Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 7

2007-10-23 09:53 (John) I often ask Jamie in the morning if he had any interesting dreams. Today he said he dreamt that he was a sparrow, flying around before returning to the nest, where Mommy (also a sparrow) fed him some fish. Papa sparrow and Liam sparrow were out sparrow shopping.

Mainly for the benefit of Laraine, who is coming to help look after the kids while I am in Mumbai next month, here is our morning routine. 7:45: I get up, get dressed and ready to go out. 8:15: Wake up Jamie, if he is not already up. If he wakes up earlier, he can play computer games or watch YouTube videos of Marble Blast Gold levels. Remind Jamie to pee, ask him what he wants for breakfast. Most days it's Jam Toast (grape-blueberry jam and margarine on either English muffins or light rye bread) or Honey Toast (substitute honey for jam, let him pour the honey with help, don't forget to spread it evently) with half a plastic cup of apple juice. Some days it's tamago no gohan or ochazuke or waffles. 8:25: Make sure Jamie is downstairs and eating. 8:40: Tell Jamie he has five minutes left before departure, in case he had planned more to play video games or watch TV. Help him get dressed for school while he is doing either. 8:45: Shoes and coat on. Don't forget Thomas The Tank Engine knapsack and an apple to eat on the way to school. Check to see if the green wagon (propped up against the side of the porch) is dry, which it usually is (if it was left propped up properly), towel it down if not. 8:50: Latest safe time to leave for school. It takes seven minutes to pull the wagon to school, five minutes for an adult to walk alone, ten minutes to walk with Jamie. 9:00: School starts.

2007-10-23 19:45 (John) Jamie fell asleep in the car on the way to Hakobune. I thought it was just the rain and an early morning, but I got a call later from Mr. Sasaki, who said Jamie was running a mild fever and opted to join the little kids at nap time rather than the big kids at Japanese study. He slept all the way home, and perked up a little after Kristen gave him an antipyretic, but is still very subdued and ought to go to bed early tonight. Liam, by contrast, is over his cold and full of beans. Kristen has taken him out for a walk in the rain to burn off a little energy before bedtime. His energy, not hers.

2007-10-24 32:32 (Kristen) Jamie has taken a shine to a stuffed polar bear that we got for him this summer at the Toronto Zoo. He carries it around, and sleeps with it too. I shouldn't call it "it," I suppose: when asked if the bear had a name, Jamie responded "Thomas." John said that Jamie had asked him earlier in the day why his name (that is, Jamie's) wasn't Thomas, and John saw this as a good compromise to get the name of Thomas into the family on regular rotation.

Jamie was fine in the morning, but had a fever again by the afternoon. Over his protests, we took him home after Jackman, and he had a quiet afternoon at home. He didn't eat much until after 3:00, but was starting to do so again by dinner. Both kids were pretty high needs/energy, and John was at the Scrabble club, so I had them both in bed and asleep by 8:50. Yay, me! I almost didn't know what to do with myself!

Liam went for lunch with John over at his parents, while I stayed home with Jamie. He seems to have eaten quite a bit, and played with his grandparents. He complains when you put a shirt on him, but then says "bah!" (as in inai* inai* ba!, the Japanese peek-a-boo game) when his head emerges from the shirt. He pulls his socks and shoes off at every possible opportunity. He insists on being read to with typical Liam directness and patience. He's into everything, and like his brother will cycle through things that he is not supposed to do if he wants attention, or if it is time for bed. He loves slides with a consumiing passion.

2007-10-25 23:45 (John) Jamie slept in a little later than he's been sleeping lately, but woke up on the dot at 8:15 just as I was about to wake him up for breakfast. He seemed to be fine, and for a change we walked to school with Liam (up early after going to bed early), Mom (up early because Liam was up early) and Tai-Tai (who came over for the walk). When I went back to pick him up, he said he wanted to go home and do connect-the-dot puzzles rather than go to Hakobune, but he was otherwise asymptomatic so I noted his protest and took him to day care, with Liam along for the ride. Liam fell asleep en route, but I managed to extract him from the car, carry him up to Hakobune to drop off Jamie, then bring him back down and settle him back in without waking him up, a minor triumph. Mrs. Sasaki said that if Jamie wasn't feeling up to the scheduled field trip to the local library for kami-shibai day, she would stay behind with him to let him nap, but he was fine in the end.

Adam Logan, Evan Berofsky and Tony Leah, all going to Mumbai next month too to play in the WSC, came over for a practice session, so Kristen went to pick up Jamie for me. They came home late in the afternoon, safe, sound and happy. Kristen made dinner for everyone, then went to her monthly book club meeting, this month at the official residence of a member whose husband was recently named Provost of Trinity College.

I got the boys to finish eating their dinner. In Liam's case this just meant putting him in his highchair within reach of food and then cleaning him up afterward; in Jamie's case I bartered bites of food for pages from a storybook, because Jamie's tummy is still quite upset from his virus.

Jamie finished his Japanese homework while Liam played with Jamie's LeapPad, then Jamie played with the LeapPad while Liam played with everything that made noise. The three of us played a game of Snakes and Ladders, giving Liam the handicap of starting at the finish square and letting Jamie win in the end.

While I showered, Jamie kept Liam busy by reading and singing from bath books. I bathed the kids, ruling that for the evening Jamie would play with the bath pigs and Liam with the bath ducks, a rule that was strictly enforced by both children without further intervention from me. Liam was a little reluctant to get out of the tub, as for that matter was Jamie in his turn. Both claimed hunger at bedtime and munched on cheese while I read bedtime stories. Liam fell asleep while I sang Japanese lullabyes to him; Jamie held out for another half hour waiting for Kristen to come home, but succumbed around 22:00, just before she returned.

2007-10-26 23:30 (Kristen) For a little while, Jamie's wondered why I don't drive. This is better than his first impressions, which were that women didn't drive and men did (my mom's example set him straight on that). However, the running joke is that we shouldn't let Mummy drive the car, because she'll send the car off the bridge and into the mud (a Thomas the Tank Engine riff). Essentially true; so today, I got my learner's permit. I asked Jamie what he thought, and he said that it was good. It meant that John took Jamie to and from Hakobune while I went off to write the test, and took Liam with him for the afternoon. Yay, John!

I went with John and Liam to pick Jamie up at school, and we all went to the subway before I went off to write my test and they went to Hakobune. Jamie was tired, but in a good mood. He came racing out of class, asking if he could show me his work. I looked at it, and saw that he'd been writing in hiragana on the paper with the letter T on it. John looked at it, and realized that Jamie had written his name (with one extra character, but that's all right) in Japanese. In case his teacher thought it was scribbling, we told her what it was. She was surprised, and impressed, I think, and said that he'd told her it was Japanese but she didn't know what it was. John was impressed both with Jamie's calligraphhy, and with the fact that it was the first time that Jamie had (to our knowledge) written his name in hiragana with no assistance from anyone. We're very proud. Jamie was induced to leave the playground with a snack, but soon complained about having to walk to the subway. I suggested that he swing from cloud to cloud, as though they were monkey bars, and he gave a great peal of laughter, and notified me that he wasn't a monkey.

John told me that, after he dropped Jamie off, he was working at the computer with one hand and feeding Liam a spring roll with the other when a woman came by and commented on what he was doing, saying "A spring roll is worth 15 minutes of work time." John just smiled, but says that next time he will suggest that only parents who no longer have small children have the energy to make flippant remarks. Liam apparently slept for 45 minutes, and was happy. Liam likes to hug and kiss, and will grab your face to give you a big, full-faced baby kiss. He will also give you big hugs by wrapping his little arms around your neck and squeezing. It's very very sweet.

Liam was ready for another nap when they all got home, and I put him down for an hour and a half. Jamie conquered a very tricky level of Lego Star Wars on his own, and we had dinner at Browning. Liam had a good deal of difficulty falling asleep, but managed it finally when I fed him a whole jar of baby food. He was asleep around 11:00.

2007-10-27 23:30 (John) I thought it was a little odd earlier this month when we went to New York City how they seemed to be in full Hallowe'en mode already, but today was Jamie's first Hallowe'en party this year, at Nisshu Gakuin. Liam and Kristen slept in while I dropped Jamie off at his Japanese schoool, then dashed down to the St. Lawrence Market to do the weekly grocery shopping. I got back to school in time to dress Jamie in his squire's outfit (from Castle Keep Armour). Jamie was the only knight, but there were two Spidermans and several princesses in his class, and we met many more of the latter when his class went out to the hallway to visit with the other JK class. Then we went back into the classroom and each child was presented with his/her parent, and asked what his costume was and what his parent's name was. Most kids were to shy to answer the first question, and a surprising number claimed that their mothers were legally named Mama. Jamie asked me how to say "knight" in Japanese, but blanked, and asked me again onstage, but was able to identify my name correctly. Then the parents lined up so that the kids could trick-or-treat past them in single file, and each of the 15 children therefore received exactly 15 treats.

I brought Jamie home and rested a bit, and prepared more for my trip to Mumbai. Jamie was really really tired, as we all often are postvirally. Liam slept for most of the afternoon, and Kristen suspects he is coming down with the same thing, although he could just be living in a different time zone. My mom made dinner for us, and Kristen took Liam over to pick it up to get him out of the house for a bit. By the time we were finished eating dinner, it seemed like both kids were ready to go to sleep. Jamie was blitheringly tired, and Liam was full of manic contrarian energy, running around doing everything he knew he wasn't supposed to do. We kept them up for a bit longer so as not to have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning, and Kristen took Liam out for another walk. Jamie fell asleep at 21:45, his optimal bedtime. Liam fell asleep a little earlier, but woke up half an hour later, and Kristen is just trying to get him back to sleep now (at 22:30) after stuffing him with more food.

2007-10-28 28:18 (Kristen) Jamie was invited to a birthday party in honour of his classmate Alyssa today, and he was very excited about it. We headed out to arrive at noon, and were the first ones to arrive at the indoor playground where the party was to be held. The place was full of all the sorts of things that a four-year-old would like to play with and do, and Jamie was delighted when his best friend, Jake, showed up. He and Jake really get along, and the two of them run with Charlie, Sam, and Dylan too as a little boy pack. They seem like nice boys; I'll get to observe them more on Jamie's birthday!

John took Liam shopping while I stayed at the party. Jamie was utterly overwound, and had trouble eating pizza or cake with all the distractions around. He looked completely spent when it was time to go, two hours later, and fell aleep in the car. Liam fell asleep upstairs, and it was actually kind of quiet for a short time around here. I made dinner, the kids ate it with some protests and commentary, and then it was time for a quiet evening and bed. Jamie was asleep early, and John was too. Liam needed to wait for a poo before settling down after 10:00, but has been restless tonight. He's fighting something, so we'll see how the rest of hte night goes.

2007-10-29 24:45 (Kristen) I stayed up very late last night, and anticipated that I'd only get three or four hours of sleep before I was awakened by a child (namely Liam, although Jamie will come in for a morning hug before he goes to school in the mornings). I was very surprised, therefore, to wake up at 10:45 with a sleeping Liam beside me. Some alarm clock! He woke up at 11:00, cheerful and happy, and wanting to talk with me about all the Thomas faces on our pillow. Then we talked about our heads, and how we both had one in the right place, and tha Blue Elephant has one too. Both Blue Elephant and I got lots of big hugs and kisses, and it really felt like Liam was on a new level of development. It was very cool.

Jamie was off at school, but I, along with LIam, picked him up. We stayed for a little bit of play before going to Browning, and some of the parents came to talk with me about the birthday invitations that we sent out today. We left Parker off the list by accident, so he'll get his tomorrow. Jamie had fun playing with Sam and Jake, and then we all went to get lunch at Browning. Ken took Liam for a walk, despite the fact that there was no way that Liam was falling alseep so early, and they had a discussion about the blanket on Liam's lap: on or off? The compromise was that Liam would have the blanket off, and Ken would walk on the sunny side of the street.

Jamie made a spider for Halloween art, and is very proud of it. He was a little sad that some of the googly eyes had come off, but I assured him that it was great. He stayed with John and did Nisshu Gakkuin homework while I finished off a project at the Second Cup and picked up Liam. We visited some of Liam's fans at Book City, bought some cheese, and came home to let John have a nap. I was tired and no fun, and Liam had finally dozed off for an hour. Jamie had eaten all of John's lunch, which his mother had made, and Liam and I had picked up more on the way home. John says that Jamie seems to be over his "I'm not eating" phase, and is eating enough to fill several small children. THis is fine.

Jamie went to bed easily, after dinner at Browning, but Liam was another case entirely. As I feared, he did not want to sleep at the usual time, since his schedule was so far off, and he did not fall asleep until midnight. THis was not so good, as I am a zombie. Tomorrow, we'll get him back on track. Liam had a good time roaming the house late at night, but he was ready for bed when it finally happened.

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

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