Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 92

2009-06-09 47:33 (Kristen) John took Jamie to school and Liam to daycare so that I could focus on a job interview that I had today. Jamie went to Jake's for a playdate after school, and John picked up Liam. I phoned when I was finished with my interview to find John in our driveway with Liam in his lap, "driving" the car. Liam was all for picking me up, and so they came to get me. When we got home, I took Liam for a walk which failed to put him to sleep. We picked up Jamie at Jake's, from which he proceeded to cry his way home, as he wanted to stay and play there and no other suggestion was of any good. This, to me, meant that Jamie was not feeling well, and so I just took him home. He settled down, but it clearly was an early-to-bed night. We ate dinner, and had a quiet evening before going to sleep.

2009-06-10 23:27 (Kristen) After Jamie went to school, I let Liam watch some unsupervised television while I ate some breakfast and had a coffee in the kitchen. I heard a horrible noise, and ran into the living room to turn the telelvision channel to get rid of it. The moment that I did, I heard the worst words I've ever heard from Liam: "MY WANT TO WATCH BARNEY!" I just about cried. I've made it through two kids to the age of almost three without them seeing Barney, but I missed it one day when I was doing housework. Now, Liam likes Barney. Kill me.

I pulled Liam away from the television a little later to go to the schoolyard and play, in order to assist any possible afternoon napping. We walked there and back, played with Jamie and John efore they went to Hakobune, and then walked home for hotdogs and french fries. He did nap, for almost two hours, which worried me a bit as it was almost four when he finally woke up fully. Jamie was home soon after we arrived, and raced into the house for some television. I made dinner, we all more or less ate it (fried rice), and then John went off to Scrabble. I took the boys to the playground to tire them out, and both boys walked the whole way. Liam found a dog named Gertie to play with, and was very gentle with her (she was a golden lab, so friendly). He laughed and laughed as the dog, who was almost his height, walked around him and let him pet her. Jaie, however, was the one who played with her the most as he kicked her ball for her so that she could chase it: I think that they played, off and on, for at least half an hour. We went home soon after Gertie, and both boys were getting quite tired. We watched some Spongebob with Gary before bathtime, which was fraught, but we all made up by lights out.

2009-06-11 22:39 (Kristen) I managed to divert Liam from the television a little better today, and we were upstairs getting dressed when the Evil Purple Dinosaur was on. Yay, me. John was working hard on a deadline today, so I went to pick up Jamie with Liam. At one point, Liam had gone into the little playground but I knew that Sam's mom was there to keep an eye on him. She said that he was very easy to watch and very funny, as he plays by himself and laughs uproariously when he does. He's probably telling himself stories, which always crack him up. We walked to Browning, ate lunch, and waited outside for John to arrive with the car to take us to the dentist. We were a little worried, given what happened the last time we went, but both boys came out with no new cavities. Jamie accumulates tartar like no one's business, so we'll be getting him an electric toothbrush to try and deal with it more effectively. Both boys lay down on top of a parent for tooth cleaning and scraping, and both boys were beyond fantastic. John and I were so proud of them. They were very well behaved for the two and a half hours we were there (all four of us had our checkups), even though Liam didn't have a nap. We got home, vegged, and spend a quiet rest of the day.

2009-06-12 23:15 (Kristen) For some reason, Liam was pretty clutzy today. I suspect that it was a combination of fatigue and possibly a growth spurt, but his balance was off.AtHakobune, he was goofing around by wobbling as he walked, and fell into the corner of the doorframe, getting a lovely mark on his cheek by his ear; a dueling scar, almost. Later, he fell asleep for an hour and was very crabby when he woke up until John got him to register the strawberry frappuchino waiting for him in the car. This evening, he fell and hit his head a few times, causing great outrage and crying. I'll keep an eye on him tomorrow, but hope that a good night's sleep will help take care of it.

In the meantime, Jamie made a little robin in class, which was decorated on both sides and hung from a ribbon, as well as stuffed (staples held the two pieces of paper together). I asked Jamie what the robin was stuffed with, and he told me paper worms. Pretty funny! He had a rough start to the day, with a meltdown on the way out of the house, but calmed down over the course of the day.

2009-06-13 46:24 (Kristen) Liam was pretty happy to go shopping with John today. They were gone for at least two hours, and I was starting to wonder what they were up to when they came back, tired and happy. Liam played and played and played while at the Market, because there was an alternative school nearby having their annual fair. This means a bouncy slide, a bouncy dinosaur, and other bouncy rides, and other objects of instant Liam ecstasy. John says that they spent $10 on tickets, which is actually quite a lot at one of these things! Liam came home happy and tired but not sleepy, which was surprising. He did not fall asleep, and so we did grocery shopping and other things until John called to say that he was coming home with Jamie. As Liam and I were rounding the corner back to our street, I saw Jamie running towards us, arms wide. What a lovely surprise! They'd been a little ahead of us, and John had stopped to let Jamie get out and greet Liam and me properly. Jamie had been asking what sorts of frappuchinos there were other than strawberry and green tea, and I'd remarked that I knew there were caramel frappuchinos too (not having had one). John had bought one for Jamie, who drank about a quarter of it before asking if it had coffee in it. I tried it out, and sure enough: coffee. Oops. Jamie was none the worse for it, and did not poing off of vertical surfaces at any point, although he did play for a good while with Sam, Ben, and Luke outside. Liam came in and vegetated in front of the television, watching Anpanman, too tired to do anything else. Jamie even put his bathing suit on and got a little wet in the sprinkler: a first! Dinner was largely spurned by the under-6 set, with Liam not eating any chicken and Jamie regretfully not eating any of the lentil curry. Between the two of them they eat a balanced meal.

2009-06-14 22:59 (Kristen) Liam and I slept in, while Jamie was up by 8. Sigh. The morning was a symphony of "Mom! Mummy! May-eeeeee!" with the occasional "Papaaaaa!" as boys needed tech support, companions, playmates, referees, or just to play "Marco Polo". I estimate that I was answering a random boy, who was yelling from another room, on average every 20-30 seconds at one point. When I stayed in the living room with them, I was smothered under a pile of boys. I made them turn the television off at one point, and it became a struggle for boys to entertain themselves. Liam is relatively good at it, but Jamie still needs help thinking up things to do on his own. Eventually, he acquiesced to my reading to him from "Tintin: The Cigars of the Pharaoh," which entertained him. He actually let me read to him for close to 16 pages, which was wonderful. At Michelle's suggestion, I'm going to dig up John's old Asterix comics, as Jamie would love the humour in them. My overall mood started to lighten up as the day progressed, and we eventually made it to Browning for dinner. Liam and Jamie played, and had a good time. Jamie did some homework there, and showed us a book that he and his classmates put together, telling a story that they'd written collaboratively. Their teacher is amazing. Each child wrote a page and illustrated it. Wow! Jamie told us of some of the stuff left on the cutting room floor that he wished had made it in, such as a dragonfly that turned into a bee, but that's publishing for you. Liam was blithering by the time we got home, and both boys went to bed after a story.

2009-06-15 23:27 (Kristen) I forgot to mention that Jamie had some large red bumps on his hip last night, which got our alarm bells ringing when Gary came charging up the stairs to ask who was sick, as he had the same red marks. I called the doctor's office this morning, asking if where was something going around that I should know about, and we decided to keep the boys home. I didn't get any paying work done, but I did four loads of laundry to make up for it, and cleaned the kitchen three times. Both boys were lively and cheerful, despite coughs and spots, and it was a pleasant enough morning. John left for the airport around 10:30, and we're all waiting for his return tomorrow night. We went to the doctor's office after lunch to find that Jamie has bug bites: a mosquito, or possibly fleas. When we came home, I stripped all beds and tossed everything into the wash (hence four loads of laundry). The boys alternately played, drew, did puzzles, and watched television for the day. Liam liked playing on the back porch while I hung up laundry on the line, and Jamie stuck his head out a few times. We were invited to Browning for dinner, which was lovely, and Gary and Ayami came along as well. The boys were a little out of control by the end, so we came home, bathed, and went to bed. They were asleep pretty quickly.

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

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