Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 3 No. 1

2009-08-11 24:02 (Kristen) Today both boys went to Hakobune, and it seems to have gone well. I reminded Jamie that he won't be going there anymore in three weeks time, and that might have improved his overall feeling about going there. He really just wants to stay home, play video games, and watch television some days. Liam, of course, was delighted to be there. I worked, picked the boys up, and we raced home to beat the storm that was rapidly approaching. The storm was much faster than the subway, however, and I had to call John to pick us up at the bus stop with umbrellas! Liam was unimpressed with how wet his clothes got (light to moderate) and decided that this was a good reason to not wear clothes for much of the admittedly hot and humid afternoon. Liam entertained John and me with stories at bedtime, which are very vivid and in which everyone has their purpose and role to play. He is very definite about them. They usually involve rockets, robots, and unrelated objects are related to other unrelated objects. His comforter is a cave, and there is a right way and a wrong way to make a cave. Often, Blue Elephant and Blue Pony are flashlights. And so on.

2009-08-12 25:41 (Kristen) This was one of the mornings where Waka came to look after the boys, which was a Good Thing. John had two meetings, I had one with him, and we got to run some errands. In the middle of this, Sarah called to see if we wanted to go to Riverdale Farm with her and her children, Sam, Harry, and Georgia. Of course, we did, and the kids ended up playing for two hours in the wading pool outside the farm. I did get Liam to see the baby goats with me, but he hates the way the barn smells and it was only for a moment. The kids had a blast at the pool, and I have a date to do it again with them next week. We raced from the farm to get Jamie to a birthday party at Charlie's, and to get Liam home before he fell asleep (barely made it). John went with Jamie to the party, which had some Whimz animals there. Jamie liked the snake and the turtle, but agreed that the chinchilla was the funniest. It was a very lazy evening, with pizza for dinner and an early night in bed.

2009-08-13 25:41 (Kristen) Liam had a makeup day at Hakobune today in place of the one he missed last week when the older kids went on the Island picnic. I brought Jamie with me to Starbucks, where he cheerfully coloured and played with his DS while I worked. Near the end of the morning, we did some workbook pages, and I taught him a bit about money and telling time with an analog clock with them. He picked up on it pretty quickly, especially since he was complaining the night before that he didn't understand how to read an analog clock. He was motivated, I suppose. We had pizza for lunch, read some Pokemon, and picked up Liam. Once home it was the usual flop in front of the television, but Jamie did play some Super Mario Galaxy for Liam (who loves this game deeply). He was telling me that Papa and Liam are friends with Mario, Jamie is friends with Luigi, and I am friends with Bowser (the villain of the game). Gee, Liam. Thanks! After dinner, we went to the Dairy Queen for a raucous time with Daniel, Ross, and Ross's friend Basil. It was a great deal of fun. The kids fell asleep very quickly tonight, which is very satisfying for we parents.

2009-08-14 23:23 (Kristen) After a morning at Hakobune, we took the boys to Toronto Island for the first time this summer. Normally we'd have gone at least twice by now, but the city workers' strike and our travel schedule conspired against our going. We were to meet up with three members of the posse and their families (Charlie, Jake, and Sam), which we did around 2 or so. They had been on the island for close to six hours at that point, so they went on a few rides with us before going home, hot and exhausted. Our boys were still up for a day at the Island, so we put them in the bouncy house a few times and on the train twice. Liam had a popsicle that he got John to buy for him, but dropped it when a man bumped into him on the path to Centreville. He was very apologetic and bought Liam a new one, which he was happy to eat until it was running down his fingers in rivulets--something that happened remarkably quickly in the heat. We ate pizza, went on the little cars (Liam was so delighted!), another ride or two, and the train twice. Both boys love the train, and Jamie is finally unafraid of the tunnel. Hot and happy, we made our ways back to the ferry dock and home. We had dinner at Browning, and the boys were exhausted when it was time to goto bed, somewhat late.

2009-08-15 23:30 (Kristen) We were all a little tired today, and it was another one of those days where we just didn't wake up until after ten. That threw us off a bit. John took the boys to the market, where they had a great time playing at a splashpad nearby after the food was bought. I thought that they were pretty tired, but I was wrong. There may have been ice cream in the evening, with boys sitting on the kitchen floor eating the ice cream out of the containers with spoons, thanks to their dad, but I can remember for sure.

2009-08-16 25:41 (Kristen) It was hot, and so the best plan was to go and see a movie to get out of the house and do something. We saw "Aliens in the Attic," which the boys liked and I did not so much. It was...derivative, with hopeless female characters. Enough said. The kids enjoyed it, which is what was important. Liam was very pissed off that we bought gummie bears instead of swedish berries, however, and we had to buy a bag of swedish berries after the movie. It was a hot day, so we hung out at home for the rest of the day. Jamie and I worked more on learning how to tell time using an analog clock, and Liam and I did this and that in the evening. We, once again, went to bed a little late.

2009-08-17 25:41 (Kristen) I baked cupcakes last night so that Liam could have some to share at his Hakobune class birthday party. They have one party a month for all the kids who have their birthdays that month, and Liam had a very good time. He got two balloons, but both burst pretty quickly, much to Liam's dismay. Liam was very unhappy when the first one burst, and was extra careful with the second so that it "wouldn't run away." He was very unhappy when the second one burst too (through no fault of his own). The day was hot and very muggy, with a smog warning hanging over the city. I had thought to do some fun, out of the ordinary things with the kids, but rethought and just took them home. John pulled out Jamie's sunner homework, and they got to work on that, while Liam and I did mazes, numbers, and alphabet stickers until he started to sing the "Banana Phone" song in response to "R is for Ring." Sigh. Then it all rather fell apart, the concentration. Jamie started in on a workbook about time, to continue on with the work he's been doing on analog clocks, and did some work earlier, at Starbucks, on nouns for me. We're going to work more on his penmanship, with another workbook. It's all right in appearance for his age, but he's drawing, rather than writing, the letters. If I teach him now, it'll be a lot easier later on. Workbooks are more like fun than work right now, thank goodness, and there are stickers involved. It's good. Dinner was at Browning, and our customary good time was had. We were home very late, once again, and I am a little concerned about how well the boys will do tomorrow with the lack of sleep.

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

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