Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 82

2009-03-31 23:37 (Kristen) Yesterday, I forgot to write about my conversation with Liam while we were at Hakobune. He came roaring out when I picked him up, full of energy. He ran around, declared the crawling baby on the floor to be "on fire," put him out as he was Liam Fireman, declared himself to be on fire, and had me put out the fire in his mouth. Then he was Liam Policeman, and has been into today quite consistently. He told me that he "just had to shoot this guy," and ran around shooting imaginary bad guys. I am amazed, and a little aghast, and we'll be having a talk about imaginary gun safety very soon as I don't think that we'll be able to shove that weasel back into its box easily. His imagination is working overtime lately, and it's been a great joy to see. John reports that he and Liam were listening to a CBC radio interview with Yoko Ono while John was driving Liam to Hakobune. At one point, the host (Jian Gomeshi) played "Imagine," and Liam was grooving to the song. Afterwards, Gomeshi said, "And that, of course, was John." Liam got very excited and asked John to sing the song for him again. John imagines that this will be the only time in his life that he will ever be confused with John Lennon.

While John and Liam were off grooving, I took Jamie to skating. He did very well until the end, when he fell hard onto the ice, hitting the same place on his backside that he'd hit earlier in the class. It was five minutes to the end, and he'd really gone out and tried, so I let him off the ice. We went to play at Jake's and then at our house with Jake. Jamie and Liam had a fabulous time playing with the collapsable tunnel, but Jake was less interested in that than he was in playing Super Smash Bros. After Jake went home, we read books, watched a little television, and did homework (Jamie). We went to eat dinner at the Silk Road and to wait for John's parents to get home from the airport. They got home safely, and we brought them takeout. Jamie and LIam were very excited, and were a little wound up at the restaurant but within the range of acceptable behaviour (mostly). I'd brought Liam's new Japanese kids' magazine with us, and he adored playing with the punch-out Anpanman teppanyaki game, with little flippers and paper food to make. They fell upon their food like locusts, including ice cream. We got some pretty funny and appropriate fortunes, which I hope John has saved somewhere. We went to John's parents' house, greeted them, and the boys played with Tai Tai for most of the evening. They also ate a good part of her food, which was remarkable, really, given how much they'd already consumed. Fortunately, there was a lot. I took Liam home around 8:45, as he'd not napped and, though he was in an excellent mood, I was afraid that the meltdown was imminent. We got home, and he very easily brushed his teeth, put on his pajamas, and went to bed. Jamie was along about 45 minutes later, just after Liam fell asleep, and I did the same for him.

2009-04-01 61:01 (Kristen) Liam has been spending a lot of time watching television lately, and will start off the day by wanting to watch Backyardigans. I'm fighting off John's flu, so I'm not really all that lively and am inclined to give in. Then I feel guilty, and make him go outside on some errand or another with me. Jamie went to Hakobune, and seems to have had a good time. I bought new bowls for the boys with pirates on them, and they are, of course, competing for one and ignoring the other. John's mom came over and spent some time with the boys, which they enjoyed, and then the boys went outside and played with Sam, Ben, and Luke for the first time since last November. John was at Scrabble, and got home just as the boys were finishing up their bath. They both went to sleep in a remarkably short period of time: shocking, really. I could come to enjoy it.

2009-04-02 47:06 (Kristen) It was another beautiful day today, and the boys really enjoyed being outside. It being Thursday, Jamie had his posse over for a playdate, but it was a much more difficult playdate than usual as Jamie was not feeling particularly well. This makes him irritable and bossy, and his friends were not interested in doing what he wanted to do. There were tears, which clued John and I into the fact that things were Not Right, as Jamie doesn't cry about things usually. We calmed him down, and got everyone onto the same page eventually. I took Liam out for a failed nap, and came back to find boys in the castle tent that Badger and Jeanette gave to us, along with a truly impressive array of small toys. Eventually everyone went home, and John took Liam for a ride on his runbike over to Tai Tai's house to pick up some food items that she picked up for us. Liam enjoyed his ride immensely, exclaiming at one point, as he dropped his bike, "Oh MAN! I fell off my bike!" in a "oh, I dropped my pen"-style voice. I was starting to feel crummy again over the course of the evening and was not a happy camper, so we put the boys to bed early and I followed by 9:30.

2009-04-03 23:14 (Kristen) The heavens opened up over the city last night, and had no intention of closing up when I got up this morning. It was 8:15, and Jamie had crawled into bed with us a couple of hours earlier, while Liam was calling out in his sleep from the other room, requiring me to get up and answer back, like a demented game of Marco Polo. it was very dim, and grey, and I could hear the rain pounding on the roof. I forgot for a moment that Jamie had a PD day (a day off) from school, but John sleepily reminded me. I went downstairs to get Liam ready for Haokobune, but he was full of 'no's. I did get him out of the house by 9:50, which was dismal, and watched a bus go by and the next one approach, uncatchable due to a bad combination of lights and traffic. However, as the wind nearly ripped my umbrella from my hands, I soon realized that the second bus was actually waiting for me on the other side of the street, and I did make it across and onto the bus. The driver commented that it was a hard day to be walking with a baby, and I was very appreciative. We made it to Hakobune only 15 minutes late, as all our connections were caught with seconds to spare.

John reports that he had a very hard time getting Jamie ready for Hakobune in the late morning. Eventually, he had to pick Jamie up and carry him to the car without his boots and socks on. Jamie was just too tired to do anything, John rports, which is not unusual when he's fighting a virus. When I picked Liamup from Hakobune at 1, I was told that Liam was the Lord of No. He said no to everything; song circle, cleanup, and going to the bathroom; except for snack. Snack, apparently, he was all for. I do feed these children, I do. Liam was too wound up after a morning of playing to leave, ignoring me when I arrived to pick him up (and occasioning the conversation about 'no'), and failed to sleep. He did try to fall asleep at 2:50, but that was when I was walking back to the church to get Jamie, and that was not a good idea and so I convinced him to stay awake. When John came to get us three at Hakobune, we went to Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy a new raincoat for Jamie, and a new bike helmet as well, as the old one is now too small. Then it was home for some homework (Liam did some too), and then to Browning for dinner. We came back for an aborted D&D game, which failed to start due to computer issues and general fail, and put the boys to bed. John succeeded in his solo attempt to put Liam to bed, and I put Jamie to sleep. Yay! Now, to bed for me before I fall over.

2009-04-04 23:02 (Kristen) We sleepily cracked eyes open this morning as the clouds were still thick in the sky but the sun was trying to shine through. John and Jamie eventually headed off to Nisshu Gakkuin, while Liam and I puttered around the house and had a leisurely breakfast. John came back and took Liam to the market, where Liam did his usual "let's eat as much as we can of everything" tour of the market. John dropped Liam off, and I took him out for a walk and a nap. I came home with a sleeping Liam a little after three to meet up with John and Jamie. John went off to see Dr. Ling about his knee, and I tried to play Rock Band with Jamie and Liam (no fail mode being pretty awesome). THey quickly, and surprisingly, gave up and Jamie asked brightly if we could go to the park. I wasn't all that interested, but I wasn't going to say no to an activity that didn't involve the television. I was pretty grumpy by the time we left, but we managed to make it to the school yard with both children on bikes. Liam needs help balancing on the run bike, but is getting the hang of walking with the bike. Oh, and steering. He needs help steering. My back was killing me by the time we got to the park, so I let the boys run around and do their thing. Liam eagerly ran to the top of the slides, but froze when he was up there. He did not want to come down on his own, despite my encouragement and telling him that he was a big boy now, and could do it. He was scared enough that a tear or two escaped his eyes, but eventually he did come down the big orange slide all on his own, and he was a very proud little boy when he did, and excited to be a big boy. He was getting cold, however, and the boys got onto their bikes to come home. Jamie very sweetly, and of his own accord, very gently and deliberately allowed Liam beat him to the corner of Jackman and Browning, in order to let his brother feel good about his progress. I was very proud of him for it. We met up with John on the way home, and went in to spend a quiet evening in the warm house. Despite their exercise, it took both boys a very long time to go to sleep tonight. Liam fell asleep this afternoon around 1:30, and woke up around 4: I think that sleeping past 3:30 is now forbidden.

2009-04-05 23:00 (Kristen) I don't know what time Jamie got up, but he started to complain that he was hungry arond 9, and I agreed that it was time for breakfast. Liam was more or less awake at that time too, so we trooped downstairs for breakfast. We had planned to go to the Cortright Centre today, but John's knee was really bothering him and the thought of going up and down the sides of a small valley didn't really appeal. Bereft of a plan, and without the mental energy to form a new one, we puttered around the house until after lunch. We headed out to Withrow Park in the afternoon; Liam and I walked, and John and Jamie biked. Liam failed to sleep, so we met up with John and Jamie at the park. Both boys were physically very active, climbing on this and swinging on that, and played together nicely when they intersected on the playground. John's mom came by with snacks, and we wound up the afternoon around 4:30. We went to Browning for dinner, and had a great time playing with everyone before it was time to come home. Liam was very tired, obviously, and fell down the short flight of stairs going into the basement, which hurt a good deal, given how much he cried. Jamie was very tired too, and both boys were asleep in record time when bedtime rolled around.

2009-04-06 24:17 (Kristen) The boys got up early and made sure that I did too. It wasn't bad, in the end, as breakfast was more leisurely, and I had time to make Liam the oatmeal that was worth having a tantrum for after he ate the breakfast I'd already made for him. The weather was truly foul, and I managed to get Jamie to school, albeit a little late, before taking Liam to UTP to drop off a manuscript. Then back on the subway to Hakobune, only 10 minutes late, and that was that. Liam had a good morning participating in the Hakobune Easter egg hunt, and was utterly taken with the Easter basket he'd made with its little chocolates, eggs, and other items. I had a hard time parting him from it so that I could put it somewhere safe that would be out of the rain. He fell asleep quickly, and woke up two hours later on his own. We did some shopping, and came home to find Jamie, who had spent the afternoon at Jake's.

John had a Scrabble function this evening, so the boys and I came up with ways to entertain ourselves. We baked ginger cookies (ok, it was a mix), and played two rounds of Ladybirds. Jamie was very excited because he hadn't played it in a while, and it was Liam's first time. Liam loved it, and Jamie was good too. The boys got to watch a Transformers episode with Gary, and went to bed a little later than usual. Jamie fell asleep relatively quickly, while Liam took until 11:30 to fall asleep. I was not amused.

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

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