Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 81

2009-03-24 25:31 (Kristen) I heard John and Jamie get up, but I didn't get out of bed until 8:30. Liam didn't get out of bed until 9:15, and I knew at that moment that there would be no nap for our lad today. John took him to Hakobune, where he had his usual good time, and was full of chatter and good will when he got home. He had notified John, when they got into the car to go home, that he would be watching Backyardigans when they got home, and that John was NOT playing Mario Kart, yay! He has a startlingly stern 'yay!'

It was hard to sort out what he wanted when they got into the house, as he is acquiring vocabulary so quickly that we can't keep up like we used to but his pronunciation is still idiosyncratic. For example, 'thanks' can often sound like 'ginks!' And so on. However, he settled into some serious Backyardigan watching until it was time to go and get Jamie at Jake's. I took the wagon, which went over well and ensured that Liam wouldn't fall asleep on me as it was past 3. We got Jamie, who was fragile emotionally, and made it back home without too much incident. I made dinner, the boys watched more television, and Ross came over to play Rock Band 2 with me after dinner, which was fun. The boys were more than a little out of control by that point, however, so when Ross left for his own dinner, we took the boys straight up to the bath. Liam was in bed by 8:45, which was a good thing, as he was hysterically crying and beside himself because he wanted to fall asleep with John and Jamie, who were not ready for bed. Jamie was in bed and asleep by a little after 9, and Liam was around the same time. Liam is waking up every hour and a half or so, however, which is mysterious and somewhat frustrating (for both of us, I imagine).

2009-03-25 09:19 (Kristen) Liam is sitting on the floor, watching Thomas the Tank Engine. There are little "educational" bits between episodes, and the narrator is asking "what colour is Thomas? Is Thomas red?" (for example) and Liam is answering away. Jamie never did this: if he answered, he did it silently. Liam, however, is enjoying the conversation.

Otherwise it was a typical Wednesday, with Liam staying home and Jamie off to Hakobune. Jamie is pretty much over his illness, but is still pretty tired at the end of the day. We all fell asleep in the white room together, and Liam is now falling asleep more easily with John and Jamie in attendance.

2009-03-26 47:04 (Kristen) John didn't sleep well last night and I fell asleep with the kids, so I got up and got Jamie ready for school. I got Liam dressed as well, and took them both out to the school. We got there just in time, and afterwards, I took Liam down to the Second Cup for a cookie. They didn't have our usual cookie, but that was all right as Liam was really in the mood for yoghurt with granola. He enjoyed the big boy outing, and walked most of the way back home before asking to get into his stroller. Jamie had a playdate at Charlie's, so Liam and I puttered around while John went to run a school Scrabble tournament. Liam failed to eat lunch, however, and so didn't go to sleep when I took him out for his walk, figuring that he was too tired to eat. No. I walked him for an hour, then it was back to the Second Cup for a breakfast sandwich, and then he was sleepy. Of course it was too late for his nap, so we went home and waited for Jamie and John. The evening was calm enough, if I recall, but the boys were still wound up and Liam wasn't asleep until after 10 or so. Augh!

2009-03-27 23:04 (Kristen) John came down with a fever last night, so I offered to take the kids to school and Hakobune, so that he could rest. Turns out he has influenza, and will be out of commission for the weekend, at least. The boys and I were out of the house for the bulk of the day, and will be tomorrow as well. The weather is lovely, and I'll try to remember to open up the windows as well to air out the house tomorrow. Today, I got the boys out of the house and Jamie to school on time. Liam and I left from the school for Hakobune, and were five minutes early getting there too. I was told later that Liam went for a walk with the other kids, and was charming the daylights out of one of the staff by pointing at things and saying "Koko? Koko!" ("Here? Here!") and generally playing with the words in a very cute fashion. I picked Jamie up from school and brought him to Hakobune, which was somewhat nostalgic for me. We used to take the subway to Hakobune from Jackman a lot, and I've missed the trip with him. He's getting to be so big now, especially in comparison to my memories of the trip, and so much like a big boy. It's a real pleasure to spend time with him. We got our pizza, and went to the daycare, where Liam was delighted to see his brother. "You drop off Jamie? You drop off Jamie?" We know what Liam's priorities are...

An hour later, I picked up Liam who had, as usual, not eaten his pizza. He ate his pizza in the stroller, as usual, and dropped off to sleep at 2. I worked for an hour, then went back to get Jamie. Jamie wanted bubble tea, so we got some before we came home for an hour (jeez, is there a pattern there for me?). We went to Browning for dinner, played, and came home around 9. The boys fell asleep in the blue room, side by side, and it is as cute as it sounds.

2009-03-28 22:47 (Kristen) I woke up after six or so hours of sleep to get Jamie and Liam ready for a big and busy Saturday. I got breakfast into them, and John got out of his sickbed to help get clothes onto boys before I rushed them out the door and onto the bus to make it to Nisshu Gakkuin. We somehow made it on time, and Liam was not happy to have to leave Jamie behind in school. I took him to the little kid playground, which is still rather cool, at the schoo, but he was having None Of It, because he wanted to go down the big boy slide in the main playground. I have to go down it with him, because it is big for a small boy, and I was pre-coffee and just not up to it. We compromised with a walk to Starbucks for some yoghurt with granola (a favourite of Liam's) and a stupidly expensive juice, which he also picked out. He ate those happily, but melted down when the bagel with cream cheese that he'd ordered me to get wasn't forthcoming. Exit Starbucks. He decided that it was all right to go to the local library after all, and we spend 45 minutes in a large, bright children's section reading their collection of board books. We left to go and buy pizza for lunch, and stopped off in a pet store to look at birds and bunnies and guinea pigs on the way. Liam got his bagel as well.

We ate lunch with Jamie in his class, as I was on lunchroom duty (in John's place, as he obviously couldn't, although he did feel well enough to do our St. Lawrence shopping before going home to crash out). Liam was delighted, and Jamie was happy enough as well to have us there. Jamie spent the rest of recess trying to figure out how to climb up onto one of the free bars to hang upside down by his hands and knees, like a sloth. He managed it, and was very pleased. After Jamie was back in class, I got Liam to fall asleep by 1:30, and we went back to get Jamie an hour later. The day was beautiful and made for playground activities, so we went back out to let Jamie do just that. Liam woke up soon after, and we left for home because Jamie was tired and unable to find someone to play with. We got home, and vegged out for the rest of the day, zombies three. We turned out the lights in the house at 8:30, and put the boys to bed as we regaled the boys with stories of what the world was like before electricity. The original light source for this house was gaslight, which was a fun thing to talk about. I talked about how, if energy was candies, that the candles we were burning only used up one piece of candy while our electric lights used ten. So, you get more light, but you use 100 pieces of candy for lights in comparison to 10 for candles. Jamie complained that the analogy was making him hungry, so we wrapped it up. The boys were asleep by 9:45: Jamie was asleep long before that, but Liam was having more trouble falling asleep.

2009-03-29 47:15 (Kristen) Our big plan for the day was to take Jamie and Liam, along with Jamie's friend Charlie and some of his siblings and a parent, to see Monsters v Aliens. The boys were both very excited, and we set off as a family in the pouring rain. John was feeling well enough to come along, and it was fun to have him after a few days of no Papa. The boys enjoyed the movie, and both sat through it, although I think Liam had one pee break. We went to the grocery store on the way home to pick up a little this and that, then went home to rest for a bit. I became aware in the car that Liam says "oh MAN!" a lot. A Lot. I turned to John at one point and said, "Do I say 'oh man' *that* often?" John replied in the affirmative, but commented that it could be worse as exclamations go. Liam is also known to say, in the face of adversity, "oh man. That not fair!" Sometimes, when faced with a puzzling situation, he'll cock his head to the side, furrow his brow in thought, and declare "That weird!" Life is always funny with a Liam. In the car, also, there were only two oatmeal raisin cookies but three people who wanted to eat one. John gave his cookie to Jamie, as Liam has asked for a cookie first, and Liam asked John if Papa had a cookie too. John said no, at which point Liam offered John his. Then Jamie offered me some of *his*. They've been very thoughtful boys lately.

In the evening, we went to dinner at Yamato with John's aunts Nobuko and Tomoko. We had a great time, and John's aunts had some omiage* for the boys from their trip to Japan and Singapore: Anpanman snack foods, an Anpanman karuta* game for Jamie, and an Anpanman puzzle for Liam. Yay! The boys behaved well, despite being very very tired, and we got them home just in time. Both boys were bathed and in bed by 9:50, and they were both asleep, side by side in bed, at 10. Amazing.

2009-03-30 23:24 (Kristen) I took Jamie to school while John looked after Liam, which made that part of the morning go much more smoothly. I came back for Liam, and we headed out on the subway to Hakobune. We made it on time (for once), and once again he failed to eat most of his lunch until after he left the daycare and was tucked into his stroller. He didn't nap until after 2, which meant that I hung around on the Danforth until it was time to pick up Jamie at Charlie's around 3:30. I woke Liam up when we left there a little before 4, but he was in a good mood because his brother was there. Jamie was full of news, ideas, observations, and other minutiae, which he shared, and he seems to have enjoyed his soccer class today. He also saved half a carrot from his snack at school today for me, because he knows that I like carrots. !!0_0!! Sweet boy. The boys and I went to Browning ahead of John for dinner, and they had fun playing with Daniel and Ross. Liam waited impatiently for Tom, and glommed onto him the moment he arrived. I went out to play Trivia, and came home to find the boys just getting out of the bath and ready for a story. They both fell asleep quickly, but Liam woke up again and had a very hard time settling back down. We found him Pink Pig, Blue Pony and Blue Elephant, but John was the best (and only requested) item needed by a Liam to fall back asleep.

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

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