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Today was our weekly trip to Children’s Grand Park and the children’s museum. After Skyping with my parents, we were about to leave around 9:30 when suddenly August fell asleep. A two nap day! Which made sense since he only slept nine and a half hours last night.  

So we left after his first nap and arrived around 11:30. The toddler area wasn’t busy at all, and we played in the museum for the next three hours.  

The biggest highlight was when August, who has never attempted anything more than crawling up onto our bed, decided to go up a flight of stairs. Kid height stairs, but still impressive. And unexpected. 

From there we walked to the Popeye’s at the amusement park for lunch and then walked around, making it to the actual east entrance of the park for the first time in all our visits (we always enter from the west).  

August was oddly amused by the dead flower planters and the banners for the Peter Pan show as we walked around the park.  

We then went to see some animals. We spent a lot of time watching the aquatic birds, then went to the gibbon, coatis, and squirrel monkeys and then to the outdoor birds. 

We went back to the children’s museum to change him, eat a snack, and do some light playing before heading home. My mistake was changing him in the same changing/nursing room where Carly has nursed him every time. He saw the chair they always used and wanted to nurse and got quite upset.  

We headed home and he fell asleep on the subway just a few stops before home.  

Children’s museum: 

I was dressed and ready to go when August decided he was suddenly interested in the upstairs portion. And he took off up the stairs. This was his first encounter with stairs since he has been crawling and he didn’t hesitate: 

We had been at the children’s museum for around three hours. We finally left to go walk around the park, get some lunch, and see some animals: 

He was oddly fond of these dead flower beds: 

And he got excited every time he saw the banners for the Peter Pan show. Which was a couple dozen times: 

Finally, he really liked watching the water birds. He got impatient when I tried tooling at an old train for a couple minutes, but we spent at least 10 minutes just staring and waving at the birds: 

In particular, there was a mandarin duck preening himself a few feet in front of us: 

Finally, a little silliness from this evening: 

His 3 hour nap on Monday was certainly a personal best. Today he went the other way and stayed awake for just over 8 hours before taking a nap. I can’t remember his previous PB in this category, but I am pretty sure 8 hours is a new best. 

He had his music class today. We did some grocery shopping beforehand and registered for one class during the next session – a continuation of his Monday class. The next session gets us to spring so I decided not to do two classes again. 

He got really tired during his class and I thought he was going to fall asleep right there. I almost left. But he recovered and, in fact, stayed awake for another hour+ once we got home. There was a lot of tired playing on the bed.  

We hadn’t done much walking so we were going to walk and meet Carly half way. But since his nap was so late we couldn’t do that.  

Instead, we all went for a brief walk in the early evening.  

I realized today that August also understands how to shake something if you ask him.  

He also clearly knows the difference between his bear (Marshy), the monster (Green Monster), and the giraffe (GG) as I could say ‘Get Green Monster’ and he would crawl to the correct stuffed animal.  

We also put together the train set that our friend Atsuko gave us.  

Here he is doing the shaking on command: 

Enjoying a teething biscuit and my handiwork: 

Waiting for class to start: 

Music class. He acted crazy tired about ten minutes into class, but rebounded when she got out the toys: 

Clearly a bit out of it, as he is getting distracted by the mat from the bubbles he loves: 

Back home, playing on the bed: 

An evening walk: 

Dinner time: 

Finally, wearing a little thin before bed time as he struggles to get the blocks out of the bag: 

Today was colder again. I think it said 20 when we went out for a walk, and there was quite a wind chill, particularly along the river.

Anyway, highlights today included August waving on demand (see below) and getting into various types of mischief:

– I gave him a can of loose leaf tea that even I find difficult to open sometimes. He opened it.

 – His cup with a straw was loose and he managed to leak most of it out in a big puddle on the floor. He had fun splashing in it. (See below)

– He has totally turned being told to not put things in his mouth into a game. We try to not encourage this, but indulged a bit when playing with the blocks. (See below)

After his nap we went for a walk along the stream, soccer field, and river. Along the way we stopped to play at a new (to us) playground and to have a snack. 

 The morning:

Playing with a spoon and bowl: 

After eating his egg for breakfast, the water cup leaked. By the time I noticed there was a large puddle on the floor. August enjoyed splashing in it:

Hesitant at first, he ended up having a successful bath:  

Back to playing before his nap: 

He took a one hour nap and seemed wide awake when he woke up. But after a minute he just cuddled on my shoulder and kind of took a nap extension for the next 20 minutes or so. His eyes were open most of the time: 

A snack, one of his rice rusks, before we head out on our walk: 

On our walk and playing on the playground: 

Showing off the teeth while laughing on the walk: 

He kept wanting to read the Baa Baa Black Sheep book, but got upset every time: 

He had been waving a ton, but this evening we realized (when Carly asked him to) that he can wave when asked. He will also point out specific things he knows in books  (the caterpillar, shoes, birds, cat, egg, teddy bear…a few others) but those have a visual cue to go along with them. This seems like a different accomplishment:

Finally, by the evening he seemed to get over his frustration with Baa Baa Black Sheep. He had me read it four or five times in a row without a hint of being upset: 

August took a three hour nap today. A new record. He seemed off today; we think something is bothering him. Perhaps teething. The last hour and forty were in my arms in the rocking chair. Last time that happened I didn’t really enjoy it as I was still working on the computer and it wasn’t comfortable. But this time Carly took the computer to work for a PD day, so I had no choice but to read. Got a lot read and enjoyed every second.

Also, his first traumatic memory association: we have a little Baa Baa Black Sheep book he loves to read. Well, for some reason he now starts balling when I get to the pages where the sheep is giving bags of wool to the master and dame. Did it 3 times today. No idea why.

He also had his class today. It was all about elephants. He did quite well despite being off his game this morning. Soldiered through the class and fell asleep while walking through the park on the way home.

Anyway, we start with some clips of his wake up process. Some times he pops awake happy or crying, but it is often a dull process (I wonder where he gets that?):

Step 1: 

Stage 2: 

Step 3: 

Fully awake: 

A yawn and sleepy time before class: 

Mellow during song time at his class: 

Mustering excitement for the parachute: 

Asleep during his epic three hour nap. He woke up after an hour but was obviously still really sleepy. I was having difficulty setting him back down, but he was sleepingng soundly on my shoulder: 

I tried sitting down three times on the couch but he kept waking up. For the fourth attempt I tried the rocking chair. Success. I spent the next 100 minutes reading on my iPhone (Beyond Religion by the Dalai Lama and Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn by John Hattie): 

Finally, some playing around in the evening. The birthday cakes/cupcakes lines are from a book that he likes: 

And this is the book, and pages in particular, that he finds so troubling: 

Yes, the sheep looks evil. But he likes the sheep. It is this page that drew the cries this evening: 

After August’s first nap (he took two!) we walked up to Starbucks in Nowon and got drinks, only to find that all of their seating was full. And it had started to drizzle. 

So we went to Daiso and did our shopping there: found rubber bands, a spatula, more child locks for cupboards, a small laundry basket for August, and a cat hand sponge thing for him as well. 

Walked home. And soon after we got home he took a second nap that was over an hour long.

A lot of videos of him playing with things today:

Playing with recyclables in the morning: 

Trying to take a bite out of a box: 

Playing wih the window cover: 

Unsure of the vacuum cleaner: 

Excited by a bank: 

Got down to th children’s museum soon after they opened at 10. Had fun playing in the toddler room, playground nazi woman aside. Chris and Ashley (from APIS) showed up with their daughter – I had just recommended the children’s museum to the mm on Thursday. 

Played there until close to noon when August wore himself out, nursed, and fell asleep. 

After August woke up we went and saw the aquatic birds, baboons, and did a quick walk through the gibbon/sloth/lemur building. 

We got lunch at a burger place and walked over to a pagoda and ate outside. 

We made a short stop back at the children’s museum to nurse again and play in the reading room area before heading home. 

August did quite well both directions on the subway; having rice treats, and Carly singing the itsy bitsy spider help a lot. 

Back home we rested for a few minutes then went to Home Plus for groceries. 

What the baboons would see: 

Back at the children’s museum: 

Walking home: 

Coming back from getting groceries: 

He has settled into taking just one nap a day. Last week he did this, but they were 2 hour naps. This week they have dropped to an hour or less – today’s seemed long at an hour and nine minutes.

We got out for a decent walk in the afternoon, but it was generally a relaxed day. In part this was because as I was putting August in the carrier this morning to walk up to Nowon he fell asleep. So I took him out and waited until he awoke before we went out. We needed to be back to skype with Carly before she left school, so I decided to make our walk shorter. 

We walked east and south, ending up just south of the hospital. 

Once back, we Skyped with my parents and then Carly. 

I then gave August a full bath – his fullest, happiest bath in quite some time. 

Once Carly came home I left for my usual Friday PT. 

August had a lot of fun playing with his stuffed animals on the bed this morning. And today’s accomplishment was working the sliding flaps on Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? – both opening and closing them. 

Playing around on the bed with his stuffed animals: 

Shirtless after the regrettable banana-in-the-carrier incident, the details of which you don’t want to hear: 

And now with a shirt – one that used to belong to me or Paul: 

Being spacey, but not taking a nap: 

So we head out on a walk, using Carly’s maroon carrier as mine is now drying after going through the wash following the aforementioned banana-in-the-carrier incident. We walk southeast, ending up behind Carly’s hospital, where we admire the mural: 

He really liked the birds.  

Back home, we Skyped with my parents: 

And read a lot of books. August suddenly reached out and started working the sliding bits in the Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? book: 

Augist has been opposed to baths for several weeks now. Today we played in the bathroom and with the water for several minutes before I stood him up in the bath. We played for another five to ten minutes before he finally decided he wanted to sit down. He then stayed in the bath for over 15 minutes. Success! 

From the design lounge we go to the design experience zone. It is a children’s design museum/play area. I cost 4 dollars; August was free. 

It is aimed at older kids, but August loved it. Mainly because he is so visually stimulated and also because there were enough toys and things for him to play with. 

We then went down to the second and first floors, which have these design labs. Basically, they are a bunch of small shops that sell a lot of really cool stuff. I bought a Very Hungry Caterpillar puzzle and a magnetic board and animals set for him. 

We also found a very cool kids play area we can come back to once he turns 12 months. 

Finally, I change him in a huge changing room. It has these round little privacy booths for breastfeeding and they are surrounded by silky curtains. August loved the fabric and had to investigate after he was changed. 

We headed back, arranging to meet Carly mid-walk on her way home. That worked out well, as we arrived off the bus at our meeting spot only a couple minutes before Carly walked by. 

Back home, Carly gave him his first teething biscuit. That made him very happy.

Whirling thing: 

Helping to turn one of the handles: 

He still got excited seeing it, even after we circled back to it eight times or so: 

So many toys: 

He finishes his tower: 

Back home, he enjoys his first teething biscuit: 

So, August’s major development for the day is waving to strangers. And it isn’t something he sort of kind of starts to do. He decides to start waving to just about everyone. 

It starts at the top of the design building where we find a ‘design lounge’. We end up staying there for over an hour. August is in a great mood despite the 38 minute nap. Right away he starts waving at everyone he sees enter the lounge. 

His persistence pays off as a woman who works there ends up spending her entire break with him. She then leaves and comes back later with a couple of her friends and they play with him for another 10 minutes. 

Photos/videos: 

The nice empty design lounge. It only had up to about 8 people when we were there, and at one point August was pretty much waving to all of them at once: 

First, he seems to like the echoing of his voice. But then he starts waving at people walking by: 

He then crawls around a lot and waves to more people: 

Crawling by the windows: 

It pays off. Here is the woman that spends a half hour with him: 

Before we left, I let him try out these chairs that he kept admiring. I think he liked them because they rocked and because they had dots on them: 

Up next: 

Our thrilling conclusion in which we go to a children’s design museum and find our way home. Coming tomorrow.  

The Squarespace app has been giving me problems with long posts, and I have a lot today, so I’m going to break this up into 3 parts.

August was up at 6. By 10 he wasn’t taking a nap so we got ready to leave the house. By 11 we were on our way to the Dongdaemun History and Design complex. This is a new area that just opened a few months ago. August and I did a quick walkthrough with my parents. So it was time to head back. 

Our adventure got off to a rocky start, as the only art exhibit open at the time is one on Audrey Hepburn. I didn’t think August would enjoy it to the tune of 13 bucks. 

He fell asleep, which was amusing because it happened pretty instantaneously and he was a complete rag doll as I took him out of the carrier, adjusted it, and put him back in. 

I went in search of coffee, but (long story short), August woke up 38 minutes later. So instead of hanging out in a coffee shop and reading while he slept, we continued on exploring.  

From the morning:

He was doing this for awhile. Definitely new, but I only caught a couple seconds: 

Oddly, he has never really enjoyed knocking over towers that Carly or I build. He seems know he is supposed to reach over and knock them down, but he doesn’t show any enjoyment in doing so. That changed today as he started to actually react. This was the tallest tower I built, and when he knocked it down I think he was a little startled:

And here he is, a rag doll between my legs as I concert the carrier: 

So after August wakes up after 38 minutes, we start exploring the design building. This involves walking up six stories of boring boringness of the design walk spiral thing.

It strikes me as the inverse of the other major disappointing spiral walkway: the Seattle Public Library. Its book spiral was a major selling point, but I didn’t like it as it wasn’t a spiral at all. It was square. The books were nice, but you turned 90 degrees at each corner. The slanting walkway and lack of clear floors only made it difficult to know where you actually are. 

Here, on the other hand, you have a wonderful spiral, but nothing that makes it worth trudging up six floors of it:

Next time: 

Things get better as we find people and August acts like an extrovert.