Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 78

2007-04-03 21:39 (Kristen) Well, no one got a good night's sleep last night. Liam slept very badly, and so did the rest of us. It was, actually, a remarkably bad night sleep-wise. Consequently, we all woke up somewhat groggy and crabby this morning. Jamie was the worst, demanding that I stay asleep beside him and raising a large fuss until we figured out that he actually needed to pee very badly. He felt much better, but was still managed to drag his heels heroically all morning. John took Liam with him to the math department, to be oohed and aahed at, while I did a quick tour of Robarts Library for some work of my own. Liam stayed asleep through lunch, and didn't wake up until I picked him up at Knox Church to take him upstairs to pick Jamie up at Hakobune. It's nice that someone got some sleep (she said, not completely without bitterness).

Jamie wanted to go to the Second Cup when Liam and I picked him up (John was lecturing this afternoon), so we went. He specifically wanted to work on his workbooks, and he did a good job, considering his mood and fatigue levels. We walked slowly home, spending a good deal of time at Jackman School, until I decided it was too cold. Liam napped again for about half an hour. We stayed at home until John came home and had a nap, then until I had a short nap too (yay!). Then, we left the children at Browning with Tom and Michelle, Daniel and Ross, and went to have a nice dinner out on the Danforth. Yay! We had decided not to go out for longer than a couple of hours, as we weren't sure how Liam would do for that long, given how he's been lately. We needn't have worried. When we got back, both children were fine and had done very well. Liam had even slept for fifteen minutes and Tom had worried when he had woken up, but Jamie walked into the room around that time and Liam brightened right up. It seems to make a big difference to Liam if Jamie is there when John and I are not, which is a very good thing. He definitely has entered a new cognitive phase: he is easily bored now, and requires more direct help in keeping himself entertained. This can be done by helping him to walk across the floor, or by giving him different toys to manipulate and then discard. He's very bright, and voracious in his desire for new stimuli. I'm expecting to be very very tired keeping up with him.

We got the boys home, and we're about to head to bed. I think, given the amount of sleep I got last night, that I will not be far behind, and neither will John.

2007-04-04 23:34 (Kristen) Liam slept beautifully last night, which was utterly wonderful. I think that I may have found the latest trick to keeping him asleep at night, which is to draw him onto my chest (not to nurse him) (John: I pointed out to Kristen that every time he was waking up, he let out a ferocious belch, so maybe he's not at a point where he ought to be nursed to sleep) when he wakes up, and pat his little back until he goes to sleep again, and then let him sleep on his stomach with a light blanket over him. Two nights in a row it has worked (including tonight), so we'll see. If it works tomorrow night, I'll declare a pattern.

Jamie, on the other hand (and both me and John) were not so perky as Liam. Jamie woke up spectacularly badly, yelling and crying again. He calmed down enough to eat a little breakfast, but then didn't want to leave the house, and did not stop yelling until he was taking off his shoes at Hakobune. Of course he had a great time there, and while he seemed tired to the teachers, he was well behaved. Sigh.

Liam wasn't all that great at sleeping during the day, waking up after I took him for a walk to the Second Cup, and not sleeping in his stroller in the afternoon. On the bright side, however, he has finally started to eat again. He was living almost completely off nursing, and had been since Friday or so, and so I was taken aback and delighted when he took my rote offer of food. I think that he's going to feel a lot better now. He napped twice this evening and still went to bed with Jamie around 9:30. We spent the afternoon inside, as the weather was cold and wet, and the early evening at Pearls, where we stayed for a bit after John went to Scrabble (Wednesday evening meals there have resumed). Jamie played with Sai for a bit, and then with Gary while I ran the bath when we got home. Jamie was a little unsettled, but fell asleep well enough. Liam and he are asleep right now, and I'll likely be there myself in a few minutes.

2007-04-05 22:57 (Kristen) Jamie woke me up before the alarm this morning at 8:00, and Liam was not far behind. Despite the fact that we were all up early, and we left on time, we still managed to be half an hour late for Hakobune. I'm not sure where that time went, but I want it back. Liam fell asleep on the subway, and woke up five minutes after I sat down to work at a local cafe. Sigh. As long as I wasn't concentrating too hard on something else, and kept touching his feet or otherwise was in contact with him, he let me read, drink my coffee, and amuse myself quietly. He, of course, fell asleep five minutes before I was to pick up Jamie.

I forgot to mention that Jamie made an Easter basket at Hakobune, which he was excited about and we should photograph for posterity. He likes the chocolate in it. He played with Kai-kun for a bit, and then I finally managed to pry him away from Kai-kun and his mom (whom Jamie was entertaining by making scary faces, Jamie's new fun game) and to walk to Spadina Station, where John was freezing himself blue waiting for us (John: I had been to the oral surgeon for a checkup, and to protest a parking ticket I received because a parking meter's clock was slower than the enforcement officer's watch.). Jamie decided that he wanted to go to the Second Cup to do his "work," and off we went. He was pretty tired, but still got into his cutting practice very well, did some mazes and numbers (he can pretty reliably write any number between 1 and 10), and did some letter practice more reluctantly. He prefers numbers to letters right now, although that can shift and flip about any given day. Liam, on the other hand, would like to be able to walk Now, and is enjoying "walking" around with a personal slave/parent holding his hands for support. He surprised me today by being on his knees (where I had put him), and pulling himself to his feet by himself. Hmmm.

We stopped off at Pearls to get some vegetable soup for John, and Jamie played with Tai-Tai for a long time, throwing and catching balls, and building with blocks. It was getting close to dinner by the time we got home, and we were all tired and hungry. Jamie was so tired, in fact, that he fell asleep in front of the television watching Anpanman around 6:30, which was a five-alarm disaster. He was sitting upright, with his head flopped completely over to he side. I woke him up, and he mustn't have been out long, as he was almost easily roused and not super crabby. We had dinner, played silly games with Megablox, and got into bed relatively early. Jamie fell asleep after some flopping and exhausted behaviour, while Liam required much more work. He needed to be walked up and down the stairs, and patted on the back for an hour before he'd finally let me go. I am not sure that I really am allowed to go yet, and have one ear tuned to him, just in case.

2007-04-06 22:57 (Kristen) Good Friday dawned rainy and cold, but the boys were up by 8:30 and downstairs by 9:00. Jamie spent the morning watching television, and gets quite crabby if he doesn't. However, he also gets bored, which is dangerous too. He really does require someone to play with him, and doesn't like playing on his own for any real length of time. He also insisted on spending the morning in his pajamas, despite being somewhat cold, and refused a blanket to cover up with. Sigh. Liam rolled around, ate some barley cereal, and had a short nap.

(John) Kristen just got called away for the nth time by a crying Liam, so I'll tke up the keyboard. Jamie was helpful in the morning, helping me fold laundry and put it away: he knows which drawers his own clothes belong in, and likes to put them there himself. After lunch, Liam wanted to fall asleep, so we got ready for a walk. Liam fell asleep in his stroller on the porch, so Kristen went on ahead. Jamie had a long, long list of things to do before he wanted to leave, including eating more (he has had more of an appetite today than he has had all week), playing video games, watching Anpanman, and pretending to nap in bed. When he and I eventually left though, it was just as Betsy and Paul were taking their own somewhat stir-crazy kids out to the playground, so we tagged along and watched the kids run each other around without getting the slightest bit tired.

Eventually, the adults declared it was too cold to remain outside (it was about freezing, but with wicked windchill), and Jamie and I went to join Mom and Liam at the Second Cup. Liam would not stay asleep today, due to a combination of a cough and teething; they left early via Pearls. Jamie and I stayed a while, and he got a fair amount of his Kumon work done: mazes, numerals and hiragana.

I played with the kids while Kristen made soba salad for dinner. Liam loves his kicking toy, the one that makes raucous noises when he lies on the floor and pushes its pedals or swats at the overhead levers. Jamie could never stand it as an infant, and still finds it jarringly noisy. They're different boys. Jamie and I mostly played Scary Man Rides A Brio Shinkansen But Gets Repeatedly Blown To Smithereens By Jamie And His Shooting Gun. Then it was dinner, and Jamie ate well, and bathtime, and the kids were in bed early, but Liam has woken up three times already.

2007-04-07 23:45 (Kristen) We woke up around 9:00, and the two boys and I hung out for a while, playing and having fun, until close to 10:00. Jamie came downstairs while I cleaned the kitchen and tried to feed Liam (whose cold is worse, and he was not interested in food). Jamie headed back upstairs to eat an apple and watch Anpanman on the laptop in the green room, once it was clear that John was up too. They went to the market around 11:45, while Liam and I stayed home. Liam was only happy if he was being held by me, which made cleaning the house in preparation for tomorrow's festivities somewhat difficult. Oh, and eating too. John and Jamie were home a bit after three, and John had a rest before we left to go out to a party at the house of our friends Reid and Luisa.

On the way there, we had to stop off at the cheese store. The store was crowded so while I waited in the store and they waited in the car, John told Jamie a version of the cheese sketch, where Mummy has to taste all the types of cheese in the store. They told the story in Japanese, English four times each before I made it back to the car. As an aside, Jamie calls a kaleidoscope a lightoscope. It's cute. We made it to Reid and Luisa's, where Jamie went upstairs to play with Ian, who is a couple of months older, and Ronnie, who is about twelve now. Daniel and Ross arrived later, as did Sara and Annie, so there were many children to play with, chase, and swing swords at. Liam was passed to Tom, when Tom arrived, and from person to person with little ado. The only time there was a fuss was when Tom ended up (for a series of funny reasons) holding Liam and Ria, who is two months younger than Liam. Liam was not happy, and wanted Tom to put the strange baby down. Rather possessive! John says that Liam "walked" him to a box of toy trains and track, and was happy to play with those for a while. At one point, Ian had found a toy camera and Jamie wanted to play with it too (Ian was unwilling to do so). Jamie had brought a toy camera and a toy video camera with him but we had left them in the car, and John brought them in. This was wise, as Ian immediately wanted Jamie's camera, and so Jamie was able to offer him the video camera, which he is not as fond of. Jamie loves taking pictures, and I've had fun explaining the analog camera to him, with "film" and popup flashes. The kids seemed to have a glorious time, and John and I enjoyed ourselves very much too. I had pajamas ready for both, but only put Liam into his. Both boys fell asleep on the car ride home, and Jamie has stayed asleep. Liam has woken up a few times, stuffy and coughing, but I have drugged him with cold medication, and hopefully he will be able to sleep through it well enough to get an edge on the virus. Tomorrow: chocolate for miles.

2007-04-08 16:45 I woke Jamie up at 8:45 by telling him that all his neighbourhood friends were waiting for him to help find chocolate Easter eggs. He told me he needed ten more minutes' sleep, but came staggering out from the bedroom in his pyjamas in just two minutes, and we were out the door in record time. It was rather chilly for the outdoor hunt: as Iain pointed out, no one was hiding any eggs under rocks, because last night's frost had frozen all the rocks to the ground. Then we all came inside for the second half of the organized (I use the word loosely) activities. I'll post the final scores for the indoor hunt when I find them, but I know that Alexandria finished in first with 32 eggs, with Daniel and Ross tied for last with 9. (There was a chocolate equalisation process at the end of the hunt, to make sure everyone went home happy.)

I know all our neighbours brought over food as well as their kids, I can't really remember at this point who brought what, as I'm blitheringly tired and off for a nap momentarily. Kristen had Liam out for the afternoon at the Second Cup so I could work on more lecture notes; Jamie disappeared into Gary and Ayami's basement at the end of the party and hasn't been heard from since.

2007-04-08 22:24 (Kristen) Liam's cold has continued unabated, with cough and runny nose. His tooth has just about reached the surface, so much that I can feel it poking around underneath the surface. It was a hard day to be Liam. However, once the tooth is through, he should be feeling better (if only until the next one). He slept for two hours at the Second Cup (yay!) letting me get some work done while I was conscious, which I appreciated. We came back home, did a few things, and then I realized that I'd left my laptop bag at our local bookstore. A phone call revealed that it was still there (thank you, world!) and Liam and I raced back for it. We came home again, picked up John and Jamie, and went to meet John's aunts and parents at the Silk Road for Easter dinner. It was a very nice evening, and we had fun running home, playing tag all the way. Jamie went to bed easily, and Liam is having more trouble. He is chewing on his hands and crying, and I hope that he'll go to sleep soon.

2007-04-09 23:29 (Kristen) We had another rough night last with Liam, and I'm getting used to the sleep deprivation, if not coping entirely well with its effects. I was a bit of a zombie this morning, and can't quite recall what I did. Liam slept a bit, and after he woke up and had a nurse, choked a bit on some phlegm and threw up all over himself. We called Dr. Kennedy at that point, even though he was fine afterwards, and likely happy for having rid himself of a lot of phlegm that was probably making his tummy upset. I took the opportunity to look into his mouth to see that the bottom tooth we've been watching has finally poked through the gum. Poor dear. Jamie watched Anpanman this morning, and has been virtually inseparable from John all day. It's "Papa! Play with me!" All Day, and John was definitely first pick for Jamie's team today.

John took Jamie with him on an errand, and Liam slept for me for two hours while I worked at the Second Cup. He likes sleeping upright in the stroller right now, which is unsurprising. Dr. Kennedy pronounced him healthy in that he has a virus and nothing that requires antibiotics, and that his ears and chest are clear. Yay! We came home and the boys played while I cleaned and John did some work. He didn't get as much work done as he would have liked, unfortunately, because Jamie kept wanting to spend time with John, and was very insistent about it. Dinner was at Browning, where Ross was introduced to Anpanman too, and Liam spent time with Tom, which he enjoyed greatly. They are both in bed now, and Liam is still very restless. I hope that we get more sleep tonight, as I have not gotten much work done, either paying or trip prep, and tomorrow promises to be insanely busy.

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

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