Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 36

2008-05-13 23:45 (John) We got off to a reasonably normal start this morning. Everyone managed to wake up before alarms went off, and Jamie, Liam and I were out the door for school on time. We met Parker and Jake at the corner, and Jamie jumped out of the wagon and ran the rest of the way to school with his pals. Kristen caught up with us and took Liam shopping on the Danforth while I went home to let Trifina in. When Kristen came home, Liam and I took my dad out for a post-op checkup, and entertained ourselves shopping at the local Loblaws while waiting to pick him up. Liam is a huge impulse shopper; after he finishes eating his California roll, I have to make sure we are in aisles where there are lots of unbreakable things that we need to buy, or else he just starts loading whatever looks good to him onto the cart.

My mom fed Liam and me lunch, and Kristen and Jamie went to skating class with Jake and his mom. We all got together again at Jamie's skating friend Graham's house, walked back toward home so that I could make delayed salmon dinner at Browning while Kristen went to lock up after Trifina with Liam. The boys were both tired but in better spirits today, but still have several days' before they're fully recovered, I think. Liam in particular has had Kristen pinned to the bed since about 21:00, and only settled down at all after she gave him some Tylenol, so he must be teething again.

2008-05-14 23:15 (Kristen) Liam kept me in bed all night; every time I moved, he woke up. I relish those nights when I sleep in my clothes because I can't get out of bed. One the bright side, I got a lot of sleep: enough t wake up feeling a little disoriented and stiff. Liam was in a fine mood, and Jamie seemed to be well also. The boys ate breakfast and went off to school, and I followed not long afterwards so that I could take over from John. We walked home after Liam played on the slides (his favourite outdoor activity, aside from chasing and ovserving the local wildlife), and settled into our usual morning of TVO Kids and puzzles. Liam surprised me greatly by doing two of his four-piece puzzles by himself, and was very pleased with himself when I walked into the room and saw the two puzzles all done (I was doubly surprised because he had chosen the right pieces out of the box, which contains four puzzles). He is still prone to sudden explosions of temper when he is thwarted in any way, which will often include a series of very short, high-pitched screams (!...!...!...!). I am not enjoying this at all. At. All.

In the afternoon, we picked up Jamie and dropped him off at Hakobune. Liam came with us to the Korean grocery store, where it was difficult to keep him from impulse buying EVERYTHING (we got off cheaply with the Hello Kitty! cookies, I thought). I picked up a pizza bun for him, and he enjoyed eating that in his stroller while I walked him to Aroma to meet John (who drove). Liam fell asleep a little past Aroma, but it was a pleasant walk, and I turned around and walked back to meet John. Liam slept for about an hour, but was very snuggly when he woke up. He nursed and then just cuddled on my lap. He insisted that John carry him to the car, and was very affectionate with his dad on the way there, making John visibly melt. They both went to get Jamie while I slept in the car (I was very sleepy today), and then we dropped off some groceries at John's parents' house before we went home. The boys stopped and socialized with John's parents first, of course.

For dinner, I made the boys eel and edamame again (which they love), and Joamie disappeared soon after for his playtime with Gary. Liam and I read books, played Wii, argued about the proper use of the stereo and DVD players, and I figured out how he managed to put the VCR parental lock on (and I'm not taking it off anytime soon, heh). Bedtime was at 8:25, and lights out not long after 9:00. It was an average day, and I'm already gearing up for tomorrow.

2008-05-15 24:43 (Kristen) Liam and I slept in until after 9:00, and didn't get out of bed until about 9:30. I know that Jamie came in to say goodbye, which was nice, but I was pretty groggy when I woke up. It was a quiet morning in which I kept meaning to take Liam outside but something else would come up. Liam had a pleasant morning anyway, which was good. John surprised me by offering to take Liam for the afternoon, in addition to his usual routine of taking Jamie to Hakobune and picking him up, and I was utterly delighted to have an afternoon to myself to get a project finished. Joy!

John said that Liam had two 45-minute naps (John: one at Aroma, one outside the Barbord Bakery), and that he was a little unsure when he was in Hakobune when John went to pick up Jamie. John thought that Liam was unsure if he was to be left behind, and needed much reassuring and constant paternal presence. They came home around 5:00, Jamie had fallen asleep in the car on the final approach, and John carried him inside to the couch. I woke him up about half an hour later, as he was starting to pee (which, oddly, he will do only if he falls asleep in the afternoon). He was utterly disoriented, and wasn't really coherent for about ten minutes. He was pretty tired for the rest of the night, but not so tired that he would fall asleep before 10:30 tonight. Not so good, at all. He played with Gary, and Liam determinedly did an eight-piece puzzle over and over again until he got seven pieces right out of eight consistently (and did the whole thing right once). He is very determined, and it's nice to see him determined about that, and not about using my CD player, or DVD player, or freaking out that I won't let him take all my DVDs down and out of their boxes. 'Cause I'm unreasonable that way. I should also add that Liam sat cheerfully on the potty for about fifteen minutes, as the board books kept coming. He knows that if he poos, that I'll put him on the potty and put the poo into the potty. Then he gets toilet paper, and that's all he really wants at this point. Well, that and the books, as he's mugging me to read to him on a frequent basis. He knows the difference between yellow, red, orange, and green, I am pretty sure.

(John) I dropped off the permission slip for Jamie's upcoming first field trip, to the zoo. Jamie surprised us the other day by mentioning the correct date and destination of the field trip, even before we had read about it on the flyer in his knapsack. I'm not used to being with little boys who are so organised.

Liam has decided that his spring coat is his comfort item, will not leave the house without it, and drags it around the schoolyard like Linus and his blanket. I tried to send him out in a different coat this morning, but noooo! He and his coat were inseparable today; he curled up with it for a nap, and he may have been trying to share his food and drink with it in the car. When we went to pick Jamie up at Hakobune, I let him carry it in with him, which seemed to calm him down quite a bit. It's also a useful prop for him, as he can use it to indicate that it is time to go out.

Speaking of food and drink, my mom made us lunches today. Liam enjoyed some fried rice, especially the fuki* my mom put on the side, the chicken, the red pepper and broccoli, but when he saw the broccoli the first thing he wanted to do was offer some to Jamie, who had already gone into Hakobune. He's a good little brother.

2008-05-16 23:07 (Kristen) Our fervid parental minds whirring, we decided that Liam should take his comfort coat and his blue pony with him to Hakobune today to see if it helped at all. Liam is still bawling his eyes out when I leave, and we need to Do Something. So, we took Jamie to Jackman, and then I took a cheery Liam off to daycare. We went in with coat and pony, and he started to cry when he saw Sasaki-sensei, but only once we were inside (barely). I took him to put his sticker in his attendence book, and we got through that well. Then he actually wandered off for a moment to play with cars, and realized that I was still there: he came back, and then started to cry but Sasaki-sensei was there, and I bolted. He cried for a whole three breaths (I was listening outside, of course), and that was it. He was cheerful and great for the rest of the morning, I am told, which included a trip to the playground. He didn't cry when I sat beside him after I arrived (and he then looked up from his focused Lego work), but smiled and gave me a big hug. He was wearing his coat. Who am I to argue with the success of the magic coat?

We dropped Jamie off with some pizza at Hakobune, and took Liam out for noodles at Swatow. He stuck his fingers into the hot congee when we weren't looking, and bawled ('cause it *hurt*), which got him a cookie from the passing waitress. He was patting his head, and we thought for a moment that he'd eaten the overly hot congee; no, his fingers were red, so it was just the fingers. Later in the day, after another incident, we finally put two and two together ot figure out that his sign for 'pain' is to pat his head, like he'd just hit it. Very very useful. Jamie was very tired when I picked him up, but wanted to play with his friends some more. We hung about for a little bit, but then headed up to Bloor for some bubble tea instead. Then it was off to Browning, and from there John, Liam, and I went to our friends Geoff and Derrick's for some Scrabble, while Jamie, Gary, Daniel, and Ross went to Gary's for some video games. Jamie notified Gary, when he arrived, that this was what was happening, and Gary was some surprised.

Liam had fun playing pinball and playing with Quentin the Cat (and Liam was very gentle). Jamie was displeased when we arrived home to put him to bed, but soon acquiesced. It helped that John bought the boys water pistols for the bath (he is cleaning up after that because I am *so* not), and so they had fun playing with those under close parental supervision. Jamie was disappointed to hear that his Japanese school cancelled its picnic tomorrow in the face of doom-laden weather reports (rain and more of it), but I am sure will be happy enough with a trip to the market and Ross's birthday party.

2008-05-17 23:15 (Kristen) We're a busy family: here and there, all over, and with the boys starting to get schedules of their own (playdates, lessons, school), it's not going to get less busy any time soon. Liam was up around 7:30, and had me out of bed by 8:00. We puttered around, eating and playing Adventure Quest, until it was time to go to the market. We headed down, got the bare minimum of items, and let the kids play at the Early Years Centre. Jamie is turning into an amazing big brother, keeping an eye on Liam and making sure that he doesn't kill himself or run off into the sunset while having a good time playing with Liam. Liam adores Jamie, and they laugh and play together now in a way that they didn't even two months ago. It's a joy to see. We dropped off food at John's parents' house, and headed out to Humber Nurseries for our annual plant run.

Liam fell asleep on the way, so I took Jamie in with me to look at plants. He was bored by the herbs, but seemed otherwise fine to be there (I remember trips to the garden centre being about the most boring thing in the world when I was a kid, and worthy of dread). Liam woke up at the 45 minute to one hour mark, crying, and spent a good part of the rest of the shopping trip being carried as he wouldn't even go into the shopping cart. I mainly got herbs, but did splurge and buy a Captain Kirk hosta (gold and green, and I kid you not about the name). I think that I'll be rearranging a lot of plants in the back yard to fit in some of the new ones, and to get the best effect. We got into the car and left a little after three, and Jamie was worried that we would be late to arrive at Ross's birthday party. Ross is 10, and I can't wrap my brain around that. His party was held at Laser Quest, and Jamie was both very excited by and very apprehensive about it. The idea is that you wear a vest with shoulder, back, and front bits, and run around with a gun that shoots a thin red laser at each other, trying to "freeze" your opponent's gun so that he/she can't shoot you for five seconds: it's a high-tech freeze tag game in a black maze lit by ultraviolet light. Jamie did NOT like it at first, and was afraid of the noise and the weird visual effects of the ultraviolet light, but I promised him that if he didn't like it, we could leave. I wore the vest and Jamie had the gun, and together we were a deadly team. Jamie, it turns out, is a good shot. We came in 11th and 12th, respectively, in two rounds, in a pack of approximately 30-36 kids. Yay, Jamie! I helped a bit, but a good part of it was him. He got tired before the end of the second round, however, and so we left early to eat pizza. Liam played with John outside the laser room, and was very excited by the video games and other things there. Both boys were, it is fair to say, extremely overwound.

We left a little after 6, and went to the Silk Road Cafe where John's parents and his brother Ted and his family were eating dinner. The boys hadn't really eaten that much, so they ate a good deal of chicken and broccoli there. We also ran into my aunt Millie, my cousins Jeff and Scott, and my aunt's friend Ray there. Small world! That was a pleasure. We wound up there around 8:00, after both boys and Amy had already had one or two trips outside to run off some sillies and energy. Jamie disappeared to play with Gary when we got home, and was pretty tired when it was time to come upstairs. Both boys were, frankly, a little melty, and fell asleep very quickly between 9:30 and 9:45.

2008-05-18 23:22 (Kristen) The boys and I were pretty wiped, it would appear, as we slept in until after 9:30. In fact, John was up long before us and had a quiet and productive time before we stumbled out of bed. Jamie spent most of the morning playing Adventure Quest, and is obsessed with getting his character up another level. Liam went out in the pouring rain with John to the garden centre, and they came back with dirt, marigolds, and some tomato plants. Liam will not allow me to put "Coat" on him, but will allow John. Sigh. We groggily made our way through lunch, and packed ourselves up to go to the mall in search of curtain rods.

We had hoped that Liam would fall asleep in the car, but there was no luck there On the bright side, the boys kept each other entertained. We walked around a bit, did some necessary shopping (no curtain rod, but we know where to get one now that we want), and had bubble tea. Jamie melted down outside EB Games when I told him that he couldn't have a new video game, and we had a long talk about allowances again. He has become very acquisitive lately, and I think that it's a combination of age, kindergarten, and a lack of exposure to malls. He wants this game, that Exoforce, a Transformer, and all sorts of things that he sees that his friends have (ignoring the truly monumental pile of toys that he already owns). It's hard. We eventually left with an I Spy game, which we'll play tomorrow.

We went to John's parents' house for dinner, and Jamie and Liam both enjoyed playing with their cousins Ian and Amy. Neither boy ate a lot, and neither is very fond of scallops (too fishy?) but that was fine as we ate theirs. Ian went off to play with Daniel and Amy came home with us so that Jamie could show her Adventure Quest. I forgot to mention that Liam fell asleep in the car on the way home at 5:00 (he had fought off sleep successfully until that point), and woke up at 6:00. I had no hopes for him falling asleep before midnight. We eventually got the kids into bed around 10:15, and both boys were asleep by 10:45. Jamie just couldn't calm down, but Liam went down faster than I thought he would. We'll try to get up earlier tomorrow, as the late morning (however pleasant and needed) really threw us off.

2008-05-19 24:10 (John) The boys were up much too early this morning, so we all got off to a very sleepy start. Jamie played a fair amount of AdventureQuest (he's up to level 40 now) while I tried unsuccessfully to nap a bit more on the bed in the blue room. He can almost read well enough now to play the game on his own, but still asks me every now and then how to read a word. At 11:00, he went down to play with Gary, and the rest of us went outside to do some gardening. I planted a Kerria bush and potted some fuki for the Nisshu Gakuin bazaar next week. Liam helped weed dandelions, and generally supervised.

We were planning on going out shopping in the afternoon, but remembered almost belatedly that it was Victoria Day and the stores were closed, so we drove instead to Withrow Park. Liam fell asleep on the way, and Kristen stayed with him to work in the car. Jamie and I played in the playground, and Jamie managed to swing hand-to-hand on the monkey bars for the first time, overcoming a long-standing fear of falling, I'm so proud.

When Liam woke up, he screamed for about fifteen minutes until I was able to calm him down on the swing. He often signs "pain" (hitting his head, his own made-up sign) when he wakes up, and I hope it's just teething pain. We went to the Second Cup, and then to Browning for Ross' birthday party. I left the boys to play with the boys while I rehabilitated Daniel's tomato garden, then came inside to watch them all play Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii until dinnertime. After dinner and birthday cake, we drifted over to Jackman School and the local fireworks show. We've stopped going to the bigger affair over at Withrow Park, because the younger crowd at Jackman starts earlier (long before sunset) and is less rowdy (no Roman candle bazookas), and of course more conveniently located. This year Jamie's friends Dylan, Sam and Jake joined us for the first time, so while I gave away 100 sparklers in an astonishingly short period of time, Jamie ran with his posse and Liam played with Tom or Kristen. Jamie overcame another longtime fear and played with sparlers; Liam of course doesn't know the meaning of fear and grudgingly accepted adult assistance in waving his own sparklers.

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

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