Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 45

2008-07-15 25:36 (Kristen) It was up very early again today to get Jamie out the door. We let him sleep in until it was almost time to to, then dressed him in his sleep and gave him breakfast in the car. He was more or less awake by the time they got to the Science Centre, and ate his breakfast before he went in. It sounds like they had a great time at the planetarium, making crater holes in moons, and otherwise doing kid stuff. Jamie got another mosquito bite because he forgot to put his bug spray on before they went outside. We'll remind him more strongly tomorrow.

Liam had a quiet day, with more attention from me and Becky than usual. He did the usual things, and played a little outside. We ate lunch at home, and he nibbled at it, then fell asleep in the usual amount of time on his walk. He slept for two hours, and then had a cuddle in the Carrot Common. After deciding to not chase pigeons, we picked up a few groceries and headed home. We stopped off in the Jackman playground first for half an hour, which was fun. Liam was in a lovely mood, and gave me a huge hug, complete with little back pats. I think that I melted. We got home just before Jamie, who stayed awake all day today and had a great time. He was giving us little factoids all evening about the moon and other stuff that he did. I made dinner, and we went to Dairy Queen soon afterwards for more dessert. We put the boys to bed early, and Liam once again dropped right off while Jamie took longer to fall asleep. He is asleep in the bed with Liam right now, as John had gone outside to deal with something and Jamie didn't want to be alone, even temporarily, and had gone to find me. I imagine that he'll be asleep in the blue room again tomorrow night.

2008-07-16 22:04 (Kristen) Space camp is good for Jamie. When he comes home, he is full of interesting facts, and likes to share them with us. Much of today's post-camp discussion revolved around Pluto's demotion from planet to dwarf planet status, and which planets are our favourites (Jamie likes Pluto, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn). Liam went to Hakobune today, and despite a little separation anxiety when I left right away to avoid the separation anxiety (sigh), seems to have had a great time. When Becky and I picked him up, he was full of "yay!"s, hugs, and affection, and burbled happily for us. He sought out Becky, which made her happy, when she wasn't in the daycare with me to get him but waiting outside. Sunlight torned to showers, however, when we put him into the stroller for his walk. He cried, carried on, and otherwise took much convincing to sleep, but finally drifted off at 2:00, and slept until we were on the subway at 4:10. Jamie came home with John not long after we got home, and we spent a very quiet and lazy day playing video games, watching videos, reading books, and otherwise taking it easy. Both boys had a little difficulty falling asleep tonight, but possibly because we didn't get enough exercise in the evening.

2008-07-17 27:00 (Kristen) It's very late, and so I'm just going to provide the gritty details. Both boys were up early, and Jamie made it out the door with average difficulty levels. Liam was in a good mood, and went with me and Becky to the library and out for lunch at Mocha Mocha. He ate well, and slept for two hours. He likes the cheese samples at Alex Farms. We got home a little before Jamie, who was just wiped. It was a quiet evening at home, with both boys hoovering their homemade macaroni and cheese dinner and wild berries with cream for dessert. It's nice to see them eat. Liam said "yeah," not "dah" clearly tonight, to John's delight, and I have noticed that his little legs aren't little anymore: they're toddler legs, and getting long. He's also working on teeth again, as he has big lumps on his gums at the back. Poor guy.

2008-07-18 24:51 (Kristen) Liam woke up when John did this morning, leaving me with a little less than four hours of sleep for the night. John didn't get a good night's sleep either, so we were all jolly today. Adrenaline can be your friend! Jamie was hard to wake up of the four of us, and barely made it out the door for his last day of space camp. He came home at the end very excited and full of discussion of dwarf planets again. He was also asking to go to Space Camp again soon, so we may be going to the Science Centre a fair amount this year to compensate for no actual Space Camp. John said that one of the counsellors was named Jamie too, which required a call and response between Jamie and her of "Hi, Jamie!" "Hi, Jamie!" ad infinitum. He's fascinated by the idea of people having the same name as him.

Meanwhile, in Liamland, Liam went to Hakobune and had a good day. He was blitheringly tired, but the weather was disgustingly humid and it took him a little while to fall asleep afterwards. He did sleep for about two hours, and then enjoyed the ride home on the subway with me and Becky. We ran into Daniel at Broadview, and Liam enjoyed playing with Daniel too on the way home. We were somewhat flat once we got there until we all cooled down, and then Liam bludgeoned me into playing puzzles and other things with him. Dinner was at Browning, and all went well. The boys came home and went to bed without too much trouble, but Liam has woken up twice already tonight. I hope that he settles a bit more.

2008-07-19 20:23 (Kristen) It was hot today, with that muggy, soupy humidity in the air that Becky says feels like Florida in the morning. Good thing we're going to be in air conditioned comfort, or there would be cranky mayhem in our collective futures. The boys slept in until somewhere around 8, then I was dragged downstairs. Liam, however, first had to take a run at the room where John was sleeping, and pitch a full fit because I didn't let him wake up his dad. He had a full-on "daddy" day today, wanting to be with his dad as much as we'd let him. I don't recall Jamie having "daddy" days like this, but I imagine that he must have. We went out to the market, after Liam pitched another fit-- this time about not being able to ride in his brother's car seat. The market shopping itself went very swiftly, thanks to Becky's help, and we headed home to get a very tired and hot Liam out for his walk. John stayed behind and did a mountain of housework, and Jamie played SSBB, as far as I can tell, for three hours. I may be wrong. Liam slept for two hours, then helped me and Becky to pick up some salad stuffs and other perishables before heading home. It's been a quiet evening again as Jamie has been playing with Gary for two hours, and Becky has been watching Liam. A rainstorm went through and left behind big puddles, which she took Liam out to jump in. He was very pleased.

2008-07-19 23:20 (John) Today is supposed to be the last day of the current heat wave, thank goodness. We slept in a little bit, then drove to the farmer's market with the air conditioning on full blast, and were still hot when we got there. I tried taking the boys to Starbucks for a little while to cool everyone off, but only succeeded in getting them hydrated and sugared up.

On the bright side, Liam manged a good nap in the stroller with Becky and Mom, in among his busy schedule of getting us to play Wah-Wah-Wah (Mercury Meltdown Revolution), doing puzzles, picking and eating raspberries, and generally riding herd on the family and making sure we were all doing the right things at the right times. While he was out, I took turns doing housework, cooling off under the big air conditioner, and playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl with Jamie. At bedtime, we settled into our current ritual of Jamie and me watching favourite Anpanman movies on his iMac while eating apples and cheese.

2008-07-20 23:20 (Kristen) Liam woke me up at 8:15 or so to the sound of rain pounding upon the roof and everywhere else, which set the tone for the day. We were punky and reluctant to do much of anything in the morning, so we watched videos and played video games. Lunch was at 12:30, which went fairly well, and then John took Liam out for a walk. He let Liam walk a bit first, and I have a very pleasant image of them walking down the sidewalk, hand in hand, "big" Papa and "little" Liam. Liam loves to talk about how Papa is big and Liam is small. Big and small make up a good portion of his conversation right now. John says that Liam slept for an hour and woke up very peacefully at Starbucks after taking a long enough time to fall asleep that John was thinking of giving up and heading home. He then cuddled with John for about five minutes, glued to his dad's shoulder, before giving a quiet "da" to the idea of going home. John carried him part of the way, wrapped in his coat, until it started to rain hard enough that Liam agreed to go into his stroller. Then John, being no fool and keeping his coat on the boy, asked Liam if he wanted Papa's coat wrapped around his legs too. Thousand-watt smile; big "da!" At that moment, I don't think that there was anywhere that Liam would rather have been.

Back at home, Becky and I did housework and Jamie went to see if Gary was available for play. When John and Liam got home, Liam helped to mess up the toy room again. I made dinner, and the kids ate a reasonable amount, and then Jamie went to find Gary again. Liam followed with Becky, while I went out to get ice cream and whipped cream for dessert. We have some field berries that need eating, don't you know. Liam wasn't coming upstairs for the promise of ice cream, although Jamie was upstairs faster than a shot. Becky went downstairs and showed Liam the bowl, at which he perked up and followed Becky, like a horse following a carrot, up the stairs and into the kitchen, where he industriously did the bowl of ice cream, whipped cream, blueberries and raspberries in. The boys were up for the bath around 9:00. Jamie had trouble falling asleep, but Liam fell asleep a little easier than usual.

2008-07-21 21:56 (Kristen) The boys were up around 8:15, as is their wont nowadays, and I got them to come downstairs and to let John sleep without too much of an argument. We did a few things together before the television came on; Liam is just as much of a television fiend as Jamie. Jamie was actually up an hour earlier than I realized, I later found out, which was why he was very tired and somewhat oppositional. I myself was completely stressed out about work, which made us not the best of companions. John took the kids out to pick raspberries and do some other things while I had some quiet time, and then we had lunch.

Jamie had a playdate with his friend Sam, which he was very pleased about. We all walked over to drop Jamie off, and then took Liam out for his walk. Liam fell asleep after I got him some french fries (he hadn't eaten much lunch), and stayed aleep for an hour and a half. He was cuddly but less than happy when he woke up, but enjoyed being distracted by the fire truck outside the coffee shop. Firefighters know that all little boys think that they have the coolest jobs, and they're almost universally kind to kids. These guys were typical firemen, and Liam waved back when they called out to him before they drove off. Sam's mpom, Sara, dropped the kids off at our place, and we looked after Sam and his little brother Harry while she ran to the Big Carrot and back with Georgia the baby. Jamie had been dying to show Sam SSBB, and Sam was appreciative of thie chance to play for himself. Jamie is a little weirded out by the idea that there will be no SSBB in Orlando, but we're reassuring him that there will be beaches and pools, and that they will keep him occupied. He announced to me that Grammi and Becky were going to be looking after him while we are off at school or something.

We had dinner at Browning, and played with Leslie and (no longer) Baby Simon, as well as with the usual crowd. Tonight's crowning achievement, however, came at bedtime. Liam woke up almost immediately after falling asleep, and I went back into bed with him. He asked to nurse, but I asked him if he wasn't already full of milk. He quietly said "Da." We lay down beside each other for a bit, and then he asked again, gently. I asked him again if he wasn't already full of milk, and he quietly said "Da," again. A few minutes later, he was asleep on his own, without nursing. Woot! Yay! Who knew that the boy could be so reasonable? We'll see how it takes; I'm going to start trying to get him to stop nursing in the middle of the night, but this trick will likely only work if he's fully awake. Good to know about, however.

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

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