Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 29

2008-03-25 22:30 (John) I took Jamie to school, came home and took Liam and Tomoko up to J-Town to go shopping and to pick up my Mom's camera from the nearby Olympus Service Centre. Liam made a beeline for the second-hand Japanese children's books, and was amusing the staff by carrying them by the armful to the cash register. The clerk eventually calmed him down by taking his favourite book and putting it in a plastic bag for him to drag around the store. He continued to be excited in the Japanese grocery store, where he alternately made firm suggestions as to what ought to be bought and went back to the cafe area to read more of his books. On the drive back home, he stuck his finger in each of the pieces of California roll that I bought him, to get the good bits, i.e., everything but the rice and nori. Tomoko was supervising, so I think the back seat of the car will eventually be salvageable. Kristen, Liam and I went to meet Jamie, then Kristen and Jamie went off with Jake's family to go skate shopping, as skating lessons begin next week. I took Liam to lunch at Browning, where he complained that Tami hadn't made enough hotdogs. Shocking, really. Ken took Liam out for his walk; Liam was so tired he was yawning in the middle of the pro forma pre-nap screams. Liam came back asleep to the Starbucks (the Second Cup is closed for renovations). Kristen showed up with a very tired Jamie. We walked home through wet snow, ate korokke* for dinner and got Jamie asleep by 21:00, though Liam, teething, is another story, and a scary one at that.

2008-03-26 24:07 (Kristen) Liam really loves the book Rollie Polie Olie by William Joyce. He demands that we read it to him in bed in the morning, and at least once at night before bed. I'm reading Old Mother West Wind's Stories by Thornton Burgess to Jamie, and he's starting to enjoy it a lot. He asks for the next chapter each night, and because the stories are short, he can focus on them despite the lack of pictures. I've been meaning to start reading more complicated stories to him, like Charlotte's Web, but he's not quite ready for them. I should also start to read Winnie the Pooh to him, now that I think of it, as he liked those when I read them to him a year ago.

A normal day, overall: Liam napped for an hour and a half, and is having more teething and gas pains at night. I suspect the right side for teeth, as he falls back asleep more easily when I put my finger in his mouth and let him chew the hell out of it for a minute with the gums on that side. Poor poor lamb: he wakes up screaming a fair amount. Liam, it should be noted, speaks good Russian: his 'da' for 'yes' is very clear and distinctive. Jamie was tired today, and has been missing his Gary time. He made time to read with me tonight, however, and we had a good time until Gary showed up. After Jamie disappeared with Gary for a bit, I played puzzles with Liam. He is very good at the two-piece puzzles that I bought for him today, and so I will try again with the three-piece puzzles, to see if he has better control over them now that he's got the idea of two-piece puzzles so clearly.

Jamie beaned a friend by accident with some ice (he thought it was snow) at the playground, and was very upset by it. He ran away to the fence and didn't want to see the friend again (after saying sorry), because he was feeling so guilty and sad about it. I'm trying to teach him that it's ok to be sad, and that he shouldn't stop being friends with the person he hurt because he feels guilty: that it would make them feel even worse. It's all so complicated, and Jamie feels things so deeply.

2008-03-27 34:49 (Kristen) Liam slept badly last night, and ate late this morning. He was Full of Beans, as they say, and has very much enjoyed going to school with Jamie in the morning and at lunch. John takes him to the Big Carrot on errands after dropping Jamie off, and he usually comes home with an enormous grin on his face. Jamie was complaining that he didn't want to go to Hakobune, but this was because he was tired after kindergarten, and wants to veg out. Once he gets to Hakobune, we can't get him out of there.

Liam almost fell asleep on Tami's shoulder at lunch, and was utterly affronted when she turned out to be her and not me. He slept for a little over three hours, and would have slept longer if I hadn't intervened. Jamie and Gary played tonight, which was very good for the both of them as they haven't had much time together lately. Liam and I punked about, and he fell asleep very quickly at 9:30 when we put the boys to bed.

2008-03-28 24:13 (Kristen) The boys slept in this morning, which was unusual. I had to wake Liam up at 8:20 from a sound sound sleep, and he ate almost a whole serving of tamago no gohan* on the subway to Hakobune. Jamie was in a floppy mood, but pulled it together in time to make it to school. Liam was happy enough, but didn't want me to leave him at daycare. I played with him until he seemed settled and distracted by toys, and then crept out after a hug and kiss. I am told that he cried a bit whenever a parent arrived who wasn't us. He greeted me with tears and a huge hug, but was fine after about ten to fifteen seconds.

He was delighted to see John when he arrived to drop off Jamie, and had a grand time having his pizza slice with his dad and mom. He took an unusually long time to fall asleep, but finally did for about two hours. He woke up when I was trying to get bac into the church to pick up Jamie, and was pleased to go inside Hakobune to get Jamie. He puts his shoes on the mat now, just like Jamie does. Jamie was roaring about with Riki-kun, and having a grand old time. He has asked that Riki come and play with us when Riki comes back from Japan in a month, and everyone thinks that it is a splendid idea.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Jamie got his first report card today. John read it to him in the car on the way to Hakobune, and he seems to be pleased. We are pleased--very, actually--as it confirms that Jamie is doing well, and the problems that exist are ones that we know about (Jamie! put your snowsuit on by yourself!). We did get busted on the number of borrow-a-books we return promptly (oops...he does read often, honest), which is ironic. We don't need a parent-teacher interview, because there are no problems. Yay! When we got home from Hakobune, I did about half an hour of reading with Jamie, which we're going to try and do more regularly. Jamie read Sometimes, a little easy first reader, but did a fantastic job by himself, sounding out words and being game when he couldn't. We read two other books, and had a nice time.

Dinner was at Browning, and it was the usual good time. The boys were in the bath a little late, but got their hair washed by me. Liam is consenting to get into the bath with adults again. This is all for now.

2008-03-29 23:31 (Kristen) It was a hard job getting out of bed this morning so that we could get Jamie off to Nisshu Gakkuin for the first time in a few weeks. We managed to get Jamie and John out the door without Liam melting down too badly about not being able to go too. John made it up to Liam by picking him up to take him to the market on the way back down. John reports that Liam was a big help at Wei's (where we get our fruit and veggies) by pushing the basket around so that John could put more in the basket (John: actually, Liam insisted on putting everything in the basket himself). I went out to John's parents' house to let Trifina in, and wasn't recognized by our neighbour Betsy on the way back, as I had no children attached to me.

John came home with Liam and had a nap while Liam and I put the groceries away. We headed up to Nisshu Gakkuin so that John could have a parent-teacher interview with Jamie's teacher, and I took the boys outside to play. Jamie ran around mostly with Hari-kun, and Liam did his best to do everything that the bigger boys were doing. Child recognizes no limits. We're trying to encourage him to behave in safer fashions by praising him when he does something safe, instead of yelling when he transgresses (which is easier to do with #2 than with #1). Jamie was very unhappy when I called time on him after 40 minutes, but it was time for lunch. We walked with Hari-kun and his dad to a local pizza place, which was good, and met up with John there. Jamie and Hari seem to be good Nisshu friends, but Jamie is a little lost wehn Hari includes other kids that Jamie doesn't know in the play. Play seems to involve much yelling and running around at top speed. I have no clue if anything else is involved, or needed. Hari was very nice to Liam, and made him laugh by being goofy.

Liam fell asleep in the car on the way home (no surprise), and John stayed in the car with him for an hour while Jamie and I read his Chirp magazine and did some quiet things. John and Liam came in and I nursed Liam back down for another hour while John and I got food ready for the annual Motluk Potluck party tonight. Jamie was very excited to be going, because he gets along well with Genya and Toni, Alison and Kurt's kids. We were the first to arrive, but soon there were at least 15 kids of varying ages to play with. I barely saw anything of Jamie, who spent most of his time playing with a boy named Victor. Liam roamed about at well, but under more direct supervision. Both boys were pronounced beautiful, and I couldn't argue, being their mom. The food was wonderful, the company excellent (some people have been coming to this particular annual party for more than fifteen years), and a fine time was had by all. Earth Hour was in the middle of the event, and the kids were really into turning all the lights out. The bathroom light was left on so that people unfamiliar with the house wouldn't kill themselves, and this decision was met with a chorus of "Cheaters!" All the kids were armed with flashlights, and had a good time. Jamie was tired at this point, and helped Victor to play some Marble Blast on John's laptop (no plug; just batteries!).

The stars were more visible in the sky with many houses dimmed, and the boys enjoyed seeing them. We got home, got into the bath (after a quick round of whatever video game they're playing now with Gary), and the boys passed out quickly. I had to explain to Jamie today that not all kids knew what Soulcaliber 3 was (thank you ever so much, Gary), and that he should ask them what games they liked to play. Sigh.

2008-03-30 22:30 (Kristen) We managed to stay in bed until 9:00, when it was impossible to ignore LIam and his desire to read Rolie Plie Olie any longer. We read it twice, and finally tumbled out of bed to meet a day of cleaning, as Trifina was unable to make it to our house yesterday. We had an overly late breakfast, once John had given Jamie a large mecha robot (Golion in Japanese; apparently it was marketed at Voltron in North America) that he'd bought for just this time about fourteen years ago. It breaks down into five lions that join together to make one big King Lion mecha robot. Needless to say, Jamie loves it, and has pronounced it his favourite toy. Jamie is remarkably good with keeping the pieces of his toys together, and so we felt he was old enough to have this thing, which is meant for much older kids. So far, so good.

I tried to nurse Liam down, so that we could get more housecleaning done, but no luck. I stuffed him into the stroller and he was asleep almost by the end of the driveway, and I turned back at the corner and came home. We left Liam in the stroller in the hallway, and he slept for close to two hours. When I picked him up, after he'd stirred and opened his eyes, he was not as awake as I'd thought. He nursed himself back to sleep for another twenty minutes, until I woke him up definitively, trying to put him down on the couch. In the meantime, Jamie and John had spent a lot of time trying to find old Voltron episodes on YouTube, with some success. We finished cleaning up around 5:00, and were out of the house around 5:30 with two very hungry and tired boys, on the way to the Silk Road for dinner. Jamie cried a good part of the way, because he was tired and hungry, and both boys bent with an unusually good will to their dinners. There wasn't much left of the three dishes we'd ordered, and none of the ice cream for dessert. We opened our fortunes, and Liam's read "You are about to have a daring adventure." How perfect!

Jamie was in a bit of a mood in the evening, for reasons that are unclear to me. He was very tired, and that might be part of it. Gary came home at 8:30, and Jamie played with him for half an hour. Liam played Wii with John. Liam fell asleep with some difficulty, while Jamie passed out almost immediately.

I have been instructed to add that Jamie is now the happy owner of a stock of knock-knock jokes. Last night, they came in handy. One group of kids was only allowing entrance to a part of the basement if you knew a knock-knock joke. Jamie got in twice with "Knock-knock." "Who's there?" "Tank." "Tank who?" "You're welcome!" and "Knock-knock." "Who's there?" "Police." "Police who?" "Police let me in!" Ha ha.Poo is also funny, and farts make Liam laugh hysterically. I live in a house of men.

2008-03-31 23:15 (Kristen) Liam has shown a great interest in using the toilet lately, thanks to a need to copy and otherwise emulate his brother (who is the centre of the universe). For two mornings now, he has happily sat upon the toilet, using his special seat, and will stay there as long as I sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or some other children's song, or read to him. We haven't had any "action," so to speak, but it's a good start. He's starting to do it at night, when we are getting ready for the bath, which is also all to the good.

School went well, and Liam and I hung out and did puzzles. Apparently he likes to do puzzles at Hakobune when he isn't playing with cars. Lunch went well, and Liam (unusually) fell asleep quietly and peacefully around 12:50, before Ken came to take him for a walk. I took Jamie to the local Timothy's to do some work and eat a treat, but he wasn't really focused on much today: very carbonated, I think, would be the best term to describe his behaviour. He did sdo some math, which went well, but the rest of the time was a wash from an academic standpoint. John came and met us so that I could see Dr. Kennedy briefly about something, and we took Liam in so that he won't associate Dr. Kennedy with needles all the time. Liam buried his face in my shoulder in realy fear until he realized that nothing bad was going to happen to him (i.e., a needle). Poor lamb. Then home, and puttering about the house until it was time to go to Browning for dinner.

Nothing special to report from the evening; the usual pleasant food and pleasant compeny, and carbonated children. Jamie fell asleep almost instantly at bedtime, and Liam did the same.

(John) Both my boys surprised me this evening. Liam wanted to play Marble Blast on my MacBook, and managed to convey this with his still minimal vocabulary. Point at the bottom of the screen, smile. Wait for Dad to move the cursor to the bottom of the screen to reveal the Dock. Say "Da" (or sometimes, "Ya") in confirmation. Watch Dad move the cursor sideways magnifying application icons until the Marble Blast icon shows up. Say "Da!" "Liam, do you want to play Marble Blast?" "Da!" Wait while Marble Blast loads slooooowly. Show palms and perform Trudeau shrug. Yes, it takes a long time. Wait while Dad starts Beginner Level 1. Push him firmly out of the way. Press the W key (his favourite) to go forward, allow Dad to steer. Spent ten minutes alternately playing and rhapsodizing about the pattern of Os (his other favourite letter) on the marble rolling surface.

Jamie asked me in the bath how to draw a square in Japanese calligraphy. Left, top, right, bottom. I told him that there's a kanji that looks just that, and he thought for a moment and said "kuchi (mouth)". I asked him how he knew that, and he said "You told me.", which I did a few months ago. I tested him later in bed, and he knows the kanji for the numbers 1-10, and "yama (mountain)" too, and I'm guessing he knows several more (up, down and tree). Smart boys.

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

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