Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 3 No. 26

2010-02-02 20:00 (John) Our schedule was thrown off today by an early start. Kristen and Jamie left at 7:00 to go to Villas Shanti for yoga with Aunt Jean; Liam woke up as they left and spent the first few hours of the morning playing DS and asking me questions about it. Kristen came home and everyone went out for the rest of the morning to Mama's Bakery for brunch. When they came back, we took the boys to the beach to run around until they were hungry enough to eat the usual enchiladas and grouper filet. Then back to the beach to dig sand castles and play in the surf. Liam has frighteningly little fear of the water now, I keep needing to bring him back in closer to shore. Jamie is happy with the water, but it took me 45 minutes to get him to dip his goggled face in the water twice, and I fear tomorrow's lesson won't be any easier. Kristen made us dinner (warmed up leftovers, rice and beans); my mom added plantain and miso soup. They've gone off to get ice cream at the zocalo, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Liam has no new injuries today. The boys are looking pretty tanned and fit, and I imagine they've each grown a few millimetres by now.

(Kristen) Jamie, after asking for a few years, was finally able to come with me to yoga this morning. He's been wanting to watch for ages, and now, after doing a few classes of yoga in gym, he was old enough to come with me. He loved Auntie Jean and Uncle Jack's house, which is huge with cats, and we both enjoyed the walk there, holding hands. I realized later that I hold hands with Liam to prevent him from being hurt, lost, or hurtling to his doom, but that Jamie is old enough that I can hold hands with him just to be companionable. This is a Good Thing. Jamie managed to do the first half of the class, which was geared towards more experienced (if much less flexible) adults, and sat quietly to watch the rest. I think that he impressed some people with his quiet seriousness. After we got back, Becky and Grammie showed up and, as John was still asleep and Liam was playing on the DS, took Liam and Jamie with us to Mama's for breakfast, allowing John to return to the beauty sleep we'd interrupted. We had a long, leisurely breakfast, then went to the zocalo for some supplies (shipment day! bananas!) before returning to the hotel room around noon. John was more than ready to leave the hotel at that point, and we started to gear up for a trip to the beach. John spent the afternoon with the kids, apart from lunchtime, while I did laundry. They built ziggurats on the beach with Becky, and Jamie had another swimming lesson with John. This one was, for some reason, possibly to do with badly fitting goggles, more fraught, and it took John 45 minutes to convince Jamie to put his face into the water twice. It was somewhat rough on both of them, from what I hear. In the meantime, Becky took Liam into the hotel pool for a swim and reports that he kicks very well but can't use his hands at the same time. Liam runs in and out of the water with remarkable disregard for much, so requires much observation. Later, John, Jamie, and Liam were in the water, and Liam told John, "You a shark." John said, "OK," then started his shark attack. Liam crowed "I have a long shark-fighting sword! I kill you!" and proceeded to whack his father with a small yellow shovel. Ah. Should have seen that one coming. After dinner, Mom, Becky, and I took the boys for ice cream. They ate ice cream, played in the park, and ran all over the concrete soccer pitch making up their own games. It was Becky's excellent idea to walk home via the beach, and the boys were happily tired when we got home. They were asleep around 9 or so.

2010-02-03 23:00 (Kristen) The weather was sketchy and unpredictable today, but still much more pleasant than being in the deep freeze of home. We decided to go to the botanical garden near the town as the weather was overcast and cool (it gets much hotter and more humid, naturally, the farther away from the ocean you go). We went up, slathered ourselves in bug spray, and went for a walk through the jungle. We saw no monkeys (there is a troup of monkeys there) but lots of large iguanas and a wide variety of butterflies. We got onto a side trail by accident, and despite our bug spray got eaten alive by mosquitoes before we managed to get back onto the breezier main trail. Liam and Jamie had to be sprayed with topical antihistamine pretty quickly as they were welting up before we arrived back at the hotel by taxi. They had an all right time, and the walk was, if buggy, good for them. I got Jamie to do some homework today for the first time, and he was understandably resistant, but he did manage to write in his journal. I notice that he is much more willing to make mistakes spelling in his journal when I'm not around, but if I am, then he has to make sure that I tell him how to spell every word he isn't sure of (which leads to discussions of whether or not he remembers the word in question from his spelling tests a month ago...). Liam and Jamie didn't spend as much time in the water as usual, but there was still beach time and ice cream at the zocalo, and other fun things. John and I went out for dinner in the evening with John's aunt and uncle, Jean and Jack, and left the boys with my mom and Becky. John's dad apparently joined them for dinner at the Ojo de Agua restaurant, and a good time was had. I am told that, strange as it sounds, the boys didn't play their DSes much but instead conversed. Jamie asked Jack why he'd thrown John into Narragansett Bay when John was young to teach him to swim; Jack, apparently, does not remember doing this.

2010-02-04 23:00 (Kristen) I was up early and snuck out after an unsettled night to go to yoga class. Liam had been very restless, and Jamie had woken up wanting to play before dawn, or just around dawn, and had been convinced to go to sleep. John reports that the boys were up around ten minutes after I left, and played DSes (of course) until I got back from my class. (John: in Jamie's defence, he did do a bit of Japanese homework.) Mom and Becky came by soon after for breakfast, and John got ready to go to Cancun with his dad to buy flipflops and a new beach umbrella, as ours finally disintegrated in the strong winds that have been blowing across the beach for the last few days. The boys, Grammie, Becky and I had a quiet morning, and walked down the beach together to the zocalo to eat lunch at Los Pelicanos. The boys had fun playing in the surf on the way there, and split a hamburger and french fries at the restaurant. Afterwards, I picked up a few groceries while they gazed longingly at ice cream at a local store, and we headed for home. John came home about mid afternoon, and we all went down to the beach, where it was still very windy with a strong wind out of the east. The waves were up, but the boys still had a great time playing in the water with the new kick boards that John bought for them, and I hid behind the new beach umbrella on the shore. Jamie spent an enormous amount of time in the water, kicking and playing, and having a great time, while Liam monopolized Becky's attention as much as he could get away with. At one point, John and I stood on shore and watched the three of them play in the water with great pleasure. We came in, finally, for dinner, and also washed the boys' hair as it was starting to get quite stinky. We went on our usual excursion to the zocalo for post-prandial ice cream. Liam's injured finger, I noticed, was bleeding while we were having ice cream, but he wasn't complaining about it. We went back right away, however, and I changed the bandage to discover that a stitch had finally fallen out. Whew. The boys went to bed around 9 or so, and are fast asleep.

2010-02-05 23:00 (Kristen) The boys were up early, playing with their DSes, and did so throughout much of the morning. It was a lazy day, by and large, marked mainly by Becky getting ready to leave to go back to Canada and Grammie moving her things in with us, as she'll be our roomie until it's time for us to go home as well. At lunch, when the boys were complaining that they didn't have their DSes as the lunch table, Becky quietly pulled out her sketchbook and drew two DSes for the boys to fill in with their favourite games. Liam then "played" the DS for a bit, making up his own game and describing it to Becky in detail. It was, as they say, "full of win." After lunch, the women left the boys with John while we escorted Becky to the airport. The first thing that Jamie said to me, or maybe the second, after we got back was "I miss Becky." They've really enjoyed having their cousin visit, and were madly planning the next time they'll see her when they were saying their goodbyes. John reports that the boys were well behaved while Grammie and I were gone, and that Liam made him sing the "Pants on the Ground" song a number of times. In particular, Liam sang "I look like a fool with my pants on the ground" after he didn't dress himself after a visit to the bathroom. Clothes, particularly in this climate, are optional for Liam. In the evening, we went off to the zocalo for our usual ice cream and grocery shopping. We went into the ice cream store, where our usual server was, and his co-worker. Liam always asks if Chan (the server) is there, and where he is if he isn't. Jamie wonders too. We had our ice cream, and Liam ate some of mine after he hoovered his popsicle. Earlier, we'd picked up our groceries, and it is Liam's habit to sit on the ground in front of a small rack of books and magazines to read the Spanish children's books on the bottom rack. He does this every night. He really does seem to love books. He can read "on" and "no," and may, sometimes, recognize "it" and "up." Jamie, in the meantime, is doing very well and is being an enormous help in looking after his little brother for us. He also is tremendously goofy, and happy down here.

2010-02-06 23:00 (Kristen) The winds finally died down, after three or so days of strong winds in from the east, north, and south, leaving the ocean smooth as an indoor swimming pool. The sun was bright, and the clouds far away, so we made a day on the beach of it today to celebrate the perfect weather. We headed down to the beach for 11, and the boys played with first Tai-Tai, then while she snorkelled with John, me for an hour at least in the surf until I sent Liam to sit with Grammie and warm up (his little teeth were chattering). He was reluctant, as he'd really enjoyed riding around on the inflatable dolphin and on my left arm. Jamie stayed in the water as long as possible, splashing, kicking, rolling, running in and out, and doing everything he could think of to play in the water. He's turning into quite the water baby. After lunch, we went back. Grammie, Liam, and I spent most of our time playing in the sand under the shade of the parasol, but Jamie was back out into the water, having as good a time as a small boy can make for himself (which is quite a bit). Eventually, however, it was time to go in. We had dinner, and then went on our usual excursion to the zocalo. We chatted with Chan, then went over to Alma Libre, the local used and new bookstore (told you this was a great place). Jamie talked John and me into buying him a kids' book of Spanish lessons so that he can learn some Spanish. John said that it was a little advanced, but that he could do it if he worked hard. He was game, so we picked it up. We did a page tonight, but will do more tomorrow. I think that he's motivated. Liam was blitheringly tired, and had trouble falling asleep because he was so tired, and Jamie was quite exhausted as well. Two books, and it was lights out.

2010-02-07 23:00 (Kristen) The sky was clear and blue, and the ocean was a million shades of blue, and the wind was even light, but it was still cold. Well, cold for here, but cold enough that we, acculturated as we are to the warm weather here, decided it was cold enough to crack out the layers. One of the hotel employees was wearing a wool jacket. She seemed to appreciate my Canadian tale of how much worse it could be, and that it's still better her in Mexico. In fact, it was cold enough that Jamie only spent 20 minutes in the water and didn't feel like going back down to the beach after lunch. We had spent the morning doing laundry and visiting John's parents (me and Liam) or doing homework (Jamie and assorted parental units). Whenever Jamie was flagging, John or I got him to either do jumping jacks or run from the front door of the room around the second story to the patio door. It seemed to help. We chatted with our new neighbours next door, and were generally social, except for Liam. Liam was grumpy when he had to leave his DS, but was usually willing to be cheered up. I read some books to them at one point, including Library Lion and Chicken, Pig, Cow, the latter by our friend Ruth Ohi. Liam decided that there should be a sequel entitled Chicken, Pig, Bat, and that the bat should be black. We've sent Ruth the idea, and we'll see if it actually becomes a book, as per Liam's orders. I'm not sure, if she does, that this will provide him with a realistic expectation of how the publishing world actually works... I've been watching Jamie, and he's really turning into a boy. Well, yes, I know that he's always been a boy, but there's a new maturity starting to collect around him that makes me think that he's really growing up and is going to start doing more and more things on his own, without me. While I understand that this is a good thing, and that this independence is the goal and dream of a parent (that is, a child who can take care of themselves and be successful in the world as a result), I am full of bittersweetness as I watch, and am so very proud of the person he's becoming. It's cool when you get to like your kids for who they are.

2010-02-08 23:00 (Kristen) We all slept in this morning, and kind of puttered all morning. Jamie, to be fair, did a good amount of homework, which wasn't really puttering, but we didn't get out onto the beach until after lunch. It was another windy day, though--we've been having more than our fair share of these, I should think--and while the boys enjoyed playing in the surf, it was windy enough to send our parasol across the beach at least once. We came in, and did some reading, DS'ing, and hanging about. Jamie has really been enjoying Otto's Orange Day, a graphic novel for kids his age, and is doing very well at reading it himself. Liam had more readings of Chicken, Pig, Cow and Pete's a Pizza. Grammie supplied more than a few of those. We had our traditional outing to the ice cream store, ate, then played tag on the way home. Liam's finger has been showing some signs of infection today, which is not good, but his finger nail finally fell off, which will give the infection one less place to hide. We're changing the dressing twice a day, and applying much antibiotic cream, and he's relatively all right with this.

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

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