Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 46

2008-07-22 25:44 (Kristen) Today was full of rushing around to get items bought and things washed and cleaned out, and otherwise preparing for our trip. I managed to get Jamie to do some workbooks with me (math, phonics, alphabetical order), which went well in exchange for six minutes of Pokemon. We had a good time. Jamie's a little thrown off by our upcoming trip, I think, as he's been very reluctant to do things when asked, and even John had to raise his voice and threaten Jamie with getting angry at times. Becky has been a star at keeping Liam happy. Jamie is apprehensive about spending six days away from SSBB: Gary has suggested that we just buy him a Nintendo DS (handheld game). Like the child doesn't already play too many video games. Augh. John took Jamie off to Hakobune around lunch time, and Becky and I fed Liam at home. Liam didn't fall asleep until close to 2, but slept for almost two hours. He's been moving further and further down the clock, and I"m starting to be slightly concerned. I want him to nap for a bit longer!

Becky and I did a few more errands, and then headed home around 4:30 or so. I was expecting John to arrive relatively soon, but he and Jamie stopped off at Loblaws and Jamie ate a fair amount while there. They got home a bit after 6, Jamie ate more food, and then we dragged the kids out to the playground for half an hour. Daniel came along, which was great for everyone. Jamie was very tired, and didn't want ot go to sleep. I talked Liam into falling asleep again after nursing with the "aren't you full of milk?" ploy, but it failed when he woke up later, crying and protesting. Liam will put covers on himself where Jamie never did. LIam likes having a towel or blanket wrapped around him at bedtime. Jamie likes to build forts out of blankets now in his bedroom.

2008-07-23 23:46 (Kristen) Jamie is a little unsettled today in anticipation of the trip, and it has made the day a little more challenging as we've tried to be extra patient and understanding. Liam is, as usual, behaving in a largely undisturbed Liam-like fashion. John did tell him that we were going on a plane tomorrow, and he responded with much glee. Becky and I took the boys to Hakobune, as this is the one day where they go together. Liam cried and clutched his elephant when we left, but stopped within a minute of our leaving. I know: I listened.

As we got home, after the boys played and ran up Spadina, the heavens opened. I had to go out with LIam, who fell asleep in the pounding rain in record time (it was raining hard enough that he allowed me to put the rainshield down). I went out to buy a birthday cake for Ayami, as we were going to have a little celebration for her today, and picked up a nice one and headed home. Liam slept in total for an hour and a half, and we had cake when he woke up.

The skies cleared up before we headed to the Danforth to have dinner with John's parents and their tenant Haruka. It was lovely to not have to cook! The boys were wound up, so Becky, John, and I took turns running them around outside the restaurant. They did eat a great deal of food, however. Once we got home, they boys played for a bit and then we went to bed. It's up early in the morning tomorrow, and I'm hoping just for a REM cycle.

2008-07-24 23:33 (Kristen) The kids have calmed down enough to go to sleep, and I'm enjoying the first really quiet moment I've had all day. We were up at 7:00, and Jamie got up not long after. Liam, however, was asleep at 7:45 when the taxi was packed and ready to go. I had managed to completely dress him while he slept, and he didn't actually wake up until I was carrying him out the door to the cab. He was very excited by the idea of seeing planes and getting on a plane, however. Jamie and Liam were very very good in the three lineups we had to go through, and Liam only melted down briefly in the last one. We were to meet my mom at the gate, and both boys were delighted (to say the least) to see Grammi there and waiting for us. They gave her a huge hug (Jamie's hug was vaguely ninja-style), and Liam hardly left my mom's side the rest of the way. In fact, it may have been that he was trying to find her that he had a ten-minute long meltdown at the back of the plane where we were sitting. I removed him to the galley at the back, but he was still quite audible further up. Sigh. I need to teach him a sign for "Grammi." He can say "Beck" and point at Becky quite emphatically, so that one's taken care of.

The plane trip was only 2 hrs 15 min, which iI am very grateful for. Both boys were tired and a little hungry, despite snacks. Jamie kept asking every two minutes how many minutes were left in the trip (after watching "Horton Hears a Who"), while Liam was very restless and needed to keep getting up. He finally calmed down with a little Teletubbies on the little DVD player, which I hadn't wanted to bring and must now agree was a good idea (through gritted teeth). He whacked his head as were were getting off the plane, as he was horsing around with Jamie, necessitating another removal to the galley at back. He was quite upset and a game of "What happened?" didn't cheer him up. So I asked him to identify letters on a sign, and he surprised me by identifying correctly (i.e., "Which one is the 'e'?") all the letters in "OPEN/OUVERT," impressing the stewardesses very much.

We arrived at the hotel where the ScAmerican National Scrabble Championship is being held (Loews Royal Pacific Resort, near Universal Studios' theme park in Orlando, Florida), and were completely overwhelmed and thrilled with the resort. It's really a beautiful place. Jamie and I discussed what kind of animal eats bamboo after we saw some (answer: "Pandas!"), we all explored the enormous lobby while John checked us in, played with the little travel magnadoodles the kids got from the resort, and finally went down for lunch while our room was being straightened out. The boys ate well enough, and then Grammi and Becky took Liam for a long-overdue walk, so that he fell asleep almost instantly and stayed asleep for about 45 minutes (until 5:00). We took the boys down to the pool for a long play, then it was dinner in our room (which must be seen to be believed; Grammi and Becky are beside themselves with glee, as are we). After dinner with our friend Sherrie (the room has a microwave, and both Sherrie and John had gone grocery shopping a little earlier), we went back to the pool for a swim for John and the boys. Jamie was sure he didn't want to swim again until we were almost out the door, and changed his mind: he ended up swimming in his shorts as a compromise. Liam, on the other hand, was born ready for the pool. He is the person who drives us out the door to go there, and I think he'll be spending the whole day there tomorrow.

The boys were overly tired at the end of the day as they ran naked around the room, but they eventually calmed down enough to be put to bed. Jamie was out like a light, while Liam took a longer time to finally fall asleep: legacy of that speedy late nap, I imagine. They're both very excited to be here, and it looks like they're going to have a great time, which is a huge relief to me (I worry: it's my job). Tomorrow, I'll be spending the vast bulk of my day helping with the registration tables at the Nationals, and will not see them much at all. I will have to rely on reports from Grammi and Becky. Oh: they report that they saw a bunch of gekkos, and that Liam now has a sign for gekkos.

2008-07-25 22:21 (Kristen) I spent most of the day at the tournament, helping out with registrations. John was busy too, and we'd left the boys with Grammi and Becky for most of the day. Today's motto was "Who needs parents?" The boys had a great time with the two of them, and really didn't miss us at all. In the morning, they had breakfast, the boys watched television, and they walked from one end of the resort to the other, looking for geckos. After that, Jamie started to demand lunch by 11:30, so they came to have lunch with me and John at one of the restaurants, which has a great play area for kids right next to the tables where you eat. We managed to eat lunch in peace and the kids were very happy to play with the toys and watch Spongebob Squarepants.

Liam was exhausted, so he went to sleep for two hours, while Jamie played in the pool with Becky for an hour. Becky taught him the stroke, and Jamie has improved his swimming ability significantly. He will swim all over the place now, and doesn't stick close to anyone but will play in the water in a way he never has before. Liam woke up after two hours, and wanted to swim too. In the meantime, some man with cucumbers wandered by, and said that they had lotion on them, and that they weren't for eating. Jamie ended up lying back on some towels with cucumbers on his eyes. Then he tried on Becky's mirror shades, and was Joe Cool. Hilarious! Liam made it into the pool with Becky, while Jamie swam around them and played for another while, and then it was time to come out. I'm not sure what happened between when and when we met up, but when it was time for me to find them, John had moved our luggage into our new (and final) room, and everyone was preparing to sit down and eat leftovers for dinner. John stayed with us for a bit, then headed out to the tournament room again. The boys got progressively mroe and more tired, and more and more wound up, until we decided to walk them to the tournament room and back to burn off energy. There was a storm heading in, so we weren't able to swim before bed as planned, but we did get to talk with Susi Tiekert, who brought a huge pile of beach toys for the boys, to their great delight. They were a little annoyed that they weren't able to take the big things into the bath tonight, but that's life. In the end, Grammi, Becky, and I bathed them and put them to bed, where they took a while ten minutes max to be utterly unconscious.

I should add that while Jamie gets along famously with his cousin and grandmother, Liam is surprising me completely with his demonstrativeness with both of them. At one point, while in Becky's arms (he lets her pick him up at will now), he grabbed my mom, pulled their heads in close, and gave them a big hug with his face next to theirs. Aw! He also will offer to shake hands with people when he meets them for the first time, which is as adorable as it sounds.

2008-07-26 23:31 (Kristen) I don't know if Liam was cold or hungry, but he was squawky and restless for about two hours this morning. He finally settled down just before I had to get up: sigh. Jamie, on the other hand, had an accident in bed for the first time in I can't remember how long, and needed to be changed around 6:15. That's the nice part about staying in a hotel: they clean up the mess. We did leave a note apologizing, however.

The boys spent a quiet day today after the high octane excitement of the last severeal days. They watched a lot of Spongebob Squarepants in the morning, and played in the hotel room. Around lunchtime, they took the boys down to the restaurant where they were to meet us for lunch, but Liam melted down when the toyroom/eating area that he'd enjoyed so much yesterday was closed,. A quick-thinking waitress brought chicken fingers and fries, which eventually calmed him down somewhat, but Becky took him out for a walk when he started to wind up again. He took a whole five minutes to fall asleep. We arrived soon afterwards, and ate lunch with the conscious three. It was Becky's birthday today, and so we had arranged for a cake to be made and brought to our table for dessert. Becky was not expecting it, and so we enjoyed the look on her face when it arrived in all its best hotel catering glory (photos will not be going up on Cakedisasters, needless to say). We gave her her presents, and then headed back out to work.

The boys once again don't seem to have missed us much. There is video of them playing, singing songs, and otherwise having a good time, so there is evidence. Grammi and Liam did come to pick us up at 6:00, and Liam was delighted to see the Big Scrabble Board. He successfully identified each letter John asked him to find, including the 'z,' so he seems to know his alphabet. Clever clever boy. We went back to the room for leftover dinner, and John went out for dinner with some people. We went swimmimg, and Jamie once again roamed all over the pool with no help from us. Liam shocked us by allowing me to put him on his stomach, and then kicking and waving his arms about in a way that simulated swimming. Wow! Then he even allowed me to put him on his back against me too. I am so pleased! The boys were obviously exhausted when we got back to the room, and I got them ready for the bath. John came back in time to help put them to bed, and I even got Liam into bed and almost asleep, when the Saturday night "Dive-in Movie" (a movie played on a large screen by the pool for swimmers to watch as they play) started up. It was surprisingly loud, and stayed that way until 10:20. At that point I can only imagine that someone else with kids had cracked and asked the hotel to turn it down. Then, in the middle of it, the phone rang twice, and I had the kids up again because they weren't sleeping. Finally, around 10:30, they were asleep. I think that they're going to sleep in tomorrow.

(John) Jamie told me this evening that counting to infinity takes as long as counting to half of infinity: infinity minutes or infinity hours. Very clever boy.

2008-07-27 24:35 (John) The National Scrabble Championship ran smoothly today, and again Becky and Laraine helped ensure this by looking after the boys during the day. We left while the boys were still asleep and Laraine looked after them until Becky got up. Then Becky took over while Laraine came to get our takeout food order (we're tired of the food at the Royal Pacific Resort; there hasn't been a single meal here to write home about, though the surroundings are quite luxurious). They all came to visit us on our lunch break, and Jamie helped me do a little Perl coding in exchange for some Nanosaur time. Liam was already well into his nap.

I don't know what they did in the afternoon. I'm guessing they went to the pool. In the evening, we sent Becky and Laraine out to karaoke while we took the boys to the NSC reception. Jamie and Liam had a lot of fun playing with Jason Katz-Brown, horsing around and joking in Japanese. Liam and I went dancing, with Liam on my shoulders basking in an immense amount of attention.

It took a surprisingly long time for the boys to fall asleep; Liam was still awake at 23:00, so I'm guessing I won't see them again until lunch time tomorrow.

2008-07-28 23:29 (Kristen) We really didn't see much of the boys today. Liam slept badly last night, probably because his little nose was quite stuffed up. Both boys were awake when we left, but hadn't been for long. That was the last that we saw of the boys until dinnertime. We are told that the boys had a calm day, with an outing to the pool in the afternoon. Liam slept for a little more than an hour and a half, from 11:30 to around one, and fell asleep tonight quickly for the first time in a few days. Jamie was very tired by the time bedtime came around, but we managed to make it through (barely). The boys came down to see me and John at dinner, and they were very affectionate when we saw them. Jamie has been drawing maze after maze for me to do, and it's so much fun because Jamie is starting to incorporate teleporters into his mazes. Really.

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

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