Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 47

2008-07-29 23:55 (Kristen) It was our last day helping out at the NSC, and it was a good thing. The boys were good for Grammie and Becky again, but they were starting to get a little punky (or Liam was, anyway). Liam didn't want to get into the pool, which was shocking, but eventually got into it. I went up to the room in the afternoon to get something, and got a lovely, genuine hello from Jamie and some wonderful hugs and kisses before I headed back down. Liam had gone off with my mom for a nap, so I didn't see him until after the kids had eaten dinner (about 7:00 PM). It was hectic until 7, but then the boys came into the tournament room, and flew across the ballroom into our arms. Many kisses and discussions of what to do with Blue Elephant later, we went and had dinner with the others (thank you, Jane). Jamie stayed behind to watch Anpanman on John's computer, because that's different, of course, while Liam ate dinner (or, rather, more of it: the boys are eating huge amounts of food) in the staff room with me, Becky, and Mom. He entertained others with his joy in figuring out that you can *spear* tomatoes with forks, and was pretty well behaved for a tired Liam.

We took the boys back to the room for bed as the prize ceremony started, as they were way too tired to stay until the end. They were bathed and in bed by 10:00, which was a little later than I would have liked. We have to be up tomorrow morning at 5:00 to check out and make our morning flight, so please think of us. On the bright side, we'll be back home in time for lunch and (hooray!) naps.

2008-07-30 22:33 (Kristen) We were up at 5:00 in order to catch a taxi to the airport for our 8 am flight. Liam had woken up crying just before the alarm, and was half asleep and howling for the first ten minutes, and then melted down again when I tried to put on his shoes. Both Grammie and Becky notified me that they could have told me that he'd react that way, as he has been a total tyrant about putting his own shoes on lately. If anyone even touches the shoes while he's working on them, the entire process is tainted and must be started from scratch, including the opening of all available straps (three per sandal, in that case). I had no patience for that, as I'd slept less than three hours before our wakeup time, as had John. Consquently, Liam and Jamie were great, but the adults (well, maybe not Grammie) were utterly owly.

We finally made it onto the plane, where we were once again seated in the second last row from the back. I was thrilled when a lovely stewardess came up to me to offer one of us a seat behind (the crew seats) so that Liam could have a seat. It was very kind, and it meant that Becky could have some quiet time (she was shredded and in a self-described foul mood), and that Liam could have a seat to himself. I can't tell you how much better the flight went in comparison to last time for just that reason. The boys were good the whole way, and Jamie and I had an excellent discussion about cold and warm air currents and their relative bouyancy as the plane flew through a thunderstorm on our descent and we got thrown about by an unusually strong bit of turbulence. Jamie endeared himself to the flight crew by saying, when it was done, "that was fun! let's do it again!" He likes turbulence. Wow.

We got off the plane with a banana from the nice stewardess, and made it through customs with no difficulty. We said our good byes to Grammie, who had a connector flight to Ottawa, and found a taxi for ourselves. I think that the boys are going to miss her a great deal. On the way home, Liam fell asleep for half an hour, and Jamie for a little less than that (about ten minutes). They were both excited to be home and did their favourite activites: Jamie played SSBB, and Liam did puzzles, played with trains, and watched DVDs while strewing his toys all over the living and dining rooms. Sigh. The house was clean briefly. John's parents brought over lunch from the Silk Road Cafe for us, and John's mom watched the boys for a short time while I went to sleep after lunch, John woke up to have lunch, and Becky slept for over three hours. The boys were in bed before 9:00, and were asleep pretty quickly (although Jamie was wired and excited to be home, and so had a hard time calming down). We are delighted to be back after a wonderful trip, and are thinking hard about the next ones.

2008-07-31 25:50 (Kristen) The boys were up at their usual times today, which didn't surprise me much. Breakfast was a little tricky, as I'd not bought milk yet, and so it was a little delayed until I'd figured out how to make an alternate form of tamago no gohan* with fried eggs and rice. Jamie didn't like it particularly much, but Liam inhaled it. Jamie ate the grapes that Liam distained instead. I was wiped, so the boys spent their morning playing video games and watching DVDs, but I did get Liam to walk with me to the corner store and back. Becky tells me that they made the boys walk for at least 15 minutes every morning, and maybe closer to half an hour. This is what wiped them out, and made it so easy for them to get Liam to have a nap. More on this in a moment.

It was a Hakobune day for Jamie, and so Becky and I took the boys on the bus to get there. Once Jamie was there with his pizza, we went back to get our own. Liam was hungry again, and ate all the toppings off of 2/3 of a pizza slice (about 1/4 of a large pizza). I thought he'd fall asleep, since he looked tired, but instead he babbled, giggled, and would spontaneously shout out as we walked along in a way that let us know he really wasn't ready to nap. I picked up a new sticker book for him while I thought of it, as he's trying to reuse un-reusable stickers in his old books and making a hash of them, and then decided, after Becky wasn't able to get him to sleep while I was making my purchases, that he should go for a walk himself. We let him walk for about 15 minutes, but he didn't fall asleep until about 1:45 or so. Sigh. We went to Aroma, hung out until it was time to get Jamie, and went back to Hakobune with sleeping baby.

It was a special day at Hakobune, as it was Kakeru-kun's last day: he and his family are moving back to Japan, and Jamie is really going to miss him. We had a grand time tickling and playing "monster" (John arrived not long after we did) one last time, and Kakeru-kun agreed to write to us. I'm hoping that he and Jamie will be pen pals of a sort, and that writing to him will help his Japanese composition. That, and they are friends and it's fun to keep in contact with friends if you can. We finally left the daycare, and headed home for more video games. In the evening, after a late dinner, we met up with Daniel and Ross for a Dairy Queen run. Jamie was incredibly wound up, with his hysterical giggle fit-style laugh. Speaking of laughing, Liam was just happy to go for a walk until he saw the Dairy Queen sign and started pointing frantically. When John told him that we were going there for ice cream, Liam gave a little giggle (huh-huh) that John pointed out that he only uses for when he's told he's going to get to nurse. Ice cream=as good as nursing. Well. The kids played outside for a good half hour after we returned, and made it up to the bath around 9:00. John had to go out to meet up with some friends from Puerto Morelos who are in town for the evening, so Becky and I put the boys to bed. We experimented with me putting Liam down while Becky put Jamie down, but it didn't work out all that well for Becky. I fell asleep with Liam by accident, while Jamie took forever (until 10:30) to fall asleep. Becky didn't want to wake me, so she ended up not going to Browning to watch Avatar with Daniel and Ross but stayed with crazy Jamie. Poor Becky. Jamie owes her, as do we.

I should note that Jamie really picked up a good deal of knowledge at space camp. An Anpanman episode featured a solar eclipse, and Jamie mentioned in passing that the moon must be new. John reacted with surprise, saying "Where did you learn that, Jamie?", and Jamie said, "Space camp." Yay for space camp! Jamie's been asking when he can go again, and I think that we'll have to do it.

2008-08-01 23:47 (Kristen) I was up with Liam around 8:30, and went through the motions of getting ready to take him to Hakobune. Jamie didn't wake up until we were about ready to leave, around 9:30, and wanted a cuddle before I left (I obliged). John reports that he had a quiet morning, doing the usual. Liam seemed to have a good morning at Hakobune, which was great. He seemed a little tired when he asked to get into the stroller as we went up Spadina, but didn't fall asleep either on the walk to the subway or on the walk from the subway to home. Michele Lee had called to say that Jake was available for a playdate if Jamie wanted to come over, and we leapt at that. Jamie needed to get out, John needed to sleep, Liam did too, and I had a deadline. Jamie rode his bike to Jake's, and spent a very pleasant afternoon there. Liam didn't fall asleep, despite our best efforts and because of his own efforts to stay awake, and finally fell asleep only at 2:30. He slept until 4:45, when I encouraged him to wake up when he stirred. He woke in a perfectly foul mood, and needed much calming down before we could get going to meet up with John and Jamie, who were returning from Jake's. They were in the car, and Liam happily went with then ahead to Browning while Becky and I walked home with the large stroller that I didn't want to disassemble to put into the trunk (I find it a pain).

John reported that Liam and Jamie were delighted to find cherry tomatoes on the vine in the garden (Liam gave one of his little pleased exclamations), and ate what they found. Jamie ate a lot of cherry tomatoes at dinner, which made up for the fact that he didn't eat any chili (he doesn't enjoy the spiciness). A number of Sagara family members were in town, making it a big and special evening, full of fun and laughter. The boys had a very good time, but Jamie was all played out by 8:30, and wanted to go home and play SSBB before going to bed. He was utterly exhausted. Liam was still full of fun at 9:00, but went to sleep with surprising ease: I was sure that he'd be up into the wee hours. Jamie, on the other hand, took a long time to fall asleep again. We were considering sending him to a performing arts camp with his friend Sam next week, but we think that we'll keep him home instead. We're thinking of a trip to Ottawa in a week or two, and after the excitement of our Orlando trip, he needs some boring routine first to just calm down. He's been quite overclocked and overwound lately, and needs that routine badly.

2008-08-02 22:01 (Kristen) I don't know what time Jamie and John were up this morning, but I do remember hearing the Anpanman theme at a louder volume than I would have liked from the depths of sleep. I got up at 10, not realizing it was so late, and woke up a nursing Liam when I did. He was a bit put out, but survived. I went downstairs to find John and Jamie playing Wii, and just about ready to go out to the market. We decided to go all together after all, and woke up Becky so that she could go to. Have I mentioned that Liam calls her by name: "Beck!" He does it with great glee. We had a good time shopping together at the market and the kids were good, but we did have an incident with Jamie not listening when we asked him not to do something in the car on the way home. It was the first time he's really not listened when we'd decided to discipline him, and it was a bit perturbing, if still minor, but we'll have to keep an eye on it.

We unloaded the car, and Becky stayed behind with John and Jamie so that John could have a nap while I took Liam for an ultimately fruitless attempt to get the boy to sleep. He had done a fair amount of walking around the market, but I think that the 10 AM start just ruined him for a nap today. Boo! Becky met up with the two of us at the Big Carrot, and we walked home together. She lamented with me the loss of the three-hour naps he was taking in Orlando. Once home, we puttered around until dinner, when we had quesadillas. There was more puttering, and then it was time for the bath as both boys were exhausted. Liam felll asleep at the unheard-of time of 8:15 (watch this space for reports of boys up at 7:00 or earlier) and Jamie was asleep a little after 9.

John was telling me that he and Jamie were having a SSBB game in the bath tonight. The letter 'o' (from our bath letters) was the smash ball, and it was bath pigs against bath pigs. Apparently one pig was "Buraku Pigu" (a Japanese rendition of "Black Pig"), and was able to trounce the other pigs. Is it any wonder that his teachers at Hakobune think that he has a great imagination?

2008-08-03 22:19 (Kristen) For the second day in a row, Liam did not nap. He slept in until 9:15, and despite my best efforts, we did not make it out of the house until noon. We played about a bit, and visited John's parents, and had lunch, but Liam was just not tired. A walk had him almost asleep, but then he became more and more awake as the walk went on. Sigh. At least he was in a wonderful mood, and wasn't Psycho Crabby Tired Liam.

Jamie was tired for Liam, but not psycho crabby. He rode his bike around and then stayed home with John in the afternoon. He was, in fact, very cuddly, and we had some lovely cuddle times today for the first time in ages. That was very nice. John's friend Justin came by to visit for an hour or two on his way to the train station, and the boys were happy to see him, albeit briefly. Dinner was at Browning, where Kelly made a large dinner for Tami's birthday (Tuesday). Jamie was too tired to eat cake, and so we went home around 9:00. We put the boys stright to bed, and Liam was out like a light. Jamie took a little longer, as usual, as he had to have his apple and cheese and watch some Anpanman first. Liam, by the way, can now say "apple."

2008-08-04 21:22 (Kristen) For the third day in a row, Liam has not napped. In my parenting experience (which is, admittedly, limited to my own kids) three days marks A Pattern, and the beginnings of a change in behaviour, and so I am a little stressed about the prospect of afternoons with a conscious, rather than an unconscious, Liam. He woke up this morning at 8:25, ate lightly, and got a little exercise outside before lunch. He almost fell asleep on his usual route, but fought off sleep as we walked farther and farther. He lay back, and would trick us into thinking that he was about to sleep, even rubbing his face repeatedly with his arms, but then he would let out a little giggle that ended those thoughts. Then he would play with his feet. I can only think that we left too late again today (1:45), and that was enough to miss the window of opportunity. Becky accompanied me on our fruitless quest, and agreed that Liam looked and behaved like a tired boy: just no sleep. I am pondering what to do next.

In other, better news, Jamie started to ride his two-wheeler today. John suggested that he start trying it out, and Jamie was apprehensive at first. It was too big, etc., but John and I convinced him to try it out by saying that it was just like his run-bike (he was afraid of falling, and wanted the training wheels back on). He got on once the bike was ready, and set out with John keeping him upright. He needs to practice with the pedals more (he brakes suddenly), but he was starting to keep his balance better as he went along. (John: he kept asking if he had to give the bike back to Ross at any point, from whom it had been handed down.) Jamie also went to the pool with John, Becky, and Liam late this afternoon (more about that in a minute), and spent the entire time with his water wings on instead of his life vest. Yay, Jamie!

Jake came ot play with Jamie in the afternoon, and Jamie spent a good deal of time teaching Jake to play SSBB and learning how to teach someone a new skill at the same time. He did pretty well, with some coaching himself. Everyone went to the pool (except for me), and Liam melted down on John a few times (overly tired boy). The first time, John kept taking Liam into the pool to get him acclimatized, and then taking him out. Liam was so angry with John by the end that he waved his hand at John and very clearly told his father to "go away" with his signs, and if John got closer than a few feet, he'd sign furiously at him again to "go away." Then, they couldn't get Liam out of the pool, and it took them five minutes to put him into the car seat because they would "taint" the buckles by touching them instead of allowing Liam to do it himself (which he can't). Sigh.

We had a late dinner at Browning, and I took Liam home early to put him to bed. He fell asleep awfully quickly. Jamie is downstairs playing with Gary, and we're about to put him to bed as well.

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

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