He slept a lot today, so we didn’t venture out much. My PT appointment was later, so Carly could come home first and we didn’t have to meet her at school.
More of his first word:
Bath time:
Since I didn’t take a ton of photos today, here are his dailies:
It is ‘banana’. Well, ‘nana’. Or maybe ‘uhnana’. He has been saying ‘dada’ quite a bit, and ‘mama’ as well, but neither has felt like an actual word yet, as he doesn’t seem to use them to call to or refer to us with it. Kind of sort of babbles it in our general vicinity sometimes.
However, it seemed quite different when I had him on the back of the couch and we were looking at and talking about the bananas. When he says it, his voice gets lower than with his other babbling and it feels more intentional.
This was recorded yesterday, and he clearly was using it multiple times today, including twice when I first brought him out in the morning and this evening when Carly was feeding him other food and he kept looking towards the bananas and saying it. Yes, he is obsessed with bananas, so it makes sense.
On Sunday August turned 250 days old. Which is about 10 times longer than it feels. It slows down, right?
We took a nice walk today and did all sorts of stuff around the house. August used his first word, but I’ll put that in another post. His other big accomplishment was using a straw:
First, some playing with a pan:
Chewing on his hat:
Carly was standing in front of this sculpture, but tried to flee the scene when went to take a photo. Luckily, I snapped a shot before she left the frame:
At home:
He’s old enough to drink soy sauce straight from the bottle, right?
I’d been trying to get him to use the sippy cups for water, as he likes drinking from my water bottle or straight from a glass. But even I couldn’t get much out of the Nuk sippy cups, so we have up. I finally got around to using the cup with a straw, and he figured it out right away:
Carly had lunch with a friend today, so August and I went for a walk and ended up at a harvest festival in the park. Carly made a ton of food for August in all sorts of varieties – most notably she tried cooking a quince since I had bought a couple at the store.
Playing in his chair while Carly made food:
Snacking on some Asian pear:
We had ordered a cover for the carrier and it arrived on Friday. This was our first chance to test it out. It keeps his legs and arms pretty well covered and toasty:
Watching the music in the park:
Back home, he wasn’t too sure about the quince:
And of course he had fun playing:
With it getting cold, I’ve been trying to think of places we can spend time inside. Today I decided to start checking out the buildings in the zoo. We’ve been to the zoo several times, but we’ve always stayed outdoors.
One theme you’ll notice in th videos, particularly those around home, is that he is getting very fond of yelling or screeching:
First time wearing the green knit hat. It was knitted for him by April – the woman who subbed for Carly when she was on maternity leave:
Walking to the zoo:
Meeting Tweetie Bird:
The botanical gardens were nice. Warm, not crowded, with nice plants and trees, and a little waterfall:
While we were in the botanical gardens there was a group of five girls who came up and talked to us. They spoke some decent English and were impressed by my very minimal Korean. Anyway, it was nice for a change in that they weren’t smothering August and it was more of a conversation than just talking at him.
From there we visited the aquatic bird house and then the snake/insect/primate/tropical bird building. That was where we had the most fun:
Other animals we saw:
of course, we hung out on a bench. We had run out of bananas the day before, but I thought we could buy one in a convenience store at the park or zoo. Tried Bree and none of them had fruit. Seems like in a huge park designed for children you should sell some fruit. So the banana had to wait until we got home and went to the store, but he still had fun on the bench:
In the evening:
Playing with mom:
Today we braved the cold to walk to Toys R Us and then on to a neighborhood called Eunhang Junction. We came back with a stash of new toys from the clearance shelves.
But first, in the morning…
A good way to entertain August nowadays is to simply have him sit or stand in someplace he hasn’t sat or stood in before:
Mid-sneeze:
Off to brave the cold:
Matching hats:
People watching in the food court:
Tired, waiting for me to turn around the carrier so he could fall asleep:
Meeting a girl:
Rosy cheeks and a runny nose:
Back at home:
Our haul, mainly of wooden toys:
Playing with his first truck:
New game:
Wrapping up the day with some washing machine action:
It has gotten cold here in Seoul, with highs in the low 40s or high 30s for the next few days.
so today August wore a coat over his sweatshirt for the first time and also wore shoes for the first time.
We did our standard PT day routine of going to the store after his first nap and hen to APIS after his second and handing him over to Carly.
Nowadays he is primarily working on his talking and his standing:
Using only one hand:
Something to say:
Standing again:
He hasn’t given the beach ball much thought. Until today:
Standing again:
He was pretty patient with the extra time it took to put in the shoes and the coat, but his patience has a limit:
But he calmed down once he was in the carrier and knew we were leaving:
The handoff:
I realized the reason he enjoys sucking on the spray bottle is that it actually works like a straw and he can get water out of it pretty easily:
But I don’t know what he accomplishes with the elephant. Except it makes us laugh, and he seems to like that:
It was a crisp fall day in Seoul. After we Skyped with my parents, August and I took off for the Taerung royal tomb. It is one of several royal tombs in Seoul which, together, are a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We had a nice walk around the grounds and after visiting the tomb area we found a little platform to hang out on. There weren’t many people around at all, but there was a woman with a little girl (close to 2, probably) that had a similar idea. At one point the girl walked over to us and interacted bit with August. When they were saying goodbye, she bowed to August – his first bow.
Fun in the morning:
In the museum at the tomb:
Looking at the display:
Fall in Korea:
The tomb:
Our lunch time platform:
Quince tea:
On the way home:
Bath time:
His first invitation:
Saturday and Sunday night August had had a fever and difficulty sleeping. He was better on Sunday, but by Monday morning he was still having difficulty going to sleep for his nap.
So after his nap I took him down to see the doctor. The doctor is in our building, only took 10 minutes of waiting, and it cost a whiole 3 dollars for the visit.
While we waited I had him standing in front of a big cushion. There was a girl, just a couple inches taller than him, who could walk also in the waiting room. He tried really hard to get her attention, first with his squeals, but switching to fake coughs when that didn’t work. She didn’t show much interest in him, however, although she did walk over and kind of stand across the cushion from him at one point.
His ears and nose and throat are clear, and he no longer had a fever. So, he got a clean bill of health.
We also got out for a bit of a walk around the neighborhood, but nothing too major.
Here he is, asleep on my shoulder, since he couldn’t get to sleep on the bed:
Finally tranferred to the bed on his tummy as he would wake up on his back:
Waiting for the doctor. Since it was just an elevator ride away we didn’t even have to put on sweatshirts:
Feeling good enough to get excited about bouncy chair time:
Getting better at the trumpet:
Accidentally shot a video of him laughing in his pajamas in slow motion, to comic effect:
What it was really like:
And he was having fun with snorting:
We were all ready for some downtime. Still, we ended up taking a walk and getting hot chocolate and going to the art museum and later took a walk along the stream. We also made sweet potato burritos, spaghetti for the week, and, in the rice cooker, banana bread.
Carly appreciating the art in the coffee shop:
He enjoyed the sculpture in the park:
At home:
On our second walk:
He’s been more clear about it, but you can kind of see him being done with eating and pushing your hand away:
Playing around:
Our first experiment in the rice cooker: banana bread. It worked perfectly:
