Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 84

2009-04-14 23:07 (Kristen) John took Liam to Hakobune, and I picked Jamie up from school so that we could go to skating with Jake and his family. Jamie was in a good mood until he got onto the ice, when he didn't really want to skate much and only wanted to sit on the edge "for a rest." We had an argument about going back to skate, and I was told that I was "ruining his life a little bit." Eventually we worked out that his feet hurt because he's grown so much in the last month or two that his skates don't fit anymore. We then talked about how he needs to tell me *why* he wants to do something like sit down (e.g., "I want to rest because my feet hurt."), and I'll be better able to understand and help. But I still felt pretty rotten about a somewhat pointless fight. Next up: a new pair of skates. We went back to Jake's for lunch and play, then came home to meet up with John and Liam. Liam ended up not napping again, which ended up not as badly as it might have. I put him to bed, as he was Very Tired, around 8:45, and he only took half an hour to fall asleep. Jamie played with Gary for an hour in the evening, and came up to bed after that. A fine enough day.

2009-04-15 23:36 (Kristen) John is trying to spend as much time with the boys as possible before he goes away, and the boys are too with their dad. It's nice to see them together. John took Jamie to school this morning, and Liam stayed home to do puzzles. There was remarkably little television today, which was nice. At one point, Gary came upstairs and Liam pounced on him to do puzzles and to read Go, Dog, Go! to him. He was delighted to have some Gary time to himself. John took Jamie to Hakobune while Liam and I ate lunch at home and went for a walk. He slept for a good while, and I woke him up at 3:50, having lost track of time while I worked. We raced home, where Liam was delighted to see his brother. The boys ate lollipops while watching a little after-school television and I made dinner. John's mom came over for a bit to read with Jamie, and sat with us during dinner. After she had left and John had gone to Scrabble, we went out and played with Sam, Ben, and Luke for about half an hour. When we went back in, we found Gary in a somewhat agitated state, as he's just captured (live) a juvenile mouse in his kitchen. The boys and I took the mouse, safely contained in a tofu tub, to the edge of the Don Valley to release it into the wild. Jamie, as I expected, needed to see the mouse, and was charmed by it. "Can we keep it as a pet?" he asked, and I told him that it was a wild animal and needed to be set free into the wild. I don't give much for its chances, the little innocent thing, but it can't stay here. Because we were nearby the Dairy Queen, we three went and split a banana split between us, which was a jolly treat. We ran home, and spent a quiet evening until John got home from Scrabble early. Then it was bath time, and bed. Jamie is going to miss John, as is Liam, but he'll be home by Sunday, and that will be good.

2009-04-16 23:22 (Kristen) John and I have been talking about ways to expose Jamie to more Japanese in his life. Liam needs more exposure as well, and we're somewhat worried that if they don't get more on a regular basis that they're going to start falling behind or losing it. On the bright side, the kids watched an Anpanman video before bed for the first time in at least two months, so maybe it isn't all as dire as that. Still, we'll be watching because that's what we parents do: watch, scrutinize, worry. Repeat.

Jamie went to Jackman and then to a playdate over at his friend Parker's with all the posse. Apparently they went to Baskin Robbins, which he enjoyed immensely. He had the candy-flavoured ice cream (pink and purple!) because of the no chocolate issue. He also saved a carrot for me from snack today: it lived in his pocket until we met up at Parker's. He also saved some cracker crumbs. It was very sweet.

Liam and I hung around the house while I did housework and other chores in the morning, and we said goodbye to John as he left for his Boston trip this weekend. We went to Browning for lunch, and Liam went for a walk with Ken for the first time in a while. He must have enjoyed it, as he slept for two and a half hours. We picked up Jamie, went to the school to pick up the bicycle that John had already brought home, and stayed to play. We went home, and stayed outside to play with Ben, Sam, and Luke. Gary and Ayami were there too, and we all had a rousing game of soccer. Jamie had some trouble being on the wrong side of the score (down by a goal), and tried desperately to make the extra goal either not count or to have the score-keeping start over again from zero. He needs to learn how to lose gracefully, which is a hard lesson for anyone. He's been fighting with his best friend Jake over similar issues (changing rules in Jamieball-like games, what does fair mean, etc.), which is part of growing up, I suppose. I don't feel like I've been particularly helpful in providing advice or guidance, and know that he'll have to sort it out for himself somehow. It's hard, as a parent, to watch.

I was tired, and in a rare move nowadays, opted for ordering in pizza. Gary went to pick it up, and we all ate in the dining room as a treat. Later, it was a typically quiet evening except that Liam had a very hard time falling asleep. It was almost 11 when he finally was quiet, and I'm exhausted myself.

2009-04-17 23:36 (Kristen) Jamie was up abnormally early this morning, asking me a question around 6:40. I was not very receptive, whatever it was...I had to haul Liam into bed with me, because Jamie's voice woke him up, but we managed to get back to sleep until 8. We got out the door on time, and made it to school, then I took Liam to Hakobune. I went back to the neighbourhood to work and be ready to pick up Jamie after school, and then took him by subway to Hakobune. It was a fun trip and I read him some Paddington Bear on the way. I picked up Liam at 1, and he failed to sleep before we picked Jamie up at 3:15. Oh well. We were to go to Treasure Island to buy Jamie a bakugon (with his allowance money), and so we walked up to the subway and got off at Pape. We went to the library for me, then to Treasure Island where they were sold out of the bakugons that Jamie needed (coins and figures, but no actual bakugons). Their bathroom was out of commission, however, and Liam was in some distress, to we left and headed east in search of a bathroom. Too late: Liam had to water a tree or need a change of clothing. Oops.

We stopped off at Type, then walked home further. Liam was pretty tired, and needed to be carried part of the way to the Big Carrot. We rested there for a bit in the beautiful weather, then kept going to Daniel and Ross's house. We were all pretty tired, and i don't really know much of what happened this evening other than Tom is a life saver. In duplicate. We headed home at 8:30, had a bath, read two books, and boys were asleep in five minutes flat, despite protestations that they were not going to sleep and were not sleepy. Hah. Mom has a rare win.

2009-04-18 23:27 (Kristen) It was starting off so well. The boys were up at 7:20, and so we managed to have a nice breakfast (well, they did), get dressed, brush teeth, and get out the door in record time to take the subway to Nisshu Gakkuin. We had a lovely subway trip, managing to score the coveted last seat on the train, and got to the school five minutes early without running. Excellent! All was well until I turned to give Jamie his backpack, and realized that it was still at home. We had his lunch beg, but no homework, pencils, etc. Argh! Back home with Liam, pick up bag, return to school, drop off bag. Then Liam and I went down to the Eaton Centre to find out what was wrong with my iPod (headphones after all). Afterwards, I took Liam to Indigo to get a new Backyardigans book (we have the seven-in-one edition), and for a sushi lunch at Sushi Q. He was looking pretty tired after lunch, and sure enough, fell asleep the moment we got onto the subway. I went home and had a nap myself: when I woke up, after an hour or so, it was 3:45, and time to wake up a Liam that had been asleep for close to three hours. Whoops. Fortunately, Jamie was off at a playdate with one of his Nisshu friends, and was staying for dinner. Liam and I read books, did puzzles, and otherwise stayed away from the television except to watch a woodworking show, which he found interesting enough that he didn't pester me to change the channel. Jamie came home at 6:45, and seemed to have a great time at his playdate with Yutaka's house. Apparently there was broccoli as part of dinner, which made his day. We had been invited to Browning for dinner, so we went over. Tom, who is rapidly approaching canonization by yours truly, made dinner, played with boys, and babysat Liam for about 45 minutes at his house while I took an exceptionally tired Jamie home to bed. He was so tired that he didn't protest when I told him it was straight to bed, and didn't angle to play with Gary. That's tired. Liam wasn't tired, even when I put him to bed after 10, and finally fell asleep at 11.

On the way to school today, Jamie was asking me how many seconds were in six minutes and me, being brain dead at the time, thought the answer was 60 x 10. I claim sleep deprivation and mishearing the question. Anyway, tTrying to have an impromptu math lesson, I asked Jamie what he thought the answer was, and he came up with 400. I corrected him, saying 1000. He disagreed with me, and kept saying no, gently but firmly. I walked him through the math to discover that I was definitely wrong and he was not exactly right, but quite close So I praised him for sticking to his guns and apologized for making a math mistake. Smart kid.

2009-04-19 41:01 (Kristen) The big trip today was to ToysRUs so that Jamie could buy some ZBakugans. They're the latest "gotta get'em all" Japanese anime-inspired, marketing game that all the kids are talking about, and Jamie is suddently very interested in them. I researched them online last night, and had a general idea of what was needed if Jamie was going to actually play the game properly. He was very excited, because he was going to use his own money, carefully saved up, to buy the boys. We took the subway up, found the Bakugans, bought them (I bought him a carrying case for them...there are cards and little ball-like objects, which I saw scattered all over the house), bought one for Liam to eliminate difficulties before they started, paid, fought about whether we would buy candy at the checkout (Liam: yes! Mom: no!), bought ham and cheese croissants for lunch, and headed home. Liam didn't fall asleep, despite our wandering slowly up from the subway station, but Jamie was very good about keeping his brother watched over and occupied. Jamie was, in fact, very helpful with his brother all day, which I appreciated in the store (and at other times). We got the Bakugans unpacked, and he's been very excited, showing them off whenever possible. In the evening, John's mom came over with some dishes for dinner, and we were invited to go to the Dairy Queen with Gary and Ayami afterwards. Despite the exercise, both boys had trouble falling asleep: possibly because they were excited knowing that John was returning that night, after bedtime.

2009-04-20 47:28 (Kristen) I woke up this morning with Liam on one arm and Jamie smushed between me and John. I don't even remember Liam coming into bed with us, which is also the first time that I can recall him doing so. We got up, did the usual morning routine, and John came home to drive Liam and me to Hakobune. It was pouring cats and dogs, and was an otherwise foul day, weather-wise. I picked up a happy Liam at 1, and brought him home. Jamie was having a playdate with Charlie and Jake, happily playing Bakugans (which are seeing a fair amount of use) when we got home. Dinner was at Browning. At one point, Liam came tearing into the kitchen, saw John at the far end, and raced to his father, saying "Papa! Papa!" A delighted John picked him up, at which point Liam wrapped his arms around his father's neck and said "I love you!" Instand puddle of parent. Liam is a very generous boy with his declarations of parental affection, which we love (of course).

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

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