Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 3 No. 6

2009-09-15 23:13 (Kristen) Jamie went off to school, and Liam went off with John to Hakobune to read more Sailor Moon books. He really looks forward to going, and was sad yesterday that he wasn't going to be at Hakobune. Risa Saito, who is a Japanese woman staying with us for the next week, was helping out at Hakobune and confirm ed that this is Liam's favourite activity. For the first time, too, Liam started to participate in cleanup time. Wow! That's a surprise, but a welcome one. After school, five of Jamie's friends came over for a playdate and dinner. Everyone had a great time, and we even managed to get Jamie to do some homework after dinner and everyone had gone home. Liam enjoyed having the big boys around. While I got the boys in bed a half hour early, they still fell asleep at the usual time. We'll work on that.

2009-09-16 23:00 (John) Reviewing the blog, I noticed a slew of missing entries here, and I'm guessing Kristen accidentally deleted them. From secondary sources, I know that Jamie went to school as usual (reading, art, library), Liam stayed home and hung out with Mom, and the photo of the day was snapped as I headed out to Scrabble club for the evening and the boys were waiting for dinner.

2009-09-17 23:00 (John) Reviewing the blog, I noticed a slew of missing entries here, and I'm guessing Kristen accidentally deleted them. From secondary sources, I know that Jamie went to school as usual (reading, art, library) and Liam went to Hakobune with Mom. As you can see from the photo, the vampire game mentioned on 2009-09-03 has evolved into a regular apres bain tradition, with me alternately carrying two little towelled vampires flying through the air turning their hapless victims into more vampires.

2009-09-18 23:00 (John) Reviewing the blog, I noticed a slew of missing entries here, and I'm guessing Kristen accidentally deleted them. From secondary sources, I know that Jamie went to school as usual (reading, art, library) and Liam went to Hakobune with Mom. It's been unseasonably warm, which adds to the ludicrous amount of energy that explodes out of Jamie at the end of the school day, especially on a Friday. Liam, more sensibly, finds the least noisy corner of a very loud schoolyard and logs a few more hours catching up with his Nintendo DS and Kirby's Squeak Squad.

2009-09-19 23:00 (John) Reviewing the blog, I noticed a slew of missing entries here, and I'm guessing Kristen accidentally deleted them. I don't need to check secondary sources for this one, as it was a big day. I took Jamie to Nisshu Gakuin in the morning, came back home to pick up Liam and took him for his usual snacking/shopping expedition to the St. Lawrence Market. I dropped Liam and the groceries off with Kristen so the two of them could go out shopping for Jamie's sometime girlfriend Makaiya's birthday party. I then went to get Jamie, curtailed his after school rampage and we joined the party in progress. We learned there that the recreation coordinator at Earl Bales Community Centre, where we play Scrabble, is Makaiya's aunt!

2009-09-20 23:00 (John) Reviewing the blog, I noticed a slew of missing entries here, and I'm guessing Kristen accidentally deleted them. I remember our all being totally exhausted this day, and the photos bear me out. I thought we would have more energy what with Jamie being in school full time, but somehow our schedules have gotten even fuller than they were before, and if we didn't have a quiet Sunday now and again, we'd be in trouble.

2009-09-20 21:10 (Kristen) John is teaching the boys math while they're in the bath. He asked Liam what 1+1 was, and Liam responded "Eleven!" Then John asked Liam what 2+2 was, and he answered, hesitantly, "Two eleven?" John said "We call that 'twenty two.'" Liam responded with glee, "Twenty two!" He is happy. John is also teaching a tired Jamie some math tricks with the 9 times table, which has some funky number tricks in it. Jamie is more interested in being goofy, but he's asking John a few questions about it, and they're all enjoying themselves, which is the important point.

I took Jamie with me to the Second Cup for some mother-son bonding time, and we had fun. John stayed home with Liam for some father-son bonding time, otherwise known as "being Liam's Wii slave." I read to Jamie from Bone, a graphic novel series that I really like and that Jamie is really liking too. He pestered me fiercely to read to him from volume two, "The Great Cow Race," around dinner time, as I had promised, so I did. Liam has lost the stylus for his DS, and isn't being as careful with the DS as he has been in times past, so we may have to have some more intense observation and rules about the DS. I got Jamie to do some reading for me for homework, and have a pile of books that are around his level for him to pick from any time we do reading practice with our own books. He enjoys picking his own reading material, which is good for both of us. The boys are still in the bath, joking around with John, and life seems to be good.

2009-09-21 23:00 (John) Apart from our usual Monday schedule, with Jamie going to school for the day and Liam staying at home (soccer doesn't start until next week), and our making dinner at Browning in the evening, our big event was that Risa Saito (a friend of Sasaki-sensei) has come to visit with us for day. Risa is a physical chemistry student in her early twenties, spending a few weeks in Canada to improve her English and see a little of the world.

2009-09-21 23:10 (Kristen) It was a little hard to get Jamie up and out the door this morning. He was complaining that he doesn't like Jackman, but we established that what he really means is that his days are very long, and he's having some trouble with that. Not surprising, now that the blush is off the rose of the new school year. Liam hung around at home with me, playing his DS, and was happy to leave the house to go to Browning for lunch. Jamie and John met us there, and the boys had a good time talking with Ross and doing their usual Browning things. They had to be reminded, however, that they would be back in the evening and so leaving wasn't such a tragedy as it seemed. The afternoon was quiet, again, and we stayed to play a little at Jackman after picking up Jamie. Dinner was at Browning, where Jamie and Ross had an intent discussion about the merits of this or that song in Dance Dance Revolution, and where Liam ate dinner grudgingly, because it took away time from important things like Putt Putt on the computer. The boys went to bed a little late, which isn't good, because they're both so tired in the mornings.

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

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