Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 3 No. 7

2009-09-22 23:00 (John) We appear to have invited the whole posse over, including Dylan, for dinner. What were we thinking?! There appears to be no physical damage to the house, and PTSD has erased the memory from our minds. I asked for a round of serious photos and a round of goofy photos from the boys, and have omitted most of the goofy ones.

2009-09-22 23:10 (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. Lisa, 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.

2009-09-23 23:10 (Kristen) Jamie, upon being questioned, told me that Jenna is his girlfriend, and that they eat snacks together almost every day. I asked him why she was his girlfriend, and he didn't quite understand the question, so I asked him what it was that he liked about her...was she funny? kind? and he leapt in instantly and said that she was kind. Sounds good to me. The evening is kind of a blur for me, as I was quite tired, but the boys were tired too, and were in bed and asleep around 10.

2009-09-23 23:10 (Kristen) Jamie was in an uncharacteristically grumpy mood today, and Liam was too. Liam's bad mood could be attributed to a refusal to eat enough food at any given meal, and so needed to snack frequently to keep his blood sugar up. He might also have spent a little too much time playing his DS. Jamie's mood was harder to diagnose, but is likely a combination of a lack of sleep and having some trouble adjusting to his new school schedule. He has needed a bit more Mummy time than usual, and lots of reassurances. It is hard to adjust to a full day schedule, but he really has been doing well. He just needs to be reminded, and have a little extra attention. Liam and I went book shopping in the afternoon to spend some of his birthday money, and we had fun reading when we got home. Jamie and I read more of The Great Cow Race, and both he and Liam loved it. He really likes Bone, and it's so nice to read him material that he likes. Jamie told me about his girlfriends (he and Makaiya are boyfriend and girlfriend again, but I don't think that this affects Jenna's status, if history is any indicator). Note to everyone: please don't talk about Jamie's girlfriends! I don't want him to be self-conscious about it at all. We managed to get to bed on time tonight, and the boys were asleep by 9:30. Tomorrow night, if we can, we'll pull that back another fifteen minutes.

2009-09-24 22:47 (Kristen) Jamie is still finding days long at Jackman, and was less than happy about going to school. I'm wondering if the bloom is off the rose, or he's just tired enough that he's having trouble with transitions again. I'm suspecting the latter, as he has done this before, and he's happy enough when he's there. Liam had no trouble going to Hakobune, and roared straight over to the Sailor Moon books before putting his attendance sticker into his attendance book, OR saying goodbye to his mom. He is a boy of strong obsession. The DS is starting to be a problem, speaking of obsession, as playing Kirby's Squeak Squad is all he wants to do, otherwise. Thank goodness for Hakobune and Sailor Moon.

2009-09-25 22:52 (Kristen) Today was the Terry Fox run at Jamie's school, where they are all crazy about cross-country running. The school got all 700 or so kids to walk over to a nearby park and do at least four 400-metre laps of a soccer field. Jamie had turned large, saucer eyes on me this morning when I said that I might not be there (nevermind that John had already confirmed his attendance), as I had to pick up Liam at 1. The walk/run started from the school at 1, and after I got a late project off and picked up Liam, it was past 1:30. I got Liam to walk from Chester station (under protest) to the park, and saw Jamie going around the field for the last time on the back of the friend of his reading buddy David. I made Jamie get off and walk around the rest of the way on his own steam, and he seemed happy that I was there, once he noticed. I grumbled to another mother that he had better remember this, given the amount of sheer aggravation it took for me to get there, and was reassured. Liam was not going to walk home when it was time to leave, and I was wiped out with a load of daycare and work-related stuff. A schoolyard mom/friend, Corynn, drove Liam and me home, for which I am very grateful. Liam settled in at home to play DS, and I waited to see if Jamie wanted to go with me to the Second Cup after school. Turns out he didn't, and played with his friends in the playground until 5. Then it was dinner at Browning, and time to go home and go to bed in anticipation of a long day on Saturday.

2009-09-26 22:58 (Kristen) John tells me that Jamie has been telling him all about Terry Fox, who (for those of you not Canadian) was a young man who ran the Marathon of Hope back in 1980/1. Fox had lost one leg to cancer as a young man, and decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research afterwards. He only made it as far as Thunder Bay before falling ill from a recurrence of his cancer, and died in 1981 at the age of 22. The Terry Fox Run, held every year, is the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. The story has made a large impression on Jamie, and he's been asking me questions about cancer ever since. He knows that John's mother had cancer, so we've been talking about what we know, what causes it, and other things, usually at breakfast. Liam continues to be obsessed with his DS, and it's getting hard to get him to do anything else once he starts. John did take him to the St. Lawrence Market today, and to a curriculum meeting at Nisshu Gakkuin, and notes that the DS ensured that Liam sat quietly through the entire meeting. So, not entirely a socially useless device... I had some people over for a Pampered Chef party, run by Michelle Hunt (Charlie's mother), and Simon came with his mom. Liam was delighted to see Simon when he came home, and we'll have to make arrangements for them to see each other again, as they do very much like each other. It was a very quick, easy dinner tonight, and a very mellow evening before a little Rock Band and bedtime.

2009-09-27 23:09 (Kristen) I decided to take the boys swimming today, as Liam and I had missed our Friday swim due to the Terry Fox Run. We had intended to leave the house around 1, so leaving at 1:35 wasn't all that bad. I decided to drive, which makes the trip slower anyway, but a major area between us and the pool was also closed for a large literary/book festival, further snarling the works. We made it there and into the pool with only half an hour left, and there was much complaining when it was time to get out. I should note that Jamie complained bitterly about having to go to the pool in the first place, so it was rather funny to see him complain about leaving, and agreeing so quickly to having another swim day next Sunday. Funny, in a good way, I should add. We came back home to have the boys play with Alexandria, Sam, Ben, and Luke in the front yard while I made dinner. The boys liked their dinner of fish, broccoli, green beans, and rice, and watched part of Wall-E with me and Lisa. Jamie played with Gary, and Liam played with his DS, but Jamie also did some reading with me for school. He finally picked a book that was a challenge, and was very pleased with himself when he was done. Now he's going to find an even harder book, he said, to see if he can read it. He is so funny, going back and forth between "I can't do it!" and "Whee! I did it!" and the despair is as intense as the joy. I have to remember not to help him unless he asks for it, however, which is hard, sometimes.

2009-09-28 23:11 (Kristen) Liam went to soccer class with John around lunchtime, even though he is on the waiting list for the class and not officially registered. They hung around as Liam wasn't allowed to participate today, but Liam had a good time watching the other kids, pointing out the differently coloured lines on the floor, and playing with his DS. While they were on the way back, I got a phone call from Parks and Rec saying that a space had opened up, and we were officially in the class. That will make Liam very happy. Tomorrow, I have to go and buy a hockey helmet for Liam, as I fear Jamie's will be too heavy for him (it's a little heavy for Jamie), so that he can go to his first skating class on Wednesday afternoon. I told Liam, and he brightly told me that he would skate, and use a chair...he clearly remembers the one time I took him and Jamie skating last winter, when there were chairs available for the more wobbly. Good for him.

Jamie had a good day, reciting his spelling words and spelling them for me at lunch as he'd incidentally memorized them. He also brought home a little read-a-book on tarantulas, which prompted questions about whether or not a tarantula can paralyze a small boy. He also read "paralyze" by himself, which was a point of real pride to him. He played lots of video games, and did his homework, so was happy enough and tired when he went to bed tonight. Neither child stayed awake for very long, although 10 really isn't a good bedtime for either of them.

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

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