Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 50

2008-08-19 21:50 (John) Jamie has completed my four-day bicycle training course. Day 1: pedalling, Day 2: balancing, Day 3: stopping and Day 4: starting. After dinner Jamie biked over to Charlie's house and they biked around the schoolyard. Jamie had a small accident, rearending Charlie's bike and getting a bit of road rash on one palm, but he's fine. We took a brief break to play some soccer with the ball Liam made me get at Loblaws today, and then he was back on the bike.

Kristen had gotten up with Liam to go to Hakobune in the morning, and fed Jamie breakfast before they left. I woke up a little while after they left, and Jamie and I spent a quiet morning on our computers and doing housework. We did a fair amount of Nisshu Gakuin summer homework, along with the usual Adventure Quest and Pretend Adventure Quest.

Liam wasn't particularly happy to go to Loblaws, but cheered up as soon as we got out onto Broadview and started seeing buses. "More big [bus]!" He ate half an order of California roll as usual while we did our shopping, and also insisted on playing with two baby toys that we made the mistake of walking too close to, before I was able to distract him with the task of loading the cart, and then kicking the aforementioned soccer ball back and forth.

(Kristen) Liam was so happy to be at Hakobune this morning that he needed reminding to put his shoes away, and barely stuck around long enough to let me take his coat off before he ran in with Blue Pony and Blue Elephant in hand. He missed a poo, but peed well, I'm told. He's getting the hang of peeing again: he even woke up two hours after he went to sleep tonight to have a bathroom break, and I'm not sure he was even fully awake for it. Yay!! When Liam and John went to Loblaws, I read two books with Jamie and we had a very nice time together. This was a good day, even as I missed Becky this morning as I roared out the door in a desperate (and ultimately successful) attempt to not be late to Hakobune.

2008-08-20 24:10 (Kristen) The boys were up and in a good mood long before we had to leave for Hakobune today, which made getting out of the house much easier. John slept in, as he was up late last night, and so we didn't see him until we got home in the afternoon. Both boys were happy to be at Hakobune when they arrived, and Liam did his "here are my shoes, can't get in quickly enough, kthxbye!" routine, which was a variant on Jamie's. Both boys had fun, and I got enormous hugs from both boys when I arrived to get them. Jamie insisted on getting bubble tea before we went home, which was fine: Liam was quite tired and very bossy by the time we bought the tea, and insisted that the whole taro tea that I'd bought to share was his personal property. Hmm. He's very big on "mine," signing with emphatic thumps to the chest as he says quite clearly "mine." We're not sure where that comes from.

After a pee break at home, I gleft Jamie with John and took Liam for his walk. He slept for about two hours, maybe slightly more, before waking up in a shoe store as I shopped for Birkenstocks. We got to use the bathroom of the nice people who run the store, as Liam announced that it was time to pee. He was very good about it today, especially given how many times if was necessary for him to find a bathroom. He drank a lot today. We went home to find Jamie watching Mulan for the first time, and wanting to watch it again over Liam's protests that the movie should go "bye." He also signed "bye" to my shoes at the shoe store, indicating that he didn't like them much. Sigh. We had eel and edamame for dinner, with rice, (my favourite "I'm too tired to cook" meal), and a lovely evening with remarkably little television. LIam played with trains, puzzles, and other things for a while and Jamie played with Gary. John points out that Jamie spent a good deal of his time singing today, and that he has a wide repetoire. We also agree that he has a lovely singing voice.

Bedtime was a little after 9, as we were all exhausted, and John was out at Scrabble. They went to sleep easily.

2008-08-21 23:13 (Kristen) I was groggy for large parts of today, but I'll try to remember what happened. Liam woke up around 8:15, and played quietly in the house, as did Jamie. Liam was initially intrigued by the show jumping portion of the Olympics, but soon got very angry with me for not letting him watch *his* shows. I think that I remember Jamie being the same way. He ended up watching Totoro, and enjoys the Cat Bus a lot (signing "more! more!"). Jamie went to Hakobune, and Liam and I went for lunch at Browning. Liam grazed, rather than ate, possibly because he ate more than half of John's tamago no gohan* an hour earlier. He napped for Ken, and I got a little work done, before it was time to come home. John and Jamie met us on the way up Jackman, and Jamie got out of the car to play in the playground. Liam did too, and the boys had a very nic etime. On the way home we stopped to play with Ben and Sam, and a friend (Kira?) who was visiting. Jamie enjoyed being a goalie in their hockey game. Liam just looked around for balls. We went in, had a leisurely dinner (snacking across the course of the evening), and then John went with Liam (after a meltdown) to pick up the car. Jamie played with Gary, and then it was time for bed. Liam has a bit of a cold starting, and is sleeping only lightly now after I gave him some Tylenol. I hope that he gets a good night's sleep, and gets better soon.

2008-08-22 11:00 (John) We're heading back to Ryde Lake for the weekend, so we'll be incommunicado until Sunday evening. Gary will be at the house as usual, and if you want an idea as to what we're doing, please revisit our blog entries from August 24-26 last year.

2008-08-22 23:00 (John) I was up two hours later than I'd hoped last night, because of last-minute issues with the planned unsupervised webcast of the Big Apple Scrabble Showdown this weekend, and I was grateful but exhausted when Kristen let me sleep in until 10:15. It took me about an hour and a half to get up, pack for the weekend and get ready around the boys. Jamie remembered Ryde Lake from last year and was excited. Liam saw the suitcase and asked (in sign) whether we were going somewhere by plane. I told him no, we were going to drive to a lake where we could go canoeing, and showed him pictures from last year. Liam was excited too.

We had to visit the library to return books, and Starbucks to get a family round of green tea frappucinos, and then a bathroom because Liam had to pee, and the DVP was jammed so we drove across the city to Allen Road, and all told it was 13:30 before we hit the highway.

Jamie promptly fell asleep, but Liam was too excited, and isn't much of a car sleeper. Jamie will ask a few times how many minutes it will be until we arrive, and if you tell him anything over a hundred, he falls asleep. He even slept through another bathroom break for Liam, somewhere south of Barrie. Liam would rather watch for trucks and cars, and ask insistently for more if they are too far between.

Jamie woke up a little short of Gravenhurst, and was telling us he remembered the rest of the way to Ryde Lake. We arrived a little after 15:30, Kristen got the boys settled in the Infirmary cabin with Kasumi-chan, Mio-chan and Sayano-chan and their moms, while I unloaded and parked the car. I walked Jamie and Liam to the lake, identifying each bug for Jamie, whose personal threat level is at Orange. Liam paid no attention to the bugs (mostly dragonflies, some bees, the occasional mosquito and gnat), because there were a lot of rocks along the gravel road that needed examining, and interesting foliage too.

We played at the little beach until Kristen caught up with us, then I took Jamie swimming. We each managed to capsize the large rubber ring that we were using for flotation. Apparently this was mildly alarming but rather amusing when I did it, and terrifying when Jamie did. I think we'll use pool noodles tomorrow. Jamie and I swam out to the float and back, and then it was time to head back to the dining hall for dinner.

Dinner was the usual camp fare, but everyone was hungry and didn't mind. Sasha-chan insisted that her family would sit with us, I think to be entertained by the ever reliable Jamie. Again as usual it was very hot, and we all dispersed right after dinner and orientation. Kristen tried to put Liam to bed with no luck, while I took Jamie down to the dock for a walk. When we came back, Liam was still running around maniacally and Kristen looked ready for bed. I got Jamie, Kasumi-chan and Mio-chan working on collaborative drawings (a pastoral view of Ryde Lake, embellished with a shark attack), and then we moved on to drawing comic strips (each of which ended with a violent death and much use of the red crayon). Jamie said he was ready for bed at 21:45, but took until 22:20 to actually fall asleep. Liam fell asleep somewhere around 22:00. Which is good, because we have to get up early for breakfast tomorrow, and we have a long day of outdoor fun.

2008-08-23 23:00 (John) We woke up groggily to the alarm at 8:00. I had spent the night sharing a twin bed with Jamie, waking up every 30-60 minutes so that one of us could roll over. I don't recall hearing anything from Kristen and Liam's bed, so I imagine they slept fine. There were complaints from our cabinmates that someone spent a lot of time snoring last night, but whoever it was, I'm glad I was able to sleep through it, and surprised I didn't catch them at it whenever my sore throat woke me up. At any rate, I was not surprised that we were all a little bit tired all day, and ended up all passing or zoning out in the early afternoon.

After breakfast, we went canoeing, following the same route we took last year, down the river past the cabins and the dining hall to the rapids where most of the group were fishing. Most of the conversation along the way consisted of our answering Jamie's questions about the bugs that were in the canoe. We watched a few successful catches, and Jamie said he's like to try fishing too, so maybe next year we'll bring along a rod. Or maybe we'll wait until he's got the patience for Wii Fishing before making that investment. Liam was more interested in a group of the smaller children who were blowing bubbles.

Both boys liked canoeing though, and both gave paddling a brief try. We had no trouble retrieving Liam's oar.

After we got back, we went swimming. I swam out to the float with the slide and demonstrated its use three times, then came back for Jamie. He didn't take much coaxing to get in with his water wings, and we puttered around holding onto a pool noodle. I used two for flotation myself, as I'm much more used to my saltwater buoyancy. Kristen eventually made it in, leaving Liam sitting on the dock in his life vest, adamantly refusing to get wet. After a few minutes, I heard a shriek and caught a brief glimpse of Liam falling feet first into the water, and grabbed him when he bobbed outraged back up to the surface. I passed him off to Kristen, and the four of us swam to the other float, with Liam alternately happily relaxed and remembering to sputter with outrage. We got up on the float, waved to shore, and it was time for lunch.

The boys were very, very tired at lunch. Jamie was not on his best behaviour, and Liam was so uncoordinated he fell off the bench beside Kristen, her cue to put him in the stroller for an overdue walk while Jamie and I went to the suika-wari (Japanese watermelon pinata); Jamie was at first afraid of the blindfold, but I helped him overcome his fears and he managed to score a hit on the evil melon. Jamie and I met then went back to the cabin, Liam and I napped, Jamie watched Anpanman and Kristen read her New Yorker.

At 16:00 I chased everyone out of the cabin and down to the water again. I went for a quick dip in somewhat cooler water - we never got the muggy day we were promised, and the water never warmed up - then sat on the beach and made sandcastles# with Jamie, Liam and Sash while Kristen went kayaking. We ran back to the cabin (with a stop for a shower for me) barely in time for 17:30 dinner, which turned out to be delayed until 18:00. Liam was well rested, Jamie was a bit of a basket case. We fed the boys a lot, then went to sit around the campfire.

The boys enjoyed the campfire songs a lot, Liam more so than Jamie because of the novelty. I don't think we sang enough for Jamie when he was little, and we do less for Liam, so he was stabbing his palm signing for "MORE!" at the end of each chorus. We stayed until marshmallow time, though by that point the boys were running around in distant orbits from the campfire, playing monster games (Liam and Sasha are particularly cute together doing so) or collapsing momentarily with their juice boxes.

The boys fell asleep at about the same time as last night, around 22:00, and Kristen about 45 minutes later after a sanity break with her New Yorker. I'm off to bed now, and will try to keep Jamie in his Thomas air mattress so that we can both sleep better.

2008-08-24 23:03 (Kristen) Jamie stayed in his Thomas bed for the whole night, waking up a few times to make sure that I was there to hold his hand. I told him that he was sleeping between the two of us, and that he should hold my hand if he felt scared. I was proud of him for doing it. In this way, John got to have a halfway decent night's sleep, and the rest of us did too. Liam nursed pretty much constantly, which wasn't quite so much fun, but it was all right. In the morning, I woke up and realized that I was sleeping with a little birthday boy, who was woken up with love and kisses, as I remembered what I was doing two years ago at this time. It seems so amazing to me that he is two! I have trouble seeing Liam as older, while I have no trouble with visualizing Jamie as an older child. I think that this is just the way it is with younger children: they grow up faster, but they stay your baby longer. Although, as Jamie reminded me today, he and Liam will always be my babies.

Jamie was a little disappointed, despite our warnings, that Liam didn't wake up talking like the rest of us today. He was really hoping that would happen. We went to breakfast, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday," with clapping, to Liam and a woman there whose birthday it also was. Liam was delighted. After breakfast, we went back to the lake, and did some more swimming. Liam was not really into the idea for a bit, then decided that he'd go in with me when he saw John and Jamie swimming off to the other dock. He bitterly regretted his decision once he got into the water, however, but enjoyed sitting on the other dock and watching John go down the slide into the water. We headed back to lunch, and after a fun time with Sasha and her family once again, we headed back to Toronto. Liam was not in the best of moods (downright crabby, in fact) and so I wasn't surprised that he fell asleep in about five minutes from departure. The traffic was horrid, and Liam woke up after an hour and forty-five minutes when we had to take a detour through Barrie. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we quickly unloaded the car once we arrived (using Jamie as slave labour). We had arranged for a birthday dinner for Liam at the Silk Road with John's parents, and John's aunts, which we arrived at around 5:30 (Jamie rode his bike down). Liam inhaled a great deal of food, and was very excited by the idea of ice cream. It wasn't ice cream, of course, but a lemon cheesecake with strawberries on top and candles too. Liam knows that a) you get a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday" with clapping, b) you get to lick the ends of the candles where they were in the cake and c) you get a present. We gave him a Thomas the Tank Engine rolling backpack, in the same style as his brother has, and he was utterly delighted. He threw his hands up in the air, cried "yay!" and promptly had to try it out.

We're so glad that we managed to get a proper party for Liam this year, because he appreciated it so much. He knows what to expect with parties, and he was so delighted to have one. I have no idea if he'll remember this, but at least he'll have photographs. I should add that he received a beautiful hoodie from his Auntie Millie, which we found in our front hall when we got home, some money from his aunts and the lady who was taking care of the restaurant tonight, a scrapbook from Haruka, and some lovely presents from his relatives in Ottawa, which we bought before we came back from there (a jean jacket from his Auntie Jennie, and a very cute outfit from Grammie). The boys were completely exhausted when we got home, and we didn't get Liam to bed quite fast enough to avoid meltdown. He did go to sleep eventually, and Jamie took all of five minutes to go to sleep himself.

2008-08-25 22:15 (Kristen) I am overhearing John and Jamie discussing what things start with 'B' that are in the bed: bears (Thomas), bats (Batty), and boys. No bees. Liam calls all bugs 'b's, while Jamie is still at constant Orange Alert about any possibility of contact with flying insects. We tried to eat lunch at Jackman today, but were forced to move from one place because of wasps, and from another because there were flies, but they could have been wasps, and required constant identification as harmless if dirty insects. Jamie declared it too worrying in the end, and went home with John while I took Liam for a walk.

The day started off well enough, with Jamie getting up on his own to watch Anpanman videos on his computer around 8, and Liam and I getting up not much longer after that. I tried to get the boys out of the house to go to the park around 10:30, but we ended up not leaving until noonish. This meant that Liam did not get his runaround before nap time. The boy needs to exercise if he's going to nap. I walked him around for an hour and a half, and finally he fell asleep at 3:30 or so just as we rounded the corner for home. Augh! I woke him up at 5, because I have work to do tonight. Liam and I played puzzles and other things, while Jamie was frantic to play with Gary, who was busy cleaning and doing other worthy things. They finally agreed to play after dinner, but Jamie was so tired today that I'm amazed that he kept his eyes open long enough to do that. Liam was crabby but placated if we did everything he wanted, but had an accident-free day. Yay! They're asleep now, I think, but I'm still expecting Liam to wake up at some point to be soothed back to sleep, as he often wakes himself up with a post-nasal drip cough when he has a stuffy nose.

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

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