Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 75

2007-03-13 20:48 (Kristen) I have a few random items about the boys that I didn't remember to, or didn't have a chance to, record over the last few days.

(John) That's as far as Kristen got before it was bedtime. The kids were happy to have a normal day at home. Liam had clearly been practising his floor skills in Ottawa, as he can now roll over in the blink of an eye, and demonstrated that he could move forward 30 cm if given sufficient motivation (Jamie's trains), albeit by tacking back and forth rather than crawling.

Jamie and I spent a lot of time exploring what happens to ice and snow when the temperature hits 10°C (50°F). Rainboots and splashing in huge puddles, chopping up much of the remaining ice in the driveway, shovelling puddles of water from the sidewalk into the street were among the exciting highlights. The play apparatus in the schoolyard was relatively dry, compared to the icy swamp of the yard itself, so Jamie got to play on the slides too.

Jamie slept from 15:30 to 17:30, Liam didn't sleep much during the day because his teeth were bugging him. Nobuko and Tomoko came over with dinner, yay Nobuko and Tomoko!

2007-03-14 22:18 (Kristen) Today is International Pi Day. Unfortunately we did not have pie to eat at home in celebration, which Jamie would have loved. I got Jamie a book about the different ways you can count to eleven, so that's today's obligatory math content in Jamie's life. Oh; that, and finding out he can count backwards.

We were all a little tired this morning and somewhat crabby, but we got Jamie and John out the door safely, all the same. I took Liam to the Second Cup, but he only slept for forty-five minutes before he was awake again. We wandered about a little bit in the beautiful +16°C weather before heading home for a little lunch around 1:30. He fell asleep then, of course, but again, only for a short time. Jamie came home and ran around outside with John, and Liam joined them briefly while I had a business call, before I took the boys to the library. They did not sleep; Jamie was in the stroller, and Liam was in the backpack. Liam attracts a lot of attention in the backpack; probably because he is grinning his fool head off the entire time he's up there.

We picked up a pile of books for Jamie, and then headed back to the Second Cup for a little "work" (Jamie's) and story reading. We stayed down on the Danforth while John came to meet us for dinner, which was more intensive than usual. Jamie was wired and needed John to practically sit on him, and Liam inhaled a jar of peaches that I'm so very glad that I had thought to put in the diaper bag. John went to Scrabble, and the boys and I stayed home. Gary played with Jamie for a bit, and I put Jamie to bed at 9:30; he was out like a light. Liam, however, as usual, is rolling around on the living room floor, showing no signs of sleepiness. His rolling is improving madly, and he can wriggle forwards to get a toy that he wants, or some object that he knows that he can't have.

Random thoughts on the boys: Liam has a very long tongue, and enjoys sticking it out as much as possible. Jamie is both very generous and totally incapable of sharing with his brother. He gave me a "beautiful" (his words) pair of toy rings that he got from a gum machine, and a stuffed caterpillar to Liam that Gary had picked up. However, he was utterly unable to share any bath fish or letters tonight with Liam. Jamie also loves the song (artist currently unknown) who sings "I like to move it move it" (cue heavy dance beat) thanks in equal parts to his cousins and the movie "Madagascar." We sing variants on this often. He also likes to sing songs that he picks up at Hakobune a lot. We talked tonight about God, and multiple theories of the creation of the universe. He seems to have no firm idea of exclusive monotheism (i.e., one way and that's it), but was curious to know where God lived. I think that we'll be having more conversations about this, interspersed with other practical questions like why the earth spins around, and so on.

2007-03-15 22:28 (Kristen) Jamie was not in the mood to go to Hakobune today, although he did make it out the door without too much fussing. It was more that he wanted to drag his feet through each stage of the process, but would do the thing requested if I said that I was either going to tell Sensei that he was going to stay where he was (the coat room, downstairs in the church) or that I was going to see Sensei first. He was finally lured into the daycare room when Emi-sensei told him that there were birthdays that day. This means cake, and Jamie wasted no more time.

I got Liam to sleep in the backpack at a Second Cup nearby for about two hours, which is the longest I've been able to get him to sleep for a while. I got work done, and went back for Jamie. Jamie was having fun playing with his friend Taka, who was one of the birthday children. Apparently a balloon popped during the festivities, and it was a great source of discussion and more discussion. "The balloon popped, Mummy." Follow with large hand motions. Repeat. We met up with John at the Second Cup, and had a lovely family gathering. Michelle came by with Ross, Daniel, and Ken, and Jamie ran around with Daniel and Ross outside until Jamie fell down (not suprising, since Jamie was dog tired) and cut his chin. He's fine now.

We came back home, where we warmed up, and John then took Liam to the grocery store while Jamie and I had some quality time. Jamie finished his maze book, and is now starting his new book (ages 4,5,6). Kumon does not have a maze book after this, and I am wondering what I will do if Jamie asks for another maze book. I'll have to start looking around for decent books of mazes. John made dinner, and Jamie watched Madagascar, but he only watched that today: hardly any television at all, and hardly any requests for it. Instead we played with trains, and other things. Bored with TV? He's enjoying reading with us too, which is good, since we have about thirty books out from the library! Liam was in a good mood today, but was clearly having trouble with his teeth all day. I've dosed him up, and settled him down again after he woke up. He wakes up after twenty minutes or so (sometimes it can take up to an hour for him to wake) and then he's up again for a couple of hours before I get him to fall asleep with us in bed with him. I'm working on getting him to sleep after the first stirring, which took about half an hour's work on my part. We'll see if he stays down.

2007-03-16 20:57 (Kristen) Jamie waas going through his art box this morning (which is more easily accessed since I started reorganizing the play room), and found his finger paints. Well, they're not *really* finger paints; Jamie loathes anything on his fingers that is messy. They do well with brushes, though. I told him that it was too much to get them organized in the morning, but if he wanted to paint when he got home, he could. He remembered this afternoon, and spent half an hour or so playing with colour. His paintings are now on the fridge, where all good art must be. He's been playing with Play-Doh too (last night and this morning, in lieu of paint), and enjoying it.

John says that when Jamie was picked up from Hakobune, that it was like the boys had all taken the same psychotropic drug, or had the same virus. They had, apparently (there were five or so) spent the morning in a circle, yelling as loudly as they could at nothing. Three of them, including Jamie, kept wanting to do the same thing at the same time. It ended in tears at the end of the day, when a little friend of Jamie's went through a door first, forgot that he had, then broke down when Jamie went through "first." Sigh. The Sasakis were looking a little worn out, John says. Jamie was fine on the way home (Liam had slept for two hours in the morning, yay!), and we met up with each other on Jackman. Joh had heard about Book City's book sale on the radio, and so Liam and I just got into the car and we went there. The boys lasted an hour and a bit there, which was great, and we picked up a bunch of books for Jamie (and a few for ourselves).

John went up for a nap, and so Liam played quietly by himself while Jamie painted. Then it was an hour of "Mom! Mom! Mom!" from both boys until John took Jamie out for an hour. Ostensibly it was to go swimming, but the pool was mysteriously closed again (they do this during posted swim hours, with no warning). They played outside instead, and then they came inside. Liam is tired, and teething again, but he managed to stay asleep once I kept him soothed when he woke up the first time last night. I'm trying it again tonight. Jamie is watching Teletubbies, while we wait for the bath to be run, and is tired but otherwise in a good mood.

I am reminded that Jamie has started calling people "dude" (or, in modern Internet parlance, "d00d"). He held a door open for someone at the Second Cup, who said "Thanks, dude!" Jamie came back, quick as a flash, "You're welcome, dude!" Very funny.

2007-03-17 22:20 (Kristen) It was a bad night with Liam last night for no real reason that I can discern. He woke up around 4:15 (I think) and wouldn't settle, no matter what I did. Finally, I took him out of the room, changed him (nothing to note), and gave him some Motrin before heading to bed in the spare room so that we wouldn't disturb the others. Liam was laughing and giggling beside me when I fell asleep, but was asleep around 8:45 when Jamie came in to find me. John was up around the same time, and got ready to go out for Saturday groceries and to go to a taping of CBC's new game show, Test the Nation (results in September, he tells me). This meant that he would be gone for most of the day, and it was just me and my two monsters for the day. Coffee was required, stat.

We got through past lunch well enough, after which I told Jamie that it was time to pee so that we could go outside and do things (I had vague plans involving the subway). Well, Jamie doesn't like to pee, he says, and we ended up in a huge battle of wills over the need to pee before leaving the house. Half an hour later, we resolved the issue but we were both somewhat wrung out. The idea of the subway was abandoned in favour of playing a little ball hockey, shovelling a little bit of snow, and throwing a bunch of snowballs before getting into the stroller and heading to the library and the Second Cup, in that order. I managed to get him to fall asleep between the library and the Second Cup (Liam fell asleep an hour previously in the backpack), and I got some work time in before the boys woke up. I had promised Jamie that we could go to the toy store after his nap, and that gave us five minutes of play and visiting before the store closed.

Jamie was good about it, and we headed to Browning, after a side trip to the Big Carrot, where he got a plain bun and seemed to enjoy it very much. Browning was full of running about and horseplay with Daniel and Ross, while Liam took the opportunity to show off to me and Tom that he can sit on his own for minutes at a time while manipulating objects in his hands, and reaching for new ones. We were mightily impressed, because it's not something he's been doing at all unsupported. I suppose this is what the Neglect-o-Matic has been doing for him. Yay, Neglect-o-Matic, for so many reasons! John arrived, tired but happy, around 8:00, and played around with Jamie while Tom and I kept Liam company. Liam fell asleep when we got into the house, and is asleep in his snowsuit on the bed. Jamie has just had his bath, and Liam is waking up. Must go.

2007-03-18 21:16 (Kristen) We went to bed quite late last night, and got up late this morning. After breakfast, we decided to go to the Kortright Centre up near Kleinburg, north of Toronto, for their maple sugar festival. The centre is part of a conservation area that is full of sugar maples, and the weather was just about perfect for the sap to run. We weren't the only people to have this idea today, and the place was full of children, which was fun.

Liam fell asleep on the ride up, but we kept Jamie awake talking about this and that. When we got to the centre he was very excited, and happy to be there. He ran along the trail with John, drank maple sap, sipped maple syrup, and walked the entire circuit of the sugar bush trail there. We put Liam in the backpack to carry him along the muddy trails, and he slept until it was time to leave. We got a chance to see a woodpecker, some ponies and two Clydesdales, and to eat maple candy and pancakes. All in all, it was a great day.

It's been a quiet evening, watching television, eating dinner, and playing. Jamie slept for two hours on the way home, and so I took him for a walk around the block. Liam rolled across the kitchen floor like a ninja baby, nearly dumping the garbage onto his head. The boys have been a little wound up this evening, and I'm not sure they'll be going to sleep any time soon.

2007-03-19 21:40 (Kristen) Jamie's exploration of the word "no!" and all its possibilities continues unabated. We've been talking about how you should look at someone when they're talking to you so that they know you heard what they said. He won't look at me now when I'm telling him something he doesn't want to hear. He doesn't hear a lot, lately, so getting anywhere or doing anything takes longer than it used to. Certain things he hears easily, like 'cookie' and 'candy.' I don't know where he gets his willful streak from. I really don't (stop laughing, all of you).

I was wiped out for some reason this morning, so I just let Jamie watch television for an hour and a half. Liam played on the floor. Jamie wouldn't eat breakfast until I made one. Then he declared that he would "share" my breakfast and so I made two so that I would get one breakfast out of it! I pretty much knew that he'd do that, so I was ready. Liam, on the other hand, has not eaten at all today except for nursing. He seems healthy enough other than his sinus infection, which hasn't cleared out yet. He's nursing a little more than usual, which will hopefully help him to kick it. If he's stuffed up and not able to taste, then it make sense that he doesn't have any interest in food. It was lunch at Browning, which Liam slept mostly through, and Jamie ate very little. I managed to get half of his lunch into him by threatening to eat his if he didn't. He's really really not interested in food once it takes the edge of his hunger off. John took him to Loblaws for some grocery shopping after lunch, and Ken took Liam for a walk. We all met up at the Second Cup around 3:00, during which time Jamie was wide awake and Liam continued to sleep. It was clear that a lack of sleep was affecting Jamie's judgement, so I took him out for a walk. In fact, Jamie walked almost everywhere today, and was great at it. We went to the library, Treasure Island, and grocery shopping. Afterwards, we went to Browning, and made dinner. Jamie spent his time upstairs with the computers, Daniel, and Ross, and Liam roamed the floor downstairs. Liam has been very happy on the floor, and was just now curled up with his toes in his mouth on the living room floor. There isn't much else to tell; we're all tired, and looking forward to bed.

* For the benefit of Scrabble players, words that are not in the Scrabble dictionary are marked with an asterisk.

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