Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 3 No. 19

2009-12-15 23:15 (Kristen) We barely made it out the door in time today to get Jamie to school. Snow pants completely slow things down, and Jamie's tired enough that he gets completely lost in looking at himself in the mirror instead of getting ready. We did make it, though, and then I had some time to walk leisurely with Liam to the subway to go to Hakobune. We got there ten minutes early but were able to go in anyway, which was very nice. When John isn't here, I have to get both boys ready, with lunches, and out the door when it's time for Jamie to leave. Logistically, it's challenging. I picked Liam up right at one, as I had Christmas shopping to do and Liam was my companion. He had a DS, so it was all right by him. We went down to Bakka, did some shopping, then made it back to our neighbourhood in time to pick up Jamie although not fast enough to give me time to buy a coffee. We went home, and Alexandria came over to watch the boys for an hour while I got dinner ready. I got dinner mostly ready, but spent my time catching up on dishes and housework more than anything. Liam was being shy, and I think Alexandria asked him one too many times what he wanted to do because he looked at her and said (in my hearing) 'I don't like you." In Liamese it means "leave me alone!" However, I had to quickly explain to Alexandria, poor girl, that it didn't mean actual dislike but that he wanted to be left alone. We need to teach Liam a few social graces, it seems. It was a quiet evening, otherwise, with a fair amount of homework for Jamie and then bedtime. I forgot to mention that Dylan was over for a bit after school, which both he and Jamie seemed to enjoy.

2009-12-16 23:23 (Kristen) Jamie was fine when he woke up this morning and I got the boys out the door in the usual tangle and chaos. I had let Liam sleep in quite late, however, and so he hadn't had breakfast by the time we left. I thought to myself that we'd grab breakfast from McDonalds, but though to myself that such an option wasn't all that cheap and was it worth paying that much money for a breakfast that wasn't that good anyway? I went into an independent restaurant next to it, called Bread and Greens that I'd been meaning to try for a while, and Liam and I split a cheese and egg croissant and juice. They made the egg with garlic butter, which made the whole thing quite enjoyable, and I was very glad that we'd gone there instead. In the afternoon, Liam and I went to the library (where he made me read lots of books to him before we could leave) and shopping for stocking stuffers and other things along the Danforth. We raced to get Jamie, who insisted (as it was snowing light, fluffy flakes) on playing with Isabelle before I could pry him away. Alexandria came over again, and I called the boys up to talk with John on Skype close to the time she was going to leave. Jamie felt *very* hot, and, sure enough, he had a good fever going. I changed him into his new robot pajamas, then sent him downstairs. I took his temperature (38.8 C) then made him take some Tylenol. A few hours later, it all came back up and the fever broke. I was a little worried that it wasn't responding to the Tylenol, but obviously his body knew what to do. He spent the evening on the couch, and the boys were in bed around 9:30. Liam took his usual while to fall asleep, while a drugged Jamie took no time at all.

2009-12-17 23:30 (Kristen) I'd rearranged my day the night before to keep the boys home today, so we were all able to sleep in this morning. Well, Liam and I did: Jamie was up before 8, and spent the morning playing MechQuest. It was a very lazy day. Videos and movies were watched, games were played, brains were rarely engaged. The boys spent the whole day in their pajamas; I folded and put away six baskets of laundry and cleaned the kitched multiple times. I did get Jamie to do his homework in the evening, and he managed to do it for me and for Ayami, who came up to do homework around 7:30. The boys were in the bath, hair washed, and into bed by 9:00. Lights out at 9:20, but they took a while to fall asleep. Not surprising, as they'd done nothing all day.

2009-12-18 23:01 (Kristen) Fortunately for everyone, Jamie was better today. He got to go to his class Christmas party with its ritual deconstruction of the gingerbread house Jamie had been dreaming about eating for a week now, it seems. I got to take liam to Hakobune for Maki-sensei's last day, and to deliver the Christmas presents that I had for the teachers there (thanks, Auntie!). Afterwards Liam and I did our now ritual post-Hakobune Christmas shopping, and dropped a present off for Jamie's teacher and at the White's house. It was 3:00 or so when we reached the White's, I was exhausted, and had managed to lose a mitten of Liam's. Michelle White invited us in for tea and a playdate, and that made the rest of my afternoon go so much better. Jamie came back with Charlie, and the children played on couch cushions and roared about doing this and that until we left at 5:30. Home we went, to veg out, eat spaghetti with tomato sauce, and wait for Papa to come home. Liam was asleep when John came in, but Jamie was completely unable to fall asleep until he saw his father at 10:20 or so. He was asleep by 10:30, but I know he's going to be tired again tomorrow.

2009-12-19 23:01 (Kristen) The alarm went off way too early, and we were off and running. I think that Jamie was up before me, or with me, and Liam woke up soon after. I got both boys ready and John took them both up to Nisshu Gakkuin before doing the St. Lawrence market shopping with Liam. Liam had a great time, but they were in a hurry so John reported that Liam missed some parts of the trip that he considers to be essential: namely ice cream and pizza. He twisted John's arm into promising future pizza considerations (Liam is a hard bargainer). John also reports that Liam helped at the greengrocer's by pushing the shopping basket behind John as he wandered around picking up veggies and fruit. He describes it as like having a roomba follow you. Afterwards, we all went to Nisshu Gakkuin to watch Jamie's class Christmas party. John was in a hurry, because he swore that Jamie would forget that he had a Secret Santa present in his backpack for the present exchange, while I told him to slow down because I'd *shown* the present to Jamie and it was with his schoolwork, there was no way he'd forget. When we arrived, just on time, Jamie came to us and claimed, anxiously, that he didn't have a present for the exchange before realizing, with a tiny bit of prompting, where it was. John slugged me in the shoulder with a triumphant, vindicated "AHA!" Oh, bah. At the end of the party, though, we realized that Jamie fever was back and we went home early (after stopping at the pizzeria for Liam's promised pizza). The rest of the day was quiet, and that, in the end, was that.

2009-12-20 22:47 (Kristen) Jamie's fever was barely noticeable this morning, but it was up again to 37.9 by the evening. I'm puzzled by this, but there's obviously something going on. John's off to the doctor tomorrow, and we agree that Jamie should go with him to see what in the world is going on. He's not affected by the fever other than he's a little more out of control and impulsive, like he's overly tired. Then again, he could just be bored since he can't play with Gary, and John's been really busy too, and I'm busy enough that I'm boring too. I took the boys out to the grocery store in the afternoon, hoping that the walk would get rid of some of the hysterical energy they've been displaying. No luck. We did stop by the Dairy Queen on the way home for some ice cream (Liam can eat almost an entire small cone on his own) and some onion rings for John. He didn't get many: Liam smelled them out and happily sat on his father's lap and ate 2/3 of the box, exclaiming "My love onion rings!" by the end of the day, I was beaten. Whipped. They won, and I felt utterly ineffectual as I snapped for the nineteenth time for Liam to stop jumping, stop ripping the cushions off the couch, to just STOP, and Jamie too. Then again, there were some lovely moments too. John asked Liam to see what I wanted, and Liam said "Maybe she wants a Liam. And I want Mummy!" Then he pounced on me and declared that he loved me. Hard to argue with that. Both boys are asleep now, and I swear that my ears are ringing still.

2009-12-21 22:50 (Kristen) I remembered today that the boys (or, rather, Jamie at that point) were completely and utterly out of control at this time last year. It may be the uncontrolled excitement of Christmas as it approaches, or some other reason, but all the other little boys of our acquaintance were doing it too. It helped me to realize, at various points during the day, that this festival of mania will end and we'll get back to normal. Usually I don't mind the barrage of questions from Jamie but they just aren't letting up and cover just about everything under the sun, sparked by anything from radio news programs or parts of conversations that he missed. "WHO did that? WHO?!" Liam just wants to tear all the cushions off the couch at any given moment, including the seat cushions, and turn them into a fort/bed/other Liam-determined thing. Yesterday I got him to stop temporarily by taking out our little red tent from last Christmas, but he was right back at it later on. The boys are also constitutionally incapable of not jumping on the furniture and hopping between the armchairs and couch that way. I have a headache.

We took Jamie in to see Dr. Kennedy because I was suspecting an earache with the relapsing remitting fever and behavioural differences. She calls 'virus,' and we'll have to wait it out. We all have it, yayz#. Otherwise, we're all ready to go for the holidays. I forgot to mention that we are fish-sitting this Christmas: a betta (Siamese fighting fish) that Jamie has named "Ponyo," after the little girl fish in the Miyazaki animated film. Ponyo arrived yesterday, and Jamie has been raptourously in love. If Ponyo waves her/his fins, it's a wave 'hello.' Jamie is concerned that someone should be watching Ponyo, and that we've fed him/her enough and at the right time. It's really sweet to watch. If this goes well, there may be more fish in our future.

Otherwise, it was a long but reasonable day. We didn't go out much, but will be going to an indoor playground tomorrow to rectify the lack of exercise we've been having lately with this virus and that cough, and along with a bunch of Jamie's friends. We had dinner at Browning, and the boys were happy to play with Ross and his friend Basil. There was a long discussion at the dinner table between Ross, Jamie, and Basil about dreams and nightmares they've all had at one time or another, and so on. They all shout to be heard and when they get excited, so it was a little loud at times, but interesting.

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

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