Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 16

2007-12-25 23:45 (Kristen) John and I were in bed late last night, packing and getting everything ready for Christmas. We had instructed Jamie not to wake us before 7:30, but Liam beat us all out of bed by waking up a little after 8:00. We got the boys dressed and down the stairs, and they were delighted with the loot in their stockings. Liam, in particular, liked a little rhythm shaker shaped like an egg, and broke into cackles of pure glee when he shook it. Jamie liked the chocolate, was "whatever" with the socks, and interested in the DVD of Ratatouille, which he hadn't heard of before that time. We were expected at Browning by 9:30, so we left most of the enormous pile of loot behind and headed over to open more loot. We left a lot of presents behind unopened, due to time constraints, but given the enormous pile, we think that presents will be more appreciated this way.

Do not mistake: there was loot. Jamie got two Exoforce lego kits, which he and Gary promptly put together in the middle of the floor as people were passing gifts to each other over their heads. John reported that Jamie's last words last night before falling asleep were 'I hope that someone gets me Exoforce.' Whew! Liam enjoyed all his presents, particularly a little Buzz Lightyear toy cellphone, which he promptly lost in all the paper and presents. At least, I couldn't find it, and I hope that someone finds it as he really liked it.

We packed ourselves up and hit the highway around 2:00, after Tom looked after the boys for us while we finished dealing with the house and packing up the (very packed) car. I sat between the boys, forgetting that there isn't as much room between them as there was in our rental car to NYC. I was very compressed, but the boys were happy and tired. We watched some DVDs, and I kept Liam entertained with small objects to keep the screeches of boredom at bay. Liam slept for only 45 minutes between Toronto and Kingston, where we stopped to rest, nap, and visit with Amy, Ian, Ted, and Alice. Jamie was utterly beside himself with excitement over seeing so many of his cousins today, and had a great time playing with them. Liam liked it too, and enjoyed meeting Misty, Alice's new cat, even if his dad was allergic to the cat. More presents were exchanged, including a Pokemon DVD that we watched on the way to Ottawa.

We got to Ottawa around 8:30, which was pretty good, considering. We arrived for more presents and merriment with Jason, Jennifer, Anna, Becky, Owen, and Grammie, and the boys were delighted to be there. We came back to Grammie's not long afterwards, and put both boys to bed. Their cousins came too, and I think that the place will be a madhouse in the morning. Right now, Jamie is asleep in the pink room on the floor between Anna and Becky, and I hope that he'll be able to spend the night there. It's the first time that he's ever slept in a room without us for the night, and he's pretty tired, pretty brave, and doing really well. Liam is crashed out like a boy who only slept an hour and went to sleep at 11:00. He was exceptionally sweet tonight before bed. We hope that everyone had as good a day as we did.

2007-12-26 24:33 (Kristen) Jamie came into bed with us around 4:00 AM, which was pretty good, given everything. He went to bed tonight in the pink room with Anna, as Becky stayed at home tonight, after Anna read him a story and he got all his sillies out. There was much laughing, a you might imagine.

Everyone was up around 9:00 or later, except for John, who was up early. Breakfast was had, and then we trouped out as a clan to the mall for Boxing Day festivities. Much was bought, and fun was had. Liam was dog tired and utterly inconsolable if put down for the first hour or so, and then ate food and played at the playpark until he dropped. Jamie played too, and seemed to have a good time. We came back home, met up with Rod Matheson, and headed out for dinner and present giving with my dad and his fiancee, Elizabeth. The kids were well behaved, and the boys had a very good tim (as did we all). Jamie received a flight simulator game from my dad and Liz, and we are looking forward to playing with it. We left soon after 8:00 as the kids were going to pumpkin, and got them into bed without too much hassle. It was a good bus exciting day, and I think that tomorrow will need to be more calm for both boys.

2007-12-27 22:31 (Kristen) Liam had a rough night last night, and so did we as a result. When he woke up, he finally cleaned himself out, as I'd been hoping he'd do for almost two days, and he was much much happier. He was still volatile all day, and I think that it's because he's in a new place, and is still adjusting to all the new people. He did give his auntie Jennie a voluntary kiss last night, however, so they are getting along wonderfully, but Liam has been very clingy. That molar is still taking its time, however, and that can't help either.

It started snowing late in the morning, and kept snowing, harder and harder, all day. Jamie spent a little too much of the day watching television, as his cousins were away at a previously arranged afternoon and dinner with friends. I got him to read some books with me and do a few mazes, and he perked up. Eventually, John (who was out buying groceries and other supplies) came home with a sled, and we all headed out to a local park for a little tobogganing. Liam didn't like the snow in his face, and so we came in soon afterwards, but Mom stayed out with John and Jamie for a bit longer before coming in herself to make dinner. John and Jamie finally staggered in, covered in snow, and full of a good time.

It was a quiet evening of food and watching Ratatouille. I put Liam down early, around 8:20, and Jamie was asleep later (about 10:00). Jamie is asleep in the pink room, and John will sleep there in the other bed while Liam and I sleep in the blue room. I think that John will get a much better night tonight: Liam has woken up two times already, and I imagine that he'll do it again more than once tonight. Tomorrow, we'll see more family and keep it calm as possible.

2007-12-28 22:13 (Kristen) Both Liam and John woke up with snuffly noses today, and Liam's was running like a faucet all day. He slept terribly last night, and so we were both somewhat ragged when we got up a little before 9:00. Jamie came downstairs to join us later on, and John and Grammi crawled downstairs after 10:00. Jamie and Liam ate breakfast, and roared around the house. Jamie got a little bored because his cousins weren't around to play and romp, but happily went tobogganing with Becky, John, and Liam around noon. John reports that Becky was a big help. They came back in, tired and happy, and I fed Liam before putting him to bed for his afternoon nap. John and Jamie went off to the mall, where I know that Jamie ate a huge lunch but I know little else of what they did.

John dictates: "They went to buy Boxing Day-priced jeans for jamie and Liam, then a rice krispie square for Jamie. They helped Becky find her friend Matt, although technology didn't come to the rescue when after finding a free Wi-Fi hotspot and logging Becky onto her Facebook account on the iPod Touch, we discovered that her friend did not publish his cellphone number on his Facebook profile. They went up to the foodcourt for lunch, where Jamie ate most of a serving of chow mein, a good deal of a serving of stir-fried vegetables, and honed his knife and fork cutting skills on some General Tao's Chicken. They went to the indoor playground, where Jamie alternately ran himself ragged and came over to cool off by playing a round of Desktop Tower Defence. When they were both ready to come home, they picked up another rice krispie square for Jamie, and a Teaopia matcha latte for John, intercepted Jason and Owen on their walk over to Grammie's, and rejoined the rest of the family."

Liam only slept for 45 minutes, because he was having trouble breathing with his stuffed-up little nose. He was very easily upset for the rest of the day, and very clingy. Of course, he would go to John, who would wonder out loud why I thought that Liam was in anything but a wonderful mood. Grrr.... Family descended for dinner starting around 4:00, and we had Jennifer and her family along with my dad and Liz for dinner. We all had a great time laughing, talking, and eating, and the kids had a good time too. Liam was getting screechy around 8:00, and John and I had to laugh because he needed things done in a certain order. Says John, "He is very particular of doing things in particular places with particular utensils and particular people. He is almost ready to play Clue. And he is not careful, Colonel Mustard is going to get him in the conservatory with the lead pipe." How many control freaks can one family happily contain, anyway? Is it age over youth, or the other way around? We'll work it out, eventually, and hopefully withouth therapy or lawyers.

2007-12-29 23:23 (Kristen) I had insomnia last night, so I can report that Liam slept relatively well and didn't wake up too much--only when I finally was asleep, and would have liked to have slept some more. It was close to nine, however, and time to join the world again anyway. Jamie came down half an hour later (it's going to be hard to get him back onto a school schedule), and both John and my mom came down a half hour after that. No one around here is a morning person.

After a lazy morning doing this and that, we had lunch and headed out to spend the rest of the day at the house of our friends Badger and Jeanette, and with their sons Cameron and Nathan. We stopped off at a grocery store first, to pick up a few supplies, and John says that he heard a (very tired) Liam screeching across the cavernous, football-field-sized, busy store. Sigh. Liam was very tired, but he wouldn't sleep in the car. By the time we reached Badger's house, Liam was in full cry, and John took him by stroller around the block to get him to fall asleep. Jamie disappeared into the house to romp with Owen (he, Becky, Jen, and Jason came with my mom; Anna came with us), Cameron, and Nathan. John came by a little later with Liam, who woke up coughing just as we were settling him in the bedroom in his stroller. He had been asleep for maybe 15 minutes, and I tried to nurse him down again with no success. I was pretty sure that we'd be living in Liam's House of Hell, but I was pleasantly shocked. He was the sweetest, most easy to get along with boy for the rest of our visit. He ate well, as did Jamie, and both boys were marvellous. Liam really lightened up about interacting with other people, and was dragging Becky and my mom all over the place to play, and handing out kisses (I am told). Jamie reported that "It is fun to make a lot of noise," and he certainly made a lot of noise, but Badger and Jeanette have a martial arts studio on their main floor, and it's a fully detatched house, so it was great to be able to let the kids fully uncork inside.

Needless to say, the boys both had a fabulous time. Jamie told me tonight that he likes Uncle Badger every day: an expression of high esteem. Both boys received presents (a Melissa and Doug jungle animal puzzle for Liam and a Melissa and Doug dinosaur stamp kit for Jamie; both boys received a book, the title of which I will look up and put here later), and we had a great Chinese food meal from the nearby So Good restaurant. The adults got to hang out and chat while the boys played, and we were all happy campers as we bathed in the hospitality of good friends.

Liam fell asleep in the car about five minutes after it started moving, with the most pathetic, pro forma protest possible. Jamie fell asleep very quickly once he was in bed, too. Liam, however, has a barking cough, and has been waking himself up frequently with his own coughing, or an inability to breathe clearly. I pat his back to put him back to sleep, and he does, but the poor lamb may not have a good night ahead.

2007-12-30 24:13 (Kristen) Liam woke up relentlessly chipper and active, and both he and Jamie had fun this morning watching Backyardigans and shovelling out the back patio for my mom. Liam now loves the Backyardigans obsessively, and argues with anyone who wants to watch an episode that wasn't his choice. He spends his time holding the DVD cover to "It's Great To Be A Ghost" and points out characters as he sees them onscreen. Funny corollary is that when he saw a picture of my mom tonight, he immediately ran to look for her in the kitchen and bestowed affection upon her, after pointing the photo out.

The less said about this afternoon the better. The evening was nicer, after I had coffee with an old high school friend and bonded/vented about motherhood (she has five-year-old twins). John, Anna, Mom, and Jen looked after the boys, and I met the news that they had been good as gold with a measure of relief and intense irritation that they save the special screaming bits for me. We ate dinner with my mom's boyfriend, Rod Matheson, which was very nice. Both boys fell asleep in the car on the way home from his house, and both boys woke up and stayed up when we got them into the house. Much woe for about two hours, until we got Jamie to sleep, but Liam toughed it out until 11:00, hysterically beside himself with fatigue. He's so stubborn that we're going to have to find new adjectives to describe what he is.

2007-12-31 25:00 (John) We all woke up more or less at the same time, around 8:00. We had packed the car last night, so it took less than an hour to get everyone dressed and out the door. We had breakfast with Anna, Laraine, Rod Matheson and Mrs. Engelbrecht at Lexus, which Jamie remembered was very generous with creamers, which could be used for cup stacking practice. Jamie ate fairly well (blueberry pancakes and potatoes), Liam a little less so; both were quite excited. We then said our goodbyes and drove to pick up Becky from Jason's place, somehow squeezed her and her bags into the car, took exactly two hours to drive to Kingston (one of which Liam spent asleep), an hour and a half snacking and visiting with my brother, and another two hours to drive to Reid and Luisa's New Year's Eve party. When we arrived, only a miraculous two minutes behind schedule, Liam had been asleep for a while and Jamie was engrossed in an Anpanman video, so I stayed outside in the car with them for a little while. We all had almost too much fun at the party. Jamie said he "liked everyone there" and impressed Ruth Ohi with his patience in trying to teach her to play Marble Blast. Liam was delighted to find Tom and was mostly successful at monopolizing him. I took advantage of the presence of such a large group of playmates for my boys and hid downstairs with Reid, Iain and Jeff playing (and winning) my first game of Power Grid. We were too tired to stay until midnight, and arrived home at 23:30. Jamie had just fallen asleep, but probably knew that Gary carried him upstairs to bed. Becky stayed up until midnight to toast the New Year with Kristen, Gary, Ayami and me. I think we'll have a quiet few days now before school starts again.

(Kristen) Additional random thoughts/observations: Jamie didn't want John to get up last night after he fell asleep, and so lay across John's legs, chest, and otherwise physically did his best to fall asleep in a way that would prevent John from getting up. Liam was almost obnoxiously cheerful at Reid and Luisa's, and amused many people by walking around with his head flung back, admiring the ceiling with a huge grin on his face. Ruth Ohi loved seeing Jamie and Liam playing marble blast on my computer and John's, and that when Jamie was on his knees, Liam was exactly the same height as he was. Jamie would like Reid to live in our basement and for Gary and Ayami to move upstairs. Jamie doesn't do well with 'r' sounds sometimes, so Reid's name sounds more like "weed." Liam loves the Tyrone doll that he got for Christmas. He also stacks empty creamer cups very well by nesting them. Jamie is looking forward to playing Wii games tomorrow with Gary. Happy New Year to one and all.

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

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