Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 3 No. 5

2009-09-08 22:40 (Kristen) To my pleasant surprise, Jamie got all the butterflies and nerves dealt with last night, and was full of nervous but positive anticipation this morning. We all went to school with him, and helped him to find the lineup with his class. He was happy to have hugs and kisses before he went in -- unlike his friend Jake, who asked his father why he was still there and that he should go already! Jake has decided that fussing isn't his thing anymore, I guess! I took Liam to Hakobune after he had fifteen minutes of playing Pirate Liam on the Rocket Caterpillar in the playground with John. I picked him up, and took him back home with me on the subway. It was nice to spend a little Mom and Liam time together, and I think that we're going to have a lot of that this year. We went in the wagon to pick up Jamie at 3:30, and were pleasantly surprised to find Gary had followed us to do the same thing. When Jamie came out, he pronounced his day as "Great!" and seems to like his teacher, Ms. Kidd. She is young, and pretty, and seems very gentle. I hope that she survives the year! Jamie told me that she's engaged, and has a very silly dog, and that she knew what Super Mario 63 (Jamie's latest gaming obsession) is, so I am feeling optimistic. John reported, at lunch, that Jamie was also appearing to be remarkably untraumatized by Grade 1, and that the posse were deliriously happy to be together again, even if they are split up between two classes. Tomorrow, Jamie will have lunch at school, along with the other 3/4 of his class, and seems quite good with the whole idea. It will feel more than a little strange to me that I won't be heading out of the house at 11:30, or that Jamie won't be having lunch with us. I know that Liam will miss him. We came home after school, and met up with John's mom, who brought juice. The boys played with Sam and Luke for a bit, then came in for dinner. Luke very sweetly gave Liam an old Tomy Big Ladder set, which has a little battery-operated construction site that delighted Jamie and Liam both, once Mom set it up. It was very thoughtful! The evening was spent reading, singing, playing with this and that, and Jamie hanging out with Gary. I had the boys in bed after bath and hair washing about 9:30, and Jamie was asleep first. Liam took a little longer, but it's likely because I was lying with my feet, not my head, near him, so that I could look over at Jamie while I lay with Liam. The intricacies of keeping both boys happy at the same time at bedtime!

2009-09-09 47:16 (Kristen) I had a chat with Jamie's teacher this afternoon, after we went in to his class after school to find a piece of paper that Jamie thought he'd forgotten. I got to see Jamie's desk (he sits with two other kids at a round table by the blackboard, and one is a Liam! There are two Liams in his class, much to Jamie's amusement). She told me that Jamie was reading very well, and that she was surprised at what a good reader he was. I was, of course, proud. He's been tired by the end of the day, but has been bearing down and working as best he can with a minimum of goofy. I'm very proud. Jamie also stayed to eat lunch at school, but found the day a little too long that way, and wants to eat lunch at home tomorrow. He was definitely tired. Liam was tired too. Both boys woke up at 7:00, after climbing into bed with me in the middle of the night, and we were all up by 7:15. Waka came over to play with Liam, and he was C.R.A.B.B.Y. They eventually worked out some things to do that didn't involve the television or the DS. Liam is glued to it, and was attracting a fair amount of attention in the playground as he sat in his wagon, playing away, and oblivious to the rabid attention of a number of older boys looking over his shoulder. Waka and Liam painted, did puzzles, and had fun in the end. I took Liam to the library after lunch, but he fell asleep in the wagon for an hour, bent over a bag of books at first, but then on his back, his feet and head on the seats and his bum in the footwell. I had a cherry Italian soda ready for him when he woke up, hot and dehydrated, and mad as a hornet about being awake. He was happy enough when we picked up Jamie, who wanted to come straight home to play Super Mario 63. We headed home, and spent a quiet evening waiting for John to come home from New York City and the first night of Scrabble for the season. They fell asleep very quickly, surprise surprise.

2009-09-10 23:25 (Kristen) John took Liam to Hakobune, and Liam couldn't have been happier about it. Jamie was in a good mood too, and it was such a relief to have both boys happy and engaged with their world. John reports that Jamie ran into school with a cheery wave, and that was that. Again, no signs of trauma. John and I picked Jamie up from school for lunch, and were greeted with big hugs and happiness. We ate at Browning, which worked out nicely, and John took Jamie back to school. Then he picked up Liam, and brought him home. Liam and I picked up Jamie, who was full of glee at being with the posse, and invited them all over to our house to see Super Mario 63. Charlie and Jake were up for it (or, rather, their moms were), and they had fun eating freezies and playing until their moms came to get them at 5:15. Jamie spent the whole time designing a level for his friends, but wasn't able to finish it before they had to go. We had dinner, and the boys finished at the same time. They ran off to play, and John and I stayed behind to talk to each other. Odd! Tomorrow is Gary and Ken's birthday, so we went over to Browning for a cake eating ceremony, which the boys appreciated, but it was soon time to come home and go to bed. Again, they fell asleep quite quickly.

Both boys are very affectionate beings, who kiss and hug their mom without being self-conscious, which is really lovely. Liam likes to talk about his best friends, who can be me, John, or Jamie, depending upon the time of day. I signed Liam up for soccer and skating today, but I'm still floundering around for things for Jamie to do. He wants to skate, but there isn't anything that isn't hockey at a time we can agree on, and nothing near by. I'll have to look further into it, but I'm thinking about judo. The trick is to find things that he wants to do that don't overwhelm him; he's one tired little boy right now.

2009-09-11 24:33 (Kristen) It was a full and exciting day today. Liam and I dropped Jamie off at school, as John is running the annual Toronto Scrabble tournament this weekend, and will largely be out of the house. Liam and I ran some errands, had something to eat at the Second Cup, and hung out until it was time to pick Jamie up for lunch. Liam and I did go to Book City for a bit, and Liam got very excited and asked for a "little book" for himself. I bought him a little Backyardigans book, and he happily "read" it in the wagon for a while. Jamie, Liam, and I ate at Browning, and then took Jamie back to school. By then, Liam and I were pretty tired, so we vegged at home until it was time to back to get Jamie. Jamie was very excited and happy after school, and ran off to find the posse and play. I went through his stuff, and found a folder that detailed his work schedule for the year (he takes music! and drama! yay!). The funny part was when I explained that he was going to have spelling tests on Fridays, and we segued slightly into the idea of spelling bees. Jamie's face lit up and he said "You mean you can *win*? I want to start now!" I think that he'll be attacking the idea of spelling with a little more edge than most of his other classmates, but I'm fine with that. His folder also contained a letter home that Jamie had written, and his teacher explained that the kids wrote their letters on Friday and would every Friday this year. She said thatgetting them to write the letters had been challenging (I bet!) but that it woul d be worth it. I expressed happiness at the idea, and I'm looking forward to what Jamie feels is worth writing about this year.

We stayed at the playground until 5, as Jamie and Liam played hard in the schoolyard. Liam found the sheer number of children intimidating, and stayed close to me until it had thinned out a bit. When we finally exhausted the playground, we headed to Browning for dinner. John joined us eventually, and he and Ross were working very hard at a fast comet star at Super Mario Galaxy for a while. Eventually, Jamie came down and did it in one try. Fast comets are his specialty, yo. The boys were blitheringly tired, and fell asleep very easily.

2009-09-12 24:37 (Kristen) John was gone early this morning, so I got the boys up and ready for a half day at Jamie's Japanese school. It was the first day, and we did a great job of making it to the subway on time, despite having to walk there due to no buses. There was complaining... We ran into Jamie's friend Harry at Yonge station, and rode all the way there with him and his family. Jamie was nervous, and I think that he relaxed when he saw Harry, and knew that he'd have one friend there. The assembly and sorting into classes went smoothly, and I reassured Liam that he'd have his own class to go to next year. He liked that idea. We sat and had coffee with Harry's family, and then went back to get Jamie. He was happy, and went out to play with the other kids while the other moms and I went through backpacks to see what the homework looked like this year. We were all shocked to see that the summer homework was still in the children's backpacks, and it seems that the teacher is new and didn't see/forgot it. We'll make sure that she gets it next week.

After playing for a bit, we had pizza and headed home for a good long veg. The kids were, once again, very very tired, but they stayed up a little late to see John when he got home from the tournament.

2009-09-13 24:44 (Kristen) As usual, Jamie was up early and John kindly made him breakfast before he headed out to the tournament for its last day. I woke up around 9, feeling a little disoriented, and Liam was up not long afterwards. I had planned a quiet day for the boys to veg and recuperate, but our friends Peter and Leslie called us to go out for lunch. Simon wanted to see Liam and Jamie, and by noon it was time to do something out of the house. We had a lovely lunch at Allen's, but Jamie was definitely out of sorts and needing a good deal of one-on-one attention for much of the lunch. We took the kids to St. Barnabas afterwards, and they all ran around until they were flushed and tired. Yay! We headed back home and parted company around 4:45. By that time John was on his way home with two Scrabble friends, and plans for dinner. The boys complained a little about going out again, but enjoyed dinner at 7 Numbers, and playing on their DSes. Jamie biked there and back, and fell asleep almost instantly. Liam is having a good deal of trouble sleeping tonight, and I think that he's having some tummy trouble of some sort. We'll keep an eye on it, and hope that it's nothing more than gas.

2009-09-14 23:13 (Kristen) Another week of school, and Jamie was happy to get to school and start all over again. Liam was happy to hang out with me in the morning and play with his DS, and I let him as he'd gone to bed late the night before and was up quite early this morning. This is, always, a recipe for disaster and I had low expectations of him and his ability to deal with much today. We did go pick up Jamie for lunch. We ate at Browning, which delighted Jamie, and then John came to take him back to school. In the afternoon, Liam and I hung out again, and then had some extra time together in the afternoon. Jamie had a playdate at Sam's with the posse, which included dinner. This seems like it's going to be the pattern from now on, as the boys don't get much time to play together anymore if dinner isn't somehow involved. I left Liam with John, and went to get Jamie and bring him to Browning around 6:30. Jamie had had a fabulous time, which included playing with Sam's bouncy castle in the back yard along with Jake and Parker. When we got back to Browning, I helped Jamie to do his spelling homework before I went off to play Trivia. John reports that he got Jamie to do his Japanese homework, and that Liam was overtired and in a delicate state when he finally got the boys home. Something happened to set a very tired Liam off, and he melted down completely in the bathroom. He cried for 20 minutes before falling asleep on the floor. Boom. When I got home, both boys were in bed, asleep, and John notified me that Liam had not peed, or brushed his teeth, or changed into his pajamas. Given his state before he fell asleep, I'd say that was acceptable.

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

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