Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 27

2008-03-11 25:11 (Kristen) Both kids woke up this morning in good moods. Liam had me up around 8:00, while Jamie and John slept until 9:00 or so. Liam helped me with the laundry while we waited, and made me read him books. When John and Jamie were up, we went in and read more books. Liam likes "Rolie Polie Olie" for some reason. Jamie read (or was read) more Calvin and Hobbes. The boys ate breakfast, and we puttered about for a bit until lunch. John took Liam to Browning for lunch and a walk with Ken while I took Jamie to the Science Centre with Jake and his mom and brother.

The Science Centre was a madhouse, and hte kids were pretty wound up when we got there. Jamie liked it very muich, and especially liked the shadow tunnel and the cave in the Earth Sciences hall. He mentioned liking something else particularly, but I don't remember what it was now. We were home around 3:45, and arrived to see John putting Liam's snowpants on for a romp around the front yard. Jamie came in when he dumped snow in his hood while shoveling, and the others came in not long afterwards. Dinner was uneventful, and the night was quiet. The boys were in bed around 9:00, and are sleeping relatively well.

I shuould add that a light burned out in the bathroom a few nights ago, and I took a day or so to replace it. I finally did, because Liam was so disturbed by the burnt-out light and would point and vocalize at the lightshade in some distress until I fixed it. Now I have to turn on all the lights when he needs them checked out to see if they work, or he gets a worried look on his face and becomes more insistent, pointing fiercely. He also asks me about the old lightbulb, which I haven't pitched out yet, and points to it too. We have been tickling him a lot lately, because it's so much fun, and he even asked to be tickled more yesterday. It was very sweet.

(John) Liam didn't sleep much on his walk, but was delighted to see me at the Second Cup, and spent about half an hour practising typing. He has some favourite letters (O and W right now), understands that when you press the key on the keyboard the same letter shows up in the TextEdit window, and learned today how to use the cursor keys.

2008-03-12 21:39 (Kristen) Liam woke up well, around 8:20, and we puttered around for a bit until John got up. At that point, John realized that Jamie had a doctor's appointment in twenty minutes, and it was a mad dash out the door and into the car to make it there on time. Liam and I went along so that we could do some errands nearby the doctor's office. Jamie hates to be rushed, and he was hungry as he'd only eaten a granola bar on the way, so he was not in the best of moods. He ate a big breakfast at home, though, and the morning was spent puttering before it was time for Hakobune. Liam stayed home with me and did some housework (I put it away, he gets it out again) until it was time for his nap.

Liam slept for two hours, and woke up in the post office as I was doing an errand or two on the way home. He was happy enough after an initial bit of unhappiness, and was content to get groceries and come home. John and Jamie had picked up our friends Adam and Pat, who are visiting us overnight, and Jamie was very happy to see them. Pat lives in Boston, and as we're not going to Boston this year (John is, but Jamie has school), it is great to hae our Boston visit with her here. Adam and John have gone to the Scrabble club, and so are doing what they would do in Boston too. The boys ate a light dinner, and Jamie played with Gary (Pat played some War of the Monsters too before giving up and coming upstairs with me and Liam). Liam roamed and insisted on watching Pikachu (he loves Pokemon all of a sudden...) for a bit. He also insisted that I replace the battery in his fridge magnet gear. He doesn't take no for an answer very well. The boys were up to bed around 8:30, and asleep by 9:30.

2008-03-13 24:00 (Kristen) We all slept in the same bed last night, as Pat and Adam were visiting and using the other bed. Since John's illness last summer, I usually sleep with Liam in one room and John sleeps with Jamie in the other. However, we managed quite well, and had fun playing and reading together firs thing when we all woke up. I think that it is good for all of us to sleep in the same bed, as it fosters connections between the boys as well as eradicating artificial barriers and making us all equally comfortable with the others. Certainly, the boys had fun.

Pat and Adam were up late, but got to see Jamie off to Hakobune. Pat babysat Liam for a bit afterwards so that I could get some work done, and then we went on the subway to meet John at Aroma so that Liam could fall asleep in his stroller (which he did). When Liam woke up an hour or so later, too hot in his coat inside the cafe, John took him to pick up Jamie while I stayed and worked a little more. Adam, Pat, and I parted ways when John came to pick me up with the boys, and we went to the house of our friends Peter and Leslie to visit with them and their son, Simon.

The boys had a marvellous time: Simon has a new tunnel from Ikea, and the tunnel was climbed through, over, under, dragged, shuffled from inside like a caterpillar's tail, and stood straight up on one end so that it flopped over like a slinky. They ate Rainbow Chips Ahoy! (Simon's choice for his friends), and watched many episodes of "Shawn the Sheep." We ate dinner, had a great time, and went home around 8:15. Jamie fell asleep in the car; Liam blissed out on the streelights at night. Jamie woke up when we brought him inside, but both he and Liam fell asleep pretty quickly once they were both in pajamas and in bed.

2008-03-14 20:25 (Kristen) Liam woke up first, and so we got up and puttered a bit before John and Jamie woke up. We went back to bed, all of us, and read a bit and the boys played together for a few minutes (Jamie making Liam laugh uproariously) before getting on with the day. We survived a night of all four in a bed again, and will likely keep this going until someone gets sick. We had some breakfast, and then got Liam ready for his first day at Hakobune. John took him by himself, the theory being that if there was any trauma, it would not be directed at me and I could be the "good" parent (I think that's the theory...anyway). John dropped Liam off, and Liam didn't even bother to look when John left. So much for trauma. Jamie and I did some household chores, read a little, and made a 'get better' card for Gary, who has bacterial pneumonia and is isolating himself until the antibiotics kick in and he's not so violently contagious anymore. Jamie, as we were making the card, told me that he "really really" wanted Gary to have his Green Exoforce with the card; I told him that we should let Gary have it while he is sick, and that he could give it back when he's better. Jamie thought that was OK. Sweet boy.

Jamie and I took the bus to Hakobune, and arrived quite early so that we could have some overlap between him and Liam before we took Liam home. The kids were down in the gym, so we were able to observe Liam coming up the elevator with the rest of the kids, and fitting in nicely with the gaggle of children. John saw him smiling and laughing, and he looked perfectly find until he saw me. Then his face collapsed, and he walked to me, sobbing like his heart was broken or he had been hit. He wrapped his arms around me and just cried until some children came over and tried to distract him with toys and books. Kai-kun in particular was very solicitous, and soon Liam was smiling again and happy to read and socialize again. This is, we are told, not an uncommon reaction early on in daycare: they're fine until they see mom or dad, and then they realize that they've been *abandoned* *cruelly!* for a couple of hours. Liam apparently had a lip quiver earlier, but didn't cry at all while we were gone. Next week will be the test.

To celebrate, we took Liam for pizza, which he gleefully scarfed. he wasn't in the stroller for two minutes before he was asleep, and John and I were back at Aroma, drinking tea and coffee and working away. I walked Liam to Hakobune to get Jamie (John drove there from the cafe), and he was happy enough to pick Jamie up (he woke up just as we got to the church) and go home. Jamie fell asleep briefly in the car, but woke up as John carried him into Browning where we were going for dinner. It was a pretty standard evening , other than a Skype conversation with my mom, wishing her a happy birthday. We all sang "Happy Birthday," and she looked very pleased. We left late, an the boys fell asleep well. Liam is waking up, crying, quite frequently, and I wonder if he's finally starting in on his final four molars before he hits two. I definitely will have a party when this teething thing is over!

2008-03-15 22:46 (Kristen) Liam was up at 7:45, but I managed to convince him to stay in bed until 8:00 or so; groan. He was too happy to see his brother and father in bed wit hus, and so I had to remove him from the scene before there were more conscious people. We hung up laundry and did some housework before John and Jamie woke up, then had our usual morning pile up on the bed. We went downstairs, where I got Liam breakfast and Jamie came down soon after and melted down entirely because I wasn't making his breakfast first. We think that some of this behaviour is because he's upset that Gary is sick, and he can't see him. Definitely he has been indulging in behaviour that I associate with his being upset or disturbed by something, and I'm kind of embarassed that it took me this long to figure out the problem. I, however, was rather crabby when we left the house to go to the market, leading to the family decision that only one person is allowed to be crabby at a time, and they must be in possession of Jamie's stuffed crab. It was pretty funny at the time.

Speaking of funny, Jamie and Liam are startingto play more again together. This mainly consists of Jamie being seriously goofy, and Liam laughing his head off at Jamie. John and I appreciate it, especially since when Liam is in possession of the crab, Jamie can almost always het him to laugh and put the crab down.

We ended up having a good time at the Market, and ate lots of food and saw lots of things. We were very sure that Liam was not going to fall asleep in the car, given how much he was yawping in the back, but he did, suddenly, when we were five minutes from home. John stayed in the car with Liam, and I went into the house to put groceries away with Jamie. Jamie and I spent the bulk of the remaining afternoon doing a Pokemon puzzle (Pokemon is turning into the Next Big Thing) and making paper airplanes. Well, I made the airplanes and Jamie and I flew them. I lie: I was delighted that Jamie was making his own planes based on his own ideas (mainly crumpling paper around the edges of a page), but he was creative and all on his own initiative. It was very nice. Dinner was curry, and the boys ate well, given that John ahad given them ice cream with lots of berries and bananas on them first. Liam and Jamie, in fact, had eaten a lot of berries before even that, so it's remarkable that they ate any dinner at all.

Realizing that we had almost no ice cream left, John and I popped the boys into the car to go to Loblaws for a few groceries. They were both spun beyond reason, and a good part of the time either John or I had to grab Jamie to get him to stop yelling at the top of his lungs or running full tilt down an aisle. Liam enjoyed walking all over the store and examining what he could before we took it away from him or before he could drop it out of the cart. We got home around 8:30, and the boys watched more Pokemon before we got ready for bed. Liam melted down just as he was getting into the bath, and so he was put to bed. Jamie fell asleep at 10:25, and I hope will be feeling well rested when it's time to go to the Kortright Centre tomorrow for its annual maple syrup festival with his friends Parker and Jake (and their parents).

2008-03-16 18:45 (John) Jamie has decided that my Gorillapod (flexible compact tripod) makes an excellent robot enemy for his Exoforces and Rescue Techs. Since the cost is comparable, I don't feel as foolish as I did yesterday when I caught him piloting a robot spaceship made from a coathanger, a rubber band and some scrap paper. He's playing with Kristen, Liam and Ayami at the dining table now, having quickly put together a 60-piece Pokemon jigsaw puzzle with no little apparent effort.

2008-03-16 23:15 (John) As arranged on fairly short notice, we set out this morning around the crack of 10:00 A.M. with Jamie's JK classmates Jake, Parker and Sam and their families to drive just outside Toronto to the Kortright Centre and their 40th annual Sugarbush Maple Syrup Festival. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be on the last day of March Break, although we were among the first cars to be diverted to the overflow parking lot. We went on a horse-drawn wagon ride, ate pancakes and sausages drenched in maple syrup produced on-site, and took all the kids on an hour's hike and tour of the maple syrup production area. The weather was perfect (0°C and sunny), the kids all behaved themselves, no one fell too far into the mud, the little ones all fell asleep on the ride home, and both boys fell asleep exhausted a little earlier than their usual bedtime tonight.

2008-03-17 22:53 (Kristen) Jamie is quite worried about Gary, who is still sick with we are not sure quite what (we thought it was pneumonia, but now we're not sure). Tonight, after he was told that Gary was still not feeling well when we'd hoped that he'd be better by now, Jamie was close to tears. I asked him if he wanted to phone Gary, and he said, sniffing, that he would. When we did, Jamie said "Gary, you should sleep." Pause. "Sleep in the morning." He meant that if you sleep during the day, then you will get better. Poor guy: one of his people is not well, and he is feeling the lack.

We all woke up this morning a little after 8:00, and scrambled to get ready for school. We all went, and then I took Liam with me to the Big Carrot to do a little grocery shopping and to buy a cookie at the Second Cup. This reminds me that our local Second Cup is closing for renovations (for three weeks!) and that we're going to have to come up with a Plan B for all of us. We should also warn the kids, as it's an important part of their lives too. Anyway...Liam wanted John to come too, and when John turned the other way outside of the schoolyard, Liam hung his head over the side of the wagon, sobbing, until we reached the Big Carrot. Then he forgot what he was upset about (well, he'd forgotten much earlier than that, really) and got into the groove. Once we ate our cookie (he loves sitting on his own chair),we went home and played a little before it was time to get Jamie and go to Browning for lunch.

Ken took Liam out for his nap, and Liam was unusually vocal in his protestations. He fell asleep quickly, though, and slept for almost three hours by the end. Jamie and John ended up staying at Browning, watching Pokemon and playing Gauntlet, and never went home or anywhere else for that matter. I took Liam home around 3:45 to meet with John's parents' tenant, Haruka, who is going to do some babysitting for us while John and I are under deadline crunches for the month of March. Liam and Haruka got along well for the hour that she stayed, and she is going to come for the morning tomorrow to play with Liam while John and I work upstairs. I am hoping that this will work out well. Fingers crossed! John came to get Liam and I later on, and we spent a pleasant evening at Browning before coming home and putting the kids to bed.

For the last three nights, Liam has refused to get any farther into the bath than up to his calves. He doesn't mind being sponge-bathed, and shows a real desire to get into the bath but cries when he tries to sit down. He has a nasty patch of diaper rash in an inside crease of his groin, and we think that it's painful enough in water to keep him out of the bath. Poor thing. He fell asleep very quickly but shallowly, and has been easily disturbed. However, at one point tonight I found him with his brother, in a 'T' position, with Liam smushing his face into his brother's side. Liam settled as he did this, so it seems that comfort can be found from any family member in a pinch.

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

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