Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 10

2007-11-13 22:10 (Kristen) When Jamie woke up this morning, his first question to me was "Is Papa coming home today?" I assured him that Papa was, and his next question was "Is Grammie still here?" (He knows that my mom is going home tomorrow). I said that she was, and he was happy to see her when she got up. He's going to miss Grammie, but he's also very happy to see his father again.

Jamie went off to school with me, and I experimented with leaving Liam with my mom for fifteen minutes, as he seemed to be in a good mood. He didn't burst into tears until I walked in the door, just to make sure that I knew that I wasn't allowed to go away again, even if he hadn't noticed until that moment. We did some quick errands with the car, and then I raced to the school with Liam to pick up Jamie and his friend Sam, who was coming over for lunch. Sam and Jamie got along well, if not as easily as Jake and Jamie, and Sam detailed to me all his friends, which included Jamie and some of the other members of his kindergarten "pack." Neither boy ate much, and it was a good thing, I think, that we were going to Withrow Park with Sam, Jake, and Charlie (and Jake's mom, Michelle). We were at the park for about two hours, in the end, and the boys and Liam too, exhausted themselves playing all over the park. We finally went home via Book City, where Grammie picked us up and took us home. John had called at that point to say that he was on the way home, and so we waited outsdie, playing with Sam, Ben, and Luke, for John.

When the car pulled up with Jaohn inside, Jamie was inside but Liam was in my arms as I walked to the car. I said to Liam, "Who's that?" and Liam instantly put his hands out to John in the car. He certainly remembered his dad, and was willing for forgive and forget. He stayed glued to John for a bit, and Jamie was delighted to see his dad and the presents he brought back from England and India. John's parents came over, I fed Jamie and Liam dinner after they shared their dad's dinner too, and I think that they were ravenous after all the running about and playing thatthey did today. The boys were dead tired, and so we popped them into the bath early. Both boys fell asleep quickly once they were in bed, around 9:00, and we now start the process of normalization.

2007-11-14 22:36 (Kristen) So, as my mom's work here was done, she left this morning to go back to Ottawa. She got up with the boys, said goodbye to Jamie as he left for school, and waited until Liam returned with his dad to say goodbye to him and hit the road. The boys had some wonderful Grammie time, and are both going to miss her. When she clled tonight to say that she'd arrived safely home, I put her on speaker phone so that the boys could talk with her. Both of them were very happy to hear her voice, and Liam ran about in delighted glee when she spoke to him. Liam spent the morning in happy manic motion, and was moderately OK with being put into the car to go to the school to get Jamie. We picked up Jamie, who told us that he and Dylan had been spoken to for goofing around in gym class and having "a big accident" (falling down). Jamie likes to imitate Dylan, who likes to be silly, and the results are somewhat predictable, I think. We droppped Jamie off, and took Liam, who was very screechy, to Loblaws, where he promptly fell asleep in the car.

I slept in the car with Liam while John got groceries, and Liam continued to sleep while we went to MEC. He stayed asleep for almost two and a half hours, possibly because he was very toasty warm in his coat. We went to get Jamie, and Liam was delighted to play with the toys while we dawdled on our way out. We headed home, and John and Liam disappeared over to Browning as Liam dragged his father out for walk. Liam has been very happy to see his dad, and isn't all that thrilled when he leaves his sight. Jamie vanished to play with Gary, which was good, as I spent the rest of the night (it seemed) cleaning up after Liam. John made dinner before he dashed out to Scrabble, and I fixed the VCR (Liam had shoved something in there that wasn't supposed to be there) and then fixed it again (he had gotten a disc out of the Wii, and shoved it into the VCR on top of the tape in there). He has a positive gift for losing one piece from a toy. Be it a puzzle, a shape-sorter, or something else, there will always be one piece missing when Liam's about. And, as he likes to squirrel items away in odd places (found a shape sorter piece in the DVDs), you never can count on finding what he's hidden. He also likes to toss things into the bath when the water is in there, so I was picking out wet socks and other items tonight. I didn't have any electronic equipment near by, but am waiting for a book to be tossed sometime soon. He's a busy, busy boy.

Joh ncame home in time for a story, and both boys are asleep now. Tomorrow, we do it all over again.

2007-11-15 22:00 (John) Jamie surprised me today while he was finishing his Nisshu Gakuin homework by signing his name in katakana. I asked him where he learned to do this, and he said they gave him some katakana work to do at Hakobune. I inferred from this that the Sasakis have decided he knows his hiragana pretty well, so I tested him with a workbook page listing the 47 hiragana in random order. He rattled them off quickly, getting 43 of them right; well done, Jamie!

It's getting cold and I felt like comfort food, so I made chicken Stroganoff and cranberry sauce, which both kids enjoyed. Liam decided it was all good finger food, and his photo today reminded me of Jamie's photo from 2004-12-22.

(Kristen) I was taking Jamie and Liam to Hakobune, so I got Liam all dressed up to walk to the school to get Jamie so that he'd get some exercise first. Liam enjoyed the walk, and spent some quality time with a tree stump and a pile of leaves that easily came up past his knees. When we got to the school, we had a few minutes before Jamie was due to come out, and so we played on the playstructure in the playground. We went up to the top of the blue curly slide and came down together, and this was a great hoot. We went up again, and Liam got slightly ahead of me on the little bridge to the blue slide as I pulled myself up. He got to the top of the slide, and kept going, running over the edge of the slide. I managed to grab him by his ankle as he went over, leaving him hanging about eight feet up off the ground until I was sure enough of my grip (about half a second or so) to pull him back up. That was my big scare for his lifetime. If you're reading this Liam, many years in the future, don't you ever do that again! I mean it!

To make the day perfect, I forgot Jamie's lunch at home. Jamie was unhappy and wanted to go home for it, but I talked him into getting pizza from his favourite pizza place (right by the daycare). He finally gave in, and I got hiim a pizza with tomatoes, oregano, and basil. Mrs. Sasaki said that he enjoyed it very much, and I'm relieved. Liam and I went off for a nap and some work time, and then back to get Jamie around 4:00. John met us, and we played at Hakobune for a bit before heading out. We spent a not particularly quiet evening in, as both boys were rwound up and Liam was particularly vigorous in his desires to explore, destroy, and play with another person, but managed to have them in bed and asleep by 9:30 or so.

2007-11-16 32:45 (Kristen) John and I passed out with the kids last night, which tells you how tired we all are. Hence, a slightly later than usual blog.

It was a usual day for Jamie, with Jackman and Hakboune. He really enjoyed running down the street while shuffling his feet through the leaves. Liam was very screechy, with little or no warning or lead time before he hit full decibels, which was very trying. I later saw that an eye tooth has cut through, which would explain his mood very well. He fell asleep after I dropped Jamie off at Hakobune, and slept for almost two and a half hours. He was up a little early for him, too, which would account as well for his short patience with the people around him. I got a nice afternoon of work in, with people admiring my lovely baby who was sleeping in a very noisy Second Cup. I was a little impressed myself. We went to get Jamie at 4:00, and LIam was delighted to see his pap walk in as we played a little with Jamie.

We went to Browning for dinner, but Ross was sick with the flu and so we took some chili home and ate there instead. Gary came up to play with Jamie for a good part of the evening, and build Jamie's new Lego Exoforce kit with him. There was some Wii action, and much pursuing of Liam as he attempted to play with various bits of electronics, and hide various bits of toy. The kids were in the bath around 8:30, and I have no idea what time Jamie fell asleep, as I was fast asleep myself before 10:00. Liam slept badly, because of the tooth, I think, but we managed to get a reasonable night's sleep anyway.

2007-11-17 23:27 (Kristen) Jamie and John went off to Nisshu Gakkuin on time this morning, but were almost late because John didn't make the turnoff onto Lawrence. Apparently, he was singing along with Jamie, and was distracted. Later, in the car, Jamie forbade John to sing, because he might get them lost again, and explicitly said so. Liam and I hung out at home until John returned from the market, and then we went to Jamie's school again, which was having an open house. We got to see the music part of the morning, which was fun, and which went a long way towards convincing Liam that this was something that he wants to do too. They do a lot of singing, and vocabulary, and other things, and I was impressed with how well the teachers kept the kids under control and interested in the proceedings. Afterwards, we played a bit, the kids had a snack in the car (and Jamie admonished his father for singing), and we stopped at the Book City book sale on the way home to find a suitable present for Ho-ho's birthday.

At home, Ayami came up and played with the boys for a bit while I cleaned up the kitchen and John had a nap after playing the fridge game. Jamie was very interested in painting a dinosaur that he received for his birthday from his friend Dylan, and enjoyed doing that before we went to John's parents' house for dinner and Ho-ho's birthday party. Fun was had, and birthdays were celebrated. Liam ate twice his own body weight in food, and particularly appreciated the barbqued eel and the cherry strudel that was for dessert. When we got home, Jamie went to play with Gary, and Liam and I followed. I still am not sure what happened, but the theory is that I slipped on a piece of loose carpet on the short flight down, and while Liam was fine, the big toe on my left foot is not. We don't think that I broke it, but the ligaments are very unhappy and I have bound the foot and am elevating it. Liam responded to it by crying and demanding to nurse. Jamie was very concerned, but was good. I put Liam to bed, and stayed there while John put Jamie to bed. I'm walking now, and the foot is sore, but I'll be fine tomorrow.

Gary told me that Jamie was looking at the calendar in his apartment, and noted that November has 30 days. Gary agreed. Then Jamie saw that December has 31, and said "That's a lot of days." Realizing that December has more days than November, he told Gary that he had more days in December to play with him. They are very good friends.

2007-11-18 28:54 (Kristen) I slept in with Liam for the first time in ages this morning. His teeth still hurt; poor guy. Jamie came in for a cuddle, then went off to play some video game or another. The morning was quiet, and Jamie played a good deal with Gary. In the afternoon, we took the kids to the playground for a bit (it was cold) and then to the Second Cup for hot chocolate and carrot cake. Jamie fell asleep while we were buying groceries at the Big Carrot, which was a small disaster, and was very hard to wake up when we got home. Dinner was a family affair, with John making pesto and pasta, and me making corn, cauliflower, and sausages. Jamie was too tired to eat then, but wolfed down a lot of food around 9:00. He took a while to fall asleep, and Liam didn't.

LIam continues to be busy, and to find new places to hide small bits of toy. THis drives me batty. Jamie is getting older, and his conversation is getting more and more complex and interesting. He's fun to talk with.

2007-11-19 23:42 (Kristen) Jamie's best friend is Jake, whom Jamie has declared to be very funny. He's been agitating for Jake to come over for a few days now, and knows that he'll be here tomorrow. He's very excited, and had told us that it is one more sleep until Jake comes to play. He's somewhat put out, for the first time, that he has to go to Jackman, as he'd much rather that Jake came over right away, first thing in the morning. I had to explain the sequence of events for tomorrow, since it was better for him to know what the deal was and avoid unnecessary tears.

I went to bed late last night, and so I was grateful that Liam slept in a little this morning, until close to 9:00. It was a very speedy morning, and I'm not sure where the time went, before it was time to go to Browning. John took Liam with him to get Jamie, and commented that Liam really is remakrably fast. He was halfway up the playstructure when John was stopped so that a classmate of Jamie's could quiz him as to whether or not he really was on the computer in India at Jamie's party. John said that the boy was practically slithering, and can crawl remarkably fast. Yep. Knew that one. He likes to climb the stairs so that he can take the phone of the hook by reaching through the bannister to the phone.

Jamie came home with me while John picked up Liam at the Second Cup. I worked a bit, and Jamie puttered around. He was tired and a little bored because of it. We managed to keep the house more or less clean, and John came hom with a rather underslept Liam, who woke up early on his walk today. We went to Borwning for dinner, where both boys had their usual good time and John and I fed them as much as we could (which was a lot). It was late to bed, but both boys are sleeping well now.

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

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