out to be almost perfect so we played there the longest. All it was missing was swings.  

August continues to work on his animal noises and moves. He is now working on his elephant noise and stomping (see below).  

He is also fascinated by sheep (baa baa). More about that in a later post.  

Mans he continues to eat everything. Current favorites include banana bread, asparagus, cooked carrot, and egg.  

Lunch and acting like an elephant: 

On our walk to three playgrounds: 

Back home: 

I had another hike for our trek around Seoul. Both of my friends could make it this time so we made some progress. We only did 5km though as it was raining pretty steadily. But it was something.  

When I left for my hike Carly left with August and went to the kid cafe next door. It was almost empty the entire time they were there and stayed almost the full two hours. They also did some Skyping with Oma and Glecy and he fell asleep just a few minutes before I got home. 

After he woke up we went to Home Plus and when we got home Carly made delicious soup.  

I write this at about 10:30, and August has only been asleep for about 20 minutes. He kept finding more energy despite looking sleepy around 7. Perhaps he got the energy from the large lunch or dinner or second dinner.  

Today he was working on his kicking for the head to toes book (not on video yet) and on saying what sounds like ‘grandma’ (see below). I say ‘sounds like’ as he wasn’t actually looking at a photo of her when he started saying it. He said it several times, however, so we will see if it sticks when we next Skype with my parents.  

Oh, and I had a book group meeting this morning via Skype. So it was a pretty busy day overall.  

With Carly at the children’s museum: 

Taking a nap: 

After his nap: 

Using a pen. He did this once before and is clearly ready for some markers or crayons:

Afternoon and evening shenanigans, including maybe saying ‘grandma’ and staying up too late: 

How he tells me he wants to read this book next: 

Looking ready for bed, but it took another hour: 

The website for the children’s museum said it is closed lunar new year day so we went down today, the day after. Turns out it was closed for the entire three day holiday. We made the most of the situation by playing at the playground and going to the conservatory. But with the zoo still closed due to avian flu there wasn’t much to do. 

So we went and had lunch at Subway then headed home. August fell asleep as we got close to our building.  

In the afternoon Carly went back to the coffee shop to work and August and I went for a walk and found a new playground. We then headed back to Home Plus and did some grocery shopping and then went to the coffee shop and found Carly.  

 

In the morning: 

Children’s Grand Park: 

A petal from the huge banana flower fell into the water next to us and the fish thought it was food: 

Lunch: 

Falling asleep: 

After his nap: 

He hasn’t used a pacifier for a couple months. Here he is checking it out for old times sake: 

Our afternoon adventure: 

In the evening: 

Lunar new year, that is. It is now the year of the sheep, which is convenient as August can tell you what sound it makes.  

I was supposed to go on the next leg of our hike around Seoul, but one of the guys called in sick. So Jeff and I decided to hike Suraksan mountain instead. It was a beautiful hike and we left before 9am so saw almost no one up there. We did almost all of the climb to the top until we got to the last scraggly bit – just a few tenth a of a kilometer. We had no gloves and much of the last bit involved using these metal ropes over the rocks. I was concerned about getting back down so stopped at a place where it was icy and you had to pull yourself up a rock face about 5 feet. Jeff went a bit further, but stopped short after a potion where it was just a rope to his left and a sharp drop to his right. 

While I was out doing that Carly and August went to the playground by the stream and then the playground in the park. They also scouted out coffee shops Carly could work in later.  

I got home and August was asleep he took a long nap as he had a restless night. He woke up for a couple hours and then slept until right before I left for my hike at 8:30 – so at least I got to see him in the morning. But it wasn’t enough, and he also headed to bed pretty early in the evening.  

After he awoke from his nap Carly went to work. He and I went outside to get the last of the sun and ended up playing on some slides in a play area in an apartment complex.  

We swung by the place Carly was working – the cafe at the movie theater – and August got to play with the big leopards again.  

My hike: 

Back home with little boy: 

On our little walk: 

A lock of hair: 

Slide 1: 

Slide 2: 

Slide 3: 

Finding mama at the movie theater and playing with the leopards: 

Back home watching his video, playing with an umbrella, and getting changed under the drawer: 

It was the first day of the lunar new year holiday. Today we went to Noksapyeong for lunch and so that Carly could get her hair cut. We then bought August a few books at a used book store and walked through Itaewon to find that a second bookstore was closed.  

We headed home and in the early evening went grocery shopping at Home Plus.  

But perhaps the most fun part of the day was finding out that August can tell us what noise a sheep makes:

On the subway: 

Lunch at the burger place: 

Carly getting her haircut: 

Churro time. At a churro place inexplicably named after Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84: 

Still asleep on the way home. He slept close to two hours in the carrier, making it a record carrier nap: 

August in the rocking chair decorated in a fabric that Glecy sent us: 

Playing with the freezer door: 

Practicing putting the lid on Carly’s tea: 

Carly gets the rest of the week off due to the lunar new year. So today was August’s and my last day of the week to adventure on our own. I decided to head to Hoegi station and attempt to get to Seoul University. This is where our previous attempt failed when we (with Carly that time) found ourselves locked inside the gates of a school. I promised Carly that wouldn’t happen today. 

Anyway, we were successful today. The long and short of it was that we walked around to the main campus entrance, exploded the campus, stopped at the student union building for lunch, did some more exploring, exited the back entrance, and made our way back to the subway station.  

August had fallen asleep soon after lunch and slept until we made it home.  

August’s accomplishment today was being able to point to his hair. Skip to the end for video of that. He is also improving his birdwatching skills as he was watching magpies at lunch and then seeing them in the trees later.  

Waking up in the morning. Actually, since he went to sleep so late last night it was nice and bright by the time he woke up: 

At the university. We both liked this statue on campus: 

And August really liked waving to this statue of a mom and baby: 

Our lunch in the student union building. If you look close you can see the magpie that August is looking at in a tree: 

Out exploring again. He would point at things with the straw I grabbed him at the cafe. And he liked these trees as he called them out several times: 

Waving hello to mama for a Skype message: 

Asleep: 

Back home: 

Finally, his newest trick. He is so good at identifying his hair that he did it when I was watching this video later and he heard my voice on the video. And he did it when we were reading the Under the Sea with Me book and I read words that rhyme with hair (there and air): 

Today was August’s last class on Monday. At least for a couple weeks until the next session starts and he moves up to the next level. We almost didn’t make it to the class as August took a 90 minute nap right before it and woke up just in time. 

After his class we went to the movie theater right next door. It is in the same building as the kid cafe, but in the basement instead of the fifth floor. There is a book cafe at the theatre, but I hadn’t thought about it as a possible hangout spot. But Jeff, during the hike yesterday, told me he had seen a children’s area and a place with big stuffed animals. 

It turned out to be great. I had some tea as August played with the giant stuffed animals for forty minutes. We then went to the other children’s area and looked at books, practiced the stairs, and tries to eat cement.  

We were there for an hour and a half and then returned home. August ate a big lunch, took a bath, ate a second lunch, and went to sleep.  

Carly got home a few minutes later and I headed to PT. August apparently only slept for 20 or 30 minutes, but he somehow managed to then stay awake until close to 10.  

Luckily, we had an awesome new toy to play with. It is his first real truck or car, and he clearly likes it. Although he gets frustrated trying to put the people on it when they fall off. 

Food for the day, ready for adventuring: 

Watching the Napul Napul video. We only watch it once a week or so, so quite a treat: 

Watching the teacher during class. He was intently watching her, but the boy to the left was focused on August and kept touching him. August would turn to the boy’s mom and make a complaining noise and go back to watching the teacher: 

At the movie theater/book cafe: 

Right after he knocked that book down, he reached to the ground under the book shelf and put somethingn in his mouth. I caught a glimpse of a rock as it went in his mouth. Luckily, he let me stick my finger in his mouth and pull it out. It was a bit of mortar from the brick wall:

Back home for a bath and nap #2: 

A few seconds later: 

The awesome gift from a teacher at APIS. The opening takes awhile, but it was fun to watch August’s reaction: