Back to Vol. 2 No. 47, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 2 No. 49.

Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 48

2008-08-05 25:23 (Kristen) This morning, John took both boys to Hakobune for a make-up day. Jamie says, when asked if he and Liam played together, "Liam likes to play by himself. So I sit beside him and pick up Blue Elephant for him if he drops him." Wow! Apparently Blue Elephant had been left in the car, and John wasn't sure who was more upset about it: Mrs. Sasaki or Liam. There were other stuffed animals in Liam's backpack, but he kept pointing at his nose: only Blue Elephant would due. Thank goodness he came along.

I was worried when John came home at 1:45 with the kids, as it was a clear and present danger that Liam wouldn't sleep yet again. However, about fifteen minutes into our walk, he fell asleep at Danforth and Carlaw. Yay!! He slept for almost three hours, which was magical. He woke up when the raindrops started to hit him as I ran home from Sobey's with him in the stroller. The storm hit just as we got up the stairs, and we enjoyed talking about the thunder. I wasn't exactly able to make it thunder again when he signed "more," but I was pleased that he's not afraid for storms. Jamie had spent a fun, quiet afternoon with John. They did a little Japanese school summer homework, and then we got ready to go out for dinner at Yamato to celebrate Tomoko's birthday (which was yesterday). Becky had gone with Daniel, Ross, Tom, and Kelly to Ontario Place, and was trapped somewhere by yet another storm. We ended up getting takeout for her, and meeting her at Browning to take her home. In the meantime, the boys hoovered as much Japanese food as they could cram into their wooden legs, and Jamie finally gave me a Jamie language tutorial (he's been dying to do this for a few days now). He also drew some mazes for me, which were more elaborate than the last bunch that he drew in Orlando. The boys were very good, and we headed home around 8:15. They were in bed by 9:30 or so, I think, and both boys seemed to fall asleep without too much difficulty.

2008-08-06 23:27 (Kristen) At Hakobune, they have a birthday party once a month for the kids whose birthdays are that month. Today was Liam's turn to be the birthday boy, and so I baked 20 cupcakes last night (with Becky's able help) for the boys to take with them to daycare for the festivities. Liam and Jamie were both excited about them, and Jamie raved about the cupcakes when he got home. He even "helped" John to eat his. Liam ate his too, which ensured that he ate even less lunch than usual, but that's all right.

John took the kids to Hakobune and brought them back, and I took Liam for his walk immediately upon return. He obliged by falling asleep for 2 1/2 hours within ten minutes of our leaving. Yay! Becky looked after Jamie while John napped, and then came out to meet me. Liam woke up in a fairly good mood, and was happy after a cuddle and the cookie that he was entitled to. We got some groceries, and Liam convinced Becky to carry him home. Lucky boy. On the way home we saw Charlie and his mom at the playground, and made an impromptu playdate for after dinner at the schoolyard. Jamie had had a large snack at 4:00, so John took him out at 6:30 to find Charlie. Liam stayed behind,mightily put out that he had to eat before going to play, but was delighted to make it to the playground. Jamie rode his bike to the school, with John's hand on his shoulder, but by the time we got there he could already ride solo for about 30 paces. At the end of the evening, he could ride the length of a block solo. We were so proud! He needs help to start and a little to stop, but the boy can ride a bike. His friend Charlie learned how last week, so they can race around the playground together like the terrors they are.

Liam's first was in the bathroom as I got the boys ready for the bath. He'd stripped down to nothing and put his diaper in the garbage when he started to pee a bit. He stopped, and I asked him to put the pee in the potty next time. I was distracted with Jamie, but looked over to see Liam sitting on the little potty with a focused look on his face. When next I checked he was up and wandering around, but there was dampness and a puddle near the potty: the boy had stopped himself from peeing in the first instance, and then gone at my request to pee the rest in the potty. Well, more like near the potty: he has some work to do on his aim, but there you go. The first successful potty event! Yay, Liam! When we quizzed him about what he'd done, and praised him mightily, he was very pleased with himself. The boys fell asleep easily tonight after their exercise. Jamie is off to Hakobune again tomorrow. Liam gets to have a quiet day with me and Becky.

2008-08-07 21:41 (Kristen) Liam woke me up at 9:15 after a restless night. I was a little concerned about that, but thought that some exercise would help. Jamie went to Hakobune for the afternoon, and Becky and I took Liam with us to drop Jamie off. Liam was in a lovely, happy mood, and seemed tired after eating fairly well. However, he hadn't pooed, and that also dampered my hopes for an afternoon nap. Sure enough: I was right. No nap. Augh! Becky helped look after Liam as best she could so that I could get some work done, but it was pretty much a write-off. Sigh. Jamie left quickly from Hakobune with us because the sky was threatening another storm (Becky, Liam, and I made it to Hakobune just before the deluge). We made it home easily, and the boys were good while I made dinner (with one small meltdown on Liam's part). Liam had been complaining ofp ain, so his teeth may be bothering him. It's hard to tell.

In the evening, we went to the playground for an hour. Jamie rode his bike and did more bike practice (today's lesson: stopping), while Liam, Becky, and I played in the little playground at Jackman with our neighbour Zachary and his parents. Zachary and Liam are very close in age, and seem to get along with each other. They went down the slide in tandem, because they both like the slide, and rode back home in our wagon together. That was very cute. Jamie played well with the boys as well. We headed home, and put Jamie into the bath and Liam into bed. Tomorrow, we'll try again at the nap thing.

2008-08-08 36:39 (Kristen) John and Jamie were up early to get Jamie to Hakobune on time at 9:00. It was Hakboune picnic day at Toronto Island, and the rain stopped just as they got to the daycare. We were afraid that they'd have to cancel, but the weather improved and Jamie was able to go and have a great time with his Hakobune friends. Liam woke up with me a little before nine, and passed his usual sort of morning, hanging out with Becky and doing this and that. We got ready for our walk around 1:00, but he showed no signs of sleepiness after he ate. In desperation, I got Becky to play with him at Withrow Park for half an hour while I worked on a non-negotiable deadline, and they had fun planting rocks to make rock trees, pretending to be butterflies (leading to the sign combination "more butterfly"), and playing on the swings. He finally tired out enough to go to sleep around 2:45.

We all met up again at home around 5:00, where we did chores and this and that until it was time to go to Browning for dinner. Daniel finally had his D&D campaign set up, and Liam roamed and was entertained by this and that while the rest of us (including Jamie) tried to game. Jamie is a halfling fighter, which is appropriate, and he is now utterly obsessed with graphs, grids, dungeons on paper, and rolling dice. Excellent! We call him over when there are dice that need rolling. Liam showed off his new mad talking skills by finally saying "more" instead of signing it. Hooray! He was very pleased with himself. It was late to bed, and the kids fell asleep very quickly.

2008-08-09 22:57 (Kristen) It was a lovely looking day when we woke up, around 9:00. The boys played while I did dishes and cleaned, and John went to the market, solo, to get one or two things before we leave for Ottawa. I was about to hang up the laundry and get the boys outside to play before lunch when I noticed that it was getting dark...sure enough, it started to rain. This was the theme of the day: if I wanted to do something outside with the boys, it rained. And so, today was a largely quiet rain day. Jamie did mazes online, played more D&D by himself or with whomever he could find, drew dungeons, and otherwise kept himself busy. He remarked to me, with some surprise to himself, I think, that he hadn't played any SSBB, and it was close to 5:00! So we played a little together. I stretched Liam's naptime to close to 3:00, and left just as it started to rain (again). He hated the plastic cover, and insisted on holding it up so that heis legs and feet were getting soaked. I pointed out that Blue Elephant was getting wet, and didn't like it, and he at least kept the plastic down sto the point that Blue Elephant was staying somewhat dry. He fell asleep just as the heavens really opened up, and I was able to get a seat at the Second Cup without too much waiting (it was Taste of the Danforth weekend, and it was seriously rained out).

I woke up Liam a little before 5 and headed back home. Liam noticed that Blue Elephant was a little wet, and we discussed that. Then he clearly signed to me "MY elephant." Yes, his elephant. We headed out around 6:00, a tired, hungry, and increasingly wet troop, to get our traditional calamari from Taste of the Silk Road on Taste of the Danforth weekend. There was still a little lineup in the pouring rain, but Margaret let us come inside and eat in the restaurant, even though it was officially closed. Her family ran about, helping Margaret, and stopped by occasionally to say hi to the boys or give them a treat. John's dad came by to have his share, and all was well. Liam walked home in the rain, overjoyed to have his brother's umbrella (Jamie didn't mind riding under the plastic on the stroller). It was quiet again after we got home, and put the boys to bed a little late. Becky was out all day with Auntie Millie, and we felt her absence. It's going to be bad when she goes home!

2008-08-10 24:50 (Kristen) The rain continued overnight, making the morning grey and perfect for sleeping in. Which we all did, until 10:00 or so. Augh! No nap for Liam, I predicted, and was right. Becky stayed the night at Auntie Millie's, and we missed her in the morning, with boys wanting this and that. Jamie's been right off the charts, with "Mummy! Papa!" erupting from his lips at least every two minutes (and, it felt like, every 30 seconds at times) as he wanted to show us this or that thing. that he had done or thought about. He put John through a dungeon of his own making, and decided that he wanted to design his own t-shirt. John asked him what he wanted on the t-shirt, and Jamie replied "a tiger riding on a spaceship." !!! John told Jamie (this conversation was at bedtime) that if he designed the shirt, then John would scan it, put it into an iron-on transfer, and then put it onto a shirt. Jamie wanted to do tha "right away" after having it explained to him why you do sketches and roughs before drawing directly onto a t-shirt. We agreed to come back to it tomorrow.

Becky came home around noon, and Daniel and Ross were already there and ready for a trek to the Coffee Mill in Yorkville. This was our much-delayed End of School celebration trip. The kids were utterly wound up, and had to be shushed many times as they ran through the mostly deserted mall outside the restaurant (we ate at the tables outside, out of consideration for the other patrons as we had an inkling that this would happen). I took Liam for a walk with me afterwards to drop off some work at the house of a client, while John took the kids back to Browning. Liam and I met up with them about an hour later, and the kids played happily. Tom and Michelle came home from Worldcon, and we thought it a grand idea to go and get dinner from Taste of the Danforth, which was running late in an attempt to get rid of the food they didn't sell yesterday thorugh the torrential rains. Liam walked all the way to the Danforth, and didn't resist much as I put him into the stroller to avoid having him walk in crowds. It then, of course, started to rain, and he let me put the rain shield down. Uh oh. Yes: sure enough, around 8:00, he fell asleep. Before dinner. Augh! I got him back to Browning quickly as I was utterly soaked in the downpour from the knees down, and then woke him up to feed him. He Did Not Like This, but was molified by a nurse and then hoovered a good deal of food. This made me feel justified in waking him up, as much as I hated to do it. I wondered what time he'd fall asleep, and it wasn't too bad: 11:00 or so. Jamie fell asleep around the same time, and will be quite tired in the car tomorrow. Maybe they'll both sleep. Whahahahaha (wipes tears of mirth from eyes). Likely not.

2008-08-11 23:54 (Kristen) We set off for Ottawa around the noon hour, after a fairly hectic morning (I did all my packing this morning, uncharacteristically, and won't be doing that again soon). The big bright spot was when Liam woke up and started to cry and pat his diaper (bear with me). After establishing that the diaper was dry, I asked him if he wanted to pee in the potty. He said yes, and so I took him to the bathroom and set him up on the toilet. Sure enough, he had a big pee. Yay! He was delighted because he finally got to use the toilet paper, which I told him time and again he could use only if he peed in the potty. W00t! In telling the story, he threw his arms up to show that he was a "big boy." He did it again in the car on the way out of town: he patted his bum and showed signs of distress; we stopped at a Tim Horton's and he did it again. W00t! He has, of course, peed more that that today, but the train is in motion. I will, of course, continue to encourage him.

The trip was largely uneventful, except for the rest stop that had no water and necessitated a trip to a very scary two hole toilet at a nearby picnic site. I got Jamie to water a tree instead. Liam fell asleep around 3:30, with some crying but eventually calming down into sleep. He slept until we arrived at my mom's, around 5:30: easily the longest nap he's had in the car since he was an infant. Yay, Liam! Jamie slept for a short time around 5:00, and we were all very happy to arrive. We had a lovely reception, and I hardly saw the boys after that: they were off playing Adventure Quest with Owen (Jamie) or exploring (Liam), or otherwise having a blast. Jamie didn't like the vegetarian chili, or so he said (I suspect he just wanted to keep playing). Liam added even more sour cream to his, and was quite happy to eat all of it, thank you. John went shopping later to get groceries and the Wii cable I'd forgotten at home (d'oh), and then we gradually worked around to getting the boys to bed. I'd expected that Liam would be the problem child, but he was asleep by 10:35. Jamie, on the other hand, lasted until close to midnight. A quiet day tomorrow, I should think.

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

Back to Vol. 2 No. 47, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 2 No. 49.