Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 83

2007-05-08 22:14 (Kristen) I have deadlines on my deadlines, so John (bless him) took Liam with him and Jamie on their way to Hakobune, giving me a blessed morning of work. Yay, John! Liam had a good time with his dad, and fell asleep on the way back home around 11:30. I went over to Browning for lunch while John watched Liam sleep in the car (we're trying not to wake him, in the vain hope of teaching him that sleep in long bits, rather than in little bits, is good). John brought Liam over at 12:25, and then went to get Jamie while Ken walked Liam and I got more work done at the Second Cup. Liam had a bit of a freakout when the wind disturbed him as he was tying to fall asleep (a Major Bad in Liam's books). Ken brought him to me, we settled him down, and gave him a bottle with some apple juice and water in it. Liam was happy as a clam, and so went off with Ken again and fell asleep for an hour or so. We shook our heads at that.

Liam and I did some errands, while John convinced Jamie to come home from Tai-Tai's, where they had been for an hour and a half. When Liam and I got home, we found John and Jamie curled up together on the couch, watching Anpanman on John's computer. John had a nap, and then all three boys went out and played in the backyard while I made dinner. We put the boys to bed early tonight, and Jamie was asleep by 9:15. Liam didn't fall asleep until 10:30, and was a happy, kicking, giggly, fat little baby. I love fat little babies. I was telling John tonight that it didn't seem possible that we could have another person in our family as fascinating, complex, and interesting as Jamie, but we seem to have one. My universe is expanding at a tremendous rate, its boundaries pushed outwards by Liam. It seems too remarkable that Liam will be running around like Jamie, full of fun and ideas and joy, soon. Children. What a mind-blowing experience.

2007-05-09 22:22 (Kristen) Jamie woke up around 8:00, after a reasonable night's sleep. Liam had his usual restless night. I'm looking forward, in ways I can barely articulate, to the night when he does start to sleep more calmly. Last night's difficulties were due either to teeth, or to intestinal gas. Hard to say. John took both boys out with him again, which was delightful. Liam is a good boy for his dad, and it's great that he and John are getting quality father and son time. He brought Liam home for lunch, in which we discovered that Liam doesn't really like peaches; possibly the ones they use in the purees are too tart. He refused the peaches and ate the pears. Huh. I hope that this isn't the beginnings of his being a fussy eater.

I took Liam for a walk around 12:25, and he slept for maybe 45 minutes. I had kept him outside on the patio at the Second Cup, remembering how that helped Jamie to sleep better in the summer, but he was woken up by inopportune trucks and loud people. Grrr. I hope that he learns to sleep better, for longer stretches, than he does, rather than continue to catnap as he does. Jamie and John came by after Hakobune, and we spent some family time at the Second Cup before we all headed home. Jamie came in and out of the house while I did a little gardening, and Liam watched us both. Then it was over to John's parents' place for dinner, and back home. I did a little more gardening by spreading some grass seed, and Jamie enjoyed helping to spread it about a little. We came in, I drew the bath, and put a very tired Liam down. It was a long, drawn-out going to bed, but Jamie was finally asleep around 10:00. Liam woke up again, but is now asleep in his favourite, circulation-restricting position on my lap. I'll take him up soon, and try to have him lie in bed again.

2007-05-10 24:22 (Kristen) If is wasn't for Jamie, we'd have slept in this morning and missed Hakobune. Jamie woke me up at 8:45, which didn't leave much time to get dressed and have breakfast. We did make it, however, which was great. Jamie chatted with a woman on the subway and mooched some of her croissant while Liam and I looked on. Jamie tripped just outside the church, and scraped both knees. He was almost hysterical with fear that we would touch his knees, put bandages on, but the Sasakis were great at helping me to calm him down and still take care of his knees. Liam and I hung out at the university for a bit, I got some work done, and we went to Cora's for pizza before getting jamie. I remembered that Jamie liked to watch the birds at this age, and so I fed the sparrows some pizza crust. Liam was fascinated.

Jamie was a little tired, but otherwise fine. We got home, and John took Jamie out with him to buy a window-mounted airconditioner a little later. Bubble tea somehow got involved, and they were out until dinner time. Liam and I went for a walk, hung out, and did an errand or two. Both boys played in the garden until dinner, and then Liam and I went to my book club while Jamie and John stayed home. I don't know what they did (John: Bought a window air conditioner, went to Yorkdale Mall, had bubble tea and edamame* and inari*, played with the trains at Indigo, came home, made dinner, played trains, watched Anpanman videos, played Lode Runner, took a bath, read Japanese books, went to bed) , but I do know that Jamie was up and waiting for me to come hom. Sigh. Both boys are asleep now, and may be a teeeeensy bit tired tomorrow. Oh: John said that Jamie fell asleep in the car for 45 minutes, which may also explain why he fell asleep so late tonight (11:00 or so).

2007-05-11 21:48 (Kristen) I took Jamie to Hakobune today because John was up late last night and could use a little rest. That went well, and Jamie appears to have had his usual good time, despite not eating very much and being a little more tired than usual. We played with Sora-kun a little before heading onto the subway. Jamie often tells me where he wants to go next, and today we rode to the end of the line and back before getting off at Pape and going to the toy store. When we were done, we walked back towards the Second Cup, and met up with John. Liam had fallen asleep, so I sat with him while John and Jamie ran around the schoolyard. Afterwards, we went for some dinner at Browwning, and to our Scrabble friends' Geoff and Derek's apartment for a game before coming home and putting two very tired boys to bed.

Liam's crawling abilities improve apace. He has, however, given himself two blisters on his big toes, which surprised me a lot. He also likes to crawl into things, like the exersaucer, but has trouble climbing out, much to his intense displeasure.

2007-05-12 21:13 (Kristen) We slept in until 10:00 this morning, largely because we'd been running of far too little sleep for the last week or so. It meant that we were a little grumpy and off, however, which wasn't as much fun. John took Liam to the St. Lawrence market and I took Jamie to the Jackman School Spring Fair for about four hours. He wasn't all that interested in the bouncy rides (he was afraid to go on by himself, and then decided that he didn't want to go on, even with accompaniment). He did like the lollipop game and the spanokopita that I got for him. I went home at one point to get a warmer coat, and he also consented to go with me to the Second Cup to get me a coffee. On the way back to the school from the Second Cup, we stopped for about twenty minutes to play with two pomeranian dogs (Ginger and Snaps), who were just the right size for Jamie to play with and not feel intimidated. We ran into Tom, Daniel, and Ross, but\ Jamie still didn't want to go on the bouncy rides, much to Daniel's disappontment. In fact, I took Jamie home as far as Jackman and Fulton before Jamie decided that he really did want to go back, find Daniel and Ross, and ride the bouncy rides. This came at 2:53, when the fair was due to close up at 3:00. Sigh. We found the three, but ended up playing at the local playground instead until Daniel ripped his pants open on a nail.

We came home for a short time before we went out again to Babur on Queen Street for an early Mother's Day dinner. We're going to Humber Nurseries tomorrow, and want to keep the number of planned outings down tomorrow. Jamie was a little spun and Liam was happy to eat whatever came his way, incluidng a big green apple that he's been working on. We've been giving him more and more food, after reading back through the blog and realizing that Jamie was eating a much wider variety of things at this age than Liam has. Liam is enjoying the new tastes, and is actually quite irritated when he is fed something that he feels that he's had too much of. Jamie has grabbed Gary for a little video game action, which I have managed to keep him away from for most of today. Only half an hour of television and the same of video games! Woot!

2007-05-13 21:30 (Kristen) Jamie woke me up around 9:30; I'm just wiped when I get up, but I appreciated his waiting as long as he did. Liam slept a little longer, and then we had a quiet morning. I did get a lovely Mother's Day card from my boys, and Jamie gave me two portraits he'd drawn of me yesterday. John's mother was sick today, so we didn't go to Humber Nurseries, but went to our local garden centre instead. We'll try to Humber later this week.

John took the boys out so that I could get some work done, and we had dinner at Mocha Mocha, followed by ice cream from the local ice cream truck (they're everywhere now). Liam celebrated Mother's Day by pulling himself repeatedly over the course of the day from a sitting position into a standing position all by himself. He's very pleased with himself. Jamie played a little too much on the computer, and was a little spun as a result (that demon Elmo...) . We're off to bed now.

(John) Liam celebrated not only by learning how to stand up and fall over two seconds late, but by broadening his culinary horizons. At my mom's, he gnawed away at little chunks of mango, while we were driving around the only thing that would keep him quiet was some of the rice cakes Jamie was eating, and at dinner he was quite pleased with bits of avocado. Jamie for his part was the best behaved at bedtime that he has been in a long time, letting me brush his teeth and get him into the bath without a fuss, and falling asleep more or less the moment mom left us to go take her shower.

2007-05-14 15:30 (John) Liam has an eye infection. It doesn't seem to bother him anymore than anything else does, but it's worsening and this morning it took a lot of work with a warm facecloth to get his crusted-over left eye to open. We took him to see Dr. Kennedy at lunchtime, she took a swab and said it was likely either haemophilus or viral, and commented on what a cheery mood he seemed to be in for a boy who had an eye infection and the dregs of a month-long cold. I didn't point out to her that what cheered him up was the 5-minute walk down Broadview Avenue to her office, cooing at each car, truck or bus as it whizzed by.

When we got home yesterday, Jamie (as he often does) asked where Gary was. I said that he was out with his mother for Mother's Day, and then thought to ask him if he knew who Gary's mother was. He answered "Ayami" (Gary's wife), and it was all I could do to keep from laughing.

2007-05-14 15:30 (John) Jamie and Liam helped out in the garden today, as we got our seedlings planted. Well, maybe "help" is overstating the case, but Liam got Ayami to walk him around until he was hungry, Jamie did water in the seedlings for me, and it was nice having them both out in the garden.

Afterward, we went over to Browning to cook dinner, including the first fidddleheads of the season, for a group that included Peter, Leslie and Simon. The kids got along fairly well despite their different ages, and all agreed that staging train wrecks on the Brio track was hilarious.

Speaking of hilarity, lately, Jamie and I have been working on an increasingly elaborate bathtime plotline where the yellow mommy-fish ("Okaasan") and the red baby-fish ("Akachan") are under attack by the purple boy-fish ("Murasakikun") and his evil swim-goggle-robot. A few nights ago, I added the "Okaasan-gou" bath-cup-vehicle and its "Koppu-panchi" cup-punch-attack by way of homage to Anpanman, the Anpan-gou and its Nose-Punch; tonight, Jamie decided to capsize the bath-cups and I thought he was going to pass out from laughing too hard. I guess you had to be there.

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

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