Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 49

2008-08-12 23:45 (Kristen) Liam woke up in the middle of the night (4:18, to be exact), distressed and patting his bum. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom, and he said "dah" quietly. He didn't make it, however, and we fell back asleep with him lying aross my chest, being consoled as he was very upset that he missed his chance to pee in the potty. He made up for it in the morning, and all was right with the world. He managed to both pee and poo today in the potty multiple times, and is as proud of himself as it is possible to be. Tonight, he was in bed and nursing when he asked to go to the bathroom. When we were finished, he insisted on going downstairs to tell everyone what he'd done, and signed that he was a "big boy just like Papa and Jamie." What a star. We had as many "accidents" (failures to notify or to try to make it), and he doesn't like me to ask him if he needs to go to the bathroom, but he's really really into this. Hooray!!!

John reports, with a grimace, that Jamie exclaimed "Papa! It's Morning!" at 7:43 AM. Groan. Jamie is full of life. He asked John a few days ago, "Papa! Why is life so much fun?" John says that he wasn't able to tell Jamie "because people like you are in it," because he wouldn't understand, but instead said because there are so many fun things to do. Today's list of fun things to do included playing Adventure Quest and SSBB with Owen; various battles and games to make up and play with Mom, Dad, or whoever wanders by; going to the park with Anna; and making videos with Becky. Liam watched Backyardigans, romped with whoever was willing to romp, and went to the park and went down slides. He also played "Ferocious Dinosaur" with me, which involved eating other people. He makes slurping sounds to indicate that he's going to eat you as he chases you. Hysterical.

Today's only downside was that Jamie somehow managed to get bitten five times by mosquitoes despite not going outside. No one else has been bitten. I'd not brought the Benadryl spray, forgetting how buggy it can get here, and John had to drive to four drug stores before he finally found some. Sigh. The boys went to bed around 9:30, with Liam in full meltdown mode, before he had a nurse and had a trip to the bathroom. They fell asleep much more quickly tonight than last night.

2008-08-13 21:33 (Kristen) Liam's progress towards being toilet trained moves forward apace. He tripped off into the bathroom this morning after getting up to have a poo and a pee. He sits, and I hold his hands to make sure he doesn't fall in (we have a seat, but it needs to be replaced). He leans forward, and puts his head on my shoulder, and kisses me when he's done. How utterly adorable! All this and toilet training too! (sigh of delight) He managed a 60% success rate today, which was pretty awesome, given that we went to visit the Badger clan today, and there was much going on.

Speaking of which, we went to have brunch with the Badger clan before they went off to visit Jeanette's family. The boys had a blast, as did their cousins, playing with Cameron and Nathan, and playing with all the cool equipment in Badger's arnis studio. John took the mats and turned them into a maze, which everyone thought was awesome, and whenever Jamie ran by, I'd check and his forehead would be covered in perspiration. Liam surprised us by not napping, despite his father walking him to Chinatown and back. Becky and I took the boys to a nearby park while John drove the Badger clan to their next destination, and the boys had a great time in a large wading pool there. John came and waded with us (Becky had the wrong pants on and watched), and we managed to get two tired and happy boys home without incident.

In the evening, everyone cleared out for one reason or another except for me and the boys. Liam was heartbroken that everyone went out without him, but was distractable. I did a little reading practice with Jamie, promising him to read five pages a day with him so that he can get better. He's not all that thrilled, but I read to him before I get him to practice, so it's not all bad. He much prefers to be read to, than to do the reading himself, even though he is quite capable and can read "Return to town" when playing AdventureQuest if he has to. I put the boys to bed early, around 8:30, and they were both asleep ten minutes later. It had been an exciting day.

2008-08-14 22:18 (Kristen) I had both boys in bed with me last night, and I got half as much sleep as usual. Mainly it was because Liam was up between 4:10 and 4:50, unusually, because he needed to pee. Then he was up, and didn't want to go back to sleep, and needed convincing. He also needed to pee three times (or get on the potty three times and pee once, to be perfectly accurate). I was not entirely pleased by this, as much as I knew it was important to be supportive. The boys were up at 7:10, but I convinced them to stay asleep until 7:45. I was not feeling all that hot when I got out of bed, and was pounced upon every time I lay down to close my eyes for a minute. Argh.

We took the boys to the park nearby after lunch, and Liam went for a walk with Grammie on the way home. He fell asleep, and stayed asleep through being brought inside in his stroller, transferred into the car, and transported through Ottawa until I took him out of the car at Lansdowne Park. Anna and her singing class, The Pop Shop, were performing at 4, and it was Free Admission Day, so we went down to see Anna. The boys enjoyed watching the show, and put up with a long drive home through unusual congestion with the reward of pizza at the end. Liam started to complain about five minutes from the house, with growing agitation, and we realized he needed to pee. When we pulled into the driveway, after encouraging him to hold on, he couldn't and started to cry out like he was in pain. He wasn't in pain: he was just very upset that he didn't make it to the potty. Poor guy. He was rushed to the bathroom and then consoled. He didn't have an accident for the rest of the day.

2008-08-15 24:05 (Kristen) The boys were awake at 6:45 this morning, up and out of bed. I was not the happiest mother I've ever been; in fact, I was downright unhappy. I've told them both that I am not to be disturbed before 7:00, but I know that doesn't have a big chance of sticking. However, we can hope.

Today was Day Out With Thomas day, and while Jamie is starting to be too old to get really excited about it, Liam is just on the cusp of being a complete Thoas fanatic. He makes me identify each train in pictures, and was very interested in the Thomas inflatable bed we have for Jamie. Liam fell asleep in the car less than five minutes before we arrived, and was unhappy to the extreme when he woke up as I got him out of the car. The happy strains of the Thomas the Tank Engine theme song, however, being played at the event grounds snapped him out of a serious bit of temper, and he was all smiles as he realized where we were. We were just in time for our ride on Big Thomas (Liam was thrilled, and kept signing "Big! Big!" whenever anyone mentioned Thomas's name), but the tickets for the 11:30 train had been oversold. We managed to get on in the end, but were on the car (an old Via-style passenger car with windows that didn't open) with no air conditioning. It was a hot ride, but the boys enjoyed themselves. I should say that At St. Thomas, the site we went to two times previously, the cars are open, and Thomas-themed songs play so that people sing and wave to passers by much more easily. It's more enjoyable, and less like a ride on the subway. They put in more of an effort in St. Thomas as well, as the railway enthusiasts put up displays and thought is put into the setup. Here, the setup was prefunctory, although there were more (and very nice and helpful) staff.

We bought a new Thomas t-shirt for Jamie, and a Thomas umbrella and sunglasses for Liam (he has been feeling the lack of these items lately). We also bought him his own Thomas rolling backpack, but we'll save that for his birthday. The boys were parted from the site easily enough, and put up with a trip up Bank street in search of green tea frappaccinos and sushi. We made it home a little before two, and I took Liam for a walk. He fell asleep after ten minutes or so, which was great, and slept for a little under two hours. Jamie played AdventureQuest obsessively, which kept him happy. Dinner was at a local Indian restaurant, with the whole family, including my dad and his fiancee Liz. The boys were very high maintenance, required attention pretty much every second, until the food arrived and we realized that they were just terribly hungry. It was hard to have any conversations, however, which was sad. We hope that we'll see Dad and Liz tomorrow.

WE made it home, and decided to put the boys to bed around 8:30. Jamie fell asleep almost instantly, while Liam took an hour and three pee breaks (two of which were non-productive) before he fell asleep.

2008-08-16 23:19 (Kristen) I put up a dark afghan over the bedroom window, and that, coupled with an overcast morning, enabled the boys and I to sleep in until 8. I, at least, was thrilled! Liam continues to be somewhat recidivist about his toiet training. He is really good about pooing, but the desire to pee is lacking. We're following his lead for now, however. The plan for the day was to go shopping for birthday presents for the boys from my mom and Jennifer, so we went down to the mall and left the boys at the playpark with Becky and Anna. We did some back-to-school shopping for Jamie, and picked up some lovely clothes for the boys for their birthdays, and went back to get the boys. They were hot, sweaty, and very happy, and ate big lunches afterwards. Liam went for a walk with Grammie, and slept for two and a half hours. Jamie played Adventure Quest, which turned into a reading lesson in an attempt to curb his rapid-fire questioning about the game (every 40 seconds, on average). A common side effect when he has one of his amazing mental leap periods is that he becomes more nervous, and needs to be reassured frequently. He's very nervous about insects, and about mosquitoes and bees in particular right now. He'll leave the table if a fruit fly is in attendance. We're trying to reassure him that not all bees will automatically sting him, and that if you treat them with respect, they won't sting you. However, the impulse to avoid comes first, and then we fine tune it for him.

We had a large family get together this evening to celebrate Becky's birthday with her family now that she's home. The boys had a lovely time, and Liam gifted people with kisses before going to bed. He was pretty tired, but not so tired that he couldn't ask for multiple recitations of "happy birthday," and frantically sign for more candles to be lit and blown out. The boys had a great day, and I'm sorely tempted to go to the mall again tomorrow and exhaust them again at the play park.

(John) Today's linguistic footnote: Jamie backformed a verb 'to verse' from 'versus', and challenged me to verse a bathtub plug with my bath cups in Pretend Adventure Quest, where we use household objects to pretend that we are playing Jamie's favourite online game.

Liam has started using his linguistic skills to pretend. He has us take turns being a Big ("bee!" with arms raised banzai) Dog (panting), and is delighted when we follow his instruction.

2008-08-17 24:22 (John) We had originally been planning on heading home today, but changed our plans after misreading our calendar and missing a party we'd been looking forward to last night in Toronto. We went back to the mall in the late morning, let the boys run around, fed them and came back to Grammie's house. Grammie took Liam out for a walk again, and he slept for three hours, thanks to the morning exercise and the warm weather. After an early dinner at the boys' request, we went to the local park and played in the playground. Liam was interested in the water fountain area, asked me to turn it on whenever it ran down, and even at one point asked for a swimsuit (sign: pulling pants up legs), but quickly backed off when I told him the water was still cold. We left when Jamie said he needed to pee, and Jamie and I managed to run back the whole way. More exercise, hooray. Liam is continuing to improve his toilet training, with only the occasional minor oops. He got to wear underwear for the first time today, and was very proud. If I asked Jamie what he was proudest of today, it would probably be that he hit Level 50 in Adventure Quest, though of course I would probably have to interrupt a game of Pretend Adventure Quest to get him to answer me.

2008-08-18 23:01 (Kristen) We stayed up way too late last night packing, John and I, and so we were feeling more or less ragged when we got up. The boys were up sometime around 7:30, and John was up around 9:45. It was a nice quiet morning, and we had a lovely parting breakfast with the crew before heading out with Jennifer for Toronto. There were many hugs and kisses goodbye, and we're going to miss everyone very much. The trip itself was the best car trip we've had with Liam, with both kids sleeping between Ottawa and Kingston (Liam for an hour and a half, and Jamie for about 45 minutes). We had a good visit with John's brother's family (and their animals), and left Kingston around 4:00, when we started to hear rumours on the airwaves of big storms in the area. Sure enough, we found them on the 401, and added an extra hour to our time as we had to slow down to below 80 km/hr in some places as we saw scary clouds and drove through torrential rains. Jennifer kept the boys happy, and I managed to finish proofing a journal while she did. Wow!

We dropped Jennifer off in Bowmanville so that she could visit with her friend Lisa, and kept going to Toronto, fortified with burgers, chicken units, and fries. We got home uneventfully, and have largely unpacked. Gary came home to play with Jamie, as he always does when we've been away, and Liam worked on his peeing skillz*. Liam has been quite the chatterbox as well, as he has started to try saying names that aren't Mama and Papa. He tried to say Jamie ("Jay") and was amusing everyone yesterday by being asked to say names and then whispering them in pleased tones (as best as he could, but still recognisable attempts). He says "itai" and "please" clearly ("plis"), and is full of smiles and brio in the face of his own accomplishments. Jamie continues to be very cautious about the world, as he always is after a big cognitive leap, but is starting to relax as we tell him more about the world. Tonight was another discussion of creation stories, and specifically about how people got to be here. Fun!

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

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