Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 74

2009-02-03 19:20 (John) Kristen slept in past yoga class time, and we got off to a slow start in the morning. The boys and I got up and migrated to our respective electronica (MacBook, DS and iPod), and ate cereal with mangoes, bananas and blueberries for breakfast. Jamie drew mazes for a while, then we did homework together and started getting ready for the rest of our day together.

After Kristen and Sherrie left for their introductory scuba diving course, I took the boys to the beach. It was sunny and windy, from opposite directions, so we braced our beach umbrella against a palm tree and spent an hour making a walled fortress, drawing robots in the sand with mega bloks and having battles with evil boss creatures.

When the boys were hungry, I took them up to the Hotel Ojo de Agua restaurant. Jamie ordered a regular portion of the filete de pescado al ajillo for the first time, Liam insisted on ordering a hot dog (and had in fact been talking enthusiastically about it all the way to the restaurant), and I ordered a filete de pescado a la mantequilla.

The boys played with blocks and ate tostada chips with pico de gallo as usual while waiting for their orders to arrive. When the food came, Liam corrected the waiter and said that I was having the hot dog and he was having the fish in butter sauce. Sigh. I eventually got half of the hot dog into each boy, after quartering it; Liam ate 3/4 of his fish, Jamie 1/2 of his, so I did get 3/4 of a fillet in the end.

I left Jamie swimming in the pool under Tai-Tai's supervision and took Liam to the zocalo and back in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to fall asleep. We went to the pagoda, Tai-Tai fed the boys tropical fruit for a snack, and we went home to spend an hour or two doing housework and trying to find where Kristen had hidden Jamie's Nintendo DS. We eventually found it, then I spent an hour and a half fretting about Kristen's late return.

Dinner was leftovers, and I'm hoping we're all off to bed very early tonight.

2009-02-04 24:01 (Kristen) Liam woke me up this morning, full of beans, and eager to get on with his day. Jamie followed not long afterwards, and we had breakfast. The plan for today, because John and I were planning to have lunch with John's aunt and uncle, was to tire Liam out so that he'd nap while John's parents looked after Jamie and Sherrie could go for another scuba dive instead of looking after Liam. To that end, I coaxed Liam out with a promise of a trip across the street to the nascent Puerto Morelos recycling station (a series of boxes across the wall of the national park station across the street). Liam was all excited until John realized that Liam thought he was going to a *train* station, and that Recycling was the name of the train station. Liam took it with good grace, and had fun playing a little on the playground equipment nearby the recycling boxes. I told him, after hearing a rooster crow, that I knew where we could look at some turkeys. We walked over to a house near the tortilleria*, and looked at some turkeys and a chicken and a rooster there. Then, following Liam's lead, we walked around the block to the street that runs to the ocean beside the Ojo de Agua, and played a little there. I had a conversation with a Mexican woman who had a child a little younger than Liam there, proving once again that mothers can have a conversation about kids despite any language barrier. Liam was tired at this point, and so we went back to the house to find a rowdy karuta* card game in progress between John, Jamie, and John's mother. Sherrie found it all very funny.

The wind was cold and from the north again today, but we decided to brave the beach in honour of our last day here. I had to set up the umbrella as a wind break, and nearly lost it any number of times before I had it secured. I gave up trying to use it as a sun shield, because the wind break was more necessary, despite the bright sun. We coaxed both boys into the water, which while colder than usual, was still warmer than the air temperature out of it. Both boys kicked and swam (more or less, in Liam's case), and rode on John's back as he snorkeled in the shallows. Jamie, in water wings and flippers, was quite confident and speedy, and unnerved his grandmother a couple of times by going off a little too independently. Liam clung to me or to John, but still got some good kicking sessions in, gleefully, and was most annoyed when we brought him out of the water. We went to the Ojo restaurant for lunch for the boys, but Liam (after stuffing his face with pico de gallo) fell asleep in his chair, nearly falling out of it. It was about 12:30 at that point, and I stuck him into his stroller with a towel tucked around him. John's dad ate Liam's enchiladas, while Jamie ate 2/3 of his pescado de ajillo*. John and I went for lunch, and came back to find Jamie and Tai Tai on the couch, watching Spirited Away, and Liam still asleep. Liam woke at 4:05, and I think it's only because he needed to pee desperately.

I made Liam walk to the zocalo and back, and I'm sure it is the only reason that he was asleep by 10:30 or so. However, he and Jamie were acting like demented exhausted children long before that. With the heroic quantities of food that they eat, the sun, and the regular exercise, along with a good deal of sleep, they're in excellent health and I'm sure they're growing even taller as we speak. Jamie was complaining that we were leaving too soon and so we'll try to come for longer next year. That's not a hardship. I'm not looking forward to the return to snowsuits, and I'm sure that they are not either. They are sleeping well, now, and we'll see what we can wring out of the day before we leave tomorrow for the airport.

2009-02-05 24:26 (Kristen) The boys were up early, and I made them go to the beach to say goodbye to the ocean before we left at 10. We had fun running along the edge of the ocean and drawing pictures in the sand before it was time to leave. We made it to the airport with enough time to spare but not enough time to get bored and we were on the plane. Jamie was absorbed by his DS the entire trip, as far as I can tell, but Liam couldn't sleep on the plane and was back and forth between me and John the entire time. The airplane was largely empty, so he had a lot of room to roam. Our trip through O'Hare was breakneck, as we had to go through customs, srop off our luggage again, go to another terminal far far away by monorail, and then go through screening again before ending up at our gate, at the furtherst possible end of the section we were in. Pant pant. This is relevant, because Liam did not have time to pee before it was time for our new plane to Toronto to take off. I kept hoping that we'd get into the air before a small and wriggly boy (on a very crowded plane, this time) reached a moment of crisis, but the taxi to the runway took forever (or so it seemed). Just as we were about to take off, Liam announced "Pee!" Thinking that this was going to happen, I had with me a large plastic cup from Starbucks, which was turned into a makeshift toilet for our boy. He was happy and much more relaxed, but I had a cup of pee in my hand as I assisted him back into his seat and waited until I could dispose of it. Better than the alternative, but not one of my more fun experiences. I will remind him of this for some time, I think. It was an experience for the nice man sitting on the aisle in our row too, when the stewardess finally responded to my ring (she couldn't move before that time due to takeoff) to remove the offending cup o' pee. Liam fell asleep not long after that, but it was problematic because the plane landed at a bad point in his sleep cycle. The lights came on, and a very tired lLiam was awakened and screamed bloody blue murder for at least ten minutes or until the plane had cleared and we were the last ones off. Some nice people did commiserate with us, but I think that I must have been getting the look of death from a lot more. Oh well. Getting home took a little while, and it was late, but we had our usual happy welcoming committee of Gary and Ayami and the boys were very happy to see them both (Liam said "My Ayami!" when he saw her in the doorway). With the completion of this blog session, I have done all I ned to do that is keeping me from sleep, and I will now go to bed too.

2009-02-06 23:36 (Kristen) John and the kids let me sleep in a little bit, but I was up by 8:40 to watch over Liam while John took Jamie to school. He came back saying that Jamie had a playdate at Jake's after school, which sounded like fun. Liam was delighted to putter around the house with me in the morning as he refamiliarized himself with the house and its contents. We had lunch at Browning, and Tami was delighted when Liam greeted her with a cheery 'hi!'. Liam was clearly tired by the end of lunch, and went to the hallway when Ken returned from dropping Ross off at school, got dressed with nary a complaint, and went out to the stroller for his nap. He slept for about three hours, so he really was tired. I got a phone call from Michelle Lee around 1:30, however, saying that Jamie had been hit in the face (by accident) by one of his friends, and that he had a cut between his eyes and wanted to come home. I agreed, and asked to talk wtih Jamie. I could hear him crying but he explained that he had been trying to get himself under control. My heart went 'snap!' and I praised him for trying so hard and did he still want to come home? He said yes, and I called John to go and get him by car. However, as I suspected, I had another call five minutes later saying that Jamie had decided to stay after all. I called John, and Michelle dropped Jamie off around 4. I got home soon after that with Liam, and found Jamie with a round band-aid between his eyes. He really did get whacked, but I don't know how bad the cut is as I've not had a chance to see the cut but it does look like he did some bleeding. Poor boy. We had chicken pibil*, thanks to John, for dinner, and Jamie played with Gary. Liam was snaky, however, and spend a good part of the evening engaged in active and wanton destruction of various sorts. Suspecting a tired boy, we put the kids to bed but Liam still took a long to fall asleep. The boys have been invited to a birthday party tomorrow, and I think that they're going to have a blast.

2009-02-07 46:18 (Kristen) I had to wake Jamie and Liam up to get ready to go to Sam and Harry's party at 9:30. It was at an indoor playground, and I saw not too much of either boy for two hours while I talked with the parents of various classmates. The boys had a blast, running hither and yon, bouncing in bouncy houses and climbing on this and that. I talked with Makaya's mom, who told me that Makaya was having a little trouble with another girl in the class named Bianca. Bianca will hide Makaya's boots, take things from her backpack, and so on. However, I was told that Jamie and Sam always come to Makaya's rescue, and find her boots for her. I felt very proud of my son when I heard that. John later reminded me that Bianca is Jamie's *other* girlfriend (Makaya being the declared first) and that this might be the source of the conflict between the two girls. Jeez. Jamie, of course, is utterly oblivious.

Liam had a huge nap in the afternoon, after we drove home via the Peek Frean factory (a box of Fruit Cremes for a dollar!). I did wake Liam up around 3:30, however, as my friends Red, Jennie, and Red's son Graham found us at the Second Cup and invited us out for a playdate. Jamie was home, playing MarioKart with Daniel and Ross, who had been invited over for this purpose. Liam ran around with Graham, having a lovely time, for about an hour before the adults got cold and called time. Liam and I headed back home, where John made dinner and the kids and I enjoyed the results. It was a quiet evening, and then it was time for bed.

2009-02-08 23:03 (Kristen) We had been planning a cleanup day today, but it rapidly got out of hand once we decided it was time to unclog the fridge and clean underneath it. Trifina came to help us out for the first time in at least a month, and boy did we need it. However, the fridge now works properly and the horror underneath the fridge is now history. The boys were blissfully unaware of the trouble, and Liam spent a good part of his day in a quest for Jamie's DS while Jamie played with his DS and puttered in his own way. John took Jamie out with him to run errands in the afternoon, while I took Liam out for a late walk. Liam almost fell asleep a few times, but did not fall asleep. We headed back home, and that was the end of that. We were invited to Browning for dinner, and the boys were really excited about that. Liam, in particular, was delighted to see Tom. Much hilarity ensued, and we got the boys to bed much much too late. On the bright side, Liam was asleep in less than five minutes, as was Jamie. That was nice.

2009-02-09 34:25 (John) Liam woke up with a mild fever, drank a lot of water, then said his head hurt and went back to bed until lunchtime. I took Jamie to school, worked on property maintenance at my parents' house for much of the morning, then took Jamie to soccer. I brought back Jamie and Charlie, leaving behind their snow boots, which I didn't realize until much later. Liam woke up, had a high fever (axillar 101.5F at the point where he finally refused to keep the thermometer in place), resisted but was forced to take Advil, and felt much better fifteen minutes later. Sarah dropped Sam and Harry off to complete the playdate quorum; I looked after the boys downstairs while Kristen had an increasingly difficult time keeping Liam happy watching videos upstairs listening to the revelry below. Kristen eventually took Liam out for a long walk. I took Jamie out looking for the missing boots, finding Jamie's but not Charlie's, came home, did homework with Jamie, then went to Browning with Jamie to cook dinner, leaving Liam at home with Kristen. When dinner was ready, I came home to trade places with Kristen, just in time to help clean up when Liam threw up everything he'd managed to eat or drink in the afternoon. So I went back to Browning, packed up food for Kristen, brought Jamie home, bathed him, put him to bed, and stayed up a bit late trying to catch up on missed work from earlier in the day.

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

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