Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 0

2007-09-04 25:25 (Kristen) I'm thinking that I need to write this earlier in the evening, when all the great things that the boys have done are clearer in my mind. I know that lots of hugs and kisses were given to willing recipients, and that they were both very good children. Liam likes the box that one of his presents came in, and both boys had fun sitting in it at different points. Jamie is fighting something and so was pokey today, and we decided not to push him. Ken took Liam for a walk, and Jamie came with me, John, and Tai-Tai on some errands before we came home and I picked up Liam.

We had a good time playing outside before dinner; I blew bubbles, and five little boys tried to catch them. All three Martin boys loved the bubbles, and Jamie and Liam did too. The look on Liam's face when he saw them was quite wonderful. He also liked looking at airplanes. We have no toy airplanes in the house (having foolishly invested all our money in trucks, cars, and trains), and will have to do something about this soon. A funny incident today was when I was reading a book to him tonight (he was very insistent that I do so; he is very interested in books), and pointed out that the dog in the photo had a ball in front of it, and wanted to play. Liam burst out laughing, in delighted little peals, and it was quite marvellous to see him both understand and find something funny all on his own in an abstract way. He is very clear in his own way about what he wants and what he doesn't want, and now can point the way to where he wants to go if he needs a Big Person Conveyor.

Jamie watched a lot of television, and played video games. On the way home from the bank today, he and John stopped at our local karate dojo to see the black belt class do some forms. Jamie stayed there, watching, for fifteen minutes, and would have stayed longer if they hadn't had somewhere they had to be. We have a coupon for a week of free classes, and will likely try it out when Jamie's settled into school; we think that he'll like it a lot. He'll likely be quite good, too; John was showing Jamie how to throw someone behind you forward over your shoulder, and doing a dive roll when Jamie pulled down on his arm. Jamie, naturally, thought that this was The Best.

2007-09-05 22:38 (Kristen) Frequent readers of this blog will know that I've been saying for quite some time now that Liam's front tooth should be through any day now. Well, it's been making a liar out of me for some time now, and I'd had enough. To make things worse, the tooth was looking...well...strange. Not enough to cause immediate concern, but it looked almost like there were two teeth: a big tooth, and a little one. Either that, or the bumps on it were ginormous. When John went to see our family dentist this morning, after dropping off Jamie at Hakobune, Liam and I tagged along. I was gratified, on a certain level, to find out that my Mummy Senses were tingling appropriately, after the receptionist had told me that it was likely just some obstruction or other thing that was making the tooth come in slowly and oddly (our concerns, as you might guess, are not much different than most parents with teething, unhappy children, wishing that Something Could Be Done). Dr. Da Costa looked at it, and immediately said that we needed an x-ray. Liam did not like the x-ray, and loathes people looking inside his mouth, but we managed to get a x-ray which showed that Liam has a supernumerary tooth (an "extra") at the midline. It is unclear, however, if it is fused to the neighbouring tooth, or if it separate enough that it can be removed, and allow the bigger tooth to move into its natural position. Liam has an appointment for two weeks from now with Jamie's pediodentist* for a closer look. Dr. Da Costa called it a milk tooth at one point, and I joked that it was how Liam got out of his egg. He laughed, and said "pretty much." It's all within acceptable realms of normal, in that it won't cause him too much discomfort, and isn't threatening to his well-being. It's a funny thing, though, and I'm certainly going to trust my Mummy Senses more in future.

Liam fell asleep for a bit afterwards as I walked him around the Eaton Centre, which waas close by. Actually, he stayed wide awake but crabby inside, despite California rolls and a trip to watch the fountain, but fell asleep the instant we hit the outside. I did manage to buy him some cute little sneakers at H&M, and some new jeans (he's too big for the old ones now; I'm having to dig through the 18-month sizes, because he's almost too big for the 12 month things!). After getting a bit of work done at a coffee shop, John and Jamie picked us up and we headed for home. I didn't see much of Jamie after that, as he vanished into the basement the instant we got in the door. Liam and I went out for coffee with our neighbour Betsy, and had a good time, and we also stopped to see our new neighbours Bev, Molly, and Thomas (Angus was away). When I got in, Daniel was playing video games with Jamie and Gary, and Liam was happy to see John's mom when she dropped by for a few minutes. We dragged Jamie upstairs for dinner before he went downstairs again before bathtime. Jamie has a big case of first day nerves, and was very sad a few times before falling asleep around 10:00. We had a long talk about how it was going to be all right, and it was normal to feel scared, and that he felt that way when he went to Hakobune for the first time too (I didn't see fit to remind him that he screamed every time we left him there for a *month*). Liam had some difficulty falling asleep, but both boys are quietly sawing twigs now. Tomorrow will be a big day!

I should add that our friend, Craig Rowland, returned from his trip to Switzerland with a copy of Sgartin & Fermentiin ed Ils Cots da Mercur, a history of the Romansch language and people (I'm extrapolating), done with cartoons. This is a great addition to our polyglot collection of kid books, as Jamie is always asking how to say this or that in another language. Grazia, Craig!

2007-09-06 22:15 (John) Jamie woke up in the middle of the night sobbing. I eventually made out the words "Don't let Liam in!", which didn't make much sense to me at the time, but I told Jamie it was only a dream, and he asked me why (his favourite# question these days), and I told him that we often dream about the things that we worry about during the day, and he asked me why, and I told him that this was so that we could get practice learning how to deal with them emotionally. Much later in the day, Jamie told me the rest of the bad dream, which was that for once we had let Liam win the "race" to get ready for the bathtub first, and that Jamie had to suffer the ignominy of watching his brother precede him into the tub.

I woke him up at 8:00 to change his clothes, and he burst back into tears, crying "I don't want to go to school!". We calmed him down, got him fed, watched some cartoons, and were out the door a little after 8:30 to walk with Tai-Tai to Jamie's first day at junior kindergarten. In Toronto, the public schools run an optional (but in practice almost universally subscribed) two-year kindergarten program that children may enter in the year that they turn four. Jamie has been looking forward to this all summer, though he finds it a little confusing that he is still three but allowed to go to school. The tears continued intermittently, we are told, until about two minutes after we had left Jamie in Mrs. Schofield's capable hands, and when we went to pick him up later he was bubbling with exciting stories about his morning.

I heard they read books, went outside to play in the playground, blew bubbles, and that one of his classmates asked Jamie to make a snake, presumably out of modelling clay, and Jamie obliged but then had to destroy the snake because it was too scary.

I walked with Kristen, Jamie and Liam to the subway station straight form kindergarten and saw them off on their way to Hakobune. I'll let Kristen continue from here, as I spent the rest of the day getting ready for my Scrabble tournament tomorrow.

(Kristen) Jamie told me that they read stories, sang silly songs, and there was something about pretending to be a train. I am proud to say that I did not cry myself, but had to turn my face away and let John deal with Jamie when Jamie started to cry that he didn't want me to leave him. He almost never does that. Augh! I did, however, cry before we left the house, when they reported on the news that Luciano Pavarotti died, and played the clip of him singing "Nessun Dorna" from Turandot: obvious displacement, pace Maestro.

We dropped Jamie off at Hakobune with a few minutes to spare before lunch, so that he could eat with his friends there. Liam melted down when I took him away from a toy (he'd snuck in to play while I did some administration), and fell asleep almost immediately after I put him into his stroller. He stayed asleep for an hour and a half, and I got some work done before having to find lunch, which was when he woke up. We puttered together in the fine weather before picking up Jamie and getting Jamie a bubble tea, which was his first day of school treat. Jamie was bubbling over about what a fun time he'd had at Hakobune, where he has a new routine of doing some work with the older children who are going to school too. He did some work with colours and animals, and enjoyed himself immensely. I think that he likes the mental stimulation, and with his desire to read and his love of counting and math, he's in a great place emotionally to deal with the new information coming at him.

To top off Jamie's great day, Gary was home and available to play video games for a while. We all ate dinner, during which time it was abundantly clear that Liam has a cold, and that this is the reason why he is off his food. His nose became a faucet by the end of the evening, and he had a great deal of trouble falling asleep, despite the cold medicine we gave to him. Jamie insistd on not going to the Big Carrot at 7, but decided it was necessary by 8, and so we had a very pleasant walk down and back, with a lovely encounter with the Harney-Martins on the way down, and with another one of our neighbours on the way back. Jamie fell asleep in two seconds flat, as far as I can tell, which wasn't all that surprising!

John asks me to add that Jamie was drawing pictures tonight of volcanoes erupting, and with people fleeing the lava. He was also writing letters and numbers very neatly, I should add: wonderfully well for a three-year-old, if I may say so. (/end motherbrag). It surprised John somewhat, and made me feel that all the workbooks that I did with him served some good purpose! Jamie likes to draw again, and I think that the fun he had with Becky is the reason why.

2007-09-07 25:15 (Kristen) I asked Jamie yesterday if he wanted to go back to school, and he said "yes," which was a good thing (we have a friend whose daughter announced that one day was sufficient, thank you, and that she wouldn't be going back). Jamie walked to school with me and Liam (John had left earlier in the morning to run a weekend-long Scrabble tournament), and went in without an trouble. In fact, he reassured me many times that he wasn't going to cry today. He was a little unsure of himself when he went in - where to put his backpack, and so on - and seemed a little lost, but he was in good spirits when I picked him up. We had to race to make it to Hakobune in time for lunch with his friends, and he wasn't really in a rushing mood. He was a bit off balance when we reached Spadina Station, and decided that he didn't want to go to Hakobune, and would rather go to Kennedy Station instead. By the time we got off the streetcar he was in tears, and on the corner of Harbord and Spadina, we were surrounded by UTM (University of Toronto, Mississauga campus) frosh raising money for Sick Kids. Jamie didn't notice, as he was in full breakdown about going to Hakobune, and was suddenly surrounded by lots of happy frosh trying to give him lollypops to help him feel better. It did help him to pull out of it, although he was startled by the traditional chorus (when a donation is made, which I really kinda had to, since they were cheering up my crying child and helping me out) of "We love this guy! Thank you! Mwah*! (kisses blown)" afterwards.

Once he got to Hakobune he was fine, as he always is, and Liam fell asleep for me soon afterwards, stuffed full of onigiri* (rice balls). He slept for an hour and a half, and woke up peacefully. We picked up Jamie, who was happy to see us, and who also asked to go to Yoarkdale to get bubble tea. Yorkdale, which is a long subway ride north, and is an utter pain to get in and out of with a stroller. Sigh. Shrugging, as he'd been a good kid under pressure lately, I took him and an increasingly squawky Liam. Once we were there and the bubble tea bought, we sat on a wide bench and Liam ran back and forth between us and a window display with a huge Nutcracker with flashing red lights in its hat. He squealed in delight, andhad an enormous grin on his face. We puttered at the mall, and visited their ultra-cool, women and children only, family rooms. Enormous bathrooms for strollers and moms with multiple kids, a large, bright, carpeted, main room with little kid-sized tables, nursing chairs for tired moms, change tables, and a microwave so that you can feed kids or warm up formula. Wowza*! Very cool.

It was clear that it was time to go home afterwards, and I managed to get children into the subway and home without too much disaster. We met up with Tom at Broadview, who willingly (!) tossed my children around all the way up Broadview to his street. He invited us over for dinner, which I gratefully accepted, and the boys were delighted to go. In fact, Liam arched his back and wailed when I had to separate him from Tom and was deeply displeased. He really does adore Tom.

The boys were in bed and bathed when John came home in time to lie down with us and talk about boring things so that Jamie would fall asleep. It did, of course, wake up Liam. How can two boys be so very different?!

2007-09-08 24:26 (Kristen) Today was Jamie's first day of Japanese school, bringing to three the places that he goes to learn or play every week: Jackman, Hakobune, and Nisshu Gakkuin. John had a Scrabble tournament to run today that was set up six months ago, and just couldn't get out of, so John's parents drove me, Liam, and Jamie up to his school, which is a fair distance north on the Yonge subway line. We arrived a little early, which turned out to be a very good thing, as we were able to get oriented, and Jamie was able to sit with Sora-kun, his friend from Hakobune before opening ceremonies. He was whisked off to his class so quickly that I didn't have a chance to say a formal goodbye (I was saving Liam from certain death, as usual, at the time). However, when I raced to the classroom, he was sitting with the rest of the children watching their teacher tell as story with a large puppet. "Parents? I have parents?" It was good. He had been looking like he could gear up to cry once or twice iin line, but John's mom and I managed to get him smiling and laughing first.

Afterwards, there was an hour and a half meeting for parents, which largely consisted of committee members reading printed handouts and emphasizing this or that. As it was all in somewhat technical, very rapid Japanese, I was glad to have John's mom there to listen and take notes. Also, it was hotter than the blazes in that room, and I joined a growing number of parents with toddlers outside the room in the broad, cool hallway. Eventually, the meeting was over, John's parents departed for the Market, and I took Liam to a nearby Starbuck's to wait to pick Jamie up in half an hour. When I did, I found out that Jamie was supposed to have a snack (no snack! oh no!) but that he was open and friendly in class, and while his speaking Japanese is unsure, he's willing to try to speak if given the right vocabulary. Pretty much what I thought. He has homework to do before next week, and we'll be working on that steadily throughout the week.

To celebrate an active and successful week, I took the boys to Lick's, near the Pape library, with the intent of going to the library and thn to the toy store. Jamie, however, scraped his ankle when a door shut on it, and was in some pain and distress (compounded by fatigue and overall stress). He wasn't much better twenty minutes later, and so I just called a cab to take us home. It was worth it. We trouped in, and Jamie vegged for a bit in front of the television while Liam cruised through the house and I did some cleaning. Gary eventually turned up, but not before the power went out all over the neighbourhood. We hung out for a bit, then went to Browning, where there was a gas barbque! Yay, Tom for making dinner!

Liam was utterly Tom centred all evening, making huge shrieking noises when someone tried to separate him from Tom. He did eat a little, however, which was good, as did Jamie. Both boys had a great time. Liam was very funny, as he was keeping track of everything Ross had at one point, and it took us far too long to realize that he was squawking for a straw, just like Ross, at one point. Sigh. He's such a definite character, and very aware of parity. Already. When we went home for the bath, he managed finally to fall into the bathtub reaching for a toy. I was right beside him, flossing Jamie's teeth, and pulled him out immediately, but he was awfully indignant. No psychological scarring for his mermaid adventure, however, and he got in with me and Jamie with not even a tiny screech. Jamie fell asleep almost instantly, while Liam took a little longer. Liam's cold is getting better, and mine is getting worse. Time to sleep; it'll be a long day tomorrow.

2007-09-09 24:06 (Kristen) We woke up around 9:30, which felt pretty good after our full week of early risings. Jamie had a full bowl of cereal and was proud that he ate it all. Liam fussed around with his cereal for a while before it was clear that he wanted to eat it *outside* the highchair. Arrgh. He's got a very steely will, and a clear clear sense of what he wants. He's the steel inside the velvet glove, is our Liam. I had decided the night before that I'd like to try and see John for lunch at the Scrabble club, and Jamie was into the idea when I presented it to him in the morning. However, this meant a 20-minute fight about peeing (I won; he was sheepish) beforehand, and as we still had to go to the grocery store to get some food to take with us, we arrived as lunch was ending at the tournamen.

No matter, as there was still some food left at the potluck lunch that the club had put together for the tournament players, and Jamie quickly grabbed his lunch and went off to talk with John, and to play some Marble Blast on John's computer. He ended up staying with John in the playing room during the first round of the afternoon, which he could not have done a year ago. Yay, Jamie! Liam had fallen asleep as we approached the community centre, and stayed asleep for some time. When he woke up, he had fun eating pasta salad and running around the large lunch room. I should mention, now that I think of it, that it was a rainy day when we left home, and Jamie got lots of comments on his fabulous fireman raincoat, rain boots, and umbrella. One boy kept pointing it out, he was so taken with Jamie's outfit!

During the second round of the afternoon, Jamie came back to be with me, and we wasted time pleasurably drinking Orange Crush, eating cookies, and playing with our friend Craig Rowland, who has been nicknamed "Scrabble Craig" by me, and by Jamie as well...it started out as a way to differentiate him from other possible Craigs, and blossomed. Scrabble Craig is in Jamie's good books because he plays tag. He also works out, and so is able to lift Jamie by the ankles waaaay up securely, much to Jamie's total delight. Liam enjoyed running around the wide spaces of the community centre, just as Jamie did at the same age.

When the tournament was over, we hung about to go home with John. We packed up the car, and then played in the playground out back for a half hour before heading back downtown. Jamie fell asleep at 5:51, and Liam really could have used the sleep but did not. We had ordered takeout from Babur at Jamie's request (he had asked for a curry), in honour of his first week at school (Tai-Tai's idea). Liam screeched a good deal in the car, and needed constant attention to keep from melting down before we arrived at John's parents' house (fatigue and hunger, I think). He was pretty screechy all night, but was in a better mood overall after we managed to convince him to eat. Jamie enjoyed his food, and we had a good time overall. Once home, we got the boys into the bath, and into bed. Jamie took a little while to fall asleep, but he should be in good shape for tomorrow, when we start Week #2 of Junior Kindergarten, and we start into his Nisshu Gakkuin homework.

2007-09-10 23:57 (Kristen) We had to wake Jamie up to get him to school on time, and he sleptwalked through most of the morning routine before we got out the door. The Mummy Monster chased Papa, Liam, and Jamie (the latter two of whom were riding in the wagon) all the way to school, where we arrived just as the doors opened to let the children inside. Liam enjoyed riding home with me and John in the wagon by himself, and played with me until he got too tired and fell asleep at 10:40. He slept until I woke him up at 12:05 to go to Browning for lunch (John had gone to pick up Jamie at school). Jamie had a good day, and couldn't stop talking about a book entitled "I Stink," about a garbage truck (cue mother getting online to reserve a copy at the library, sigh) that his teacher had read out loud. We didn't get too much more out of him, but he was happy. John took him shopping at Loblaws, and Ken took Liam out for a walk, so I had half an hour to myself before Jamie and John came back.

Jamie and I walked down to the Second Cup to pick up Liam from Ken, and Liam was (as I expected) wide awake, although in a good mood. I had brought books for Jamie and I to read together, which he enjoyed. Liam ran about, read his own book (Peek-a-Whoo), and charmed passers-by. We headed home finally, and Jamie asked me if we had a song that went "doodly-do, doodly0doo, doodly-doo." Through my amazing Mummy ESP (and the fact that Liam's toy plays the tune) I figured out that Jamie wanted to listen to Rondo alla Turka from Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, and dug out a CD with it on (it's pretty famous for a Mozart piece). He was happy, Liam liked it took, and we horsed about until it was time to go to Browning for dinner.

Liam continues to adore Tom; he has a routine that must be followed whenever he sees Tom at Browning. They go downstairs, play with a particular toy, then go upstairs and play "Keywhack" on the Macintosh. Then Tom does whatever Liam dictates. That's Liam's system, anyway. I was definitely chopped liver when it was time to leave, complete with arched back, a presented wrist ("talk to the wrist, because the hand is p*ssed"), and an averted face as Liam strained to be picked up by Tom again. Sigh. Liam was content enough to be my baby again soon afterwards.

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

Back to Vol. 1 No. 99, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 2 No. 1.