Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 69

2008-12-30 49:25 (Kristen) Jamie had an offer to play at Jake's this afternoon with his friends, which freed me up to walk Liam and get a little work done. I picked Jamie up at Jake's, where he was very reluctant to leave, but as I was dropping him off at Daniel and Ross's (along with Liam) so that John and I could go to a movie, he eventually acquiesced. We had a fun conversation with Sam and his dad about Super mario Kart on the way home, and who had unlocked what. The boys were good for Tom and Michelle, which was lovely, and were in very good moods when we came to get them.

2008-12-31 25:28 (Kristen) Happy New Year to each and every one of you from us. We all slept in this morning, and Jamie managed to stay in his robe and pajamas until after 2, when I finally made him put his day clothes on, under protest. Liam went with John for a walk, but failed to sleep until 3, just as John was coming back home. We let him sleep until 4:30, which, as we were going out to Reid and Luis's for a New Year's party, wasn't as bad a thing as usual. The kids watched movies, did homework, and lazed about until it was time to go to the party, where they ran about, "played" Rock Band (which meant that Liam sat on the stool and banged on the drums), and played with whomever they could. At one point, I saw Liam and Simon running around the main floor on their hands and knees, meowing and pretending to be cats. It was very cute. We dressed the children in their pajamas, hoping that they would fall asleep in the car, but both boys were far too keyed up for that. Liam fell asleep at 11:40, about ten minutes after Jamie did.

2009-01-01 21:30 (John) Alissa came over to help clean up the house in the morning; Liam and I went to pick up Nobuko and Tomoko and the osechi (Japanese New Year's banquet food). Liam is very serious about helping with everything, though he can get distracted easily, say by packages of Anpanman rice crackers left carelessly lying about an apartment. He wanted to eat them, but also wanted to see the whole set before doing so, correctly inferring the hidden presence of a Baikinman package and asking for it until he got it. Liam carried a large bag of Anpanman character rice cracker packages to the car for us.

We all ate until we were very full, the cousins played with each other, Liam and Kristen on guitar accompanied Ted on violin. Ian helped Jamie unlock new Mario Kart Wii features.

Before bath, we watched some of Totoro on my laptop. Liam has been speaking more and more Japanese, learning more from video sources than I remember Jamie doing. Today, he was excitedly repeating "Taihen!", which may join "Otto!" among his favourite Japanese exclamations.

In the bath, Liam asked to be tickled. He likes to tickle and be tickled, and has a special mischievous when he tickles. He tickled me, he tickled the bath, and we took turns playing This Little Piggy. Jamie sat on the toilet for the longest time trying to whistle, achieving success for the first time after about a week's trying, and is rightfully proud. My dad taught me how to whistle in the bath when I was eight; I don't remember him stressing proper tongue placement (tip against lower front teeth, middle arched high), but thank goodness for Google and helpful web sites or Jamie would still just be blowing air out his lips.

2009-01-02 23:51 (Kristen) I've been so busy getting the house clean and work done, and all sorts of other projects underway, that I really haven't paid as much attention to what the boys are doing as I should. Liam has been sleeping badly at night, which means that I go in with him around 2 or 3, and wake up with him around 8:15 or so. I get crammed against the side of the trundle bed when I do, so my sleep isn't all that restful. Liam is wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, however, and rarin' to go in a very crabby "feed me before I start to destroy your city" kind of way. The downside of weaning him is that he is very thirsty and ravenous in the morning, and there really shouldn't be any delay in feeding him.

I had both boys fed and dressed by 9:20, and John took the children to Loblaws while I went curtain rod shopping with Alice. Jamie lost his new Laaken bottle, which has upset him, but I'll buy him a new one with his Christmas money if no one turns it in at the Loblaws. It was a Santa present, but he can help me to pick one out this time, if he likes. We all came back home in time to have a playdate with Jake. Jamie was actually bored of the Wii, which was unfortunate as Jake has a lot of Wii obsession to work through before he could ever claim to be bored by one. They worked it out, in part thanks to other presents like the tent, which was nice.

John took Liam out for a walk, and Liam slept for about two hours. Both boys are interested in my guitar, which I have taken out of its case and am playing (I use the term loosely) again for the first time in years. Jamie wants to strum the strings, and Liam likes to sit on my knee and make his own sounds as I try to play. I'm trying to be patient, as I remember my father letting me do that sort of thing when I was a child, but it's not all that easy. Liam and Jamie are mad for Guitar Hero and Rock Band too, and both insist on playing those as well. Liam can be bought off by being given a microphone ("Liam sing!") that is not logged into the game, but he's insisting on playing guitar or drums more and more, and very upset when someone else is playing "his" instrument. We had dinner at Browning, with some Guitar Hero World Tour on the side, which was fun. We came back home to play some D&D, and put the boys to bed between 9:30 and 10. Liam was not at all sleepy, and stayed awake until 10:53 or so.

2009-01-03 45:39 (Kristen) The start of school is almost before us, and we're trying to get the boys back into some sort of schedule. Jamie, in particular, is going to have a hard time as he's pretty used to staying in his pajamas and bathrobe until after noon. He's awfully punky by the time the afternoon arrives, as he has usually spent the morning being a couch potato. Today, when he started to complain that he didn't have the energy to dress himself, I made him run up and down the stairs a few times, which made him laugh and got his blood flowing properly. Liam went with John to the market, and ate his way through, as far as I can tell. I took him out for a walk when he and John got home, and woke him up at 4 so that he'd have a chance of sleeping before 10. I was going to make dinner, but Alice called to invite us out for dinner at the Silk Road and how could we resist? It was a fun evening, with Jamie and Ian watching Pokemon videos on Ian's iPod Nano, and Liam eating everything in sight. The kids were good, and we all had a great time before we headed home, with the kids on the sled, through the cold night. The boys were tired, but still fell asleep far too late. We've got some work to do before Monday.

2009-01-04 21:45 (Kristen) Liam woke up around 8, I think, insistent on going to the bathroom but not minding to stop and pounce on me first for a bit. When that boy wants something, he usually gets it. We should start saving up for law school or little world dictator school for him now. Neither is cheap. Jamie was up not too much later, and we enjoyed some waffles with syrup and whipped cream for breakfast. After a morning spent playing this and that (Liam loves his new toy sushi set, and loves the wooden cleaver particularly. We've had to have a talk about what you can cut with it and what you cannot. Wooden sushi: good. Mom's guitar strings: not good), we had lunch and then packed up the boys for an afternoon at the Science Centre. We brought Jamie's friend Charlie with us, which was great. Jamie and Charlie spent the car trip there catching up, and Liam enjoyed hanging with the big boys. Liam, by the way, can now say "yes" and "Gary" clearly. John took the kids around the centre while I worked in the cafeteria, until it was time to go home. Liam didn't sleep so he was pretty fragile by the time we left, despite being full of hot dog and french fries. We brought Charlie home for dinner, and John took him home around 7. We put the boys to bed relatively early (8:20 for Liam, 8:45 or so for Jamie), and the boys were asleep early. It'll be a big day, being back into our usual routine, and Jamie also has soccer tomorrow and his dental surgery on Tuesday.

2009-01-05 07:45 (John) As I suspected, it was easy enough to get Jamie out of bed this morning, by telling him I stayed up late last night to unlock the Blue Falcon on Mario Kart Wii. "Good job! You rule, Papa!"

2009-01-05 28:12 (Kristen) I'm awake at 4 AM because I have to make sure that Jamie has a drink and some food before his dental appointment this morning. He's going to be put under to get a bunch of fillings done and possibly two crowns. He's not looking forward to it, so we have been calming him down by talking him through the process. Jamie does calm down when he knows what to expect, but I think that he'll still be somewhat nervous. So are we, so it's mutual. Michelle, Ken, and Tami will be looking after Liam for us while we're at the dentist's for six hours.

The first day back to school went well. I think that Jamie really missed his friends and his routine, as did his other friends, apparently. Jamie also had his first day of soccer, and John reports that they're being more strict this time about actually playing the formal game, rather than just scrumming. John had a dentist's appointment of his own this morning, and so it was just me and Liam. Liam "made" toy sushi, watched Anpanman, and did a little of this and a little of that, while enabling me to work for an hour in twenty minute stretches. That was rather unusual, and good. Lunch was at Browning, and as Liam had woken up sometime in the early morning (pre-dawn-ish) after peeing the bed and refusing to go back to sleeep, he really needed a nap. He fell asleep a little before one and woke up when I woke him at 3:45. Otherwise, I swear, he'd still be asleep. Or just waking up. Or something. We picked Jamie up from Charlie's house, where he was having a great time, and walked home for some Charlotte's Web and some Wii and homework. Dinner was at Browning, and Jamie still had trouble moving from one place to another without difficulty when it was time to go home. The boys were in bed not too late, and I fell asleep with Liam, but woke up in time to feed and water Jamie.

Liam and I have a game where I call him a monkey and he calls me Mummy Monkey. I also taught him that monkeys say "Ook Eek." That's pretty funny to hear him say. I bought him a cookie at the Second Cup while he was sleeping because it was a monkey face with a kiss on it. I broke a back molar while eating a bit of it later in the day, but I'm not in pain and I'm pretty sure the tooth can be fixed. But it means that the last holdout in the Great Chew Dentistry Challenge has fallen. The important thing was that Liam really liked the cookie, because it had a monkey face.

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

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