Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 21

2008-01-29 21:20 (John) Jamie and I were trading questions in the bath tonight, at his suggestion. He asked me why it's dark in space (I explained in general terms about what makes the sky bright on Earth) and why the Earth doesn't stop spinning (I explained about the lack of friction, but that it is in fact slowing down). For my part, I asked him which of his classmates were smart (Jake), funny (Jake), strong (Jake, Dylan, Parker and Sam), fast (Zachary and Johnny), noisy (Dylan) and pretty (all the girls).

(Kristen) I should add that when I asked who was quietest, he said "Jamie!" when we were having a great deal of difficulty getting him to go to sleep, as he was "too excited" about going to Jackman tomorrow. I'm very glad that my son loves school, but somewhat bemused by how much.

John took Liam with him and Jamie to school, and then on to the Second Cup to share a breakfast cookie (to Liam's extreme delight: the world revolves completely around his dad). When he got home, we puttered around until it was time to go and get Jamie at school. John had a doctor's appointment, and so it was just me and Liam. I had thought about letting Liam play in the schoolyard, but seeing the soupy mess the melting snow had made of it, I rethought. Jamie managed to get a soaker, and it was lucky that I had a change of socks in his backpack. I changed one sock, and the new one was wet by the time we got to Jake's house. I had intended to take the boys out for lunch, since there was no lunch at Browning due to stomach flu there, but Jake's mom invited us over for lunch instead. The boys had bursts of fun interrupted by bursts of ennui, and both were a little edgy today. Liam went for a walk with Ken, who picked him up from Jake's, and John picked Liam up at the Second Cup.

Liam slept for almost two and a half hours, but was owly when he woke up and not a lot of fun for the rest of the day (many many screeches). Jamie was tired, and had trouble with anything requiring problem solving or forward motion ("When your brother turns off the television, do you call for mom or turn it on yourself?" "Call for mom!" Cue mother gritting teeth). It was the usual wrestling match with Liam at bedtime, and Jamie took a long time as well. I'll try to get more exercise into Liam tomorrow before bed, otherwise bedtime could be horrendous as it will be just me because it's a Scrabble night.

2008-01-30 24:47 (Kristen) There are the usual slew of last-minute items to take care of, but we are largely packed and ready to go. Both boys are wound up and beyond difficult, because we are getting ready to go, and that hasn't been all that much fun. John figured out tonight the reason why Jamie has been a little vague, when he isn't arguing directly with what you have asked him to do and melting down, which is that he's wound up about the trip. Perhaps Liam is just picking up on that. Who knows? It's not entertaining.

Jamie went off to school, tired and complaining, of course, because he was up too late last night being excited. Liam and I did stuff around the house that needed doing, and then took the bus to do some errands downtown. John met up with us, and we shared some lunch, and Liam did in a great, heroic quantity of grapes. This did not make him poo, however: more on that later. Liam screeched his way through Indigo, and failed to fall asleep in the car on the way home. I nursed him down a little before 3:00, and he stayed asleep for an hour an a half, with some help. Jamie melted down for 15 minutes, apparently, because even though John had stayed to help him and his friends build spaceships out of Lego, there wasn't enough time to play. Unquote. Jamie fell asleep in the car as the car was pulling into the driveway, but woke up when John brought him in.

John fled...sorry...John left the house a little after 6:00 PM to go to the Scrabble club, and Gary and Ayami came up to play with the boys before we leave. They were a big help, as I got a lot of packing done while they did. Bathtime was a nadir of the day, as both boys were not listening, and Liam finally had that poo. In the bath. He hasn't done that since he was ... oh... three months old. Or less. Cue mother levitating, and pulling both boys out at once. Squick. Squick. Squick. I cleaned up the bathroom, cleaned up the boys, and John came home in time to lie down with Jamie while I took Mr. Pitch Black and No Sound into the other room to sleep. Liam has been sleeping fitfully, but we are otherwise fine.

I should add that Jamie's teacher told me yesterday that there was a bit of a thing...she had asked the class to write their names three times, and then, after Jamie was finished, had to tell him "No, Jamie, in English." His Japanese signature is coming along fine.

2008-01-31 23:45 (John) Jamie woke up a little bit earlier and calmer than of late, and almost made it to school without rushing except that nature called at the last minute. I spent the morning working upstairs, getting ready for our trip, while Kristen tried to get the downstairs ready while looking after Liam. I picked Jamie up at school, let him run around a little longer than usual with Jake and Parker, said our goodbyes, picked up the usual Rice Krispie Square and went to Hakobune.

Kristen took Liam to Browning for lunch, then Ken took Liam out for a walk while Kristen and I ran local errands. When I went back to pick up Jamie at Hakobune, he was still unnaturally calm, even after ten minutes of horsing around in Goforth Hall with Kakeru and his brother Akira. We drove home to wait for Grammie's arrival and to finish getting ready to go. Jamie played with Gary, Liam kept Kristen busy.

When Grammie arrived, she took over playing with the boys, I made dinner out of as many remaining leftovers as possible, then went to Browning to print up boarding passes while everyone ate. We left only half an hour behind schedule, at 19:30.

Jamie fell asleep around 20:00 after trying to persuade Grammie to pretend to play MechQuest, pitting their imaginary meka* robots against evil enemies represented by the driver's seat and the rearview mirror. He had asked me earlier if the enemies in MechQuest were played by bad people in real life (pvp), and was interested when I told him how computer programs work. (Geek!) Liam on the other hand was just starting to exercise his vocal range. At about 20:30, Kristen and Laraine traded places so that Kristen could sit between the boys and use her magical maternal abilities to soothe Liam. He calmed down, but didn't fall asleep until we were close to the border, around 21:30.

We got to the Days Inn Buffalo Airport and might well have gotten the kids into bed without waking them up, except that there was a malfunction with our electronic door lock. Kristen got both boys to sleep again, and here I sit in the hall, where the WiFi works, blogging before going to bed.

2008-02-01 11:00 (John) We slept not too badly last night, considering it wasn't for long and the boys were kicky. After breakfast we started getting ready to head to the airport, checked the flight status and found that our flight to Newark had been cancelled due to what the locals call Wintry Mix (snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain, cats, dogs, etc.). We've been rebooked for early tomorrow morning and our travel insurance is generous enough that we will have trouble spending it all. I'm off to get some documentation for our claim from the airline now, everyone else is going for a swim in the hotel pool.

2008-02-01 22:24 (Kristen) The boys ate big breakfasts, and we decided to burn the calories off (and some high energy) in the pool. Jamie, who traditionally has been quite afraid of the water, really got over it today and not only swam (in a flotation device) the length and breadth of the pool, but did spinnies by himself in the middle of the water. We were very proud! Liam stuck much closer to me, and enjoyed riding around the pool on my back.

When John got back, it was lunchtime. Rather than spend the day at the hotel, we chipped out the car (quite a lot of ice) and hit the road. Jamie decided that he wanted pizza, so we found a Pizza Hut and went in. We ate well at the buffet (oddest item: pizza-style blueberry pie), and both boys again surprised us with how much food they could eat. Liam was very tired and fell asleep almost instantly when we got back into the car. Jamie was very vocal about not wanting to go to the bookstore (Talking Leaves, a very nice independent bookstore near the University of Buffalo), and fell aleep before we got there, making it moot. My mother and I had fun browsing, and got Liam 45 minutes later when he woke up and let him look through too. He knew not to touch the books, but couldn't resist in the end and melted down (while I was paying) when Grammie took a book away from him. Jamie slept for a little under an hour and a half, which was unusual for him. We hoped that we could tire him out in the pool, and took the kids there soon after our return.

Jamie showed off his new mad skillz* in the pool to his dad, and I spent an hour playing with both children while John and my mom helped out on deck. Jamie pronounced the lawn chairs "launch chairs," which sounded much cooler as in hisworld they blast off into space. Later, we ordered Indian food for delivery, and Jamie asked the delivery man where his costume was then the man was identified as such. We had to explain to him that Jamie thought that "Delivery Man" was a superhero name. On a wintery, snowy night like this, anyone who brings us food is a hero.

The rest of the vening was psent eating Indian food, watching television, and packing up for tomorrow's adventure in international travel. We are booked on a 7:20 (ish) flight out of Buffalo to Cleveland. From Cleveland we fly to Houston, and then we have 30 minutes to get onto our plane to Cancun. And the flights, we are told, are overbooked, so arrive early. We will rise at the ungodly time of 04:00 (oh-four-hundred: what does the 'oh' stand for? Oh my God it's early), go to the airport, and hope to God that the weather had improved enough for us to get off the ground and experience life in another American city. Wish us all luck.

Jamie is finally falling asleep, after John performed a "silly-ectomy". The boys are doing so very well, but are also very excited.

2008-02-02 09:15 (John) Jamie fell asleep around midnight. We all got up at 4:00 to take the hotel shuttle across the street to the airport. The desk clerk discovered that the last person to drive the shuttle took the keys home with her, and was profusely apologetic while we waited for the backup shuttle bus and moved all of our luggage over; she kept apologizing as she helped us carry the luggage to the checkin counter. I think we got there about 5:00 A.M. The counter was open, but there was no one waiting ahead of us. It took about twenty minutes to check in, because the computer refused to print our baggage tags; in the end the clerk wrote them out by hand. Security looked like it would take an hour to clear, but thanks to Liam we were whisked to the head of the line. I joked that we need to keep having kids, at least until Laraine is in a wheelchair; the parents behind us in line eventually cracked the same wise. We were selected for detailed security inspection, which helped kill some time; then spent almost the rest of our time at the Fisher-Price play gate near gate 15.

Our first flight left almost half an hour late. Jamie sketched robots for a while, then watched Anpanman videos the rest of the way. Liam slept all the way to Cleveland, and woke up fresh as a daisy. We're a bit loaded down with carry-on baggage: two strollers, five knapsacks and five "personal items". Jamie pulled my wheeled backpack for a bit until Liam insisted on taking over (and nearly burst with pride at his ability to help). Cleveland airport has quite reasonably priced Internet access ($3.99 for two hours, free for AT&T broadband customers), but almost no electrical outlets, except near payphones (where there are no seats) and at designated Internet stations (of which there are none near our gate). I'm off in a minute to go forage for food.

Our next flight takes us to Houston, with a 30-minute connection to Cancun. I'm guessing we won't make that one, and will either spend the night in Houston or maybe make the later flight, in which case I'll report at greater length. If we don't update this blog again today though, it means that we made it safely to Puerto Morelos and haven't made it to the Internet cafe. Wish us luck.

2008-02-02 21:00 (John) Our flight from Cleveland arrived in Houston 15 minutes late, with 15 minutes to make it to our flight to Cancun in another terminal. The flight attendant asked everyone to let us off the plane first and, mirabile dictu, Kristen and the boys made it from the very back of the plane to be one of the first off the plane. I followed with Laraine and the luggage, and then we waited while everyone else deplaned for the strollers to show up. I set off at a run with Jamie and one stroller piled high with luggage, followed by Kristen with Liam and a back full of backpacks, and Laraine bringing up the rear with rolling bags. Jamie and I made it about a third of the way to our new gate when we realized the others were nowhere in sight, tried phoning Kristen (no answer), then ran back asking fellow passengers if they'd seen the rest of our family. We found them eventually not too far from the original gate, where they were in the process of boarding an electric cart. We joined them, and the cart got us to our new gate two minutes after scheduled departure time. We got off with our bags (did I mention we had ten of them?) and I went to ask if the plane was still there, and was told it had left and I should go to Customer Service. We asked the very helpful cart driver to take us there, and after a brief wait I was told that we should go back to the gate because the pilot to say he was holding the plane and wanted to know where we were. The cart driver by this time knew enough to keep the engine running and took us back. The gate staff told us that this time the plane had really really left, confirming with the person who had retracted the jetway. I walked back to Customer Service and told my story to a taciturn woman of colour and a certain age, who said "I'll see what I can do" and then typed silently for 15 minutes while I did breathing exercises. Then she said "There's only one more flight to Cancun today and it's full," paused, then added with a smile "so I had to upgrade you to first class." I told her we were willing to suffer through it and thanked her profusely.

The rest of our flight went smoothly. Our luggage had arrived on the earlier flight and was waiting for us intact. My aunt and uncle had sent the Villas Shanti car for us, and I remembered enough Spanish despite the sleep deprivation and travel stress to navigate us to the house we were renting.

My parents were waiting for us with food. I think I passed out after a few bites, but remember that after I got up I took Jamie to the zocalo for our traditional ice cream.

I should add that our boys were the real stars of the day. Despite less than four hours of sleep, they were both extremely helpful and well-behaved all the way. Liam insisted on pulling my wheeled knapsack for me, and Jamie helped by carrying, pulling or dragging whatever else he could, holding Liam's hand to make sure he didn't wander off, or just keeping Liam entertained and happy whenever we were in a queue. Also, the exercise that they got running in terminals conveniently wore them out so that they were able to sleep on each of the flights, far more than we were.

2008-02-03 18:00 We all slept poorly and not long enough, though better than on the past few travel nights. We took the boys down to the beach to say hi to the fish, then back to my parents' house for breakfast. I had to spend some time speaking with their tenant and my parents, but as the first thing that Laureano told me was the WiFi password, Jamie was kept happily amused playing MechQuest. Kristen, Laraine and Liam went for a walk to the zocalo and then went home for a nap while Jamie and I went to the beach for an hour.

Thanks to Kristen's efforts in the pool in Buffalo, Jamie showed no fear in stepping into the surf, for the first year ever. Under his direction we worked through as many of our favourite sand activities as he could remember: making sandcastles#, digging two holes and connecting them underground, filling holes with water, and burying Jamie's feet. As in past years, Jamie has drifted off into a trancelike state a few times on the beach and at lunch.

We had lunch at the Ojo de Agua hotel's restaurant, which was full to capacity with vacationing Mexicans down from Cancun, and everyone eat extremely well. I napped and did housework until dinner time; everyone else watched DVDs through the hot part of the day. We're at my mom's now helping her make dinner, which is about to start.

People often injure themselves on their first day here, through a combination of relaxation or excitement with not being sufficiently attuned to local hazards. I'm sorry to say that Jamie suffered most of the injuries today, including having Laureano's cat Bush swipe him hard enough to draw blood from three cuts around his eye, and falling while running and tearing open a flap of skin on the top of his foot. He endured first aid somewhat better than he usually does, but given that past local experience has led me to treat even minor cuts aggressively with disinfection and antibiotics, it was a harrowing experience for both of us.

I had been more worried about Liam, but given that he's already gotten the knack of stepping up and down the tricky step in the living room at Nancy's, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

2008-02-03 22:00 We got the boys to bed early tonight, and followed them quickly ourselves. Liam, who has a cold, was sleeping fitfully by 20:00 and Jamie was asleep by 21:00, which is good because they'll be up with the sun around 6:30.

2008-02-04 19:30 (John) We all woke up reasonably well rested but early. The boys ate cereal for breakfast before heading out with Mom and Grammie to go shopping for tortillas and groceries. I spent an hour or two working online while doing laundry. When they came back, Jamie was a little overheated, had a touch of sunburn on his face, and a blister on one foot. Liam, whom we have had to watch like a hawk while he tries to put plastic bags over his head or chokes on tostadas, is of course totally unscathed (touch wood). Jamie played a little MechQuest while I hung up the laundry, then the boys spent a quiet siesta time (Liam may have napped just a little, Jamie did his I Spy book) while I took my mom and her friend Nancy Bell shopping in La Colonia. On the way I discovered that one of the "new" tires on my dad's old VW Beetle was nearly flat, so after a quick visit to the gas station we curtailed the rest of the planned shopping trip and headed back. I did manage to find size 17 (cm) zori for Jamie, which turned out to be a little tight.

We all headed down to the beach to cool off, and Kristen went for a snorkel with Tai-Tai. Jamie didn't want to get salt water on his scrapes so he stayed on the beach; I didn't want to lie to him that it wouldn't sting if he went swimming. Kristen took Liam in for a while, partly to wash off Liam's liquid contribution to the beach and also to cool him off.

While the boys tried to calm down and cool off at home, I took my mom to the fishermans' coop to buy fish for dinner, and also found some size 18 plastic sandals for Jamie. I hope we have something for him that fits; I've had to suffer through stays here without adequate footwear and I'm sympathetic. Oh, before I could take my mom shopping, Liam insisted on a haircut: he's decided that it's to be a daily ritual at a certain time of the day, asking me by sticking a finger in his ear.

Dinner is ready, more later.

2008-02-04 21:00 (John) I scaled the fish while Kristen tried to keep the boys away from me, then my mom fried it. As usual, the boys were ravenously hungry by 18:00, so we fed them food as quickly as it became available, and by the time they were full it was more or less time to put them to bed. They were both asleep between 20:00 and 20:30, as was I.

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

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