Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 80

2007-04-17 25:00 (John) We slept in until about 10:00 this morning, then spent the rest of the morning getting ready to leave Sherrie and Gregg's house, packing, eating yummy waffles, settling up our tournament accounts, loading the car, etc.

I am curious what Jamie will remember of our visit. I think what he likes most about the house are the giant exercise balls and collection of canes: we developed an increasingly elaborate game running them up and down the main hall. Or maybe he'll remember that they have three bathrooms: he was quite impressed and insisted on peeing in the en suite before we left.

Sherrie led us to Target and Trader Joe's to pick up some gifts to take back for my mom, and Liam fell briefly asleep in the car in the pouring rain. We hit the road again, and by the time we reached Springfield, MA, both kids were sound asleep and I was feeling pretty drowsy myself. I was worried when they both woke up half an hour before our day's destination, the Radisson Utica, but they stayed on their good behaviour and all was well.

We got a complimentary upgrade to a business suite, which has all sorts of bells and whistles that we are almost too tired to appreciate. I drove out right away to Minar to get our usual Indian takeout, then took the kids swimming in the pool when I got back. Liam was a little freaked out by the pool this time, but calmed down admiring the collection of kites they have in the skylights, and was enthusiastically flutter-kicking in the bathtub later on. It took Jamie a long time to fall asleep (at 24:30), thanks to the long nap in the car and an exciting day overall; I'm hoping he won't be too grumpy in the morning.

2007-04-18 25:00 (John) It took eight hours to drive what should have been a five-hour drive from Utica to Toronto. Bad traffic, tired passengers, tired driver - at least the weather was good! We started off the day with a hearty breakfast at the Radisson, loaded up the car (Liam insisted on riding the bellman's cart, as he's seen Jamie doing it all the time), and hit the road at noon; arrived cranky and exhausted at 20:00. Jamie spent much of the time watching Anpanman or listening to his book of Japanese children's songs; Liam was either crying, sleeping, or playing with the magical toy that Susi gave him. My mom brought over dinner, we fed the kids and got them to bed, and have been catching up on work ever since.

2007-04-19 23:01 (Kristen) As I type, Jamie is finally asleep, and Liam is bouncing up and down in the neglect-o-matic with a gleeful ferocity. Liam has slept a total of an hour to date today, after a restless night last night. I'm just grateful that he's in a good mood. Although that may not last long...

Jamie went to Hakobune today, and had a great time playing with his friends and telling them about the aquarium in Boston. Liam stayed awake with me while I worked in the beautiful weather on the steps of Knox Church, where Hakobune is. When we got back, he ended up staying at Tai-Tai and Ho-Ho's for the afternoon, helping John's mother to hang up laundry, and playing with the little girl next door. I took Liam about with me, and he melted down a couple of times when I stopped longer than he wanted me to. When Liam goes, you can't negotiate; it's time spent propitiating, until he's calm enough to go on. We met up with everyone else at home, and Jamie grabbed Gary and made him play video games and dragged me or John in to play a two person game whenever he could. Bedtime was a long, dragged-out affair, but Jamie finally was asleep by 10:30. Liam is passing out now, on my lap, and I have dim hopes for the rest of the evening.

2007-04-20 23:30 (John) Kristen passed out early with the kids, so let me see what I can remember about today. My mom came with Jamie and me to Hakobune today. She told me more about Jamie playing at her house yesterday afternoon. My dad had a bad cold, and Jamie stayed quiet so as not to wake him up, apparently having learned his lesson from the last time he woke Liam up. Jamie entertained us for most of the ride by doing a wicked impression of my dad clearing his throat, even better than I can do it. I'm so proud.

The weather was beautiful today; sunny and 20°C (68°F). Jamie helped me pull the mulch off the flower beds, and it feels like spring is really here!

When we went to Browning for dinner, Tom saw Liam for the first time in a week, and was impressed with how much his coordination and balance have improved. I fed Liam a tiny piece of my sembei*, which he found mildly interesting. Kristen told me that the blueberries that he ate at Sherrie's on Monday finally passed through him, which seems implausibly long; I suspect that he's been sneaking blueberries in the interim.

2007-04-21 24:11 (Kristen) We went en famille to the market today, and Liam refused to fall asleep in the sling. It was just too interesting to look around and see all the beautiful colours and exciting people and things. John finally put him into the stroller, and he did fall asleep for about an hour and a half. I didn't see this as I was at the Second Cup, working, but was told about it. I joined up with them at the end of the shopping trip for ice cream and pizza, and then we all traipsed back to the car.

Jamie wanted to do this and that on the way home, but we convinced him that it was time to go to Tai-Tai and Ho-Ho's by telling him that his cousins Ian and Amy were arriving soon from Kingston. "We must go there right away!" he exclaimed in delight, before declaring Ian and Amy to be his friends. It is a source of great pleasure to us that Jamie enjoys the company of his cousins (Ian, Amy, Becky, Owen, and Anna) so much. We arrived first, so Jamie made do with reading Scaredy Squirrel (a recent library find) and playing with John's mom until his cousins arrived. They romped and played while the rest of us talked or got things ready for dinner (or both). Liam watched, and visited with his aunt and uncle.

Dinner was a late Easter dinner, as we hadn't been able to get together as a family before now for it. We had read back in the blog to find that Jamie had been eating a lot more "adult" food than we have been giving Liam at the same age. So, remembering that I had dubbed Jamie "the Death of Asparagus," we gave some to Liam. Liam had no problem being the Death of Asparagus Redux. He settled back into the high chair, in almost a recumbent position, and just worked his way through two stalks. He also enjoyed the strudel filling that John gave him later. Jamie was tired, and well past tired when we got him home, but he did get his cousins to watch Anapanman with him for a bit. Jamie is in bed, having fallen asleep in about thirty seconds, and Liam is sleeping in his favourite place--my lap--and is cutting off my leg circulation.

2007-04-22 22:57 (Kristen) I was woken up by Liam around 8:30 this morning, who had been restless for some time. Turns out it was time for a major diaper change, which was fine. Liam was fussy and quite adverse to being put down for any real length of time, which made it hard for me to get much done (like eat breakfast!) in the morning. Jamie was up half an hour or so later, and we got our day underway. I had arranged to go to the Eaton Centre with Alice and the kids, so I packed up a reluctant Jamie (he was big into staying wherever he was) and Liam and headed out around 11:30.

We visited Crabtree and Evelyn (great service; thanks Auntie!) and Indigo, giving Jamie a chance to play with the train table before lunch. After lunch we visited the Apple store, which gave Jamie the joy of trying on lots of iPod earphones (a small pleasure in his life). We then came home, and went to the Riverdale Farm for our next excursion.

(John) Taking over the keyboard because Liam has called Kristen to bed.... I spent the first part of the day at home getting ready to prepare our taxes, then drove us over to Riverdale Farm to meet Kristen's client Lynn, her nieces Shannon and Tanya, and Shannon's kids Jaclyn, Matt and Lexa (spellings guessed). We checked in on the baby farm animals (piglets, calves and kids of the caprine variety), then ran the kids around a while in the park before walking back to Lynn's for dinner. After a brief attempt to get food into children and keep them quietly amused, Shannon and I gave up and took the kids back outside to the park, where they joined the rest of the neighbourhood kids who were celebrating the unseasonably warm, sunny weather. Jamie chased after the kids with sticks, Liam gnawed on sticks (only the once, I hope), Jamie climbed trees (at least as far as I could still reach him while carrying Liam on one hip), and everyone had a grand time.

Shannon wanted to get her kids to bed at a reasonable time, so we wrapped up the party at about 18:30. We thought we would see if we could catch Nobuko and Tomoko at my parents' with my still visiting brother and his family, We had to make what was supposed to be a brief pit stop at home first though, which I knew would take an hour as soon as I saw that our Aussie and Kiwi neighbours had turned our lawns into a cricket pitch. The older kids played cricket, the dads refereed, coached or minded the younger ones, and the moms chatted over tea. Everyone was barefoot except for a mock-scandalized and therefore sandal-ized Karen, and had a wonderful time. I was surprised when Jamie finally said that it was time to go see his cousins Ian and Amy.

It was 20:30 by the time we got to my parents' house, which was about when I had hoped we would be leaving to head home, but they were not quite finished eating dinner, so we let Jamie play for an hour or so before we called time. Jamie, who has been very argumentative lately when tired, couldn't quite put his heart into fighting for more play time as we got ready for bed; we have therefore discovered that an outing and three parties is enough to tire the boy out.

Liam is still struck with the newness and variety of the world. He was fascinated with the trees at Riverdale Park, with the ceilings at Lynn's house, and was generally well behaved. He ate a moderate amount of apple pie filling, though he still screws up his face like I'm trying to poison him with each spoonful. Kristen thinks he is coming down with another cold; I'm betting on a runny nose from teething.

2007-04-23 22:04 (Kristen) Liam woke up with green goop coming out of his nose, and had trouble nursing. Another cold for Liam: at least he's getting them out of the way early in life. Poor boy. Another day of Nasal Outrage as I try to wipe the green goblins from his little nose.

We had forgotten that we had arranged for Jamie to go to Hakobune today; we remembered halfway through the morning, and phoned to make our deepest apologies. Tomorrow, Hakobune for Jamie. John took Jamie around with him on morning errands, and I played with a crusty Liam. I dosed him uop with cold medicine after nothing made him happy, and that seemed to help. John says that he picked up eggs for his mom, and Jamie expressed an interest in eating one or two. He dropped off the eggs, and she made Jamie tamago no gohan* while John ran to the bank and back. Jamie ate his, and half of Sai's as well. He was obviously hungry, since we clearly don't feed him. I took Liam over to Browning for lunch, and John and Jamie met us there. Liam hoovered back some mashed tofu, and John ate Jamie's lunch, since Jamie was too full of tamago no gohan* to eat it himself. John also says that Jamie supervised Sai on the proper way to make tamago no gohan* and that when Jack walked into the room, coughing with a bad cold, Jamie warned him sternly to not give him a cold. Since Jack says this to any child with a stuffy nose who comes near him, but doesn't realize that he does this, it was very funny to us but more puzzling to Jack.

Gary played with Jamie for an hour while I did some work after lunch, and then Jamie and I walked to the Second Cup to pick up Liam from Ken, who walked him today. Jamie and I did some "work" for the first time in a week or two, and Jamie finished off a maze book. Kumon does not produce maze books as fast as this boy can finish them. Wow. He was very proud of himself. We stopped off at the Big Carrot to buy some things, and headed home as the sky started to darken ominously. Half way home, Kaboom! The skies opened up, and we had to take refuge at Jackman School. The fury of the strom was surprising in its intensity, and John called to find out if we needed rescuing (yes, we did). He came by with rain gear and the car, and gave Jamie a lift home while Liam fell asleep in the stroller to the thud of heavy raindrops as I ran home with an umbrella over me.

Dinner was at Browning, and Jamie was delighted when Gary brought his Sega Dreamcast over to play San Francisco Rush 2025. They did that, while Liam showed off his flashy new standing skills. Liam is really bored with being on the floor, and will be happy as a lark if you let him just stand. He'll stand for long periods of time, and really only needs us for balance: strength he's got in spades. He can also "walk" quite briskly to wherever he wants to be if someone holds onto his hands. I think that Liam has given up on crawling as a baby activity, and like his big brother is heading straight for walking early. We're home now, and Jamie is asleep while Liam is having some trouble doing the same. His nose is quite stuffed, and he's finding it hard to breathe as he nurses. He did wolf down quite a bit of food today, however, so I know that he's not starving.

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

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