Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 5

2007-10-09 21:48 (Kristen) Liam slept well enough, I suppose, last night, but was up at 8:30, bright and manaically chipper. He's been working harder to get our attention lately, which is unfortunate in that he is less patient than he mioght be: it's the Return of the Paint-Stripper Shriek. It's been a little harsh, but I'm suspecting that it's a combination of genuine impatience and lack of sleep, mixed in with two eye teeth that are hard under his gums. After the two-tooth incident, I'm loath to predict anything about his teeth, but something is causing him to gnaw ferociously on plastic fish and to drool a little here and there.

Jamie had a good day at school, and brought home a painting that he did himself. He likes the pink colour, in particular, that he put into it. Liam and John went grocery shopping while I worked near the university, and then came by to switch off afterwards. Liam and I walked through Atticus and Wonderworks, and ducked into the Toronto Women's Bookstore to pursue a cat before we went to pick Jamie up. The three of us played with Jamie in Hakobune for about five minutes before we all headed out home. Jamie did some of his Nisshu Gakkuin homework, and John commented that doing deskwork calms Jamie down. We'll bring some along for him to do in New York.

Liam and I did a few errands along Broadview, and came home to have dinner. John's mother came over to spend some time with John, and Jamie ran off to spend time with Gary. I took a bunch of pictures of LIam wearing Jamie's baseball cap (a wonderful thing by association) and enjoyed taking it off and putting it on again. He went with John over to Browning and played with Tom while John did some printing, and was a Very Tired Boy when he went to sleep (he only slept for half an hour, and a fractious half an hour at that, and fought any further attempts to make him sleep). Jamie took much longer, complaining that he was hungry, but he was too tired to protest my long list of good reasons why he shouldn't have anything at 10:20 at night.

2007-10-10 26:40 (Kristen) Jamie came in and gave me a cuddle and a kiss before he went downstairs to have breakfast. He and John left me a note (in hiragana) requesting onigiri* (rice balls) for Jamie's lunch, in a demonstration of how writing can be useful to a person, John says. I liked the note. Jamie's more willing to have new things for lunch than he was a year ago. John and I picked him up, and I took him to Hakobune by subway. Jamie was acting out a bit -- picking the things that bug me and cycling through them -- and I asked him what the matter was. He told me that he did not play well at school. Surprised, I asked him how he felt, and he was sad. Did someone tell you that you'd not played well, I asked him, and he replied that no one had - he had felt it. Then he pointed to his chest. "I feel sad," he said. I asked why, and he said it was becuase he was tired. Hunh. I surprised him with a bran muffin (baked by our neighbour, Bev, who visited me and Liam for coffee in the morning), and that delighted him. When we got to Hakobune, I told Sensei what his morning had been like, and asked if he coulddo some quiet things. She readily agreed, and I don't know if they did them, but Jamie was in a much better mood when he came out of the daycare.

Liam was not in a great mood by that time, despite a 90-minute nap. He was very screechy, and hard to please. We stopped for bubble tea, and a great source of discontent for Liam is not getting any bubble tea. The proprietress, Michelle, gave Liam (at Jamie's request, because his brother likes straws) a pink straw, which was much narrower than the standard bubble tea straw. Well darn, if Liam couldn't drink bubble tea with no fear of choking on stray bubbles with that. One happy baby, as he shared Jamie's lichee bubble tea. Michelle is very fond of our boys, and always comes to talk with them, and gave us a tea today as a treat. Very very nice!

Jamie has a urinary tract infection, which explains his discomfort lately, and so John met us at the local pharmacy after we got word from the doctor about the infection. More antibiotics, yay! This stuff tastes like banana, so it's not Teh* Eevill*, like the erythromyacin was (yuk). We all went home, and have spent a mostly quiet time. Liam is drugged tonight, as he is in some discomfort again, and Jamie passed out pretty quickly around 9:20. I am still up, packing for our trip, and suffering from enormous anxiety as I try not to overpack as usual for the kids. We're experimenting with taking much much less, and it's giving me fits.

2007-10-11 24:59 (Kristen) I got four hours of sleep last night, but it was a good four hours. Liam slept well, and Jamie did too, despite an upcoming trip. Jamie is looking forward to being in New York City: specifically, he is looking forward to the dinosaur bones (Museum of Natural History), Grand Central Station, and the Central Park Zoo. Liam is happy to go where his brother does. John took Jamie to school, and Liam went with them, in part because I needed to do some packing and cleaning, and in part because Liam cries when he sees them go in the wagon without him. John also took Liam to the car dealership to pick up our car rental for the trip. We managed to get everything packed and into the car in time to pick up Jamie, and after a few stops and errands (including my second coffee of the day), we were on the road. Liam fell asleep soon after we got under way, and Jamie looked very tired too. However, Jamie flat out refused to sleep, despite my suggestions. Liam woke up a little past the border, and accompanied me and Jamie on a grocery store run. The next hour or so was loud, as the boys were bored and full of energy, and each wanted what the other had at any given second. Finally, we stopped just outside of Buffalo to let both boys run around for a bit, and a new Pythagoras Switch DVD (thanks, Gary!) kept both boys rapt with episode after episode of intricate marble runs made out of household items. Jamie also watched some Charlie and Lola, Backyardigans, and some of Madagascar, in which New York City figures prominently. At the hotel, we swam in the pool, ate some surprisingly good room-service pizza, and had a bath. Jamie fell asleep after much convincing that he would not have a good time in New York City if he was tired because he wouldn't sleep. Liam, on the other hand, is not quite at that level of reasoning. He explored the hotel with me until he was so tired that he couldn't get up if he fell (he'd just fall over the other way), but still dragged out his going to bed until close to midnight. He did have another hour-long nap between 5:30 and 6:30, but this was the excitement of a new place to be and explore that kept him awake. Tomorrow, I'll let him explore our new hotel and room thoroughly when we get there, rather than late at night.

2007-10-12 24:40 (Kristen) We got up after a too-short night of sleep, and after a big breakfast we headed out on the road. Jamie was over excited, and has been acting out somewhat because of it, but he settled into watching DVDs (Pythagoras Switch, Backyardigans, Madegascar). Liam played with Alphabet Pal most of the way when he was not sleeping. We made it to New York around 2:30, and were in our hotel and settled by 3:00. It is a Very Nice Hotel, designed by someone with Zen/Japanese/European "what can we do with a small space" impulses. Jamie calls it the cute hotel. We had fun exploring all the hidden nooks and crannies, and when the boys started to work themselves up, we went out.

John had already gone to work at the Scrabble tournament, so I tried to scope out the area to see what I recognized from the last time we were here. Our Japanese deli is gone (woe!) and Asahiya seemed to be gone. I got a little turned around trying to find familiar stuff, and while I knew where we should be in relation to where we were, it turned into a longer walk than I intended. Jamie, who I was having stretch his legs after a long car ride, started to complain more and more about his feet hurting and this and that. Finally, I offerd him a ride on my back. Liam was asleep again at this point. Jamie climbed on, and fell asleep too. On my back. So there I was, walking up 5th Avenue, with a kindergartener on my back, held with one arm, and pushing a stroller with another. Let it be known, by the way, that New Yorkers are helpful, pleasant, and otherwise good to people in general. I made it to a Japanese retaurant near the New York Public Library (the place I'd been looking for), and the staff let me put Jamie down on a bench while he slept and eat in the "not open for another ten minutes" area. Liam woke up soon afterwards, and slurped back half a bowl of miso soup and a few California rolls. Jamie didn't wake up until I had him next door in the Japanese bookstore, browsing. It was a hard awakening, but he kept it together.

We shopped at another Japanese bookstore, walked four blocks the wrong way, went back to see John who was half a block away from the bookstore, and came back to the hotel. Jamie was on my back most of the way again, enjoying the ride, and a passing woman said to me "Supermom!" I grinned, and the woman told Jamie that he should give me a big kiss.

Both kids were exhausted but still wound up, and it took a long time for them both to fall asleep. Jamie did some new mazes, and watched Pythagoras Switch on the DVD player in our room (big tv). He worried about this and that, and tossed and turned, but he's finally asleep. I forgot to add that he was singing "New York New York" when we set out on our walk this afternoon, very very happy, and enjoyed walking through Grand Central Station very much. He wantes to see the zebras and the lions at the Central Park Zoo. We'll try to go there on Sunday.

It's very late, and so we'll post photos tomorrow.

2007-10-13 24:39 (Kristen) We woke up after far too little sleep in a very nice room, and went to the Comfort Diner for breakfast. Ira Freehof, who owns the restaurant, is the man running the tournament that John is working at, and breakfast was part of the package. Jamie had some french toast as big as his head, stuffed with berries. He enjoyed the idea of a piece of french toast that big as much as the breakfast itself. Liam noshed on what everyone else was having. After, the boys and I headed to Kinokuniya to buy yet more books. Jamie was very adamant that we had to find a book by a particular author, who wrote a book that Jamie likes a lot, and the staff had a good time helping us out. We found two books (one about a tyrannosaur, and the other translates as "My Dad, Ultraman") that Jamie wanted, a bunch of Kumon workbooks and a few other things. Liam was in "I must destroy everything I touch" mode, which meant "Put me in my backpack and let me sleep, Mummy." So I did, and he did. Whew.

We went for lunch at a great onigiri* store that John found on West 45th street (156 West 45th, for those going to New York sometime soon), and Jamie ate two and I bought some more for later (they came very much in handy). We dropped some food off for John, and headed out to the American Museum of Natural History. The subway ride was tiring, as the New York subway maps don't tell you where the stairs are, or how long the transfers between trains in one station really are. However, Jamie liked it very much, and soon we were at the museum. We spent pretty much the whole time looking at dinosaur bones. Jamie loved the apatosaurus, and we looked at it from left, right, up, down, and all around. He also loved the enormous Barosaurus defending her baby from a ravaging allosaurus in the main lobby of the building, and Liam did too, oohing and aahing at it. Jamie asked me why he was a boy and not a dinosaur, and I explained why. I asked, and he said that if he were a dinosaur he'd be a T-Rex (we saw a wonderful T-Rex skeleton earlier). I asked if he'd eat me, and he looked at me and said "no," like I should know that. He didn't like the dioramas of modern animals, preferring to see them alive.

When we left, Jamie started melting down. He wanted to go back to the cute hotel, but I talked him into going with me to the cupcake cafe, which I thought would be nice. He liked it, kind of, but was really not himself. Finally, he fell asleep in the stroller just outside Books of Wonder. Liam was wide awake again, having napped again a short time, and walked around with me, more or less, in his own fashion, as I found a bus stop to head home. It was around 5:00, and the bus was full but not too crowded. Liam was happy with little shrieks occasionally when something wasn't perfect, but he didn't melt down (for no reason that I could tell) until 34th Street (we were going to 45th). I managed to calm him down, after taking him out of the backpack, and letting him watch out the window. When our stop came, a woman offered to help us off the bus, but stopped when she realized that the stroller wasn't empty but was full of Jamie. The bus, full of people who were watching me calm Liam down, broke into laughter as she exclaimed "There's another one! How do you do it?" and I replied "This was one of our more challenging days." She deputized her male companion to carry Jamie down, and I was left feeling warm rather than like a pariah. Nice nice place.

I woke up Jamie, who'd been asleep for close to 45 minutes, because it was close to 6 and he was in real danger of never going to sleep at night again on this trip. We all walked three blocks to the tournament hotel, Liam playing with an almost empty bottle of iced tea (plastic, of course). Liam doesn't need toys: just a box of clean recycling. Give him a plastic bottle to play with and he's happy for hours. We hung out for a bit, helped John, talked with friends, and went back with our friends Sherrie and Gregg to their room for dinner. The kids were exhausted, hungry, and bouncing off walls when Gregg and I got back from Riki, a Japanese restaurant down the street, with comfort food for all. Edamame were eaten, rice balls bought for tomorrow, and ochazuke drunk. I swear that Liam would live on green tea and rice if he could, with a little seaweed and salmon roe for variety. We went back to our room around 10:00, and the kids were in bed by 11:00. Jamie was very wound up, and took a long time to fall asleep again. I was thinking of going out tomorrow, but we may keep it very simple: it depends on the kids entirely.

2007-10-14 24:19 (Kristen) We woke up the kids as late as possible and not miss breakfast, but we were all zombies. We arrived late enough that we had to take our breakfast as takeout, which worked because it meant that John could go to work, and I could take the food back to the hotel to feed children there. While we were waiting, we sat with Sherrie and Gregg, who helped feed two hungry kids from their own plates, and Katya Lezin did as well. We ate our own breakfasts in our room, watching some DVDs (the room has a DVD player, how wonderful!). I packed up the room, and had our stuff put into storage, and got the kids out the door. Jamie was very tired, and easily overset about many things, but we managed to have fun a bit. It became very clear, however, that we were not going to the zoo after we stopped off to see John, at Jamie's request. Sure enough, Jamie fell asleep in the stroller as we reached Book Off!, and stayed asleep while I picked up some last-minute manga and onigiri* (at the next-door restaurant). Liam slept a little, but mostly enjoyed being up on my back watching the world go by.

New Yorkers like the backpack, by the way. It got many many comments.

I wandered back to the tournament, where Liam and I played and Jamie slept outside the tourney room during the last round. Jamie woke up more or less after two hours, and was groggy until he was back at the hotel to pick up our stuff. A bellman (with kids of his own) played with Jamie for a bit while we loaded up the car, and we got food to go from the Comfort Diner before heading out on the road. It was a somewhat difficult trip, as Liam was unable to fall asleep in the car, and spent a good part of the five hours we were on the road shrieking his head off in misery. Jamie spent most of the time watching DVDs but was not as happy as he could have been. We stopped a copule of times along the way to stretch our legs and to buy french fries, but didn't make it to Utica until close to 9:00. We cleaned the kids and put them to bed (Liam had slept around 8:00 for twenty minutes). THey were asleep around 11:00, I think. We're all tired, and happy to be somewhere we can sleep.

2007-10-15 25:10 (Kristen) We all slept a relatively good night last night, which was a relief. We were all a little too tired last night. I am not sure what time John woke up, but we were up around 9:00, and raced downstairs for breakfast before they stopped serving at 9:30. Jamie and Liam ate lightly, and it became clear that Liam has a cold. Poor muffin. Liam and John did mock lightsabre battles with long salt and pepper shakers, and Liam reminded us that he hams up a death very well. Jamie was just tired and easily distracted by the prospect of games somewhere, anywhere. We finished up, and got packed quickly and out the door and on the road by 11:30. Liam started to keen by 12:00, and we were afraid of a repeat of last night, but to my surprise, endless rounds of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" while I had by arms still but around him, let him fall asleep again. We'll experiment to see if this is an anomaly.

We stopped twice (once at a mall in Buffalo to buy an iTouch, yay!) , and the kids enjoyed running around. Jamie opened the door for someone, and when the person said "Thank you, little man," Jamie replied "I'm not a man, I'm a boy!" This was cause for amusement. We made it home without too much incident other than finding bathrooms for Jamie off the highway, and Jamie ended up sleeping for over two hours in the middle orf the trip. He is seriously sleep deprived. We headed over to Browning for dinner, as Tami and Ken had cooked, and we were very pleased to be there and not worry about dinner. We headed home with Gary and Ayami, and Jamie had a little time with them before bed. Both boys had a very hard time getting to sleep. Liam didn't sleep until 11:00, and Jamie until 11:30. It'll be a hard day tomorrow, but we'll try to keep everything as structured and normal as possible.

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

Back to Vol. 2 No. 4, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 2 No. 6.