Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 23

2008-02-12 21:42 (Kristen) We woke up around 6:15 to get ready for my yoga class. John was to bring Jamie and Liam along to yoga, and would look after them during class. My mom was to come and help when she was up and functional. Liam, however, slept badly last night and needed real convincing to go back to sleep at least once, when I had to take him to the window and show him that it was still dark outside before he'd go back to sleep. We got Jamie up, as he'd slept (unusually) past 6:30, and got Liam up when we were leaving the house. There was a cloudburst just as we were about to leave, and so we drove the few blocks to class so that the kids wouldn't get drowned.

We had brought the kids because Jamie is very interested in the yoga, and he was able to watch when Grammie arrived to look after Liam. Liam was, in turn, outraged about something, meaning that Grammie had to take him outside and a number of yoga students got to experience a bit of Liam's lung capacity. Jamie got to watch him mom pretzel her back for a bit (it feels much better now) and was very good. We headed back to home, and got the stroller and backpack so that Mom, Liam, Jamie and I could go out for breakfast while John went for a snorkel. Cafe d'Amancia was closed (Tuesday) but we had some coffee and some breakfast at La Pirata, across the way, as we'd seen a friend eat there with no ill effect. We have shown no ill effects ourselves as of yet. We headed back, and Liam fell asleep in the backpack on the way home. Liam was settled, and I spent some time with Jamie playing a Space Card game that I'd picked up for him in Buffalo. Each card has a planet on it, instead of a number, and colours in the corners instead of suits. We played a version of Concentration, and he was good at it and only cheated a little bit. (John: I then had to take Jamie to Casa Verde to play the Flash game Planet Pursuit, which Space Card had reminded him of, and which we hadn't played in a while.) Liam woke up after two hours, and we puttered around before heading to the beach for a joyful time around 4:00.

We ate dinner out on the patio at the Ojo, and Jamie had his enchiladas (his favourite and his best, he says). For lunch, he had eaten leftover enchiladas and leftover Hawai'ian pizza, which was the best lunch he'd eaten in the history of ever, and for which I got hundreds of heartfelt, enthusiastic thank-yous. He really really likes these things, and he eats huge meals if they're there. The running around, exercise, and fresh air must have something ot do with it too, I imagine. Liam was just blithering by the time we got home, and Jamie was too. We put the boys down, and Liam was (for once) asleep first, at 7:15. Jamie was asleep by 7:35, or so. It's been a quiet night, and quite unusual for it. We'll see what time they wake up, and what we'll have to go to tire them out tomorrow. John has to go to Cancun and has some business to attend to, and the weather report has been threatening, but we hope that all will be well.

2008-02-13 20:30 (John) Liam has a fine appreciation of order and understands well that there is a time and a place for everything. For instance, he knows that around 16:00 each day I should cut his day, either on the porch steps or on the lawn chair. If I forget, he will remind me, fetch the appropriate tools and drag me to the appropriate place. So far so good.

This afternoon, while I was taking my mom shopping in Cancun, he apparently mystified Kristen and Laraine by taking his stroller and deliberately pushing it over to the bathroom and sitting in it. Experienced parents of toddlers can anticipate what happened next, lacking only the added information that Liam was at the time roaming free to try to air out some heat rash to grasp the full horror of the situation. Fortunately the excreta were quite solid and discovered quite quickly. I am encouraging Kristen to consider this a step forward: Liam has until now been reluctant to pee or poo without his diaper on.

Jamie finished his Japanese homework a few days early this morning, to my pride and delight. I'll let Kristen blog about the rest of the day, as she and Laraine looked after the boys for most of it, leaving it to me to try to steal Best Parent of the Day award by bringing Jamie home two more Rescue Tech toys from Cancun.

(Kristen) Liam woke up crabby, and so we took him and Jamie out for a croissant at Cafe de l'Amancia around 10:30. Liam fell asleep almost instantly in the backpack, but was awakened an hour later by an noisy passing truck. An emergency walk around failed to put him back to sleep, and that was that for the day. A little later, we went to buy Jamie a souvenir from one of the local shops, and he asked for a necklace rather than a t-shirt. He picked out a nice brown one after realizing that there were no tiki necklaces like the one Pablo has in "Surf's Up." He worried for a moment that it wasn't manly, and I reassured him that it was. Later, he told his father that it was "boy beautiful." This whole worry about what's appropriate for boys and what's good for girls is so strange, but I suppose it happens to everyone.

We got home, ate some lunch (leftover enchilladas), and went down to the beach. The boys had some trouble getting out of the house and down to the beach, but they both had a great time in the sand until their dad got home. We trickled up to the house, where Mari was making panuchos for us. We were absolutely delighted, as she does this for us as a special treat every year, and this year she is living in Playa del Carmen so it was a big deal. When the panuchos were inhaled (Liam, in particular, loved the pickled onion and tomato topping), we went to visit the granddaughters of the local czar Emilio, while everyone else talked with Emilio. The girls are two-year-old twins, and they were very cute. Much parallel play ensued, and the boys were very good. We had fun speaking a little Spanish and a little English to each other. We went home after a half hour, as it was getting late and Liam was wanting desperately to fall asleep. The downside of his fatigue was that he was very clumsy, and kept falling all day. He was very sweet, though, and tried to climb up into his backpack to tell us that he was tired, and just lay in my lap at another. He fell asleep very quickly, around 7:10, and Jamie wasn't much longer than that after him.

I should note that Liam is unafraid to go into the fridge and help himself to a container of yoghurt, if he feels so inclined. The look that he gives you when you call him on it is very imperious. The boy was definitely an upper-class nobleman or a samurai in a previous life.

2008-02-14 21:35 (Kristen) We woke up early again this morning so that I could go to yoga, and we trouped off in the car all together. Jamie was put out that he wasn't allowed to watch the class, as Liam tried to follow him and Liam doesn't understand watching quietly as well as Jamie does. Instead, they spent the early morning out by Jean and Jack's pool, playing with Rescue Tech and exploring. My mom got a little too much sun, and spent the day feeling progressively worse and finally going to bed. We established that she was dehydrated, and she has been gently rehydrating and sleeping. I think that she'll feel much better by tomorrow. I think that she'll be happy to never hear me say "Drink something!" ever again.

It was Valentine's Day, so after a quick trip to the zocalo for some last minute presents, we assembled at home. Jamie and Liam were both somewhat cranky: I'm not sure why Jamie was, but Liam was tired and then, after a nap in the backpack, was still tired. After a wonderful lunch of chicken pibil* (a classic Yucatecan recipe with achiote), during which Liam more or less mugged John for the sauce, and some packing and organizing, we headed down to the beach. Jamie had one last swim in the hotel pool, and then we had a lovely afternoon digging in the sand, playing in the water, and otherwise being a family. John and I got a twenty-minute swim together as a Valentine's Day event, which we appreciated very much. The boys were delighted to see that we had returned.

Both boys were asleep very quickly after one last meal of enchilladas and guacamole. The secret to having boys go to bed is to run their little legs off and stuff them full of food. We'll have to try this in Toronto, but it's never as easy as it is here. The boys have had a wonderful time here in Puerto Morelos: the people are very kind to children here, and you can't beat sun, surf, and sand to keep boys happy. They've eaten very well, turned brown like berries, and have actually had enough exercise. Both boys have developed in leaps and bounds, and while they're very happy here I think that it is time to go home. Today's update from Jamieland: they had an eclipse. John's been explaining eclipses to him, and what interests Jamie in the world around him here usually shows up, bigger and better, in Jamieland.

John reminds me of three things. First, Jamie took a shower by himself for the first time, willingly. He wanted to get clean, and there is no bathtub here, so he accepted that it was fine here, in Mexico, to have a shower. This is remarkable because he hates water in his face, or the possibility of water in his face. Next, John's mom gave the boys two little stuffed animals each from a box of sea-themed stuffed animals. Jamie took a crab and a lobster, and Liam took a turtle and an octopus. He then tried to shove them back into the little squares they came from in the box. I realized that he wasn't trying to return the animals, or trying to grab others: he wanted them to go back into their "homes." I gently asked him if he wanted to put the animals to bed instead of back in their homes, and he gave me a huge smile as he pointed and dragged me off upstairs to bed, where we put the little animals.

I tell John that Liam may still be his chance to have a geek, as Jamie is very much neurotypical. Having been surrounded by ASD kids, John is used to having to explain, in much detail, what the events of the following day are going to be--particularly if a day with much change and upheaval is in the offing. John was doing this with Jamie as they were in bed after lights out, until Jamie started to interrupt with comments about his Rescue Tech toys (which he loves). John finally pulled up with some surprise, and asked Jamie which he wanted to talk about: tomorrow, or Rescue Tech. "Rescue Tech," Jamie replied promptly. John quickly said something about airports, planes, cars, home, and Jamie nodded and they talked about Rescue Tech until Jamie fell asleep.

2008-02-15 21:55 (Kristen) I write this from Newark, New Jersey, where we are spending the night at a Courtyard Marriott, and hoping that we will be on a plane tomorrow to Buffalo. We found out when we arrived at the airport in Cancun that our connecting flight from Newark to Buffalo had been cancelled, due to high and gusty winds in Buffalo. We blame my mother, who has the worst luck in making connections on flights of anyone I know. We love Grammie, but she may be be travelling by herself from now on.

The day started well enough. LIam had his usual starts and fits in the middle of the night, and once again I had to get up and show him the dark world ouside, to tell him that it was still nighttime and that we should "nene" (Japanese baby talk for sleep). I saw Venus low on the eastern horizon, so I think it was around 4 AM, maybe 5. I hope that he sleeps better tonight, as we are all in a room and it will disturb the others. Jamie was up at sunrise, and came in to pounce on me, give me a huge, cheery grin and whisper "Good morning, Mummy!" before scampering off to the bathroom. Liam woke up around then, unsurprisingly, and we were off. I took the boys down to the ocean to dip their toes in (a way to shake hands goodbye with water), and to say "goodbye" and "thank you" to the beach, ocean, animals, and birds that we had spent so much time with. John and I had done most of the packing the night before, and had only to finish cleaning up the food in the kitchen and other time-consuming odds and ends before we left. At one point, John took Liam with him to John's parents house, where Liam had fun kicking a ball around with his grandfather. This consisted of Liam kicking the ball down the yard, and his grandfather saying "He's going to lose the ball! The boy's a menace!" as he went to retrieve the ball each time.

The car arrived at 8:25, and we found out that Liam's name in Spanish is Guillermo, or Memo/Memito (for short). We went to the airport, and found out the status of our flight. Jamie was already acting tired, and was quite disappointed that we weren't going to make it to Toronto, but was willing to look at it from the brighter side after his initial disappointment. We got on our plane, and Liam fell asleep for only half an hour, leaving the other two and a half hours to eat, be entertained, and stay moving as much as possible. Jamie watched Anpanman, and it was the only time he was not having a running monologue on the salient and pleasant feature s of Jamieland. Apparently, in Jamieland planes fly to London, India, and Buffalo. Jamie can fly all the planes, because he's done it a million times. We learned a great deal about Jamieland today, which is farther away than Oz, where Dorothy was blown by the tornado. It sounds like quite the place. As he got more and more tired, Jamie started to repeat himself when he wasn't getting our full attention, and then would get upset when he didn't hear us answer. He nearly fell asleep at dinner, after a long wait at Newark to get to the hotel, and Liam ran about in a beatific state. Liam fell asleep almost instantly, and Jamie took a bit longer, as he was worried about his bug bites.

2008-02-16 21:24 (Kristen) I was woken up around 5:00 or 5:30 this morning by a conversation between Jamie and John, which went something like Jamie: "Papa, mutter mutter." John: "Jamie, go to sleep or Papa will be too tired to drive." I think that Jamie was complaining about his bug bites, and John's voice got more and more stressed as time went on. Jamie finally fell asleep again, but it sounds like it was a bit rough.

We were up as a clan close to 8:00, and went downstairs for breakfast. Jamie initially claimed that he would *never* eat breakfast, but ate a huge meal. He particularly liked the waffles with whipped cream and strawberries that I found for him. Liam liked scrambled eggs with cheese and salsa (I will have to start giving him salsa on a regular basis: he loves the stuff). We headed off to the airport, where we were given the extra special Homeland Security examinations (you know, the ones where they go through all your stuff and wipe down your shoes with those little wipes and look for explosive residue) as a reward for having our flight cancelled yesterday. Apparently, if you arrive by plane in a town and leave by plane the next day, you are a potential terrorist, regardless of whether or not it was your idea to begin with. Nothing says "terrorist," to me, anyway, like a tired family made up of three generations of people and two children under the age of 5 with at least ten bags between them. Because we need all that stuff in the afterlife. Uh huh.

By the time we were done, Liam was only happy up in the backpack, where he could see everything that was going on, and Jamie was starting to break out in a rash from some sort of allergic reaction. It is possibly in response to the last two insect bites he got before we left, which are doozies. We found some antihistamine for him, and Jamie spent the rest of the time waiting for the flight watching Anpanman videos (because his mom found a working outlet by some chairs, woot!). I took Liam around to a Borders, and he was happy as a clam. We got onto our plane and after some shuffling around, we were seated. I was sitting, with Liam, two rows forward of everyone else because of the oxygen mask availability being better where I was for Liam. The poor man sitting beside me was very decent about it. Liam was tired, and started to nurse off to sleep when I felt something hot and spreading on my lap as the plane taxied to the runway. Sure enough, there had been some sort of placement malfunction on the diaper, and I stripped Liam's pants off and kind of lived with my situation (which could have been worse) until we got to Buffalo.

Jamie's allergic reasction was easing off, and he fell asleep in the car on the way home for about an hour. Liam was happy only when he was playing with my cellphone and its case, and he was welcome to it. We were all exhausted when we made it into the house, but grateful to be home safely and soundly. Mom left with Auntie Millie soon afterwards, and I think that the boys are going to miss Grammie considerably. Liam even gave her a hug goodbye. Jamie pounced on Gary the instant he returned from work, and Liam was very happy to play with his toy kitchen and toy food, and to otherwise visit the toys he hasn't seen in two weeks. Jamie showed Gary the Rescue Tech, and played with his Lego Exoforce. He said to Gary that he knew that Gary was looking after Exoforce while he (Jamie) was gone: that Ayami looked after the upstairs, and that Gary looked after the downstairs. Gary agreed. Liam ignored the television until he was tired, and then it became a sign that he was ready for the bath.

The boys were in bed at 8:00, and Liam was asleep almost instantly. Jamie was having trouble falling asleep again, because of the itchiness he's experiencing, and calmed down again after John gave him Thomas "The Freezer" Polar Bear. Apparently, this is how he calmed down when he woke up at 5:00 this morning, too. I sure hope that he is feeling better tomorrow.

2008-02-17 19:30 (John) It took us a while to get our act together today. Around lunchtime we knew that the boys needed to go outdoors to prevent blood spillage, but it took several tries to get them dressed correctly for 5°C (41°F) freezing rain and a metre or so of accumulated snow. I pulled the boys on the toboggan for two blocks, then Kristen put Liam in the stroller to fall asleep. We had lunch at the Big Carrot's deli section. I still find it surreal that Jamie yells "Yippee! Broccoli!" and means it. After dessert at the Second Cup, we made our wet slog back home. I rested, the Kristen looked after the boys.

Late in the afternoon I took Liam grocery shopping to Loblaws. As usual, I started by buying him a California roll for him to demolish while we shopped. Even though Kristen claimed to have fed him well before he left, he ate six of the eight pieces, letting me eat one myself before feeding me another (not a very tidy proposition). He was apparently still hungry, because the next I knew he was howling and frothing green at the mouth. That combined with the disappearance of the wad of wasabi from the tray suggested that young Mr. "Maybe *This* Outlet Is Safe For My Fork" Chew had decided to test my admonitions about the safety of wasabi.

Removing the wasabi from his mouth was less messy and time-consuming than I initially feared. He would not accept juice to wash it out, pausing only briefly in his wailing to communicate with his extraordinarily expressive eyes "You're an idiot, Dad. I'm yelling because my sinuses are on fire, not because I'm thirsty." I scooped out as much as I could from his tongue, cheeks and palate, then rushed him to the bathroom to clean my fingers to continue doing the same. When he felt the water on my fingers, he directed me to let him suck water off my fingers about twenty times, whereupon he was willing to let me switch to dipping my fingers in the juice bottle. Several paper towels later all was well except my nerves.

Kristen made curry for dinner, Jamie went downstairs to play with Gary, and as I write this now, Liam has just happily welcomed Ayami back.

2008-02-17 21:58 (Kristen) One of Liam's nicknames is Gozilla or, in Japanese, Gojira. This evening, Liam took a Godzilla magnet off of Gary's fridge, and was walking around with it. I made a "growl" sound, and Liam then extended the magnet towards Gary and made a "growl" sound. It was very funny.

John reports that Liam has said "thank you" (or, more accurately, "ank ou") to him about five or six times, but I have never heard him say this. I was happy to hear that he can, but somewhat put out that he's never seen fit to say it to me. Liam still doesn't say much beyond "ba!" and "oo!", but since he makes himself clearly understood in other ways, I'm not worried about it. He was playing 'find the bellybutton' tonight, and can easily find ears and other facial characteristics. If I ask him to pick his feet up, he will. He was driving me nuts today taking DVDs and putting them into then immediately taking them out of the DVD player. I hate this game, and need to find DVDs that I hate and give them to him. THen it won't drive me nuts that I have to supervise him so closely to make sure that he's handling them properly, and I don't have to be cleaning fingerprints off DVDs or (worse) be replacing them. Don't ask me about getting him to stop. Short of putting the DVD player in a box on a high shelf, it doesn't seem to be an option.

2008-02-18 22:15 (Kristen) Today was Family Day, a new holiday in Ontario because we need one between New Year's and Easter to keep our collective sanity. This was challenged somewhat by staying at home with our kids, but we coped. Jamie had a playdate with Jake, and was very happy to see his friend after two weeks apart. We took the boys, including Liam and Charlie, up to an indoor playground and that was likely the best thing that we could have done for them. The boys all ran around and played very well. Liam was particularly adventurous, and a great time was had by all. John wasn't feeling well, and slept the entire time we were out. He wouldn't have slept at all if we'd stayed home! We came home after about two hours, and John took Liam out for a walk while I stayed at home with Jamie. Liam slept for an hour and a half, and Jamie and I played with Exoforce, ate lunch, and otherwise kept ourselves out of trouble.

We went to Tom and Michelle's in the evening, and Jamie was happy to see Baby Simon, and his parents Peter and Leslie (as were we). We managed to convince Liam to leave the house by telling hiim that we were going to visit Daniel, Ross, and ... TOM. Zip, he was sitting down by the door, ready to put on his shoes. Both boys were a little out of sorts beforehand, likely because they were hungry: they both ate enormous platefuls of dinner, and came back for seconds. Once again, a great time was had by all, and they were asleep around 9:40 (Liam) and 10:00 (Jamie). John says that he was surprised when he asked Liam for a towel in the bathroom tonight, Liam gave him a towel. John then asked him for a washcloth, and Liam handed him a bag of medicines nearby. John said no, the white one, and Liam handed him the white washcloth. We aren't sure if he understood "not this thing, that thing" or not, but John says that he didn't indicate in any way what he was talking about. Liam understands much.

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

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