Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 31

2008-04-08 23:07 (Kristen) John got up early today, ready to help with Jamie's class and their visiting scientist day, but the scientist was ill and John was just up early. It meant a more leisurely departure from home, and John took Liam around with him in the wagon as he did a few errands before coming home. We said goodbye to Sherrie and Gregg, who are off to Ottawa today, and I got things ready for Jamie's skating lesson. He was apprehensive, because it was so hard last time, but I was more savvy to the tightness of the skate and told him that he'd have a much better time this time. We picked up Jamie at school, and let him run around a bit with Jake and the others, before it was time to head off to the arena. John took Liam for lunch at Browning, where all seemed well and Liam went off for his walk with Ken.

I am happy to report that Jamie's lesson went significantly better than last time. The tighter laces (I think that I hurt myself tying them up) made a significant difference, and Jamie was actually skating by himself with no supports and making real progress by the end. He came off the ice about five minutes early, exhausted and sweaty, but promised that he'd stay out for the whole lesson next time. I'll send him out with one less layer, too, and see if that helps. We went to Jake's to play afterwards, and the boys had a great time: we hardly saw them at all. Joh and Liam came to get us, and we headed off home. Once there, I did some yard work while John did some cleanup work around the CNSC. Jamie did an excellent job of sweeping the garden dirt off the sidewalk, and Liam helped to put leaves into the compost and snow off the lawn and onto the hot sidewalk and driveway. The boys started to melt down around 5, and I took them in for snacks. I soon made dinner, and finally acceded to Jamie's request that we go to the Dairy Queen: first visit of the year. It was a quiet evening, and the boys were in bed and asleep around 9:30.

2008-04-09 23:09 (Kristen) Liam and I slept in today, rarely, and so John got Jamie dressed, fed, and out of the house on time to school. Liam and I hung out together in the morning until John took Liam with him to get the car to take Jamie to Hakobune. We all went, and Liam cried when he wasn't able to follow Jamie inside the daycare. We fed him buns from Yung Sing Pastry instead, but he didn't have enough food until I got him home and stuffed some tofu into him. He took a while to fall alseep, until I realized that I didn't have the plastic cover down over the stroller. There was much protest when I did so, but he was asleep less than five minutes later. I turned around, took him home, and worked there until Liam woke up around 4:00.

John and Jamie didn't leave Hakobune until close to 5:00. Apparently, Jamie spent his time running around and round Goforth Hall with one of the Kai-kuns (there are three), while John discussed raising bilingual children with Kai-kun's parents. Once home, John had a rare Wednesday night free (Lisa Kessler took over the club: thanks, Lisa!) so we were able to go to Browning for a special dinner that Kelly was cooking before she went back to L.A. tomorrow. It was a fun meal, and both boys particularly liked the pureed cauliflower. We stayed far too late, of course, and the boys were up way too late as a result, but they were both in good moods and went to sleep well.

I should add that Jamie got his new Jackman Jaguars gear today: a t-shirt and shorts to match. He is so thrilled that he has announced that he will wear them today, and tomorrow, and the day after.

2008-04-10 23:16 (Kristen) For some reason, today's blog didn't show up on the date advertised; our apologies. Here it is again:

The morning started off normally, and went well enough, with everyone going to where they were supposed to at the appointed times. John took Liam and his mom grocery shopping, leaving me time to work on the house and other important things, and came home in time to take Jamie to Hakobune (after dropping John's mom off at home). Liam and I stayed behind to have lunch with Kelly and the rest of the Browning gang. Ken offered to take Liam for a walk as far as the local Starbuck's, and I met up with them there. Liam was asleep for about 45 minutes when the barista decided that now was the time to get caught up on his coffee grinding. Boom, that was it. Liam was wide awake, and it was time to get going into the open air again. We played at Treasure Island, and I bought Liam another puzzle, this time with four and eight piece puzzles. He's a whiz with two and three piece puzzles, and getting the hang of four piece puzzles quite quickly. It's hard to keep the challenge up, but not to overwhelm him.

Eventually I got home with him, and Jamie and John arrived soon after. I foolishly thought that I could take five minutes to make dinner while the boys watched Treehouse, but I was mistaken. I came into check on them, only to find that Liam had taken down the big book of burned DVDs (who leaves the originals around with a Liam? Watch and see why), and was experimenting with the DVD-holding capacity of the VCR (for those who don't have time to try this out themselves, you can easily get seven or eight in there). Liam was not my favourite person for a piece of time after that. LIam was hysterically tired, and I was quite weirded out for a moment when I watched him and John make hysterical laughing faces at each other: they were true mirrors of each other.

Jamie really wanted a trip to the Dairy Queen, so we went off to do that. It was a nice outing, and the boys went to bed soon after we got home again.

2008-04-11 23:28 (Kristen) A storm was moving over the city in the morning around the time that we usually wake up, and the grey light was dim enough that we all had trouble getting up. Jamie was up around 8:15, and Liam wasn't up until close to 8:45, when I woke him up dressing him. It was a daycare day for Liam, so I bundled him up in his splash suit and took him to Hakobune. He enjoyed the trip, and in fact had a great time until we entered the room. The moment he saw Sensei, he burst into tears because he realized that I was going to leave him behind. I stayed for about fifteen minutes with him, not allowed to be farther away than a pace or two from him before he'd burst again into tears, until Sensei finally took him and let me make my escape. I could hear him scream downstairs, and I think that he went on for some time. When I came back, I was told that he cried until close to snack time, but got into the swing of things then. He very much enjoyed the birthday party that was held for three other children, and also liked parallel playing "cars" with other kids. He burst into tears, of course, the moment he saw me, but calmed down quickly.

John showed up soon after with Jamie and his mom, with whom he was going to Kensington Market afterwards. Liam and I went with them to Swatow for lunch, and Liam charmed the wait staff while covering himself with noodles. He slept for about two hours, maybe a little less, and I took him back to Hakboune to pick up Jamie (John drove over, as it was faster). John dropped the boys and me off at Browning, and we played for a bit until dinner. Peter, Leslie, and Simon came over too, and brought their collapsable tunnel: much merriment, as you might imagine, was had by all. Pumpkin time fast approached, however, and we got the boys home around 8:30 and into bed not long afterwards.

2008-04-12 32:00 (Kristen) John took Jamie and Liam up to Nisshu Gakkuin this morning while I stayed behind to let Trifina in, and do do some housework. John and Liam came home around 10:45 with groceries. I went out to the car to get Liam while John brought the groceries in, and found him covered with California roll bits. Eek! Good thing he was wearing a raincoat. We went to get Jamie, who was (predictably) sad that it was raining, but was talking into pizza with Hari-kun. Hari-kun was more disappointed than Jamie about not playing in the rain, but we managed to get to the corner pizza store where we found two more classmates. Jamie happily settled into some serious pizza eating with his little posse (Hari, Hiro, and Toshio) while John and I talked with their moms.

Liam was too wound up to fall asleep in the car, despite his obvious fatigue, so John took him for a walk to the corner and back. Jamie and I puttered, and tried to lie down together, but without much success. John woke up, took Jamie for a bit, and then we went downstairs until Liam woke up. It was a quiet day after that; I made quesadillas again for dinner, which went over well, and the evening was quiet too. We read two books before bed, and that was that.

2008-04-13 23:06 (Kristen) Liam woke up first, around 7:30, but I was ready as I'd fallen asleep early in my clothes. Jamie and John got up not long after that, but it took a while until we settled down enough to have breakfast. John took the boys out for their first walk of the season in the valley, and I am told that both boys walked the whole way (well, 80% of the way in Liam's case, which is still pretty amazing). They looked for frogs and tadpoles (too early; the water is still to high) and watched all the little spring rivers. I am also told that they carried big manly sticks (unquote) around, and Jamie drew "x"es in the path to confound pirates with his. Liam demonstrated his sign language ingenuity by pointing with his empty mitten thumb to make the sign for "more, please" and thereby not exposing his hands to the cold. I am very sure that I head Liam say "Wa-wa" for "Papa" today, showing his typical disregard for the person who gave him life by not saying "Mama" first.

I met up with the boys as they came up out of the valley, and we had lunch at the Dairy Queen. We ordered two kid meals, but really only needed one as Jamie hardly ate his hot dog, and Liam only ate his. I exaggerate, but only slightly. Liam fell asleep on the way home, and I went on with him to do some shopping at hte Big Carrot. Jamie and John stayed behind, and when I came home, John was up from his nap and they were watching a Japanese-language Pokemon movie together. Liam woke up not long afterwards (too early, truth be told), and we puttered around until around 5:00, when John took the boys to the playground for a run before dinner.

After dinner, Liam did a bit of this and that, while Jamie played with Gary. Ayami came up to play with Liam a bit before bed, and we put the kids to bed by 9:30. At that point, Liam was too tired to even think about staying awake for the end of the second story, and insisted on going to be right then. He hasn't woken up yet, which is unusual, and may just be enjoying the sleep of the well run about.

2008-04-14 22:53 (Kristen) Jamie woke us up at 7:00 by peeing in his sleep: the first time in at least six months, I'd say. I amazed myself and those around me by stripping the bed bare in less than two minutes (a zippered mattress cover slowed me down), but it woke Liam up thoroughly. John and Jamie tried to go back to sleep in the other room, but really, it was the start of our day.

On the bright side, I got Jamie's phonics reader and his borrow-a-book book read and dealt with, and it was an amazingly leisurely breakfast. John took the boys out to school, and I got a little work done before John and Liam returned around 40 minutes later. Liam was tired, and wanted to cycle from activity to activity quickly, with much adult imput. Finally, he went off with John to get Jamie from school, and we met up at Browning for lunch.

Jamie was enraptured by Ross playing Super Smash Bros., and while he took a little time out to eat lunch, it was what he did all afternoon (with a break to watch Pokemon). I went out to meet up with Ken and Liam, and Liam kindly slept for almost three an a half hours for me (despite the best efforts of the passive aggressive baristas, who kept grinding coffee five feet away from a sleeping Liam). When he woke up, he was the happiest, sunniest boy you've ever met. He laughed, he giggled, he played: while we walked under trees, he pointed them out joyfully, and threw up his hands and said "Yay!" for no reason whatsoever. The English clerk at one store we visited on the way home complimented Liam on his waving technique, describing it as "royal" in its execution. When we reached Browning, we found that John and Jamie had never left, and Jamie was now happily playing with Ross. Daniel helped to look after a happy Liam while John and I made dinner, and both boys ate big dinners with gusto. It was the usual happy mayhem for the rest of the evening, and Gary took Jamie home while Daniel accompanied an imperious benevolent Dictator for Life Liam home as well. It was a little late when we got into the bath, and the boys were punchy beyond reason, but we managed. Oddly, they both fell asleep almost instantly.

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

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