Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 88

2009-05-12 22:23 (Kristen) I woke up this morning, as I usually do lately, covered by a pile of boys. They come in, one at a time, in the night and fight for space. Usually that ends up being on top of me. It's not as restful as it sounds. We got Jamie off to school, and Liam went with John to Hakobune, which he declares that he loves. He doesn't much like to go when it's time to leave there, and he told me at bedtime that Sensei told him that it was time to stop playing with toys (and, I presume, time to go). He ate his lunch, which was unusual, as he usually takes a bite or two, says his done, and runs off to play more before it's time to go. In the meantime, however, I went with Jamie and the usual crew to his skating class, where there was a little game of hockey at the end. He actually made a nice move at one point, which pleased us both. Afterwards, we went to Riverdale Farm to meet up with Sarah, Georgia, Sam, and Harry. This was a break from the usual pattern, but it turned out to be a great one. The boys ended up playing and wandering around the farm for close to three hours. They rolled down the hill, looked at baby animals, looking at the farmers' market, and playing endless rounds of freeze tag. John brought Liam to the farm after he picked him up, and tells me that Liam set up a row of seven little chairs in Goforth Hall before they left. Liam declared it to be a rainbow, and counted off the colours in the rainbow (in Japanese) before asking John which colour chair he wanted to sit in. John picked "purple", but Liam told him that *he* wanted purple. Life with Liam.

We went home around 4, and the boys spent the rest of the afternoon outside in the back yard with me as I planted tomatoes and companion plants for them. Jamie was very interested in helping me, and did help with watering and setting up the hoses in the back yard. Liam played and did a bit of this and that. Around 6, we went inside and had dinner. While I worked in the garden, John was up in the boys' room, cleaning and getting furniture rearranged so that we could put a new single bed into the room so that Jamie and Liam can have their own beds. Our neighbours had a gently used bed that fits well into the room, and Jamie was excited that it was going to be *his* bed. He declared it comfortable, but bolted at the last minute to his old position at the end of Liam's bed when the lights went out. We'll try again tomorrow.

2009-05-13 24:36 (Kristen) We've fallen into a pattern where the boys watch a fair amount of television while John and I work for pay or do housework. With the return of the lovely weather, however, we're trying to break ourselves of this winter habit. John took Jamie to school this morning, and Liam and I spent the morning together. I ensured that no DVDs were played after the first Backyardigans episode by playing a CD in the DVD player; Liam had to wait until Mummy's CD was over before watching another episode. There was a storm of tears about this unreasonable state of affairs, but we got past it fairly quickly and he did get his one episode afterwards. In the meantime, we played with trains and other toys. I also got some housework done. It was good. John took Jamie to Hakobune at 11:30, and I fed Liam lunch at home. Then it was time to go for a walk, and he lasted almost until the library to fall asleep. He stayed asleep for an hour, and woke up just as I was ducking into the Second Cup for a coffee. It was around 3, so I wasn't going to complain. He almost fell back asleep, but I bought a cookie for him and that kept him awake. We did some shopping on the Danforth, including a visit to Blackstone, the local organic butcher. There were a couple of customers who came in after us who were served first, but there were good reasons for that, and so I wasn't put out in any way. One woman there, who seemed to be in charge, and I had been chatting, however, and at the end she exclaimed on how quiet and reasonable Liam had been, and gave him a bag of his favourite cookies (serendipitously). That was very nice. We headed home, with a stop to play with Rusty the dog and talk with Junko, and got home ahead of John and Jamie. Liam and I worked in the back yard, while Jamie went for a visit with Gary. Dinner was a little late because I lost track of time in the garden, but the boys were interested in dried shrimp rice noodles, little steamed chicken buns, and steamed spinach. Jamie hated the spinach, which Liam loved, and Liam hated the buns, which Jamie hoovered. It all evens out, I suppose. The evening was spent television free, with books, reading out loud, more playing with trains, and half an hour of Gary time. Oh yes, and a lot of complaining that they didn't know what to do with themselves. followed by the discovery of something to do. John was at Scrabble, but made it home in time to put the boys to bed. Liam has chosen to sleep in the new bed, and while very excited at the novel sleeping arrangements, fell asleep by 10.

2009-05-14 47:20 (Kristen) I stayed up way too late last night, so I'm not entirely sure what happened today. I do know that I decided to play with Liam this morning, in an attempt to keep him away from the television and interested in other things. We did every 20-piece puzzle in the house, much to his delight, and he turned the full force of his pleasure onto me in the form of spontaneous kisses and declarations of love. He is such a sunny child, sometimes, it just slays me. It's hard not to want to spend time with children who bounce from place to place, and declare that they *love* this particular mundane thing with all the force of their tiny natures. Jamie had a playdate at Sam's, so John took Liam to play with the big boys at the schoolyard before they all went over to Sam's. I met up with John and Liam at Browning, where Liam ate lunch and then went for a walk with Ken. Liam slept for a bit, but woke up soon after he arrived at the Second Cup. We did a little of this and a little of that before walking over to Sam's to pick up Jamie. We ended up staying to play, which made Liam very happy and Jamie too, as he was having a marvelous time and really didn't want to leave either. The boys were playing flat out in the back yard, and Liam was outside too in his socks (bare feet on grass? Shudder!), and they had a great time. The afternoon ended around 5, when the sprinkler was on in the front yard and Sam and Harry were running through it. Jamie had his rainboots and his yellow raincoat, and so he put on the raincoat and ran through the sprinkler wearing that. Very funny. We went home, ate dinner, and had a quiet evening before it was time for bed.

2009-05-15 23:27 (Kristen) Woke up again covered in a pile of boys. I don't know what time they came in, but I was rather groggy when I woke up. John took Jamie to school, and I took an enthusiastic Liam to Hakobune. The boys had pizza for lunch because Jamie had been asking for it, and Liam (as usual) ate none at daycare but ate it in his stroller. He failed to fall asleep in his stroller afterwards, and so was up for a bit more playing when we arrived to pick up Jamie. We came home, did some homework (Liam is relearning his ABCs), and went over to Browning. I don't know much of what they did there, other than play flat out and have a good time. Jamie came home early to play with Gary at his house, and Liam, John, and Tom went ahead of me. The boys went to bed a little late, but fell asleep quickly.

2009-05-16 49:03 (Kristen) Today, John's brother Ted, his wife Ally, and their kids Ian and Amy were due to arrive from Kingston for the weekend. Ted is staying with his parents down the way, while Ally and the kids are staying with us. Before they arrived, however, it was a busy day. John had a Scrabble tournament to help out at first thing, so I took the boys to get the St Lawrence Market shopping under way by the time he got back. He met up with us at Nupur's table, and we all had a lovely chat before John took Jamie around with him and I took Liam to the Early Years' Centre to play. We headed back home, armed with sushi, and I let the boys play while John went off to yet another Scrabble event. At 2, I dropped Jamie off at Daniel and Ross's house to go to Ross's birthday party, while I took Liam for a walk and a nap. The party was at Laser Quest, which was a little too much for Liam at this age. Liam had also been in a foul mood for much of the day, as he'd woken up from a deep sleep to pee, and just didn't feel right. The reset offered by a nap helped, and he was very interested in the pizza at Tom and Michelle's when we arrived for the cake, romp, and presents portion of the party. Jamie had a good time but found the venue to be too overwhelming to go through on a second laser game. Both boys had fun romping, although Liam was just that much too little, really, to be playing with them in such a state of frenzy, and got knocked over (not seriously) twice When the other kids went home, he dragged Tom off to the basement so that they could reset and do things properly, the way that he wants. We went home, vegged, and put the kids to bed, just in time for Ian, Amy, and Ally to arrive. Ian is sleeping in the boys' room in the other bed, and the boys are looking forward to playing with both cousins.

2009-05-17 47:21 (Kristen) The kids were up early, and playing with each other by the time I hauled myself, grumpily, out of bed (more or less). The morning was a very lazy one, with kids playing this game and that and entertaining each other pretty well for a good part of the day. In the afternoon, I took Liam for a walk while John went to help with the Oshawa Scrabble tournament in the afternoon, while Jamie went to T&T with his uncle and family. He had as good a time as he could grocery shopping (i.e., he was done half an hour before everyone else was), but ate sushi and was even willing to try one of Auntie Ally's chicken feet, but it was decided that it had too many bones. I was surprised by this, but pleased, as Jamie has been developing a picky streak about food, and I was startging to worry. Liam slept for an hour and a half, and he and I made it home a few minutes before everyone else arrived home. John was still out, but the kids played well while Ally and I did veggie prep for dinner. John was home after 5, and we all traipsed over to make dinner. Dinner went well, but went late, so John and his brother Ted went of to see Star Trek without Ally, but she and I stayed at John's parents' house with the kids until close to 10 pm. We rushed home and put the kids to bed, which they did more or less easily befor etheir dad got home at 10:30.

2009-05-18 23:27 (Kristen) Once again, the kids wanted to be up and around much earlier than either John or wanted to. They went and played with their cousins, thank goodness, for a while, first. Eventually I stumbled downstairs, and Ally and I got the kids breakfast. It was another very lazy pajama morning, and the kids played a great deal of video games. Liam, in particular, was taken with a Gamecube game (which plays on the Wii, hurrah) called Kirby Air Ride, which is a very easy game and perfect for him. Ian and Amy brought it, and Liam's going to miss it. Everyone went home in the early afternoon, and John decided that he'd take Liam for a walk and I'd look after Jamie while John worked. This was sound in theory, but didn't turn out so well when Liam failed to fall asleep. Jamie and I went to the Second Cup to relieve John, and to take the boys to the park so that John could work. Charlie and his family were at the park, which turned out very well for Jamie and Liam. We packed it in around 4:30, and took Charlie home before going home ourselves. Dinner was at Browning, with Ken and Tami doing the cooking as part of a family birthday celebration for Ross. It being Victoria Day, we went out and celebrated after dinner with a trip to see the fireworks at the school. Liam was very excited by them, and by the sparklers, while Jamie and his friends roamed the playground, chasing after Daniel. Eventually Liam got tired of going down slides and watching fireworks, and got Tom to take him back to Browning. Officially it was for a pee break, but really we think that he was just fireworked* out. I followed, let Liam play for 15 minutes, then brought him home in time to meet up with the rest of the group on their way home. We bathed the boys and put them to bed, and I think that Liam set a land speed record (for him) for falling asleep. Jamie was overly tired and feeling somewhat emotionally fragile, but he didn't take long either, in the end.

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

Back to Vol. 2 No. 87, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 2 No. 89.