Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 79

2007-04-10 23:36 (Kristen) We woke up at a reasonable time today, and took Jamie to Hakobune so that he'd have some time there this week before we leave for Boston tomorrow. He told me that he had a good time without prompting, and he had fun chatting with one of his classmates as we were leaving. Liam and I had gone to Roots of Empathy today, and the kids were in really good moods. So was Liam, who was happy to show of his mad walking and sitting skillz* today. He was fascinated with a toy (a Lamaze square with handles and bells, and stuff), and spent most of the class holding it, turning it, and shaking it all about. He was cheerful and happy, and "walked" around the class, checking out the kids on his own directive. One boy had a pair of bright yellow sneakers which Liam loved, to the delight of the others. Apparently the boy doesn't like the sneakers, so maybe Liam's fascinated attention (and attempts to eat them) will make him feel better about them. I was told that Liam has developed a lot since the last time he was there, which was surprising but pleasing to hear.

I walked Liam over to Yonge and Bloor to do some errands, and then on to Hakobune to pick up Jamie. John brought chow mein and savory buns to the daycare for me so that I could have lunch (very sweet!) and then Jamie, Liam, and I headed to the library on the subway. We picked up books and CDs for the trip, and then walked to Treasure Island for one or two items. Jamie and a boy named Quinn had fun with little plastic swords that light up and make "kin! Kin!" noises all on their own; Jamie had a hard time leaving without one. John picked us up on his way home from the university, and we started to get ready to leave on our trip tomorrow. Jamie played with Lego (John made an army of robots with attack dogs, attack cats, and "shooting guns." It really is genetic). I have packed far far too much stuff, and am trying to pare it back. I'm having some trouble, however, as I'm way too tired to make decisions like this effectively. John had to go out and buy some pain-killer-free cold medication for Liam tonight, because I foolishly gave him the Tempra (with acetaminophine), which is the same pain killer as in his cold medicine. You can't mix the two: you can mix ibuprophin and acetaminaphine, which is what I had meant to do, so that he could sleep pain free and be able to breathe at the same time. He's strapped to my chest right now, and as soon as he stirs, I'll give him the new painkiller-free medicine. Arrrggghhh.

2007-04-11 23:00 (John) We slept exceptionally poorly last night even by recent standards. Liam was up, either with teething pain or gagging on post-nasal drip despite his cold medication, every hour unless Kristen sat up in bed with him on her shoulder, and sometimes even then. On the bright side, it wasn't any trouble to get up early in time to go get my haircut, because none of us had really spent any time solidly asleep.

When I got back from Caja with my hair at a more presentable length, I found Jamie at the kitchen table quietly eating breakfast, and Kristen upstairs stripping Liam down after a messy diaper change. My mom came over to take the kids outdoors and run them around (well, run Jamie around while Liam supervised from his stroller) while we finished loading up the car. We left the house at 11:30, Liam promptly melted down and we made an emergency stop at our local Second Cup and we re-departed at noon.

Liam fell asleep almost immediately, Jamie followed about an hour later. Both boys woke up in sunny moods, Jamie after 90 minutes, around Rochester, NY, and Liam about an hour later somewhere before Syracuse, NY. Liam's mood failed to hold, and we had to stop twice to get him out of the car and calmed down. At one point we figured out that he can't stand being in a carload of cheery people singing along with Fred Penner at the top of their lungs, and at another that he can be mesmerized by a finger tapping on his window. Jamie was a trooper throughout, and worked as hard as Kristen and I did to keep Liam happy.

Our room here at the Radisson in Utica, halfway between Toronto and Boston, is quite nice. There's plenty of room for the kids to run or roll around in, free wireless Internet, a pool and hot tub that we had all to ourselves, and we're looking forward to the breakfast buffet tomorrow.

I got takeout from Minar, our preferred Indian takeaway on French Road, and also bought some provisions for tomorrow at a nearby supermarket. When I got back, we wolfed down our curries and headed down to the pool. Jamie wore the blue swim goggles I got for him in Mexico, the first time he'd done so in the pool, and was delighted that he could splash as much as he liked without risk of the dreaded Water In The Eye torture. He wears his yellow life vest these days, and spends most of his time puttering about in an enthusiastic but not quite efficient dog paddle, and can climb in and out of the pool by himself.

When we got back up to the room, Jamie ate even more dinner, and I bathed the kids and Kristen put them to bed. Liam melted down in the tub; it was just a little too late and all too weird for him. Jamie was the last one to fall asleep, and I vaguely recall hearing him softly singing The Cat Came Back to himself while I dozed off.

Tomorrow we drive the rest of the way to Westford for the 2007 Boston Area (Scrabble) Tournament.

2007-04-12 23:37 (Kristen) I would be remiss if I did not thank Gary and Ayami again for looking after our house while we're gone, and John's mom for looking after the plants. It's good to have our house in good hands.

We woke up this morning after a long night's rest. Liam slept comparatively well for the first time in a long time and so, as a result, did the rest of us. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast at the hotel, and Jamie ate a good deal of pancake, waffle, whipped cream, and fruit. Liam nursed.

We piled into the car, despite the nasty and unseasonable weather, and headed off. Liam fell asleep quickly, while Jamie was quiet and played or gazed out the window until we reached Massachussetts. Jamie tried to talk with all the toll booth operators he can. Liam woke up when we stopped for gas just over the Massachussetts state line, and so we stayed at a rest stop there for about an hour while Jamie roared about and Liam had a few changes. John and I ate a little. The rest of the trip went well, and better once Liam fell asleep and I could turn around and face front again; Liam only fell asleep after he chewed my fingers to bits, and sucked on my finger for a while. Jamie watched Thomas videos, and we finally made it to the hotel through pounding rain and sleet.

Once we got ourselves established at the hotel, we ordered some food, ate, and let the kids play and roll about. We went down to the pool and let the boys burn off even more energy, and play with a boy named Kevin, who had just turned three today. When we returned to the room, Liam celebrated feeling better by eating half a jar of pears with mango and some barley cereal. Yay, Liam! Tomorrow, we go to the New England Aquarium.

2007-04-13 22:05 (Kristen) To me, traveling means getting to see new things and have new experiences. Having children hasn't changed that much: in fact, I'm much more likely to get out and see things because I think that the boys will enjoy them. Today, we got on the commuter train and went into Boston proper to the New England Aquarium. John says that some people thought that I was crazy for taking two kids on the train into the city like that, and one woman on the train said that I was "brave," which is motherspeak for "you're nuts!" Frankly, I think that staying in a hotel for three days with a toddler and an infant is an extreme sport, which I'm not up to, and I'd rather take my chances with public transit. So that's what we did.

Jamie was a little owly this morning when he woke up, likely because of the change of scenery and routine. Liam was cool. After breakfast, John drove us to Lowell, which is the nearest town with a commuter rail station, and Jamie, Liam, and I got on to go into Boston. We had a nice trip, with Liam asleep all the way. Jamie and I read some books, and looked out the window. He really likes the train, and was very excited about the trip itself. Once in Boston, we talked about the orange buffers at North Station, and got onto the T. Liam was still asleep. Finally, we made it to the Aquarium.

A number of people had said that we had to go, and I'm glad that they talked me into it. It is an amazing place. We saw the seals first, who play lazily outside the main building. Then we saw the penguins (four different species!) inside, and Jamie loved to watch them swim around, be fed, and "talk" to each other. He particularly loved to watch them swim. I had to explain the two penguins mating, and he shrugged and moved on. Ah, the wild. The centre of the aquarium is a central pillar full of coral and fish, including sea turtles, sharks, moray eels, and African pompanos. Jamie likes the lion fish, and a small display dedicated to the Boston islands shorelines, with little sanderlings, plovers, and local fish. The lobster demonstration waas ionteresting, but not as interesting as the piles of plastic interlocking fish that could be turned into shooting guns. Sigh.

We met up with our friend Pat at the aquarium, and looked around a bit more before Jamie started to display signs of overstimulation and input exhaustion. We left to get some ice cream, and a coffee for me, find bathrooms, and head back to the train station. We walked to another line to see Boston proper, and Jamie took some photographs with Pat's camera, before we realized that we were twenty minutes away from missing our train back to Lowell. We ran like bats out of hell, were incredibly lucky with our connections, and sat in our seats with two minutes to spare. All hail Mercury, god of transportation and fast feet! (Pat is a classics professor). Pat kept Jamie amused by drawing him mazes to do on the back of one of her papers, and Liam was excited and happy to be there. I seem to have done in my back getting to the train station so fast, but a good night's sleep will take care of it, as it is loosening up already.

John had gone to get dinner, and so we ate some lovely pan-Asian food in our room before starting to get ready for bed. Liam is in love with some toys that Susi Tiekert sent him, and Jamie read the Thomas the Tank Engine flap book for bed that she sent for him. Getting ready for bed was a chaotic affair, even with Pat's help, as the kids were waaaay past exhausted, as was I, and John wasn't around. Pat read Swimmy to Jamie, as a bedtime story, and then it was lights out. Ah...Liam is stirring. I must go.

John says that he will post our aquarium photos tomorrow or Sunday, as he is exhausted and needs to get to sleep as soon as he is finished working. They are legion, as fish photography with a point and shoot camera is Not Easy.

2007-04-14 25:00 (Kristen) While we had fun today, I think in future that it might be better to let Jamie rest a day between big excursions. Not that he had a bad time, or behaved badly, but because I think that he gets overstimulated, and would have a better time if he had more down time. Be that as it may, we did go back into Boston today, and we did have a good time.

We woke up and had breakfast; Susi Tiekert finally had a chance to meet Liam, which made all of us very happy. Susi and Ron have been very generous to our boys (including some wonderful gifts this trip), and it was great to have everyone make their formal acquaintance. After breakfast, we headed out to the train station. Jamie was doing well, but seemed not entirely himself: tired, perhaps, and not as excited as he was yesterday. Liam was fine. We had caught the 11:00 train, and I decided yesterday, based on our likely train time, that the Children's Museum would not be in the cards. Today was its grand reopening, and the chaos that was likely to be there would have been too much for Jamie and likely for Liam too, despite how much fun it would have been. Instead, we met up with Pat at Boston Common.

We really ran Jamie off his feet. We took him to lunch, first, where he ate most of a cream cheese bagel (and it was big) by himself. Then he ran around the playground (brass frog statues everywhere!) with Lili, the daughter of Pat's facultymate Zsuzsa, and a little boy who had brought (gasp) Ninja Turtle action figures. Jamie doesn't know a ninja turtle from a hole in the ground, but he just HAD to "share" them with the boy when he saw them. There was much playstructure climbing, and I was pleasantly impressed with the kids there, who were good at sharing, and helpful to smaller children who needed help getting up the structure sometimes. Then we walked to the Boston Public Garden across from the Common, where the book Make way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey is set. I took photos of Jamie feeding the ducks there (photos forthcoming at some point), and with the brass statues of the ducks. Jamie has the book in Japanese, and we'll make a point of reading it when we get back, and showing him the photos. We stopped for a hot chocolate and some play (Jamie makes Pat draw him mazes to do), and then headed off to do a little shopping before coming home. Jamie is good at stepping exactly where I need to be, which is an intresting gift. He fell asleep on the train and Liam was wide awake, but we managed to make it back to Lowell and off the train with a mimimum of fuss.

We came back to dinner, a small swim, and bed. Jamie has been a real star today, and I am very proud of how he's looked after his brother. Liam was fine until bed, and is labouring under some difficulty which is keeping him from sleeping. And so I must go.

2007-04-15 23:15 (Kristen) We got up for breakfast, packed up the room, and settled back to a peaceful morning. I went with the boys to the tournament room a few times, just to see what was what, and Jamie managed to get his dad to let him watch Anpanman with headphones on in the middle of the prize ceremony. That was worth a picture, but I had Liam in my arms and no chance to photograph Jamie. The boys were very well behaved, and I really have to praise how much Jamie was helpful, and how much he's grown up over the course of this trip. Liam charmed many, including Adam Logan, and was a very pleasant baby to all who came over and said hi to him.

We packed up and drove through a nor'easter to Sherrie and Gregg's house, where we'll be for the next two nights. Jamie was very wound up after his nap in the car, and both boys have had trouble settling tonight, Liam may have teething trouble again, but we'll see if the painkiller helps. The wind is howling, but we are warm. Good night.

(John) Jamie's been great this trip. We've been very, very tired, but when we ask him to remember to work extra hard at being well behaved when he's tired, which is sometimes more than we can manage ourselves. I talked him to sleep tonight (or was it vice versa), telling him what happened when we took him to Sherrie's beach last year (watching dogs pee on his sandcastle# made him toilet train himself on the spot). I've posted aquarium photos from Friday, and will post photos from Jamie and Liam's Saturday outing tomorrow.

2007-04-16 24:07 (Kristen) Whenever we come to Boston for the BAT Scrabble tournament, we like to stay with our friends Sherrie and Gregg afterwards to wind down, and have some fun time with people we've seen all weekend, but have been too busy to actually spend fun time with (that being Sherrie and Gregg). We woke up around 9:00, and Liam was somewhat crusty. Jamie has been looking forwards to people playing with him, and so both boys needed a little extra time. I got Liam to fall asleep again for an hour, which helped his mood greatly, and some of Gregg's lovely homemade oatmeal with apples helped Jamie's. Gregg made me coffee. That made me happy.

There had been a terrific storm last night, and so we put on our boots and coats to get out of the house and go down to the beach, as John promised Jamie. However, once we got there it was clear we were not spending time on thebeach. The storm surge was only two feet, but the ocean had crested the ten-foot or so ridge at the back of the beach and washed as far as the parking lot. The lot was covered in sea foam, and we were able to walk the ridge, but there was no way that we were going down onto the beach. The breakers were enormous, and awe inspiring, and we watched them with great respect, at a distance. The wind was still very cold and strong, so we headed back to Captain Dusty's for ice cream, and a romp around a local playground. I took a sleeping Liam to a local bookstore, Manchester by the Book, while John and Jamie did some shopping at the local grocery store and picked up our friendsPat and Adam at the train station. Liam, Pat, Adam, and I walked back while John drove Jamie to Sherrie and Gregg's again. We spent the rest of the day playing games (Pat made many mazes for Jamie), eating Sherrie's good food, and having a good time. I put Liam down at 10:00, and Jamie was asleep closer to 11:30, despite having no nap. We thought that he was going to fall asleep watching Anpanman, but he woke up when we moved him to a safer perch.

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

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