Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 96

2007-08-07 20:29 (Kristen) We've been letting Liam run about in just a diaper lately, because it's just too hot for the little guy. However, he's been interested in how the sticky tape works on his disposables, and we've been putting him in shorts to discourage him from this line of inquiry. He was up, and fussy, early this morning, as Jamie and I tried to sleep beside him, and Jamie sleepily moved over beside me. aAs I was distracted from the smaller of my two sons, he removed one of the sticky tapes and so his diaper was not in place when he had what we can politely term a bowel movement. In fact, the diaper was the only pristine thing in a one-foot radius, as Liam happily explored what he had produced. I was aware of a smell, and then of a sticky little hand patting my arm. I looked over, yelled, wrapped him in a towel to imprison his hands, and ran for the bathroom. He looked like he'd discovered the secret to cold fusion, and what was my problem, anyway? Mom heard me up, came out, and helped me to peel the sheets off the bed and soak them while I gave Liam (and my arm) a rather thorough cleaning. Jamie never did this; I'd heard of kids doing this, but nothing really prepares you for the sight of your infant happily spreading his own feces around on your clean white sheets. I was very happy that our cleaning lady was coming today. Oh yes, I was. Gah.

To make life even more fun, the power was out again while this was going on. We got it back around 10:00, and have kept it for the rest of the day. This meant that laundry could be done. Thank goodness for that. Gah.

The rest of the day went more easily. Liam is walking further and further on his own, like a little, lurching, gleefully happy Frankenstein. He can turn around, walk around in a circle, and wave his hands around as he walks. He slept for a bit while we went out around 11:00 to do errands, and then has been cheerful and happy since. He definitely is feeling like his old self, because he's eating non-pureed foods and eating in larger amounts. Jamie also is feeling better. He was very tired but didn't sleep this afternoon, although ice cream at Dairy Queen might explain that. Daniel came over around 4:00, and he and Becky took Jamie to the park for an hour and a half. They came back happy and tired, and Jamie hoovered back a large meal of fish, rice, pasta with potatoes, green beans, and pesto, blueberries with yoghurt, and a lot of purple bell pepper. He fell asleep at the kitchen table as we all sat around, chatting and laughing, and let me carry him up to bed at 7:50. Liam is going strong, cheerful and happy, and I'll try to put him to bed in about an hour. It was an extremely unpromising start to the day, but it improved significantly over its course.

2007-08-08 25:31 (Kristen) I started to tell Jamie about how the people in the house were going to switch around again tomorrow; Grammie is leaving, and Papa is coming home. Jamie told me that he missed Papa a lot. He hasn't talked about it at all, but that is more of an indication of the depth of missing than not, I think. He's not happy about Grammie leaving, either. I think that he'd be happiest if everyone just stayed at our house, all the time.

We got up without incident, and had breakfast before going to Hakobune all together. We dropped off Jamie, and everyone at Hakobune was happy to see him and to see that he was feeling better. Becky, Grammie, and I hung out at the local Second Cup before going for lunch at a nearby sushi place. Liam liked the avocado rolls very much, and the california rolls too. He had a hive later in the afternoon, which may have come from the fish or the sesame seeds on the rice. We picked up Jamie, had some bubble tea, and headed home. Jamie at eall his lunch for the first time in some time. Yay!

We came home on the bus, had a quiet afternoon with some kidcam for John, and then had dinner with John's parents at the Silk Road Cafe. Jamie and Liam both hoovered back vast quantities of food, and were blitheringly tired when they got home (in fact, Jamie had almost fallen asleep on the kitchen table before we'd even left for the restaurant). Early to bed for both boys (Jamie slept for 12 hours last night! Woot!) tonight--Jamie is happy that John will be there when he wakes up tomorrow morning.

2007-08-09 23:10 (Kristen) Jamie was delighted to see John home; John reports that Jamie woke up in the middle of the night, and was happy to see John beside him. When I came in to check on Jamie this morning, he was awake beside his dad, and politely told me that he was going to stay in bed a little longer when I asked him if he wanted to go downstairs. The next time I turned around, John was going down the stairs with Jamie, beaming, piggybacked. Liam was also very happy to see his father this morning. (John: he gave forth a delighted syllable, which my paternal ears choose to interpret as "Pa!")

With John home, my mother (who has been an enormous help) was due to go back to her home, with a stop first at her sister's house just north of here. She and Becky came with us to Hakobune first, and we had a nice time wandering about before we went back to get Jamie. By the time we got home and everything was ready for her to leave it was rush hour, and so we got a few extra hours of Grammie time. She was ready for the road, but Jamie and the rest of us were selfishly, gleefully happy to get the extra time. Grammie has Becky up at Auntie Millie's with her tonight, but will return Becky to us tomorrow morning. We went on a Big Carrot outing, and came back home for a quiet evening. Gary called Jamie and got him on the phone, and Jamie's face lit up when he realized that it was Gary on the phone, even if he wasn't that talkative (he was very tired). It was early to bed, and both he and Liam fell asleep without too much trouble.

Liam is turning into a very sweet little charmer, and a woman I ran into at the bank recognized him as the baby who goes around with Ken Sagara. She waxed eloquent for a few minutes about how beautiful my sons are, and how could I disagree with her? Liam is becoming very interactive, and we are slowly starting to see his own, lovely little personality start to shine through. Liam is the best at coping with the heat of all of us, as he drops to the floor and hugs the cool wood before heading off to do whatever it was he had in mind. It's endearing. Jamie counted past 50 tonight, and can write a respectable X, Y, and V if given an example to copy. I think that he finds counting easier because no manual work is involved: learning to write is physically demanding. Tomorrow is the annual Hakobune picnic at Centre Island, and Jamie will be going off with his classmates to one of his favourite places in Toronto. We have to be there an hour earlier than usual; I have my alarm set, and am thinking of setting another one, just in case.

2007-08-10 24:58 (Kristen) Liam woke up twice last night, sat up each time, and chattered away and tried to get me up too. I managed to get him back to sleep each time with some effort; getting up at 2:30 and at 6:45 was just Not Happening. He was up soon after the alarm went off at 7:15 anyway, and Jamie was up by himself as well before being coaxed out of bed with dire warnings of missing the picnic if we were late. John drove Jamie to Hakobune, because the subway wasn't running for a while due to some emergency at St George station, and the chaos would not have been good for our chances. He reported that there were 24 children going, with two children per adult, and that Jamie was paired up with Sora-kun. Jamie too his new Thomas backpack but it proved to be too heavy for him to carry or drag about all day: apparently the backpacks with frames are like that for many children, and Jamie isn't used to carrying a backpack. However, he had a great time: when we were talking about what to dream tonight, Jamie told me that he was going to dream about going to the Island (Toronto Island, where the picnic was). I think that he had a good time.

Liam had a busy morning, which included spilling my coffee out of my (supposedly) spill-free thermos mug as we were going out the door. After cleaning up we went to the library and got me a new coffee before coming home to meet John, and Becky (who was dropped off by my mom and Auntie Millie). Becky ran off to join Daniel and Ross in an expedition to Ontario Place, and Liam and I helped John's parents get their cable fixed successfully. Liam celebrated with a nap, and John picked a tired but happy Jamie up at Hakobune around 4:00. Jamie and I played some games when he got home, and then we headed out to a party for John's university friend Andrew Platzer up in Richmond Hill. Jamie slept for twenty minutes on the way up, and Liam didn't. Liam loved the extra large backyard, and walked everywhere. He is really getting stable, and only had trouble with a small incline. Jamie ran around with another, older boy named Jamie and some other poslkids (the other boy was James John; his father was John; his mother was Christine. I stopped looking for parallels at that point, because it was weird). Liam was fascinated by the air conditioning unit beside our host's house because it blew wind in his face, and dragged John off down the street as far as the stop sign (quite a way). John got him to come back only by carrying him on his shoulders. In fact, I think that Liam was almost running--he would whip off at great speed, and fail to fall down when I expected him to. He fell asleep in the car, and has been largely asleep every since. Jamie melted down in the bath, but was in a good enough mood when he got into bed, and didn't stay awake for very long at all

I forgot to mention that Jamie received a postcard from our Scrabble friend Craig, with a picture of a Finnish commuter train and a Swiss electric train (Jamie correctly identified it as an electric train) on it. He was quite pleased with it. Liam received two shirts from my mom yesterday as birthday gifts (in advance): both are lovely, organic cotton and I'm very fond of the one with a crab on it that says "Crabby Pants." Today, Liam was the very antithesis of a crabby pants, and both boys were lots of fun.

2007-08-11 22:10 (Kristen) We were up around 9:00, I think; I forgot to check the clock when Liam woke up and got me out of bed. Jamie was happy to go downstairs and veg, waking up slowly, and Liam was ready to take on the world in seven different ways. It was a slow morning until we got ourselves together to go to the Market. It was a good shopping trip, with a train from Steve the Newspaper Guy, courtesy of John, for Jamie. Liam slept through most of the shopping. We went home, checked our fatigue levels, and decided that we'd go to Taste of the Danforth for a bit and head home. The boys enjoyed it immensely. Jamie got some bubble tea, and Liam enjoyed eating Singapore noodles and corn. When I went to buy the grilled corn ($3 an ear! It was 50 cents an ear at the Market!), Liam saw it and immediately started to fuss. When it became clear that I wasn't going to give it to him right away (it was hot enough to burn Becky's fingers), he set up an impressive howl of utter betrayal and anger that I was holding out on him in regards to the corn. I did explain that it was hot enough to burn; it didn't matter. I gave him the corn when it was cool enough and he was very pleased to have it, gnawing at it with utter abandon and a grip of steel. We met up with Daniel, Ross, and Tom, and wandered a bit until the crowds got to us and we headed home, via Browning. Finally, we went home and more or less straight to bed. Both boys are sleeping sweetly now.

2007-08-12 25:12 (Kristen) Jamie knew that Gary was returning today, and I think that he was looking forward to the return of his Lego Star Wars partner. Liam woke up at 6:45, but I managed to convince him to stay in bed until 7:45. Spurred on by my youngest, I went downstairs, made soup, and got stuff done until the rest of my family appreared, around 9:30. Becky, Liam, Jamie, and I walked to the Danforth for some groceries around 11:30, and had a snack at the Second Cup afterwards. Jamie did his "work" for the first time in a while, writing the letter "z", working on his numbers, and getting Becky to help him with a maze or two. He got separated from us for a minute or two by the Big Carrot, and we agreed not to lose each other again, as it was scary.

We ran home in the rain, with Jamie on my back (which he found hilarious), and went inside to eat quesadillas and hang out in the kitchen together. Liam liked the quesadillas, and ate a good deal of John's after having spent most of the earlier part of the day refusing food. Afterwards, it was a quiet afternoon until John, Becky, Liam, and Jamie went to John's parents ' place while I cooked dinner. Liam likes polenta too. Jamie liked John's plate of fruit.

Our neighbours are back from Australia, and we all got together in our neighbour Karen's back yard for cake, wine, and fun. It had rained for the first time in ages, and Sam, Ben, Luke, and Jamie all had a great time going down the slide in Karen's back yard and getting quite muddy at the bottom. Ben and Liam played peek-a-boo, and much fun was had by all, until Liam melted down and it was time to put the kids into the bath so that Jamie could go with John to pick up Gary and Ayami. Jamie was very very excited, but fell asleep on the DVP (unsurprising, given how much running around he did), and didn't wake up until the car pulled back into our driveway. He apparently raised his eyebrows when the car light went on and Gary belched, and said "I want...I want..." before he went back to sleep. Gary carried him inside, and put him to bed. A little while later, Jamie woke up to go to the bathroom, and to ask John when they were going to go to the airport to pick up Gary. Gary came to see Jamie, and Jamie gave him two big, serious hugs, and told Gary that he had missed him before going back to bed. Gary feels welcomed home.

Daniel and Tom are off canoeing for a few days, but we otherwise are starting to get our full complement of friends and neighbours back after their summer vacations. School isn't that far away, and Jamie's first forays into public education. It's rather exciting.

2007-08-13 21:43 (Kristen) Liam was up around 8:00, I think; it was better than usual, and he was in a good mood. He didn't like fruit for breakfast, but was very much into fish eggs and rice, so he ate breakfast for the first time in a few days. It's apparent that Liam doesn't eat when he's not in the mood for something, but could eat if you manage to guess what he's thinking about wanting. Jamie slept in, and was up closer to 9:30. I got him to change out of his pajamas much more quickly than usual by telling him that he could knock on Gary's door if he put his good morning clothes on. He was pretty fast. He had a good breakfast while he waited for Gary and Ayami to wake up, and he and Liam played with Becky from about 11:00 on, while I went upstairs and indulged in a work day. Gary and Ayami were up around 11:30, and Jamie disappeared downstairs for approximately four hours. Liam slept for three hours, and did I mention that I got some work done? It was very unusual, but very satisfactory.

Liam woke up around 2:30, and was in a fabulous mood. He and Becky are great friends, now, and he lets her carry him everywere. Becky was out at her drawing class when he woke up, but he was happy to see her when she came back. He sings out huge, loud chirps and cries when he sees people that he likes and I don't know if it's a greeting or he's calling names, but it's sweet to see. Jamie came upstairs, and at some point he and Becky were playing with Jamie's play kitchen. Becky says that Jamie wore oven mitts the entire time, the better to take his pie out of the oven, and that they drank "bubble tea" (plastic glasses with small bits of Lego in them). At one point they had a restaurant, and they set a place for "Bleah," who is evil. They may have been running an evil restaurant at one point, too. "Bleah" is another one of the cast of imaginary thousands that populate Jamie's detailed imagination.

We cooked dinner at Browning tonight, despite Tom and Daniel being away on a canoe trip, and Ayami came over too (Gary was sleeping). Jamie had a good time watching Pokemon videos with Ross, and playing in general. Before we went to Browning, he played with Becky, Ben, Sam, and Luke. Luke loves Jamie's fire engine scooter, and his mother is trying to find him one like it. In the meantime, Jamie will share a bit. He was out riding his run bike, playing on his scooter, and otherwise having a good time with the other boys. He played with Liam too, and it's wonderful to see the two of them learning to enjoy each other's company so much. They fight and bug each other, but the good parts are growing, all on their own, and I have hope that they'll be good company for each other. Liam is asleep, and I can hear a very wound-up Jamie chattering away to John in the other room. I think that he'll fall asleep very quickly, once his eyes have a chance to shut, even for a moment.

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

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