Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 98

2009-07-21 23:39 (Kristen) It was a Hakobune day for both boys, and Jamie had a longer day than usual, as he had some makeup time from when he was at camp at the start of the month. I picked up Liam at the usual time, and took him home so that I could rest and get some emails written (I've been up working late for the past two nights). Then we all piled into the car to pick up Jamie. We stopped for bubble tea on the way, and were all glad to get home. In the evening, it was Movie Night. Jamie and I were booked to see the new Star Trek movie at the IMAX theatre at the Science Centre, leaving John and Liam to have a father and son night at the movies. They went to see Ice Age 3, in 3-D. John says that there was only one bathroom break, and that Liam ate a heroic amount of pizza at the theatre, and even kept his 3-D glasses on for a good part of the movie. Jamie and I really enjoyed our trip out to see Star Trek, and he kept comparing it with snippets of the new Dr. Who series that he was watching with Ronnie and Daniel. My little proto-geek! I'm so proud! He is working on his Vulcan salute, and seemed to enjoy himself a lot. I had a fabulous time sharing something that I love with my son, and it was lovely to have one-on-one time with Jamie, which I don't get very often any more in a way that doesn't involve me saying "Hurry up!" "We're late!" or some other similar thing. John and Liam got some important son/father bonding time too, and I think that we should do this more often.

2009-07-22 46:19 (Kristen) The boys' new babysitter, Waka, came this morning, which was great as I was knackered. They had a good time, I think, and that left the boys with me for the afternoon. I made them come with me to the grocery store and the library, which worked out well except for the huge fit that Liam pitched in the library when it was time to go. While I appreciate that he wanted more books to read before we left, there are limits...We were all so tired by evening that we were all, as a family, asleep by 9:30.

2009-07-23 22:22 (Kristen) The rain pours and poure dthis morning, scuppering our chances of doing much outside today, The sun was out by 4, but we didn't believe it, thinking instead that it was just a ruse. John did get the boys outside to pick black raspberries, but Liam ate them all, except for the one that he left for me to sit on, and that was that.

Jamie had said that he would rather go back to Orlando than go to Dayton on this year's Scrabble trip. When asked why, he said it was because the television in Orlando played SpongeBob all the time. Herm. Then Jamie asked John if he had gone with us on the trip. Ouch. Our interesting conversation with Liam today at bedtime went as follows: L: Papa sit here, Mommy lie there [beside him in bed]. J: What about me? P: Yes, Liam, that's not fair. No one is sleeping with Jamie, he's lonely. Who should sleep with Jamie? L: Grammie. P: Grammie's not here. L: Call Grammie. P: Okay, but she can't come right away. L: Grammie's stuck.

2009-07-24 71:06 (Kristen) The boys were at Hakobune this morning, and I had just dropped them off when I ran into Jamie's friend Sandaru, he of the Starbucks DS club. He was quite crestfallen to realized that Jamie was not going to be with me, but would be at Hakobune today. We reitereated that the boys would play together on Monday, but it was both sweet and sad to know that he was so eager to play with Jamie and wasn't able to. We looked for them later, when we picked Liam and Jamie up at lunch, but they weren't around. When we got home, we invited Daniel over to watch Season 1, episode 1 of the new Dr. Who series, which the boys appreciated. Dinner was at Browning, and the boys were very tired. So were we.

2009-07-25 47:10 (Kristen) Today's big event was a third birthday party for Charlie's little brother Jack, who is Liam's age. Liam was invited, and the rest of us by extention, to come to a small party for Jack, for whom his parents had rented a small bouncy castle for the event. We made it there a little late, but it meant that the boys had time to bounce on it for about half an hour before the heavens opened up and it poured like blazes for over two hours. The kids coped, however, and spent a very happy time playing with toys and each other for the rest of the day. Cake was eaten, dinosaurs were made to roar, and when things to too overwhelming, Super Mario Kart was played. The boys had a great time, and we eventually left around 6. Jack and Liam do seem to play together, which is lovely for them. Younger brothers unite! I don't remember much of the evening, because I was so very tired, and the boys were too.

2009-07-26 23:17 (Kristen) I managed to get three days behind again; arrrgghh. I've been tired at the end of the day, with all the things that we've been doing. Today, we got up to greet our new housecleaner, Edna, and cleaned the house so that she'd be able to access the stuff we needed her to do! I got the boys to help a bit. I should note that Jamie was an enormous help yesterday, shouldering the responsibility of helping to look after Liam andfetching this and doing that. He's really growing up. Today he was helpful, after a small meltdown, in cleaning up the house. Liam was less helpful, but we're working on it. After, we went to find Charlie and his family to bounce on their castle in better weather, and met up with Sam and his family on the way. We were not there bouncing for much longer than twenty minutes when the heavens opened up again for at least two hours, pouring down and making the world look like we lived underwater. Ick. We stayed for play and lunch, heading out around 2 to finish errands. We picked up groceries and bought a big fat stickerbook each for the long trip to Dayton. Jamie was full of questions about what would happen if he managed to finish it off before we got to Dayton, although I think that even Jamie won't have a chance to do so, it being a large sticker book. John took the boys to the grocery store around 4:30, and didn't find that they were any calmer at the end. I had offered to show Jamie a Harry Potter movie earlier in the day as a treat for this evening, but he mentioned to John that this should be we all go out to a movie. So, en famille, we say Up, which we all enjoyed very much. We headed home, played with Gary and Ayami, and went to bed far far too late.

2009-07-27 73:27 (Kristen) I had a great morning with Jamie, as we had some extra time together at Starbucks after Jamie's playdate cancelled. We did a little of this and a little of that, and did some work from a grade 1 workbook. I don't think that he's going to have any trouble with Grade 1. Our troubles may come from trying to keep him interested...thank goodness he's social. We picked up Liam, had a trying time on the subway coming home, and stopped in our house for a few minutes. Liam took the opportunity to eat John's lunch, as John was foolish enough to eat in front of him. Liam was hungry because he'd almost totally ignored his lunch. They don't even tell me anymore that Liam didn't eat his lunch at Hakobune; it's like saying that there was a Tuesday last week. It doesn't really matter what I make. We whisked ourselves out of the house again and went to play at Jake's for a while, then did a little shopping before dinner at Browning. Ayami's birthday was on Friday, so we did a little party for her. The boys picked out a hair band with blue glass on it, because they knew she likes blue. It was good. We went to bed late, but happy.

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

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