Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 79

2009-03-10 24:16 (Kristen) Liam, for the longest time, wouldn't say his name. He'd say "baby" or "me" or other things, but not "Liam." This evening, Liam actually said his own name while the men were huddled around a pint of green tea ice cream (more on that in a minute). John and I were delighted and asked him what his name was a gain: "Liam!" Then: "Mario!" and our monkey was back to joking. He's got a very sly sense of humour that constantly surprises.

John took Liam to Hakobune, while I picked Jamie up at school. However, due to a protracted attempt to address a traffic ticket, John wasn't able to get Liam and I went to get him while Jamie went off to play with Jake at his house. I arrived at Spadina Station with an empty stroller on my way to get Liam, when two men commented that the stroller was empty. Ha ha, yes. However, it turns out that they had seen and remembered me and Liam, and laughed that they had seen Liam eating grapes yesterday. I was very surprised that they remembered us, but pleased that Liam had been so memorable. Liam slept until 4, around when John arrived home after picking up Jamie at Jake's. We puttered around for the rest of the day, watching the Spongebob Squarepants movie. Liam sat on John's lap at one point and drew John a picture while John worked, John's lap being one of Liam's favourite places ever. The boys ate some green tea ice cream before going up to the bath, which may explain why Liam didn't fall asleep until *midnight* tonight...arrrgggghh.

2009-03-11 23:44 (Kristen) I didn't get to sleep until after 2:30, which was rough, and John didn't either. This morning, when I heard John get up and go into the office, I heard him say "Oh. Oops." in a calm voice that usually heralds some variety of doom. His alarm didn't go off, or wasn't loud enough to cut through a very heavy sleep, and they had twenty minutes to get to school. Needless to say, this didn't happen. I think that it was close to ten when Jamie finally made it to school, and poor John was somewhat shredded. Liam was very clingy and demanding, and I was crusty. All in all, not a great morning. John took Jamie to Hakobune, while I took Liam out for a late walk around the neighbourhood. I let him sleep for an hour and a half, thinking that if I woke him up at 3:30 that he might go to sleep earlier tonight. No such luck, really, which was a shame, but I get ahead of myself. John and Jamie got home soon after Liam and I did, and they did some homework before John went off to a Scrabble event. The kids and I had dinner, and both responded positively to the idea that if you eat all your dinner you get ice cream. Liam, in fact, throws his arms up in the air and says "Yay!" We watched a movie, played a little, then went to the bath. John arrived home, and we tried to put the boys to sleep in the white room. It was just too exciting for Liam, and I took him to the blue room around 10:45 to put him to sleep there. The LED numbers on the new alarm clock that John bought today kept Jamie up longer than usual as well, as he was very interested in them. I take Jamie to school tomorrow, and pick him up, as John will be up and gone soon after 6 AM tomorrow morning. It'll be a long day, but we'll do well, I am sure.

2009-03-12 19:40 (Kristen) All evening, we've been watching the SpongeBob Movie again, and I've had either one child or the other snuggled up against me while we do. It's not the active evening I'd planned, but we may still walk to the Dairy Queen and back. Unsure...

John left the house around 6:30, when Jamie came into bed with me. It was the first time in I can't say how long that Jamie didn't wake up in the middle of the night to come into bed with us. Jamie might have slept longer if John hadn't gone to say goodbye to him, as promised the night before (although John may correct me on this). He snuggled with me for an hour or two before we had to get up, but I had to wake Liam up at 8:30. He was unappreciative. We got Jamie to school on time, and then Liam asked to go home. We spent a quiet morning before going to pick up Jamie and Jake at school. Liam was in a better mood by then, and walked most of the way to Browning with the big boys. We ate lunch, played with Gary and Ayami, and then Ken walked Liam while I took a tired Jamie and Jake home to play for a while. Jake's mom came for a coffee and to pick up Jake, and then left around 4:15. The boys were in good moods but hungry, and so we ate fish, rice, and other leftovers. The only downside to the day so far is that I wasn't able to register Jamie for his soccer class next session: we're on a waitlist, but I don't know how far down we are. I'll be checking it out tomorrow in more detail.

The movie is almost over; time to take today's photos and to see if Gary's up for a quick ice cream run.

2009-03-12 23:34 (Kristen) I was a little worried about putting the boys to bed tonight, since we haven't had much success with that. At all. I shouldn't have worried. The boys were a little wound up at bedtime, and Liam protested the lack of a second story, despite the fact that it was after 10:15. We talked a little, and I lay down between the two boys, and eventually both went peacefully to sleep. Wow.

2009-03-13 23:57 (Kristen) The big secret for the last week or two has been that I've been planning to take the boys to Ottawa for my mom's birthday as a surprise. Of course we couldn't blog about it, because she reads the blog... This morning, we left the house with my Aunt Millie, who was expected in Ottawa, in a car packed to the gills with kids stuff, and set out. Well, first we needed to have an egg mcmuffin at McDonalds, which was fine. The boys were utter angels on the trip: they slept (well, Jamie slept for an hour around the noon hour) or played with toys: the DVD player and the DS did not come out once. WE talked about this and that, and the boys played together or side by side. We stopped once outside of Brockville for a quick lunch, and then headed out onto the highway again. It was a lovely trip, and we are thankful to my aunt for a very pleasant drive and for getting us here!

The boys were extremely excited about the trip. When my aunt arrived, she asked Liam where we were going today and he said "Go Grammie's house!" Jamie wanted to know how many minutes it would take to get there. Jamie impressed my aunt with his mental arithmetic, and Liam impressed her with his ability to speak in sentences. At one point, my mom called and I had to shush the boys and we declared that we were "secret agents." When we arrived, we hid behind a bush while my aunt went in, and then snuck up and went through the door a minute after. We opened the door and the boys said "Surprise!" Much surprise and happiness, and Liam clung to my mom in his usual way for the rest of the day. Becky arrived soon after, and Jennifer had been waiting with my mom, and really for the chance to see my mom surprised (Jen had been in on it). The boys played and were again good as gold, although Liam started to get clumsy and tired around 6:30. I put him to bed at 7;30, and he was asleep by 8:00. I can't recall the last time Liam fell asleep that quickly; we'll see what time he wakes up. Jamie went to bed an hour later, and declared himself too tired to fall asleep, although he did eventually manage.

2009-03-14 23:06 (Kristen) The boys were up between 7 and 7:30 (don't ask me exactly when) and were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for the day. Liam, amazingly, slept for almost 12 hours: he must have needed it. We puttered around until Becky, Grammie, and Auntie were up, around ten. Grammie was not feeling well, which was a shame because it was her birthday today. She had a bad cough and enough of a fever to spend part of the day in bed, so decided not to go out for dinner tonight with her boyfriend. I decided to make dinner instead, which consumed a good part of the rest of my day. Fortunately, the boys were great, and spent the day watching The Spongebob Squarepants movie three times (according to Becky), drawing pictures (Jamie drew an excellent Plankton from the movie, along with Becky), and romping about. Liam napped for an hour and a half, during which time I took Jamie along with Becky and Auntie on a grocery shopping run. When we got back, Liam had been up for fifteen minutes, and was spending some quality time with his grammie.

Jamie was wild for Owen to come over, as he hasn't seen Owen yet this visit and he loves to roughhouse with him. Owen finally came over around 5, and the boys were one wild pack of puppies as they flew about the house, happily. The boys were both very tired when they sat down to dinner, which Jamie ate a lot of and Liam didn't. Jamie was beside himself wondering when it would be cake time, until finally it was. I put the boys to bed at that point, as they have become dangerous to others and themselves. I think that Liam caught his second wind in the bath, as he took until 10:15 or so to fall asleep. Jamie was asleep long before.

2009-03-15 23:39 (Kristen) After the exciteemnt of yesterday, the boys slept in until 8. We puttered around again for the morning before it was time to go for brunch to say goodbye to Auntie Millie, who was going back to Toronto. The boys behaved well, but were a little rangy by the time we got back home. They played in the driveway for a bit, then Becky took Liam out for a walk. The funny part was that Liam complained bitterly until he realized that Becky was walking him, then calmed right down. Thanks, kiddo! I can't complain, though: the boys have been very affectionate lately, and both have been absorbing the adoration of the big people around them like little sponges. There has been drawing with Becky, and today's movie was Horton Hears a Who. We went to my mother's friend Poppy's house, where the boys were utter locusts, eating the equivalent of two dinners each. In between meals, they ran about, wrestling and generally out of control, and needing a time out (for Jamie) or two. In fact, Jamie had been deliberately bothering Becky in the car on the way there, and fell asleep ten minutes before we arrived. A good thing, too! We came home, got ready for bed, talked to John via iChat, and I put them to bed at 10. They were both asleep in record time.

2009-03-16 23:23 (Kristen) The boys were up at 8:30, but no less out of control by 10, when I decided to take them to the mall to run it off in the playpark. They ate my breakfast, ran like crazy, drank an apple juice, and I finally dragged them out at 12:30 or so. I bought three new pairs of underwear for Jamie and spilled my entire coffee on the floor of the store, as I wrestled bags, kids, and coats to the fountain to meet up with Grammie and Becky. The kids were completely out of control, so we took them home and fed them lunch. Jamie was very interested in the sparrow that got itself caught in the chimney flue, made its way out, and was flying around the house when we got home. We shooed it out the front door. Liam fell asleep, after some protest, for an hour and a half, and then woke up before it was time for us to go to Jason's for dinner. Liam and Jamie had a great time playing video games with Jason, but both boys were very tired and so we pulled them out and went home at eight (with much much protest). They took a long time to fall asleep, as we'd missed the window, but eventually they were asleep by 10:30 or so.

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

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