Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 20

2008-01-22 22:07 (Kristen) In bed tonight, Jamie just couldn't turn off his brain. He kept whispering to me about things that happened at school; that Dylan and Sam had trouble sharing a Transformer and that Dylan stomping his feet wasn't funny; that Jamie made a snake transformer that was a "boss" (gamer speak) that could fly; that he has an invisible house with a big hand on it that can fly all over the world and save people; that he wants to be a "good guy" and a superhero, but that he isn't a superhero; and on and on. Jamie is very big into things being the strongest and the best. His magic sword tonight could fly, shoot bullets, and had infinite range. He is definitely playing out a need to be more in control of his universe, but in a delightful way. It's always interesting to hear what he's going to come up with next. Odds are, guns will be involved, and bad guys. Pretty much guaranteed, actually.

Liam is pretty active in the brain department too. Today, he was insisting that the bottle of juice and the hummous have their lids on. Things should have lids on them, in Liam World. He has a very clear idea of how the universe should work, and we all exist to make it so. John asked me tonight if Jamie was ever this dictatorial, and I laughed. Oh, yeah. Yep. Some might say "still," in fact. John was like this as a baby, but it manifested as all doors and drawers must be closed. Still, we know who to blame... John was complaining that Liam would not keep his mittens on. I decided to explain to him, later in the day, that it was time for his mittens. Liam shook his head. I told him that his hands would be cold without them. He held out his hands to let me put the first one 'on, then tried to play with the second. I explained again, and he smiled and let me put his other mitten on. Hmm. Each item (hat, blanket, even getting into the stroller in the first place) was explained, and accepted with good grace. He wanted to go home to see John and Jamie, and that was why he agreed to put them on. I need conversations like that, to make up for the ten-minute fit that he pitched at lunch when it was time to go into the stroller and leave the beyblades (current obsession) behind. Explanation cut no ice then, but fatigue will do that (he was asleep two minutes after I started walking the stroller).

The boys were wired this evening, and while they ate an acceptable amount of food, they really could have eaten more. They ran around, yelled, bounced, and drove John and me ragged. I did get them both to play trains for a bit, which was good, and Liam was interested in the toys as long as I was there to sit with him. Otherwise, it was back to the television, and whatever we agreed to put on. Keeping him occupied can be quite challenging sometimes. Liam fell asleep almost instantly, but I think that Jamie only fell asleep ten inutes or so ago. I could tell, just by watching him, that he just couldn't stop thinking and imagining. I did drink all my coffee today, and didn't leave any out...perhaps he learned to make his own? ...

2008-01-23 23:25 (John) I woke up before the alarm for the first time in a while, thanks to having passed out the night before while putting Jamie to bed. Jamie was much harder to rouse, ironically because he had been up too late excitedly chatting about how much fun school was. I dragged him through the breakfast routine; he ate moderately of apples, cherries, raspberries and tamago-no-gohan. Liam woke up, typically full of morning cheer and equally typically completely lacking in appetite. With a little help from a groggy Kristen I got both boys onto the toboggan in time to make it to school on time, then returned Liam to Kristen before setting out on a long list of neighbourhood errands.

When I came back to pick up Jamie's lunch, I learned that Kristen had spent the morning ill, apparently of food poisoning. We quickly scrapped the day's plans and came up with a Plan B. This involved driving to Hakobune and thence on afternoon errands with Kristen and Liam, so that Kristen wouldn't have to spend the afternoon trying to keep Liam asleep in between being ill, and both could with luck get some sleep in the car. Far from optimal, but two of the afternoon errands were critical and could not be managed with Liam in tow, or else I would have taken the boys by subway and left Kristen in peace on her own.

We managed somehow. Liam didn't eat much, so maybe he has a touch of what Kristen has. He was curious what I meant when I told him at one point as we were getting out of the car that I was going to get my hair cut, as we were nowhere near the bath, nor was it bathtime, and in any case only Jamie and Liam get their hair cut, but when we got to Caja he was only mildly interested in what Carlos was doing to my hair once the mystery was solved.

We went back to pick up Jamie. Kristen rested downstairs while I took Liam up to play a little (okay, for 45 minutes) in the day care while waiting for Jamie to finish playing. I've been trying to acclimatise Liam to the day care, and I think he'll be okay there in March on his own. I'm pretty sure he's going to be upset the first time I leave him there though, as when I left the room to get Jamie's coat, he tried to follow me out and exhibited signs of extreme concern.

I had to go run the Scrabble club in the evening, but cut it short so as to be back in time to tuck Jamie in. I was told that Gary had played with Jamie after dinner, and that the boys had behaved themselves. I hope Kristen feels better tomorrow.

2008-01-24 22:44 (Kristen) Jamie woke up at 6:45, complaining of thirst. John now knows that when Jamie does this, it means that he's going to throw up a little after breakfast time. No school for Jamie. He spent the day, looking peaked, watching television with Liam. Liam can't watch the same thing for longer than five minutes, so he has us endlessly changing DVDs. As Jamie likes to finish episodes, we set up the little DVD player for Liam, and Jamie watched the television (not a precedent that I like, it should be known). At one point, I was unable to find two DVD cases, and a fruitless two hours was wasted looking for them until John found them filed in the living room radiator. We could have looked for YEARS and not found them. John thinks that he should have Hero of the Day honours for finding them. Liam thinks he's clever. We won't record for posterity what I think.

Liam ate a little breakfast, but was largely off his food today. We think that he might be fighting the same bug as me and Jamie, in which case he's had it for two days now (no vomiting, but very stinky diapers and much nursing). John has avoided it so far, and we hope that it will pass him by, as it's no fun. Both boys ate some dinner, and Jamie was in bed and asleep by 9:00. Liam was very restless, and was eventually convinced to eat some rice and yoghurt. It was enough, and he fell asleep around 10:10. Other than much television, it was a sick day, and there is nothing to report.

2008-01-25 23:35 (John) Jamie slept okay but was very very tired in the morning and it took Kristen and me both to get him off to school. He ate a quarter of an apple before declaring himself too tired to eat, and unusually, too tired to play. He would have stayed home too, except that it was his turn to be Mrs. Schofield's helper, and he doesn't let anything come in the way of that. He took his bedtime polar bear with him, Thomas "The Freezer" Polar Bear, for show and tell and a little moral support.

He broke down in tears when I picked him up at school, for no particular reason. We called in sick to Hakobune, and I left Kristen with the boys at home while I went in to meet with my thesis supervisor and pick up some groceries. By the time I got home, I was feeling rather ill myself, not with the stomach flu that everyone else has had, but with aches and chills. Kristen let me spend a few hours under the covers, which helped.

I helped Jamie finish writing out his Nisshu Gakuin Valentine's Day cards, one per classmate, to give to Mrs. Nishinoiri tomorrow at his last class before we leave for Mexico. Liam kept wanting to help, but I was too tired to keep both kids focused at the same time, so he went back to practising how to take DVDs out of players and put them into boxes. He's not very good at it yet.

We had dinner at Browning. Liam was a little concerned with me because I was slower on the uptake than usual, taking a few minutes for instance to realise that he was refusing to get his hands wet eating grapes and was asking for a fork. When we got home, Kristen bathed the kids, I read Jamie a bedtime story, and everyone was asleep a little on the early side.

2008-01-26 13:54 (Kristen) We picked up Jamie early at Nisshu Gakkuin, after his teacher called and asked us to pick him up because he was sick. It turns out that she was being overly cautious, which we don't mind: Jamie had eaten very little of his snack and then had lain on the floor, complaining that he was too tired to play and wanted to go home. She recognized the unusual behaviour, and called us. He was fine when he came out, and had fun "scaring" us with his Setsubun oni* mask that he had made in class. He's upstairs playing games with John, and otherwise fine. I'll think about something tempting for dinner later.

Tom observed that Liam is very "businesslike" as he goes from place to place at Browning. He has a seriousness about his play that makes you think that it is a *job*, and not play. Liam also is getting more insistent about making sure that lids are on containers; so much so that I turned to John last night and said "here's your geek." If he starts manifesting more Aspergian symptoms, I won't be surprised. At least we'll be ready to deal with them, if he does. It would explain his obsession with changing DVDs (I'm learning how to get fingerprints off them, argh), and other things. He is a boy of intense fixations, but it's hard to say how miuch more he is than Jamie was. He is getting easier to talk to, though, and he is starting to understand more and more of what we say to him. If I explain what is going to happen, he is easier to get along with most of the time. The dawning of rationality...ah! He is also holding more complicated non-verbal conversations with me. Today, he came into the kitchen, took my hand, and led me into the living room, pointed at the couch, and made the sign for "nurse." I asked him if it was time for a nap (it was 12:45), and he shook his head with a smile, but allowed me to take him up to bed for a nap without a murmur. We are communicating better and better, which is such a relief.

2008-01-26 23:54 (John) At around 16:30, we dropped the boys off at Browning for the evening, then drove 90 minutes to Dundas for a book launch party for a book that Kristen copyedited (Vol. 10 of the collected letters of Florence Nightingale). The boys were enthusiastic about the idea, and still in fine spirits when we picked them back up around 22:30, although everyone was quite tired and Liam was for some reason missing his pants. Everyone's safely asleep now, and we're planning a quiet day of getting ready for Mexico tomorrow.

2008-01-27 23:54 (Kristen) We all slept in today, which was a very good idea. Liam was owly straight out of the gate, and Jamie was relatively all right, but pale and tired. The kids had breakfast, and then we took them out for a walk around 1:00 when it was clear that if we didn't, one of those things that they tell you not to do when you're a parent or the Law will Look Unkindly Upon You would happen. Liam fell asleep, and Jamie enjoyed reading books with me and doing homework with John at the Second Cup. Liam woke up after about two hours, and ate some breakfast cookie. John took the kids to play while i got stuff for dinner, and we went home.

Once home, John figured out that Liam isn't all that interested in what is on the DVD player as much as he is trying to figure out how to change the DVDs by himself. Which, of course, he isn't allowed to do. So, he had John help him as John got more and more mystified as to why Liam wanted to change the DVD just as the episode was starting. This is the boy who took five weeks to bloody mindedly learn how to operate a beyblade. We aer in trouble, and I took great pleasure in reminding John how much Liam is like him. He is so very very like his dad. I expect to come home someday and find that Liam has taken the fridge apart, just to see how it works. Jamie played with Gary and Ayami, and Ayami played a little with Liam too. Dinner was far too late, and the kids were just about psycho by the time it was ready for eating. John looked at me with that bright, glassy-eyed look that parents get, and said "Isn't it time for the kids to go to bed?" We had them in the bath by 7:30, and in bed by 8:00, and Jamie crashed out very quickly. Liam, of course, was the madman, and it took half an hour in the dark, and some wrestling, for him to fall asleep around 9:45. Sigh.

2008-01-28 22:54 (Kristen) Liam and I slept in until 10 today, after he woke up at 6:10 and seemed chirpy. It was still dark, fortunately, so he decided to go back to sleep and I did too. It meant that we were a little off today, but fortunately caught up on our sleep. I haven't had a cup of coffee since Wednesday, since I wasn't feeling well, and the side effects are general sleepiness and trouble staying up at night. Liam has been having trouble falling asleep the last few nights, and won't do so until he has wriggled and flopped and done some baby yoga, while nursing. He loves being able to ask to nurse (in sign), by the way... Then, it must also be pitch black for him to finally take about half an hour to settle down. He's always fallen asleep in minutes before this, and with the light on while I read something as he fell asleep. This may be over. I remember Jamie going through a phase where he could take close to 45 minutes to fall asleep, in the dark, and this may be Liam's tipping point.

Jamie was very tired after school, and we spent the afternoon at home for the most part. The boys ate a good deal, which was nice to see, and were not completely fixated on the television. We went to the grocery store around 4:00, and that went well. Jamie and Liam were fascinated by the Imaginex Fisher-Price dinosaurs which roar and walk when you press a button (OK, they were pretty cool), and they decimated an order of California roll while we were there. Dinner was at Browning, and was enlivened by the presence of Peter, Leslie, and Simon. We had a good discussion of Liam's latest developments (more in the beyblade saga), and how he has a scorched earth temper (seen at dinner, when I wouldn't let him hold a glass of juice by himself) when he isn't allowed to do things his way. I mentioned that I expect to come home one day and find he's dismantled the stove, and Michelle laughed, volunteering that it would more likely be the computer and wouldn't that be Not Good. Yep. You heard it here first.

Bedtime went well, with the exception of my having to take Liam into another, darker room to put him to sleep. He is quiet now, and I hope that he'll let me have a shower before waking up again.

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

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