Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 24

2008-02-19 23:26 (Kristen) Jamie and Liam were up around 7:30 this morning, and were ready in plenty of time to go to school. John took Liam with them, and Liam was not happy about coming back in when John came home. I spent the morning keeping Liam amused by giving him two old CD-Rs of mine, which he happily put in and out of the DVD player (with supervision). I was happy because I didn't care if he scratched them or put fingerprints on them as he worked. Double happiness. John took Liam with him again to get Jamie from school, and I met up with them at Browning. Jamie had a great time back at school, and came home with a fistful of valentines--when we left, we were told that there wasn't going to be a valentine exchange, so we feel flatfooted. I'll be trying to find some tomorrow to give to Jamie's classmates. Sabine, of course, gave Jamie a lovely one with a knight on it. Smart girl, that one.

At lunch, Liam was starting to get tired by the time the rest of us started to play Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii. I ended up playing with Liam on my shoulder, which I think constitutes a pretty thorough workout. Liam slept for three hours, and woke up happy if groggy. Jamie was in a good mood but tired when I got home with Liam, and I managed to keep both boys happy while I made dinner. Yay, me! Dinner was, however, late, and the snacks had to keep coming. I kept Liam interested in the Tomy shinkansen* trains that John's aunts brought for the boys from Japan, and we all punked about until bedtime. Jamie was asleep quickly around 9:00, and Liam fell asleep closer to 10:00. John says that Jamie sleeps on the outer edge of the bed, as far as possible from the wall, because Jamie says that ghosts come out of the wall. You can never be too careful, I suppose.

2008-02-20 23:51 (Kristen) Jamie went to school this morning with John, who was the helper for the Scientist Visit (a Scientist comes to visit the class periodically, which is verycool). They covered astronomy, chemistry, paleontology, and meteorology, and it sounds like it was a blast. Jamie and Jake were together and somewhat silly (fatigue, on Jamie's part) and I worried out loud to John that Jamie hasn't shown any interests in animals, dinosaurs, stars, or any of the other typical childhood interests of this age beyond video games and Anpanman videos. Oh, and robots. John then gave a very detailed, and sweet, list of all the cool things our son is good at, including a fabulous imagination (very true: Jamie has an imaginary friend, imaginary cousin, and the whole tapestry that is Jamieland) and great penmanship. I was surprised by the last, and realized that I haven't seen Jamie's writing in quite a while. John had taken over most of the school and learning-related stuff that I used to do with him and his workbooks, and so I'm out of touch. In penance, I picked up two beginner readers about a robot named Otto (which Jamie appreciated), in the hope that the subject would be one that Jamie would enjoy. We read the first one this evening, and he laughed and laughed at the appropriate points (as did Gary, when I showed it to him). So, we're all doing all right.

Liam slept for only an hour, between 12 and 1, and then helped John and me do shopping around the neighbourhood and Kensington Market. In an otherwise fabulous mood beforehand, he declared immediate starvation around 5:00, and I had dinner on the table at 5:30. Both boys ate a huge meal, and Liam still stole an apple from the fridge to munch on until the last minute before the bath. I had both tired boys in bed at 8:15, but Jamie kept asking questions (as is his habit), and woke Liam up at the wrong point. Liam then returned the favour and kept Jamie up for 40 minutes, until I finally got an increasingly hysterical Liam asleep to the relief of an increasingly tired Jamie. They were asleep within a minute of each other, at 9:10.

2008-02-21 22:43 (Kristen) It was a pretty average day here around the old homestead. School and Hakobune for Jamie; Liam played with CDs and made me read him books (he likes Eric Carle's Have You Seen My Cat?). I took Liam out for a walk around 12:30, and he slept for a little under two hours. We did some shopping, and he met one of the employees at Treasure Island who got along with Jamie so well when he was around 2 years old. She pronounced Liam adorable as well, and we should bring Jamie in to see her sometime. Jamie came home with John around 4:30, and John looked after the kids with Gary and Ayami (in rotation) while I made the macaroni and cheese that I'd promised Jamie I'd make for him (homemade, baked mac & cheese). A quiet evening followed, and the boys went to bed and were asleep a little before and after 9, respectively. Not quite as boring a day as it sounds, when you're living it, especially since Liam's suicide commando ways don't need to be mentioned explicitly. A day he's not trying to kill himself by climbing on chairs, sticking his yoghurt fork into the egg yolks for the mac and cheese across the table, or climbing the stairs, is like a day without air. It just doesn't happen too often, and so is only worthy of comment under those conditions..

2008-02-22 24:25 (Kristen) We all got up together this morning, so Liam got the treat of going to school and back with his dad when it was time for Jamie to go to Jackman. He loves doing this, and resents having to come back inside when the ride is over. We all went to see our long-suffering doctor for a general checkup, and to check in after our trip to Mexico. Liam got a MMR shot, and was very upset about that. He didn't even take the lollipop that Dr. Kennedy offered him (Jamie, however, bravely stepped in and made sure that the lollipop was well taken care of). The rest of us are fine.

Liam slept for two hours, and Jamie had fun at Hakobune. We went to Browning for dinner, and the usual sounds of mayhem could be heard, along with peal of laughter from Liam as he beat up Daniel. He thinks this is very funny. He also likes a book (we think that he missed his books in Mexico) in Japanese, which features a cat wearing (at one point) a Plains Indian-style headdress. At this point in the story, John (who was reading it) made a whopping sound, and LIam thought this was the funniest thing he'd ever heard, and if it was good enough to do once, it was good enough to do 20 times. Oh, and accompanied by a whack on the back of his dad's head each time (if I understand correctly). Hilarious. Jamie helped me a bit with dinner, after demanding that I make him a grilled cheese sandwich like Tami makes for him (white bread, and Velveeta. Sigh.). He got out the ketchup. He wants to be helpful, and I really do need to find more ways for him to be so. Both boys had fun watching me and Daniel play DDR, and it was a good night. We came home and had the boys in bed by 9:00, but Liam had a hard tie falling asleep and didn't close his eyes until 10:00.

2008-02-23 23:20 (John) Today was an atypical Saturday: Nisshu Gakuin was closed and (our cleaner) Trifina was off sick, so we improvised a plan for the day that was far from routine. All four of us went to the St. Lawrence Market, not just me, then we spent the afternoon housecleaning and had dinner at the Silk Road Cafe.

The boys liked the market as usual, we got to see Nupur's wedding photos, and we were there early enough that the boys could play at the Early Years Centre. When we got back home, Liam was too tired to fall asleep, so Kristen popped him in the stroller and took him to the end of the block and back. (Kristen: This was around 3:00.) Then we started cleaning the house, the three of us working room by room and eventually getting the top floor done in two hours. It's a little less clean in parts than Trifina would have done it, but organized more to our liking.

(Kristen) Jamie helped by putting laundry away in the linen closet, and other small tasks like vacuuming, which he found interesting but noisy. We forgot that Liam was asleep, and didn't realize it until 5:00; then it was a mad rush to finish off things so that we could wake him up. I was quite sure that he was going to be up until midnight, given the lateness of his awakening. Back to John.

I thought that the kids hadn't had enough exercise, so we walked and tobogganed down to the Silk Road Cafe for dinner, where we ran into Aunt Millie and Cousin Scott. They were impressed when Margaret brought us the kids' food even before they had their boots off: we had phoned in our order as we left the house. Liam happily ate chicken and broccoli until he noticed that I was hiding the good stuff (spicy aubergine) and moved to my lap to help me. He then surprised us by walking all the way home while I pulled Jamie on the toboggan. (Kristen: at one point, we stopped and Liam sat down on the end of the toboggan, behind Jamie. John started to pull, and Liam started to bawl his eyes out. A swift check showed no signs of trauma, but it soon became clear that Liam had only intended to rest a moment, and had no intention of riding on the toboggan. Feet would do him very well, thank you. Oh? And he fell asleep by 10:00, utterly wiped out.)

Jamie has been watching the same Anpanman videos over and over again for days at a time now, which is an interesting development. He'll scan back and forth replaying his favourite scenes, and has been asking me more detailed questions, generally about the characters' motivations. His current favourites are a Christmas special and the Kuroyukihime film.

Liam has been doing something of the same with books. He'll grab a book off the shelf and insist that you read it to him ten times until he thinks he's extracted every possible nuance. (Kristen: he also has started watching video tapes of a show about a little tiger named Shimajiro. The character is supposed to be two, so it's around his age range. There are songs, skits, and weird (to me) segments on personal hygiene, but it's entertainment, and he likes to put the tape in himself, of course. And he's getting better about brushing his teeth, because Shimajiro does it nicely for his tiger father. I think that's the reason, anyway.)

2008-02-24 20:50 (John) The suction-cup shower gecko has been to JamieLand, and met Anpanman there. He likes JamieLand because there are stores there that sell good ants for him to eat. The gecko is magic, and if he doesn't see something in front of him, his eyes come out his tail to look.

Meanwhile, in the real world, we had a quiet morning, Jamie got started on his Nisshu Gakuin homework, and then we headed out to meet Nobuko and Tomoko at Yamato for Sunday brunch. Liam fell asleep on the way, but woke up when he smelled food. Liam thoroughly enjoyed the unakyu sushi, my zarusoba (even with a bit of wasabi) and Jamie's vegetable soba. We then went to Yorkville Park to look at the ice sculptures there and Jamie spent most of the time running laps around the iced-over well of the sheet fountain there, hiding from me and playing tag. When we were all too cold, except for Jamie, we went to Nobuko's atelier for snacks and games. Jamie astounded my aunts with his knowledge of Aiueo Karuta, first playing the regular game, then playing our Concentration hybrid rules, then picking up 90% of the cards when I tried reading the end of each card rather than the whole text from the beginning (the basic object is to find the card that features the character that the poem starts with, so if all you hear is the end of the card, you have to remember how it starts).

We dropped the boys off at Browning for a couple of hours while we went to Junko's surprise birthday party at Oren's parents' house. They apparently behaved themselves well, but when we returned it took me a while to figure out that Jamie wanted to play Battle Forts online (I kept hearing Battle Force), and while I was occupied with that Liam ran around pushing as many buttons as he could. When the network went down, I found that he had reached the power strip controlling the Ethernet hub and (sigh) Michelle's desktop machine, signalling time for us to go home.

2008-02-25 08:19 (John) "Papa, when we were sleeping in bed, we were in JamieLand."

(Kristen) We woke up slightly earlier than usual today when a little spring on the furnace pump went, making our radiators make funny noises. We were worried that bigger things were wrong, and so it was a slightly more tense than usual mornings as we got Jamie out the door to school and tried to arrange for a person to come and make sure we had heat for the day. One visit and one tiny spring later, we had heat again. Liam never noticed, as long as the grapes, videos, and books kept coming.

Liam slept for three hours in the afternoon, which was lovely. Jamie stayed home with John, while I got some work done. We all met up at home, and Jamie was very anxious for his 'play date' with Gary. At lunch, he had wanted to play with Gary, who was busy and needed to get some work done. To cut off a flood of tears, I arranged a 'play date' for the evening, so that Jamie knew he'd get his play time with Gary, and Gary could get his work done. It seemed to work.

Liam has been very active and exhausing, but also very very sweet and affectionate. He ran to me tonight to give me a big kiss and hug this evening, making a special trip away from Tom to do so (and then tackled Daniel for some more of the same). There have been mornigns where I have been woken up by little hands on my face gently turning my head so that I can be kissed good morning. Who wouldn't love that? He was still tired by 8:00, and nearly blithering by the time bedtime rolled around. Oh: I should also note that he calmly came up to me at Browning, and gave his bottom a single pat. I took his hand, and we went to the kitchen so that I could give him a diaper change. The boy is positively eloquent in making himself understood with no words. He does like to say "wow," though. I'm enjoying this.

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

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