Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 3 No. 17

2009-12-01 22:39 (Kristen) Liam is surviving well without the DS. He's picked up a number of coping strategies: playing Wii; watching Jamie play on Jamie's DS; taking the collapsable IKEA tunnel and filling it with books, pillows, and toy food. I don't worry about Liam surviving the zombie apocalypse, frankly, with instincts like that. In the car, he listens to music. Grammie says that the radio or CD has been very good for keeping the boys occupied in the car. Today, Liam started asking for something by saying 'not that! not that!' It took us a minute or two to realize that he meant that he didn't want the song that was playing: he wanted the song *before* that one. It was "Gloria" by Laura Branigan (for those of you who were paying attention to music in the 1980s), and Liam loves it. We played it about six or seven times in the car today because it kept him happy, and he refers to it by name. When we arrived at our destination at one point, he groused that Grammie's car didn't have Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun" in it, so we sang a little of it together to make up for it. Jamie, when he can, asks for "Hella Good" by No Doubt, and I think that I may have to make up a new CD with the boys' favourites on it. Very interesting.

Jamie got his first report card today, and it rocked. He got all Bs and As, and I was delighted with it. Apparently As mean that he's ahead of what is expected at his grade level, and so his reading, math, and science skills are all mad and rockin'. Yay, Jamie! He's a little unclear, his teacher says, on where capitals are supposed to appear in a sentence (not, she says, in the middle of words. Unless you're Klingon, but since this is an English and not a Klingon class, we'll stick with local custom), but we can work on that at home. Yay, Jamie!

2009-12-02 22:24 (Kristen) Most of the day was spent in one form of anticipation or another surrounding John coming home from Asia today. The boys were up and Jamie went to school, while Liam ran a battery of errands with me and Grammie. There was a blueberry cookie in it for him, however, so he dealt with it. It was Day Four without the DS, and my house is a disaster. However, Liam is exploring all the toys that he's been ignoring, and is happily imagining all sort of things. It's been rather great, really, if somewhat more intense for me. We picked up Jamie and brought him home to wait for John after school, and he finished more homework with Ayami while we were waiting. John arrived home with suitcases full of food, books, and boys from Japan, which was wonderful. The piece de resistance was Jamie's pokeball-shaped Pokemon lunch box. It's in the shape of a pokeball, with a flat bottom so it doesn't roll away, and comes apart like a pokeball. Seventeen shades of freaking awesome. He also bought some other bento boxes for the family, which is wonderful. We really do use them quite heavily. There were books, workbooks, toys, and other things; all in all, the boys were very excited and happy. Jamie was also happy that Grammie gave him a copy of Kids of Carcassonne, which is a great kid version of Carcassonne, an award-winning German board game that I like. We ate dinner together, and Jamie did some math with John after finishing early and wanting a piece of paper to draw on. When he got the paper, he decided that he wanted to do math, and then did math problems that John set out for him. Wow. We were all wiped out by 7:00 and it seemed a long, slow march to bedtime. Once in bed, the boys had a hard time falling asleep, and were up past 10:00. Perhaps too wound up from Papa's return?

2009-12-03 22:40 (Kristen) It started to turn cold today, finally, and I saw my breath this morning as I walked with Jamie to school. He ate lunch there, and used his Pokemon bento box: Jake pronounced it the coolest lunch box ever, which it is. In the meantime, I made Liam two onigiri (rice balls) using the Anpanman onigiri molds that John found in Japan. I need some other items, like a different type of nori and some fish cake, to put proper faces onto them, but I'm working at it. Liam ate them all, just the same. Grammie and I picked up Liam and brought him home, while John spent as much of the day as he could napping. Grammie and I picked up Jamie and brought him home, then John and I went out again with Jamie to Jamie's parent-teacher interview. Apparently the kids are welcome, which was interesting, but Jamie spent most of his time playing on the classroom computer uncontested. The teacher had nothing to report other than Jamie is doing fantastically well, but we did discuss a few strategies for keeping him interested in class and for challenging him a little bit. She's going to make up a math book for Jamie to work on in addition to his drawing (they draw when their work is done), once she heard that Jamie likes to do math at home for fun, which was a lovely and responsive thing to offer. She was suprised that Jamie is doing double digit addition, but not shocked, which led to the offer. Jamie has to work on budgeting his time a bit, but that's a chronic, across the board issue, and one not uncommon to kids his age, so we'll work on it at our usual pace. All in all, we're pretty pleased and proud of him. When we got home, we did a bit of this and that, played with Jake and his brother Charlie, who came over while their parents were at parent-teacher interviews, said goodbye to them, and then ate dinner around 6:20. John's dad came over to join us for dinner, and part of the evening was spent alternately doing homework with Jamie and looking at John's photos of Asia. Liam alterately played with things and created disaster, as he had been up early this morning and was a little crazy tired. So was Jamie; his face was ghostly, and his eyes dark by the time he and Liam were in bed tonight. They fell asleep in less than two minutes each, which was a big indicator of exhaustion.

2009-12-04 22:41 (Kristen) Well, it was an eventful day in many ways. John is not feeling well, so he had a doctor's appointment at noon. Jamie has had a cough for the last week that is starting to keep him up at night, so we got our doctor to look at him too. Red ears and throat plus persistent cough = antibiotics! Just as well, as he was starting to run a fever this afternoon. It was a day off for Jamie, as it was a PD day, so he went with Grammie and me first thing in the morning to drop Liam off at Hakobune. Liam said his goodbyes to Grammie, then the remaining three of us went to Wimpy's on the Danforth for breakfast. Jamie had a good time, especially since there was a strawberry milkshake in it for him, courtesy of Grammie. Grammie went home once Jamie went off with John to the doctor, and I went to pick up Liam and bring him home. The boys played together well in the afternoon once we got home, and I got a little work done while John continued to try to sleep off the host of things that are making him sleepy. Jamie and I did a little homework, while John did Japanese homework with Jamie when we went over to Browning. The usual fun time was had, and the boys were in bed by 9:30. Jamie was asleep instantly, possibly because I gave him some cough syrup, but Liam tossed and turned before he finally fell asleep. It was before 10, however, which was pretty cool.

2009-12-05 22:55 (Kristen) I think that we got Jamie to the doctor just in time, as he had a mild fever yesterday and a slight one this morning too. I imagine it would have been worse if he hasn't started the antibiotics. As it was, we were all exhausted and so John and I decided to let Jamie stay home from school today. Jamie rejoiced, then confessed that he actually liked school. Will wonders never cease! Jamie was up around 7:45 but Liam was up at 9:15, after being awake for almost half an hour around 5:30-6:00. Ugh. At least I got him back to sleep... John went to the market for a bit, while I stayed home with the boys. It wasn't too bad in the morning, and the afternoon was all right, but the boys were both screamingly stir crazy by the evening, with the emphasis on "screaming". They ran about the house like crazed shrieking things, and while I was happy that they were playing together, I was not happy about the volume. Eventually, after warning #5 was ignored again, I separated them by keeping Liam in the kitchen and Jamie in the other room. Liam, realizing that he was being separated from his favourite brother, burst into anguished sobs and would not stop until he realized that he could rejoin his brother for more wild rumpus. I tried to calm them by playing Kids of Carcassonne, Kids of Catan, and Ladybirds with them, and that half did the trick. By the time bedtime came around, I was just about ready to sell them both as a package deal to the circus. It's pretty rare that I get pushed that far, but that's what I get for keeping them both indoors all day. Tomorrow, we go out, fever or no fever!

2009-12-06 23:02 (Kristen) Signs that Grammie has gone back to Ottawa: the dishes are piling up in the kitchen and the laundry in the laundry room! Grammie is very helpful when she's here, and the boys are asking when we can see her again. I explained that we'd be seeing her at Christmas and in Mexico, which pleased the boys. They missed her at bedtime, especially since there was only one of me to put them to bed, John being in bed already and not feeling well. "Papa's not coming in? I wish Grammie was here!" Having learned from yesterday, however, we decided to take the boys out for a movie in the afternoon. We picked "Fantastic Mr. Fox," which both boys liked, and was almost worth the exorbitant amount of money it took to park, get in, and feed the boys, who insist on having a bag of candy each to themselves. John is a more compliant parent than I am in this regard. It was a quiet night with more games, both with a family round of Kids of Carcassonne and some DS consultation over a new game John brought back from Japan. Jamie fell asleep pretty quickly, but Liam once again took about half an hour to fall asleep. The boy needs more exercise, which I will happily provide tomorrow when Jamie is at school.

2009-12-07 23:47 (Kristen) Jamie went off to school happily enough, and Liam stayed home with John while I took him. The house was still standing when I got back, which was great, and I took Liam out for a short walk to pick up Jamie and run an errand before picking up Jamie for lunch. We ate at Browning, and then took the boys back out to school and for more shopping/errands, respectively. At one point, Liam and I went to Treasure Island, but Liam was tired and somewhat deaf to Mummy's requests to not do that, put that down, and stop that, so we left after buying some Duplo for him with some birthday money from Grammie. He played with it at home, after we picked up Jamie from school. Dinner was at Browning and the boys did their usual "eat quickly then disappear to play" routine. I went to play Trivia (finals: we lost in sudden death overtime by one point, sigh), and came home at 10:25 to find both boys still awake. After a stern lecture from Mummy, they went to sleep but I think that they will be pretty tired tomorrow. Liam has an eye infection, so I'll take him to see Dr. Kennedy as soon as I can tomorrow. If not, then it's off to the walk-in clinic.

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

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