Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 51

2008-08-26 22:09 (Kristen) Jamie was up at 7:30 or a little earlier, and so Liam and I were up not much later than him. John slept in, trying to kick his version of the cold that has taken up residence in me and in Liam. I fed the boys breakfast and headed out with Liam to Hakobune, where he seems to have had a great time. He managed to keep his diaper dry and use the potty there too, and I've warned Mrs. Sasaki that I'll be sending him to Hakobune in 'big boy underwear' next week if he doesn't have an accident between now and then. Oh, and I'll send an extra change of clothing too.

After two pees, Liam finally fell asleep on his walk, but he had a good deal of trouble staying asleep. His cold is getting worse, and he just can't breathe clearly when he's prone. He finally woke up at the Second Cup while I was getting settled, necessitating a quick retreat from the cafe lest his high-pitched scream of indignation shattered any of the glassware on display. Poor lamb. We went home, and he was happy enough to play with me and Jamie. I got Jamie to read a few pages of Go Dog, Go! with me by alternating pages where I read a page and he read a page. We puttered around the house, and John took the boys to pick tomatoes while I got dinner started. Dinner went well, and we ended up playing in the kitchen for a bit before bathing the boys at 7:45 or so. Jamie got to play with Gary for half an hour afterwards, while I put Liam to sleep (with some reservations) at 8:00. He was asleep by 8:15, but has woken up, screaming twice since then. He's not feeling well enough to nurse, and so has to shriek for about five minutes before patting his back soothes him enough to fall asleep again. Poor lamb. I pity our neighbours, sometimes. Jamie was asleep at 10:00, as usual.

2008-08-27 25:04 (Kristen) John is full in the grips of this cold, and so I took the boys to Hakobune today and let him sleep. Both boys were happy to be there, Jamie despite missing Kakeru-kun, and Liam didn't even look behind him once he rushed in with his new Thomas backpack. I got a hug and kiss from Jamie, however, which was lovely. The division of children in the household has been, for most of the summer, me with Liam and John with Jamie. I'll take Liam out to Hakobune in the morning and for a walk in the afternoon, and end up not seeing Jamie for long stretches of the day. We've been feeling it, I think, as Jamie has been very affectionate lately (when he hasn't been doing what he can to drive me nuts, but that's the reverse of it). Jamie asked me to fall asleep with him and John tonight, and I was happy to do it; he was happy as well, and fell asleep with a smile after we'd discussed how many kisses and hugs he'd needed to go to sleep (twenty each). We had fun today when he started to complain on the subway to Hakobune, "I'm hungry!" I said "I'm Mummy, nice to meet you." He thought this was hilarious, and I am reminded that part of the fun of having kids is being able to see old, hoary jokes as fresh and funny.

I picked the boys up at 1:00, and we didn't make it home until close to 2:00 because we walked to the subway, and that takes two boys some time. Liam was in a fabulous mood, and was spinning around and laughing hysterically as he copied whatever his brother did. He came in to spend a little time with John before his nap, and fell asleep for about two hours (maybe a little less). When we came home, Jamie was watching Mulan again. He told me "Mulan is the *best* girl," and I was so thrilled that at an age when many boys are starting to diss the opposite sex, that my boy not only liked watching a movie whose main character was a girl but he appreciated her for being a seriously competent, kick-ass girl. I'm so proud! Harouka, John's parents' tenant, came over to play with Jamie and Liam for an hour, and to speak Japanese with Jamie. She said that he still picks up language like a sponge. We're trying to get Jamie's everyday vocabulary up to speed, as it's his one real weakness at Nisshu Gakkuin, and Haruka is helping out (and we're very happy about that).

Liam melted down mightily at bedtime in the bathroom, but calmed down enough to fall asleep quickly. I gave him some more Tylenol to help him sleep through the cold. Jamie went to sleep at 10:30, likely because we're trying to get him to bed earlier. I should stop trying to do things like diet, be frugal or go to bed early, because I always end up doing the opposite of what I intend, and succeed when I'm not trying. Sigh.

2008-08-28 23:47 (Kristen) The boys were up around 8, and we had a quiet morning playing Super Mario Galaxy (Liam is frantically in love with the bees in the Honeyhive Galaxy, and keeps making us go back there, bee bee). John came down at 11 to say that he was feeling worse and wasn't taking Jamie to Hakobune: cue half an hour of frantic preparation as I got clothes out and made lunches while John dressed and supervised the kids. We were just a fraction of a moment too late, as Jamie had to go and pee before he went in, and they started saying grace just as we opened the door. Jamie waited, and apologized to Mrs Sasaki (they don't like people arriving after grace if they can help it), but everything was fine and Liam and I went back into Goforth Hall to have lunch. Liam was desperately put out that he wasn't going to Hakobune too, but was mollified with o-nigiri* and a chance to run around Goforth Hall for an hour.

After three (3) bathroom breaks, Liam finally fell asleep in the stroller around 2. First, he had to play on the wheelchair ramp at the Women's Bookstore and pretend that it was a slide; play through the window with a man painting the walls of a restaurant, which led to him sharing his coffee break with us and chatting about the various characteristics of being partly Asian (he was half Korean, half Scottish); visit bathrooms; get wrapped up in Mom's sweater because it suddenly became cold and rainy; eat an apple; finally fall asleep. Busy kid. We picked up Jamie, and Liam woke up somewhere on Spadina as we walked up towards the subway. It might have been in the middle of Jamie and my running between trees, trying to stay dry and run between the raindrops. Maybe not. I should note that Hakobune sent home Jamie's book of art and schoolwork for the last year. They've been doing Kumon hiragana practice with him, and it looks fabulous. He also has mazes they gave to him and mazes that he drew himself. The assistant was telling me that Jamie is hilarous, that he is always making mazes for other people and having them do the maze, and that the mazes are often of bloks and other things and not just on paper. They seem to really enjoy his imagination.

We picked up something for John at the pharmacy as he is not feeling any better but is, in fact, feeling worse. Poor John. We didn't see much of him when we got home, as he spent the day mostly in bed. Jamie played with Gary for a bit, and Liam with Ayami, and it was a very pleasant time. Bathtime was around 9:00, and the boys were asleep not much longer after that. I have the boys in with me, and Liam woke up at one point, crabby because Jamie was not me. Everything was quickly straightened out. to the satisfaction of all.

2008-08-29 23:34 (Kristen) The boys were up between 7:30 and 8, which is good (I suppose) with back-to-school looming, but I am less thrilled with the early rising times. We all ate breakfast, and I made lunch for Liam before I had to extract him from in front of the television with his brother and head to Hakobune. Liam likes the train, and we have a good time before we arrive. Liam was excited to be at Hakobune, and waved goodbye briefly to me before heading in to get started on his busy day. I picked him up at 1:00, and he was happy to see me but less happy to be leaving Goforth Hall as he wanted to run about. His subsequent behaviour led me to believe that he was exhausted. Sure enough, it took him less than ten minutes to fall asleep in the Annex, an area that, historically, he can stay awake for hours in before falling asleep.

I headed home, after picking up a few things, and played Super Mario Galaxy with Jamie for a bit. It's nice to have a game that I can play with Jamie, as we haven't had much opportunity to just play together this summer. We have fun, it's cooperative, and he's getting very good very fast. We're both making an effort ot play and spend better time together, which makes me very happy. After a while, Liam woke up and consented to watch a little Super Mario, and then we headed to Browning for dinner. We played in the basement, and did other things until it was close to dinner, and then branched out as other Browningites made themselves available. At one point, John came over for a quick bite, and Jamie pounced on him to play his version of Dungeons and Dragons. John demurred, and then Jamie wanted to play the same with me: I was eating. So John took Jamie up to Daniel, and told Jamie (who was saying "Wanna play D&D with me?" over and over again) that if he asked Daniel 1000 times, then Daniel probably would after 500 times. Daniel did capitulate, and played D&D with Jamie. John felt his work was done. Tom came home a little before 8, and Liam lit up like a Christmas tree as he hasn't seen Tom in weeks. Tom, gracious person that he is, played with Liam for an hour before getting his own dinner.

I took the boys home a bit before 9 (Liam made sure that Tom came too by giving Tom one of his own shoes), and they were bathed and cleaned before going to bed. There were no meltdowns, and both managed to hold it together. Jamie, it should be noted, was a star today as he stayed home with a sick Papa and treated his father well until I got home (and after). Yay, Jamie!

2008-08-30 24:28 (Kristen) John continues to feel poorly, which is no fun for him. Jamie woke up complaining of a sore throat, and so the last holdout falls. I gave him some chamomile tea with honey which he liked, and continues to ask me what foods/drinks will get rid of his cold fastest. On the bright side, his appetite is unaffected and he ate large meals all day: highly unusual, especially given how he had very little exercise. Liam was up early, around 7:45, to pee, and was generally happy. Jamie was up at 9. Much "Bee! Bee!" was played on the Wii. Jamie is getting better and better at Super Mario Galaxy, but still passes off the controllers when it's a hard bit that he doesn't like. It's nice to be considered good at a video game by my son. I took Liam for a walk around 1:45, and he fell asleep around 2:00. I picked up some apples on the way home, as we've been eating a ferocious number of them lately, and Liam woke up around 5:00. He was a little crabby afterwards however, and despite being fed snacks, had a full-tilt meltdown as we were going to Browning for dinner. Sigh. When we got to Browning, he choked on a piece of sembei* and (very rarely for him) vomited as a result. This necessitated me going home with him (as he was very upset and unwilling to be separated from me) so that I could change my clothes (his were clean). He clung to Tom all evening, and Jamie had fun playing with Daniel and Ross. Ross was having fun playing Smash Brothers with Jamie and didn't want him to go home. We managed to get both boys into bed with a general lack of meltdown, which was pretty good.

2008-08-31 25:22 (Kristen) We slept in this morning, to my surprise, with the boys not getting me up until 9:00. We've been getting up at least an hour earlier than that lately. It was a quiet morning, full of Super Mario and other fun things, and then a quick lunch before I took Liam out for a walk at 2:00 (no point in trying earlier, as he was up late and not particularly active). He fell asleep relatively quickly, and stayed asleep until close to 5. Hmmm. I wasn't worried, as we were going to Browning for dinner, and he always falls asleep well after that.

We made salmon dinner tonight, as the Browningites will be out tomorrow night, and Liam was very helpful by carrying plates and glasses to the table as it was being set. He also helped Michelle to put a box of club soda into the fridge, can by can. He was insistent that he get the last can out of the box, even though the box was deep enough that it was almost out of his reach. The boys played, doing the usual things, and didn't put up too much of a fuss when I brought them home at 8:30. Well, Jamie insisted that he was hungry but didn't want to eat the remains of his dinner, so I chalked that up to "not wanting to leave." We got home, bathed the kids, and put them to bed. Liam, however, was not ready to sleep. Eventually, John took Liam out of the room so that Jamie could fall asleep, and then I took over. John had fed him some more, and I then took him for a long walk (two blocks.). When we got back, he had the poo we'd been waiting for, but it surprised him, and he (unusually) didn't make it to the bathroom in time. He'd spent the entire day before bathtime in big boy underwear, however, so that was an achievement. He finally went to sleep sometime around 11:30. Urgh.

2008-09-01 24:20 (John) I'm very groggy from a double dose of antihistamines, so my memories of the day are a bit hazy, but Kristen has passed out, so hers are doubtless even hazier. We got a call sometime in the morning saying that Jake, Charlie and their families were going to celebrate the end of summer at the local splash pad, so Kristen kicked me out of bed, made lunch for the boys and got them dressed, and I drove us all over to Aldwych Park.

For the first hour, Kristen sat with the other moms under the tree and fed any boys that wandered near, while I kept Liam from falling to his doom on the big play structure, which he was going to play on for just as long as Jamie was on it. I then went home for an hour to nap, and returned when Kristen called to say that everyone had had enough. Jamie was very tired - he's feeling the best of the four of us right now but that's not saying much - and I was glad to be able to get him home and back onto the Wii couch without too much fuss, and delighted later that we got to do a little bit more Japanese homework. Kristen took Liam out for a walk while I tried to unlock new areas in Super Mario Galaxy.

Kristen came home when Liam woke up, I took another nap, Kristen made dinner, I played a bit of SMG with the boys, then ceded my place to first Kristen and then (to loud cheers) Gary. Kristen was having trouble putting Liam down at bedtime so I put Jamie to bed in the green room for the first time in a few days, but at his request I'll be moving him back to the white room now so that he doesn't catch whatever extra bug I have.

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

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