Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 52

2008-09-02 24:20 (Kristen) We're starting to make some effort to get back into a routine in time for school, but in our usual fashion, it's as though the harder we try, the farther from the mark we get. I took the boys to Hakobune this morning; it's the last morning that they'll have together for some time, as they will start their new routine on Friday: Liam in the morning, and Jamie int the afternoon. Jamie will be there on Wednesdays and Fridays from now on, and Liam will be there on Tuesdays and Fridays. They'll have lunch together on Fridays, however, which will be nice. When I arrived to pick up the boys, they were arguing over who got to play with the stuffed crab, while they each had another stuffed object under an arm. They were kind of tired, so I hurried to get them home. Liam went out with me around 2:30 for a walk, after arriving home at 2, seeing John, having a pee break, etc. Jamie and John played Wii, and Liam passed out for about two and a half hours. I woke him up at 5, because it was just a good idea. John had taken Jamie out to the playground at Jackman for an hour, where he played with Charlie and got caught up with Dylan.

The boys ate dinner, or I should say that Jamie did and Liam consented to letting me feed him a bit. Jamie made me laugh by telling the story of how his JK teacher, Mrs. Schofield, told him that he was in SK by saying "Poof! You're in SK now!" John took Liam to the grocery store, where Liam spent 10 minutes not peeing in the bathroom there after declaring he needed to pee. I took Jamie to Browning, as Jamie wanted to play with Daniel and Ross. Both boys were completely spun, and I was beginning to wonder at one point how long it had been since Jamie had last drawn breath. It was interesting chatter, but unusually non-stop. Liam was also in an energetic mood, and ate lots of California roll (5 pieces) and two cookies at Loblaws. Bedtime was unusually late, and the boys were not asleep until after 10:30.

2008-09-03 23:41 (Kristen) We spent the last day of summer vacation pretty much as we spent the summer, playing video games and hanging out in our underwear. Well, the boys did. Liam had another successful day in underwear, including going out for his walk and nap. If he has a dry diaper another two nights, I'll be willing to try and put him in underwear all night. I'm still amazed by this: I am not sure what I was expecting, but it involved much more yelling, somehow. It's all so much easier when it's his idea. I think that Liam is going to miss Jamie when school starts, but will enjoy having the television all to himself again. Liam had a good time making me read books to him and played with trains and trucks, while Jamie did the same things for most of the day. I took Liam for a walk around 2:00, and he slept for around an hour and a half, waking up when I got him home. Tonight was the first Scrabble night of the season, and John went off after dinner to run the club. The boys and I stayed home, and played with Gary and Ayami too. Liam looks for Ayami in the same way that Jamie looks for Gary. It's very nice. I had the boys in the bath at 9:00, but did not wash their hair as I'd whacked one of my toes and bruised it quite a bit and was interested in as short a bath as possible under the circumstances. They were in bed together with me at 9:30, we read a story or two, they ate their apples and cheese, and it was lights out. Jamie was asleep, to my surprise, at 9:45 (I'd expected him to be awake longer with the anticipation of tomorrow), and Liam fell asleep a little after 10, and after another pee break.

2008-09-04 24:15 (John) We were all up much earlier than we were used to on our summer schedule, to take Jamie to his first day of Senior Kindergarten. Jamie was excited, rode his bike halfway there before deciding there was too much pedestrian and road traffic and it was stressing him out, and walked the bike the rest of the way without complaint. When he got to school, he suddenly became apprehensive and declared that he wasn't going inside, but calmed down when we found several of his classmates from last year waiting in line to going into Isabelle Mikosza's class: Charlie, Jake, Parker, Madeline and Bryn. (Sam is sick, but will be joining later.) Liam wanted to go in too, but allowed himself to be mollified playing on the play structure and dawdling on the way home.

Kristen and Liam spent a quiet morning together while I ... worked? ... passed out? I have no recollection. We headed back to school together, and this time Liam dragged me from window to window pointing inside and asking if his big brother "'Mie?" was there, and gave him a big hug when he finally appeared. Jamie said he had a good morning at school, and we played a good long round of the Monster Game with his friends in the playground before going to Browning for lunch. I fell asleep for the early part of the afternoon while Jamie played first at Browning and then by himself at home; Ken took Liam out for a walk and Kristen worked.

When I woke up, Jamie and I did housework, Nisshu Gakuin homework, and played Super Mario Galaxy. My mom and Kristen made dinner, Liam and I went to fetch food from my parents' house, we ate, we played more, and we managed to get the boys to bed on the early side, around 21:30, though Jamie didn't fall asleep until about 22:15.

2008-09-05 24:57 (Kristen) I woke up without the alarm this morning after passing out with the boys last night. Unfortunately it was 15 minutes later than I was supposed to wake up, so it was a mad dash this morning getting lunches made and Jamie out the door. John reports that two more former classmates have been identified as being in Jamie's class, which is great. Jamie apparently had a good morning, and seems to be back into the groove. Liam and I went to Hakobune, and he asked me if Jamie was in the daycare before he went in. I explained that he wasn't, but was coming later. Now that Liam can say "Mie" for "Jamie," he's been asking a good deal after his brother and looks around for him when he isn't there, like he did at Jackman yesterday. He's very Papa and Jamie centred, which is both welcome and exhausting for the two concerned.

John reports that Liam was a little put out that he wasn't leaving when John arrived with Jamie, but seemed all right with the explanation that he and Jamie were to have lunch together first. John and I had lunch together, and then went together to get Liam. He was happy but very wound up, and had two pee breaks before I gave up trying to get him to sleep before it was time to go and get Jamie at Hakobune, two hours later. Sigh. We got the boys home, and it was time for Jamie to do 9 pages of Nisshu Gakkuin homework before school tomorrow. Jamie was a good trooper, and did it all. Dinner was at Browning, and we had fun playing Dungeons and Dragons, with Becky playing with us via Skype. Liam monopolized Tom all evening, and Jamie played Wii games between turns coming to roll dice when his halfling fighter was in combat. He has incredible luck, and usually does massive amounts of damage in his blithe little way. The boys were just this side of melting down when we came home at close to 10, but we skipped the bath and put them straight to bed. Liam fell asleep in two minutes, but Jamie took a good deal longer to calm down enough to sleep (10:45). I am a little concerned for his ability to concentrate at school tomorrow. Liam has woken up twice, once with a nightmare that John wasn't reading him books. Poor boy: John is feeling guilty.

2008-09-06 22:51 (Kristen) It was Jamie's first day of Nisshu Gakkuin, so I sent him out the door with John early enough that I didn't register the time. I did have enough time, however, to fold a bunch of laundry before Liam was awake at 9:15. We puttered quietly through the morning before I convinced him to go out with me to the St. Lawrence Market. I should note here that he has been having intense conversations iwth Blue Pony when he's in the stroller with him, and makes sure that Blue Pony doesn't miss anything by holding him around the neck and shoving his head over the edge (but not too far), and saying "look!" We had a lovely trip to the market, and Liam was content to sit and eat his pakora for a good part of the first half. I got him to get out and walk around a bit more after we'd finished off the north building and he helped me with the groceries at Wei's. After finishing off the shopping in the north building, during which he was getting more and more itred and less and less willing to listen to me when I said "Stop! Don't do that! Come back here!", we got some sushi and vegetable tempura and hung out at the fountain (for the second time) and had our food. He was being a good deal of fun to be with, and was full of "yay!"s and spins and giggles.

Jamie had a good morning at Nisshu Gakkuin, and I am reminded that he will be going to school until about 2:00 instead of 12:15 as of next week, now that he is in senior kindergarten. He has some classmates that he recognizes, which is good, as his best friend from last year, Hari, is in Japan until after Christmas. He complained gently that there was no music class, but I reminded him that it was an unusual day and that I was sure that music class would be back. John and Jamie picked up Liam and me at the market, but I drove the car back home, successfully managing the Bayview Extension and the hill up Pottery Road. Yay, me! Jamie showed his confidence in my driving by falling asleep in the car on the way hime, and stayed asleep for an hour and a half. Liam stayed wide awake, despite the long walk we took down to the Danforth. This was to his benefit, as the local firefighters invited him to have a look inside the cab of their fire engine when they came by to get their coffee at the Second Cup. These guys are so good with kids, it is amazing. Liam was very very happy. After a pee break, we played across the way at St. Barnabas, and Liam was hilarious as he played with Alex and Elizabeth, a set of twins who are about two months older than he is. They sang songs, and he appreciated it.

We went home, and played a little Super Mario with Jamie before I made dinner. Liam was pretty tired, but still going strong. We tried to get the run bike set up for Liam, but he'd hidden the appropriate wrench earlier in the day, so that was that. Liam had an accident, which was surprising, but I didn't think too much about it. We headed to the Dairy Queen after dinner, and Liam had his second accident of the day there, which was very very surprising. I think that he was just too tired after a long day, and the possibility that he is teething again is strong. Or he's coming down with something, and that's just not a fun idea either. I took him home, bathed him, and put him to bed as John and Jamie were coming up the stairs, having biked to the DQ and back. Liam fell asleep in two seconds, more or less, and I went out and helped Jamie with his bath and nighttime routine. I think that he is still awake, however, and this would be attributable to the long nap he had in the car earlier today, I'd imagine.

2008-09-07 20:30 (John) We went to see Wall-E today, Kristen, Jamie, Jamie's imaginary friend, Liam and I. Jamie's imaginary friend sat in the back seat between the boys and kept Jamie amused. (Kristen: Jamie's imaginary friend is the size of a mouseand may actually be a mouse: I'm not entirely sure.) Wall-E was not bad, though Liam only had patience for about half of it, and Jamie needed a bathroom break too, so I missed a good chunk of the plot in the second half. (Kristen: to be fair, Liam was watching the movie during naptime.)

Liam tells us now that he is Liam Bee and Blue Elephant is Blue Elephant Bee. They've both been watching a little too much Super Mario Galaxy starring Bee Mario. Blue Elephant Bee amused himself by playing soccer with Liam Bee; Liam Bee was hungry for cheese but BEB was full.

(Kristen) Liam Bee also "flies" around the house by waving his arms up and down and saying (a la Bee Mario) "Bee-bee!" Liam Bee also likes to be tickled for at least 15 minutes before he decides that it's time for you to be tickled too.

2008-09-08 23:45 (John) Jamie is making new friends at school, and asked to play with Connor at lunch, though unfortunately Connor had to go off to his day care. We played instead with Parker, who stayed at the playground with his babysitter and had no particular place he needed to be. We sat for a while and talked about life, then ran around, drew with chalk and walked and biked to the corner together.

Jamie was pleased with the bell I had bought for his bike, as well as the combination cable lock, and had no trouble understanding how to operate it or how to keep the combination secret, repeatedly telling Tami at lunch the wrong password to fool her.

Liam continues to be very Dad-centred, which I recall Jamie was at around this age too. This morning he insisted he was going to work at the computer with me, I was the parent of choice for toilet supervision, and the happiest he was all day was when he was sitting in my lap at Browning after dinner being read to. He even decided that I was going to put him to bed and not Kristen, though that didn't really work out well because he was too excited to sleep, and we ended up all lying down together until we all drifted off one by one.

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

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