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Jamie and Liam Chew

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Jamie's main Photo Archive is updated nightly around midnight.

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NOTE: If it's your first time reading Jamie and Liam's diary, you might find it less confusing to start with the older entries first. Or you can help test the new interface, which works fine if you have a monitor that displays at least 1024 pixels across, and less fine at the moment if not.

2009-08-18 23:18 (Kristen) The boys both went to Hakobune this morning, and we managed to get there on time! I was very pleased with them. Jamie is in an odd spot right now, in that he doesn't want to go anymore, but he knows that he'll miss the people there. It makes him feel a little better that he'll be able to visit when we pick up Liam. Afterwards, we went to the library and to Treasure Island, where Jamie's money was burning such a hole in his pocket that he wanted to buy *anything*. We settled on a pack of Pokemon cards, as he's actually playing with those right now. We walked back home, slowly, but Liam still expired outside Jackman School, and I had to put in a call to John to come and get us. The vening was calm, with more joint homework. Jamie's still pretty quick with his Japanese homework, and Liam is enjoying some pencil work that is geared towards his being able to write letters eventually. His control is getting better, and he is so gleeful about being able to work like Jamie it's incandescent.

2009-08-19 23:20 (Kristen) In the morning, Waka came over and played with the boys while I got some work done and some errands run. They seem to be getting along. In the afternoon, we did a bit of this and that, and worked on homework. Liam likes getting stickers. It was a quiet evening, as Liam isn't feeling all that well with a cood, and I"m starting to feel pretty lousy myself.

2009-08-20 23:26 (Kristen) We have established, beyond a doubt, that Liam is not a morning person. Today, at 9 am or so, Liam began to wake up in his darkened room, and I went to him. He told me, in a crabby, half-crying voice, that the sun was in the house, and that the sun was burning him. This is not the first time that that unruly sun has woken my son by entering the house unbidden. As he does not spontaneously combust when the sun shines directly upon him, I have to assume that he is not, in fact, a vampire but a person who really really doesn't like mornings.

I was not feeling my best this morning, and thought that we'd go to Hakobune a little late because Ididn't want to rush and cause a miserable morning. At least I got the extra sleep, because it was a miserable morning, and we were ultimately 45 minutes late. John came to meet me for lunch, and we picked the boys up after Hakobune. We came home, and watched the massive storm that swept over the GTA after dinner. The tornadoes were all to the northwest of us, but the storm we got was still awfully savage, with green skies and sudden darkness as the clouds moved in. Jamie and Liam loved the rainbow afterwards, however, which was a good way to end the day.

2009-08-21 23:31 (Kristen) As John and I were not feeling our brightest or shiniest, we got off to a very slow start today on our trip up to Ryde Lake for the annual Hakobune Daycare Camp Weekend. Jamie protested the entire way that he *did* not want to go to camp, and I reminded him that there have been a number of activities lately that he did not want to do and then had a great time doing. He actually slept for a good part of the trip, while Liam was bright-eyed and bushy tailed, happy to call out when he saw cows or corn or hay, or something else exciting and new. We took an alternate route, as the 404 and other areas seemed choked with too much cottage traffic, and had a very nice trip up to the camp. Once we arrived, we went down to the water and had a dip before coming back up. John took the boys out in a paddle boat while sick me sat on the dock in a chair to read and take photos of the men out boating. As I sat, I saw a creature coming towards me on the dock out of the corner of my eye, and thought first "groundhog. A...skinny groundhog. No. A marten! Move feet! It's going to bite me!" I've been around too many ferrets with a taste for feet. This one, however, just wanted to be on its way, so it raced around me, and I could feel the wake in the air as it passed, as it headed to the rocks beyond the dock. John got the camera back from me (d'oh, I didn't take a picture), and the boys and he chased it in their paddleboat along the bank until it decided that it had had enough, swam across the little river mouth, and up and away on the far bank. Later on, we identified it as a mink. How cool!

We headed up to dinner, buzzing with our animal sighting and Jamie's concern that the river current was going to sweep them away (John did some hard peddling). In the dining hall, Jamie found a game of Battleship, which is now his favourite game. John lets him play two turns to his one, and with a little help from Mummy (and Papa being "helped" by Liam, who called the shots in numerical order across the board, logically), sank Papa's battleship (and everything else). Yay! Afterwards, we took Liam and Jamie to the campfire singalong, but Liam started to expire so I took him back to sleep. Jamie and John were soon back too, as they tired of being mosquito fodder. Liam fell asleep quickly on the Thomas inflatable bed, while Jamie was to fall asleep with me. Liam was asleep by 9. Jamie was asleep by 11, kept awake by excitement, the strangeness of his environment, and the hour-long nap he'd had in the car. Sigh.

2009-08-22 23:44 (Kristen) Liam slept a slightly unsettled night, waking up and needing me to come down with him until he got himself back to sleep. I vaguely recall John taking him to the bathroom at some point too. He was awake by 7:30, and woke everyone else up soon after that. We went for dinner at 8:30, and then down to the water for a long canoe trip up the river to the rapids, where a number of people were fishing. Mr. Sasaki let Jamie use a fishing rod, as Jamie was about to expire from his desire to try it out, while John and Liam walked around and climbed on rocks. Liam got a few tries with a rod (I was doing most of the work for both boys), and then it was time to go back. We made it back without too much difficulty, then played at the beach until lunch. After lunch, we went to the "suika-wari" (watermelon bashing), which is like a pinata contest but with a watermelon on the ground. Contestants are blindfolded, so it's not as easy as it sounds. The boys ran around, and John took Liam for a ride in a kayak. I was worried, as Liam forgets that he's not supposed to stand up, but he was very mellow out in the kayak, trailing his fingers in the water as John took him around. It was Jamie's turn next, and Liam was just melty as I tried to get him back to the cabin for some quiet time. I ended up taking him on my back, and we saw some lovely monarch butterflies in the milkweed as we reached our cabin. The other children staying in our cabin came back with their parents while we were doing homework, and Liam was playing with the DS. The DS was a hit. Dinner came at 5:30, and Liam's head hit the table at 5:50. He's been asleep ever since, and I'm making plans for an early morning tomorrow. If he sleeps to 7, I'll be over the moon. Jamie is probably back at the dining hall with John, making him play yet another game of Battleship.

Jamie did, indeed, make John play some Battleship, and he played some Jenga, as he'd had a rousing game of it with another boy earlier in the day. They came back in the rain, and it turned into an evening of games. We played Concentration and Go Fish, then Go Exploring (a version of Go Fish with cards printed with planets on them). Then Jamie initiated a game of "Daruma-san" (a game that involves making the other person laugh) with one of our cabinmates and his mom, and then we read a book about animals with them. Jamie was very giggly and very very tired, so I read him some Pokemon manga and put him to bed around 9. It's 9:30 now, and I realize that a) Liam's been asleep for almost four hours, and b) John is asleep too, so it's Really Quiet. A very strange state of affairs for our family at this time.

2009-08-23 23:28 (Kristen) Liam delighted me this morning by sleeping until 7:10, which meant that he slept for an amazing 13+hours last night. I think that he needed it. Jamie got up not long after, and asked me to read to him from the Pokemon manga that he has. He's really enjoying Pokemon, which is nice. We all went for breakfast at 8:30, and counted our new mosquito bites. The bugs are really fierce this year, and all the kids here are covered in big red spots. After breakfast, we went down to the rapids (walking this time) to see if anyone was fishing. Our cabinmates were, and we stayed with them until lunch. The kids ate well again, and then it was time to make our goodbyes to new friends and head back home. We made it home easily, despite the heavy holiday traffic, and Jamie raced inside to visit with Gary for a "I missed you" playdate. We unpacked the car, had chicken noodle soup from a can for dinner, with crackers, and headed up to bed. I should note that we asked Liam whas he wanted for his birthday tomorrow, and he thought first before saying "Balloons. Cake. Presents. Banandas. Fish." So we'll make sure that we have all those things for him tomorrow.

2009-08-24 23:34 (Kristen) Liam and Jamie were both up unreasonably early this morning--before 7, I think--and unusually, both boys let me sleep. I appreciated that greatly: it was like it was my birthday, and not Liam's! We wished Liam a happy birthday, and responded with gleeful delight. He has been looking forward to this a good deal. Jamie, however, despite a quality morning with me and playing with Sadaru, was not himself. He broke down in tears after we picked Liam up, saying that he was sad because he felt left out of the festivities. I assured him that he was special, good things would come to him too, and that he should try to be happy for Liam rather than thinking about what Liam was getting and that Jamie wasn't. He was somewhat gloomy for parts of the day, but fatigue might have helped. Both boys were a little out of control--we created mayhem when we dropped by for five minutes at Browning to look for a house key (I forgot mine and was locked out), and wound each other up completely. John was out buying last minute presents for Jamie and Liam, but Liam was delighted by the balloons and bananas that John had left behind for him. The boys calmed down a bit, but were very excited by the trip to Ichi Riki for dinner with Gary, Ayami, John's dad, and John's aunts. The party was a great success, with cake, candles, presents, and fish (very yummy california roll and salmon sushi!). The look on Liam's face when he realized that he had a DS ("My DS! My DS!") was worth everything. He also loved the birthday cake hat that Gary and Ayami gave him as part of their present, and wore it for the rest of the vening. The boy is all about funny hats. Jack declared Liam an intellectual by the end of the evening, as Liam completely ignored his ice cream to play with the DS, thereby proving matters of the mind concern him more than matters of the body. A great time was had by all, and we were very tired when we came home at close to nine o'clock. Liam still managed to keep going, well past his brother's conkout, until close to 10:30. When he dropped off to sleep, it was very sudden. It takes a lot of energy to keep going like that. Liam was happy, Jamie was happy, and the rest of us were content with a job well done.

2009-08-25 22:49 (Kristen) Both boys were up early, and played together for a bit before I got up. The morning was a little rocky as both boys, unusually, complained about breakfast and that they didn't want to go out. They've been so busy, I think, that a day at home seemed like not a bad idea. It was a Hakobune day, however, so I took them there, and both boys were excited to play with their own DSes on the subway. When I picked them up, they were pretty wound up. We went home by transit, which was a little tiring for me as both boys were prety loud and excited. When we got in, we watched a little television but mostly stayed away from the tv until later in the afternoon, when we were all tired and the boys were having trouble entertaining themselves. I made dinner, they ate, and the evening was also full of boys tired and having trouble listening or playing without assistance. I was somewhat tired, as much work needs to be done around the house, and John was sick in bed for most of the day. Liam fell asleep very quickly, while Jamie was playing with Gary after the bath, and then Jamie came in to sleep just after Liam fell asleep. Jamie had trouble falling asleep, once again, and wasn't asleep until almost 10:15.

2009-08-26 24:59 (Kristen) Not a lot happened out of the ordinary today. It rained in the morning, so there was no playground excursion with Waka. The boys went to Loblaws with John in the late afternoon and ate a great deal that never made it back to the house. They like going to Loblaws with their dad.

2009-08-27 24:59 (Kristen) Liam had his friend party today for his birthday, and it was a Pirate Party. We bought pirate balloons, and a special pirate hat with feathers for Liam and there were swords and hats for his friends too. And pirate decorations. Liam was the Dread Pirate Liam, and his friends the Dread Pirate Jack and the Dread Pirate Simon had a great time with sword fights and pirate-themed videos. Charlie came with his little brother Jack to keep Jamie company, and we also had Daniel and Ross. It was a great time, and everyone was very happy. Liam liked his presents, and it was most heart-warming when Jack hugged Liam after Liam said thak you for his present. Mass parental melt. The earlier part of the day was spent preparing for the pirate party; the rest of it was spent recovering, although not too much as it was fun but not crazy. Arrrr!!! John will be taking over the reins for the next few days, as I will be off in Boston on my first ever trip away from the kids. I'm not sure hwo is more anxious about it: me or them.

2009-08-28 23:45 (John) We made it through the first day without Kristen without unexpected glitches. Liam fell off the sofa while watching me play Mercury Meltdown Revolution, hitting his head on the padded arm of the sofa. He does this practically every day, and always insists on personal attention from Kristen (Mah-Yee). This time, I reminded him that Mom was away on a plane, and he grumbled but calmed down. Then at bedtime, Liam got as far as insisting that he was going to go to the airport and find a plane to chase Mommy down, but I managed to pull him back at the bedroom door. Liam passed out at 10:25, almost an hour after lights out, and about five minutes into a story. Jamie succumbed about ten minutes later, letting me join the rest of the gang (Tom, Jeff, Bruce, Andy and Reid) downstairs playing Battestar Galactica.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We got to Hakobune only five minutes late. The boys insisted that I staywith them until clean-up time, which was fine with me. At pickup, we said goodbye to Yutaka, which turned into my letting each child in the room climb up my chest and back flip back to the floor, three times. At home, we played video games, finished lunch, did homework (Liam worked on a Kumon book introducing him to hiragana, and is trying to learn the difference between a shi and a ku). Tom made us ribs at Browning. As I predicted, Liam dug right in with glee and Jamie initially refused but was willing to eat them if I deboned them and told him they tasted just like sausage. Of course, by that time Tom had made hamburgers, so the boys split one of those. We were a little late getting home after a long and goofy Skype session with Mom, went straight to the bath, brushed teeth, watched Anpanman and got to work getting to sleep.

2009-08-29 23:40 (John) In principle, Saturday without Mom ought not to be too different from Saturday with Mom, as I usually take the boys to the St. Lawrence Market while Kristen stays at home and does housework. This one was a tiny bit more challenging though, as I had had only five hours' sleep for the second night in a row, and the boys had had only nine hours. The each melted down once over the course of the day, which is once more than usual, but not too bad, all things considered.

The boys ate half a samosa each at the market, before I noticed that one of the consequences of a mistaken Indian food delivery I'd been warned about was that the samosas were about four chillis on a Thai scale. No wonder they both finished their water bottles. They finished off their lunch with pizza and ice cream, and afternoon snack was leftover pizza. For dinner I wokked broccoli, sole and then broccoli-sole-fried rice, fed to the kids as quickly as it came out off the heat. My parents, who had come along to the market, dropped by and had dinner too, while the kids ate wild blueberry pie a la mode for dinner, trying not to be too goofy Skyping mom.

The boys were extremely compliant about bathtime at 20:30, were in bed by 21:15, and after fifteen minutes of Anpanman and fifteen minutes of a bedtime story from me, they both nodded off at about 21:45. I've finished a couple of hours of work now, and I'm beat, so I'm off to bed.

2009-08-30 23:00 (John) Jamie woke up at 6:30, stressed out over Mom's absence; Liam slept in until about 8:30. I had planned on taking us to the JCCC Bazaar today, but Jamie was adamant that he was too tired to go, and preferred to spend Sundays quietly at home, and I couldn't argue with that. I made waffles, sausages and eggs for breakfast. We tidied, played video games and vegged out until lunch time. Ayami made us sushi. We did our homework, with Jamie again a little resistant due to stress, and Liam a little overeager due to so much paternal attention. Jamie did his scheduled five pages; Liam did six pages of hiragana (he's up to shi, ku and tsu now), four pages of mazes, then about a half hour of colouring. Kristen texted to say she had managed to catch an earlier flight, so I left Jamie with Gary and Ayami (he felt he would get carsick on the way to the airport) and walked with Liam to my parents' to pick up the car, then drove to the airport to pick up Kristen. Liam was quietly thrilled to see her back; Jamie was much less quietly so. We got the boys to bed a little early, and they fell asleep again around 21:30.

2009-08-31 23:41 (Kristen) I was feeling a little groggy when I got up, but managed to do it. The boys were already up, and I managed to time breakfast so that they were actually hungry and ready to eat it, and not past hunger and into low blood sugar territory. There lies madness, or at least lot of yelling. We made it to Hakobune on time, and I left Liam there and took Jamie to Starbucks to see Sadaru. Unfortunately, Sadaru and his mom weren't able to come, as Sadaru's little brother was having a bad reaction to a mosquito bite and they were taking him to the doctor to make sure everything was all right. Jamie ended up playing with me for the morning, by and large, which killed my productivity. Truthfully, my productivity was shot with the cold I'm fighting, which is kicking my butt. We had some pizza and picked up Liam, who needed to pee before we got home. We stopped off at a place on Broadview, and walked the rest of the way home. The afternoon was spent playing with Gary or lounging around on the couch, and the evening was spent at Browning withouth the Browningites, who left on a short trip. Gary and Ayami were there, as were Simon and Leslie, and a good, if tired, time was had by all. Simon and Liam were playing together (not parallel playing), and it was so nice to see the two of them being happy and friends together. They really do like each other. Bed was welcome, and tomorrow we have big things to plan.

2009-09-01 24:00 (John) Realising that summer has ended for Ottawa-area students, and there was no further hope of cousins visiting, we made last-minute arrangements to drive to Orleans this afternoon on a whirlwind surprise trip. Kristen took the boys to Hakobune in the morning, I got the house ready for our absence and packed the cars and picked them up. After the traditional visit to Starbucks, we hit the road at 14:00. Jamie fell asleep after an hour, without benefit of Benedryl, so we appear to have determined that carsickness# makes him sleepy, which isn't a terrible thing. He slept through Liam's pit-stop at 15:30, but woke up at around 17:00 when Liam next needed to stop, needing to both pee and eat. The boys enjoyed a rare treat: cheeseburgers and fries. Despite moderately heavy traffic, we made it to Grammi's house at 19:00. Everyone was pleasantly surprised. The boys chased Owen around the house until bedtime, I drove the cousins home, the boys quieted down watching videos and then taking a bath, and Grammi told them bedtime stories until they fell asleep. We're heading back home the day after tomorrow, and apologize in advance to the many people in Ottawa that we usually call on but may not get a chance to this trip.

2009-09-02 24:00 (Kristen) The boys were up early this morning, and I think that Grammie fed them something for breakfast. Jamie was very excited about going to the mall to play in the playpark there, and the boys happily did that after some lunch in the foodcourt. They played for about an hour and a half, I guess, and refueled with water and Timbits (Auntie Jen and I had coffee). John was running around doing this and that, and picked us up on the way back home around when school let out for the day. We played at home, and the boys particularly liked Grammie's hammock in the back yard. Both boys spent a good deal of time in it today, asking someone or another to swing them back and forth in it. They did their usual things, some homework, and my dad came by to give Liam his birthday present. Dinner was with Jen, Grammie, Anna, and Becky (Owen had tae kwan do, and homework at home with his dad), and Liam had a great time colouring purple princesses that Becky drew for him. He also copied out his name, after Bcky wrote it down for him. The first time! Yay! The boys played together a good deal, and it's so funny to see how closely Liam imitates Jamie. He parrots what Jamie says, laughs when he does, and never takes his eyes off his brother. Jamie, for his part, takes it all in his stride and goodnaturedly, as he has a willing and able playmate and audience for whatever goofiness he has planned. The boys fell asleep instantly, surprising my mom and I, until we looked at the time and realized that it was 10:30. No wonder!

2009-09-03 38:36 (Kristen) It was a whirlwind tour, but today we needed to come home. In the morning, Liam went for a walk around Grammie's front garden, and now can identify Grammie's begonias when asked. He was very interested. There was more play in the backyard, and a few mosquito bites (unfortunately). Yay, Benadril spray. We went out for breakfast with Grammie, Poppy, and Auntie Jen, then went home to pack and head home. We stopped three times for food, pee breaks, and drinks, and Jamie slept for about an hour very soon after we left for Toronto. The boys were royally bored by the time we got home, however, and Jamie in particular was finding the trip a bit of a trial. We made it home in one piece, however, and some fun was had with Gary. After the bath, Liam was running around with his towel and saying "My a bat!" A little later, his towel fell off, and he said, mournfully, "My cape fell off. My was a vampire. Now my a monkey." I need to illustrate that somehow, somewhere. It was pretty funny. Liam fell asleep quickly, but Jamie didn't fall asleep until 11:00.

2009-09-04 47:10 (Kristen) Today was Jamie's last day at Hakobune, and he was surprised that he felt sad in the end. He definitely was getting too old to be there, and it was time, but he wasn't as happy as he thought that he was going to be. He was quite thoughtful, and needed a cuddle or two, and reassurances that he'd see his teachers again and that they wouldn't forget him. I am pretty sure that Jamie would be hard to forget. John and I picked up Jamie and Liam, said our thank yous, and took the boys home. The day was pretty standard after that, with a dinner at Browning. Liam hadn't seen Tom in a little while, and didn't leave his side very much at all the whole night. Jamie got very involved with creating levels on a Super Mario 63 online game, and was very hard to peel away. It was way too late, really, when we got the boys home, and there were minor crises galore, but we made it and put them to bed. I fell asleep with Liam, and didn't wake up until the next morning, myself.

2009-09-05 23:14 (Kristen) We're going to have to teach Liam not to gloat. He's so cheerful and pure about it--he's not trying to hurt feelings--but his rejoicing when he gets his own way can't but grate on his older brother a little bit. Tonight's reason for gloating was that he'd asked first to play Super Mario Galaxy, and Jamie had to wait. Glee, and arm pumping as he ran around in a big circle. John explained that when the big hand (which was on the 6) reached the 9, it was Jamie's turn, and that when the big hand reached the 12, it was bedtime. And then Liam piped up, "and when it reaches the 10, it's Liam's turn again!" Um, no. But a good try.

We took the boys to the St. Lawrence Market today, and I worked in a nearby Starbucks while John took the boys around shopping. Afterwards, he took them to the splashpad nearby (they all close after Labour Day Monday) for one last splash, and then we took them home. They did work, and played, and watched television, and ate dinner. Jamie had a very hard time falling asleep again. He's been having trouble lately, and tonight he wasn't asleep until almost 11:00, despite exercise and proper food. I hope that going back to school deals with this problem, and quickly.

2009-09-06 47:39 (Kristen) Today we took the boys, and Daniel and Ross as well, to the Coffee Mill in Yorkville for our annual "hooray, school's over!" lunch. It was more of a "well, school's over and just about to start again" lunch, but the tradition was honoured, and the kids appreciated it. Jamie liked his raspberry float, but Liam decided that he didn't like his and had to have Dad's ginger ale float, because that was the proper kind to have. Poor John. Eventually, lunch concluded as we were chased off by a particularly aggressive hornet (we were on the patio), and went to watch jets from the airshow from the big rock in the Yorkville park. The boys had a great time playing tag and running until they were ragged. The boys and John (Daniel and Ross went home) played a bit later in the Jackman playground while I got some groceries. Dinner was quiet, and the evening was as well.

2009-09-07 23:42 (Kristen) Today, being the last day of summer, was celebrated by Jamie finishing off his Japanese homework for the summer. As a reward, he received the second DS game that John brought back from Japan, and is delighted. Otherwise, he spent almost every waking moment playing Super Mario 63, which is a flash game on the Internet, as it allows him to build new levels, his favourite thing. Liam watched television, did his own work, and at one point jumped up from the table where he was working with John, and announced that he was going to work. He jumped onto his little yellow car, and drove into the living room, parked, and declared that work was playing Mercury Meltdown ("Mercury Downmelt"). Na na na. His imagination is definitely in full bloom. Tomorrow, he'll go to Hakobune without Jamie, and I wonder how much he'll miss him. Jamie is, of course, very anxious about starting Grade 1, and was full of worries and concerns. John and I tried to walk him through the day as much as we could, but it took him a long time to fall asleep nonetheless. Funny moment of the day was when John and Ross were trying to solve the Speedy Comet run on the Gold Leaf Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy at Browning. After the two of them were trying for quite some time, John offered the controllers to Jamie, who did it the very first time. Na na na, as Liam would say.

2009-09-08 22:40 (Kristen) To my pleasant surprise, Jamie got all the butterflies and nerves dealt with last night, and was full of nervous but positive anticipation this morning. We all went to school with him, and helped him to find the lineup with his class. He was happy to have hugs and kisses before he went in -- unlike his friend Jake, who asked his father why he was still there and that he should go already! Jake has decided that fussing isn't his thing anymore, I guess! I took Liam to Hakobune after he had fifteen minutes of playing Pirate Liam on the Rocket Caterpillar in the playground with John. I picked him up, and took him back home with me on the subway. It was nice to spend a little Mom and Liam time together, and I think that we're going to have a lot of that this year. We went in the wagon to pick up Jamie at 3:30, and were pleasantly surprised to find Gary had followed us to do the same thing. When Jamie came out, he pronounced his day as "Great!" and seems to like his teacher, Ms. Kidd. She is young, and pretty, and seems very gentle. I hope that she survives the year! Jamie told me that she's engaged, and has a very silly dog, and that she knew what Super Mario 63 (Jamie's latest gaming obsession) is, so I am feeling optimistic. John reported, at lunch, that Jamie was also appearing to be remarkably untraumatized by Grade 1, and that the posse were deliriously happy to be together again, even if they are split up between two classes. Tomorrow, Jamie will have lunch at school, along with the other 3/4 of his class, and seems quite good with the whole idea. It will feel more than a little strange to me that I won't be heading out of the house at 11:30, or that Jamie won't be having lunch with us. I know that Liam will miss him. We came home after school, and met up with John's mom, who brought juice. The boys played with Sam and Luke for a bit, then came in for dinner. Luke very sweetly gave Liam an old Tomy Big Ladder set, which has a little battery-operated construction site that delighted Jamie and Liam both, once Mom set it up. It was very thoughtful! The evening was spent reading, singing, playing with this and that, and Jamie hanging out with Gary. I had the boys in bed after bath and hair washing about 9:30, and Jamie was asleep first. Liam took a little longer, but it's likely because I was lying with my feet, not my head, near him, so that I could look over at Jamie while I lay with Liam. The intricacies of keeping both boys happy at the same time at bedtime!

2009-09-09 47:16 (Kristen) I had a chat with Jamie's teacher this afternoon, after we went in to his class after school to find a piece of paper that Jamie thought he'd forgotten. I got to see Jamie's desk (he sits with two other kids at a round table by the blackboard, and one is a Liam! There are two Liams in his class, much to Jamie's amusement). She told me that Jamie was reading very well, and that she was surprised at what a good reader he was. I was, of course, proud. He's been tired by the end of the day, but has been bearing down and working as best he can with a minimum of goofy. I'm very proud. Jamie also stayed to eat lunch at school, but found the day a little too long that way, and wants to eat lunch at home tomorrow. He was definitely tired. Liam was tired too. Both boys woke up at 7:00, after climbing into bed with me in the middle of the night, and we were all up by 7:15. Waka came over to play with Liam, and he was C.R.A.B.B.Y. They eventually worked out some things to do that didn't involve the television or the DS. Liam is glued to it, and was attracting a fair amount of attention in the playground as he sat in his wagon, playing away, and oblivious to the rabid attention of a number of older boys looking over his shoulder. Waka and Liam painted, did puzzles, and had fun in the end. I took Liam to the library after lunch, but he fell asleep in the wagon for an hour, bent over a bag of books at first, but then on his back, his feet and head on the seats and his bum in the footwell. I had a cherry Italian soda ready for him when he woke up, hot and dehydrated, and mad as a hornet about being awake. He was happy enough when we picked up Jamie, who wanted to come straight home to play Super Mario 63. We headed home, and spent a quiet evening waiting for John to come home from New York City and the first night of Scrabble for the season. They fell asleep very quickly, surprise surprise.

2009-09-10 23:25 (Kristen) John took Liam to Hakobune, and Liam couldn't have been happier about it. Jamie was in a good mood too, and it was such a relief to have both boys happy and engaged with their world. John reports that Jamie ran into school with a cheery wave, and that was that. Again, no signs of trauma. John and I picked Jamie up from school for lunch, and were greeted with big hugs and happiness. We ate at Browning, which worked out nicely, and John took Jamie back to school. Then he picked up Liam, and brought him home. Liam and I picked up Jamie, who was full of glee at being with the posse, and invited them all over to our house to see Super Mario 63. Charlie and Jake were up for it (or, rather, their moms were), and they had fun eating freezies and playing until their moms came to get them at 5:15. Jamie spent the whole time designing a level for his friends, but wasn't able to finish it before they had to go. We had dinner, and the boys finished at the same time. They ran off to play, and John and I stayed behind to talk to each other. Odd! Tomorrow is Gary and Ken's birthday, so we went over to Browning for a cake eating ceremony, which the boys appreciated, but it was soon time to come home and go to bed. Again, they fell asleep quite quickly.

Both boys are very affectionate beings, who kiss and hug their mom without being self-conscious, which is really lovely. Liam likes to talk about his best friends, who can be me, John, or Jamie, depending upon the time of day. I signed Liam up for soccer and skating today, but I'm still floundering around for things for Jamie to do. He wants to skate, but there isn't anything that isn't hockey at a time we can agree on, and nothing near by. I'll have to look further into it, but I'm thinking about judo. The trick is to find things that he wants to do that don't overwhelm him; he's one tired little boy right now.

2009-09-11 24:33 (Kristen) It was a full and exciting day today. Liam and I dropped Jamie off at school, as John is running the annual Toronto Scrabble tournament this weekend, and will largely be out of the house. Liam and I ran some errands, had something to eat at the Second Cup, and hung out until it was time to pick Jamie up for lunch. Liam and I did go to Book City for a bit, and Liam got very excited and asked for a "little book" for himself. I bought him a little Backyardigans book, and he happily "read" it in the wagon for a while. Jamie, Liam, and I ate at Browning, and then took Jamie back to school. By then, Liam and I were pretty tired, so we vegged at home until it was time to back to get Jamie. Jamie was very excited and happy after school, and ran off to find the posse and play. I went through his stuff, and found a folder that detailed his work schedule for the year (he takes music! and drama! yay!). The funny part was when I explained that he was going to have spelling tests on Fridays, and we segued slightly into the idea of spelling bees. Jamie's face lit up and he said "You mean you can *win*? I want to start now!" I think that he'll be attacking the idea of spelling with a little more edge than most of his other classmates, but I'm fine with that. His folder also contained a letter home that Jamie had written, and his teacher explained that the kids wrote their letters on Friday and would every Friday this year. She said thatgetting them to write the letters had been challenging (I bet!) but that it woul d be worth it. I expressed happiness at the idea, and I'm looking forward to what Jamie feels is worth writing about this year.

We stayed at the playground until 5, as Jamie and Liam played hard in the schoolyard. Liam found the sheer number of children intimidating, and stayed close to me until it had thinned out a bit. When we finally exhausted the playground, we headed to Browning for dinner. John joined us eventually, and he and Ross were working very hard at a fast comet star at Super Mario Galaxy for a while. Eventually, Jamie came down and did it in one try. Fast comets are his specialty, yo. The boys were blitheringly tired, and fell asleep very easily.

2009-09-12 24:37 (Kristen) John was gone early this morning, so I got the boys up and ready for a half day at Jamie's Japanese school. It was the first day, and we did a great job of making it to the subway on time, despite having to walk there due to no buses. There was complaining... We ran into Jamie's friend Harry at Yonge station, and rode all the way there with him and his family. Jamie was nervous, and I think that he relaxed when he saw Harry, and knew that he'd have one friend there. The assembly and sorting into classes went smoothly, and I reassured Liam that he'd have his own class to go to next year. He liked that idea. We sat and had coffee with Harry's family, and then went back to get Jamie. He was happy, and went out to play with the other kids while the other moms and I went through backpacks to see what the homework looked like this year. We were all shocked to see that the summer homework was still in the children's backpacks, and it seems that the teacher is new and didn't see/forgot it. We'll make sure that she gets it next week.

After playing for a bit, we had pizza and headed home for a good long veg. The kids were, once again, very very tired, but they stayed up a little late to see John when he got home from the tournament.

2009-09-13 24:44 (Kristen) As usual, Jamie was up early and John kindly made him breakfast before he headed out to the tournament for its last day. I woke up around 9, feeling a little disoriented, and Liam was up not long afterwards. I had planned a quiet day for the boys to veg and recuperate, but our friends Peter and Leslie called us to go out for lunch. Simon wanted to see Liam and Jamie, and by noon it was time to do something out of the house. We had a lovely lunch at Allen's, but Jamie was definitely out of sorts and needing a good deal of one-on-one attention for much of the lunch. We took the kids to St. Barnabas afterwards, and they all ran around until they were flushed and tired. Yay! We headed back home and parted company around 4:45. By that time John was on his way home with two Scrabble friends, and plans for dinner. The boys complained a little about going out again, but enjoyed dinner at 7 Numbers, and playing on their DSes. Jamie biked there and back, and fell asleep almost instantly. Liam is having a good deal of trouble sleeping tonight, and I think that he's having some tummy trouble of some sort. We'll keep an eye on it, and hope that it's nothing more than gas.

2009-09-14 23:13 (Kristen) Another week of school, and Jamie was happy to get to school and start all over again. Liam was happy to hang out with me in the morning and play with his DS, and I let him as he'd gone to bed late the night before and was up quite early this morning. This is, always, a recipe for disaster and I had low expectations of him and his ability to deal with much today. We did go pick up Jamie for lunch. We ate at Browning, which delighted Jamie, and then John came to take him back to school. In the afternoon, Liam and I hung out again, and then had some extra time together in the afternoon. Jamie had a playdate at Sam's with the posse, which included dinner. This seems like it's going to be the pattern from now on, as the boys don't get much time to play together anymore if dinner isn't somehow involved. I left Liam with John, and went to get Jamie and bring him to Browning around 6:30. Jamie had had a fabulous time, which included playing with Sam's bouncy castle in the back yard along with Jake and Parker. When we got back to Browning, I helped Jamie to do his spelling homework before I went off to play Trivia. John reports that he got Jamie to do his Japanese homework, and that Liam was overtired and in a delicate state when he finally got the boys home. Something happened to set a very tired Liam off, and he melted down completely in the bathroom. He cried for 20 minutes before falling asleep on the floor. Boom. When I got home, both boys were in bed, asleep, and John notified me that Liam had not peed, or brushed his teeth, or changed into his pajamas. Given his state before he fell asleep, I'd say that was acceptable.

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.

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.

2009-09-29 22:58 (Kristen) We said goodbye to our houseguest Lisa today, as she headed back to Japan to finish up her physical chemistry degree. It was lovely to have her around, and we'll miss her help. John drove Liam to Hakobune, where he read Sailor Moon books and may have done other things. He was singing Japanese kid songs to himself later in the afternoon, and doing not a bad job of remembering the words. He enjoyed having both parents around after John brought him home, I think. He was fairly grumpy about doing anything that didn't involve a DS for much of the day. Liam and I picked up Jamie and took him to the Second Cup for a snack, then bought a few groceries and came home. Jamie spent almost the whole evening doing homework, as John has told him that he can have Mario Party 8 when he finishes all his Japanese homework for the week. Jamie is now motivated. He did some reading for me tonight, but he was very tired, and so it was a litle painful at times. He had picked a book that was on the upper edge of his ability, and was adjusting to smaller type and more words. We made it halfway through, and agreed to finish reading it tomorrow. He's doing very well, but needs lots of encouragement. Liam is insisting that help be supplied at select parts of Kirby's Squeak Squad, especially any part that has a "boss battle," and is starting to speak sternly and with irritation at the screen when things go badly. Uh oh.

I forgot to mention earlier that my aunt dropped by with my cousin Jeff tonight to drop off a late birthday present for Liam. The boys were just about to get into the bath, which was fortuitous, as the present was a Viking ship bath toy with two Vikings (from the show Yo Gabba Gabba). Liam, on questioning, figured out that he was the last person with a birthday, and that the present was for him. Auntie Millie was on the receiving end of a big Liam smile and cry of delight, which was (as always) awesome to see. Jamie too was happy to see her, and it was a lovely surprise upon which to end the day.

2009-09-30 35:06 (Kristen) Today Jamie forgot his backpack at home, so Liam and I took it to him on our way to Canadian Tire, to buy a skating helmet for him. We left later than I intended, so we ate pizza at the subway station (pizza slices! support the United Way! Only $1!...ok...) for lunch. Canadian Tire had a a pathetic selection (we're restocking! they say...) of helmets, so I decided that we'd make due with Jamie's old helmet (too big, but that's what hats are for). I did one or two other errands, then found that our ride to skating had arrived just as I arrived at the subway station to go home. John got Liam's stuff together, went to Sam's mom's house to get a helmet that, at the 11th hour, we found that she was happy to give to us (thank you, Sarah!) and picked up the stroller and other shopping from me at the subway station where Michelle, Jack, and Tom were waiting for us. Whew!

Liam was excited to go skating, but when he realized on the ice that a) he couldn't do it by himself and b) it wasn't coming as easily as he expected, he lost it. You know there's always one kid lying on the ice, crying away? Well, today that was Liam. The class was large, and the teacher picked him up and let him "skate" back to the boards by carrying him under the armpits. We decided that next week he'd go on the ice for ten minutes, then fifteen the week after, and so on, and would have a little extra help while on the ice. That way, we could ease him into it. Seems like a plan. Liam, upon questioning in the changeroom, said that he'd had fun and he wanted to come again. There you are. I also figured out how to size the helmet, which was slightly too large, and my Swiss army knife and I did that in the playground later.

Liam played and cuddled in the playground after we came back and picked up Jamie, and then we headed home. Jamie was a homework machine tonight, despite being very tired. He has done all but three pages of his Japanese homework, and finished off the Very Hard Reading Book for Jackman. He also did his first math homework, which was all about patterns, which he loves. It was almost 8:40 when he was finally done, so I let him got to play with Gary, despite my worry that he was too tired and should go straight to bed. I worry more that he hadn't had enough time to decompress. He came up by 9:30, and the boys were in bed by 10:00. They didn't fall asleep until 10:10 and 10:20 respectively, and I'm concerned that they'll be really overtired tomorrow. I worry a lot, it seems...

2009-10-01 16:13 (Kristen) Jamie brought home a book from the next level up in difficulty, and it didn't work out. The type was too small, and there were too many words on the page for him to even want to try. I was disappointed that he didn't try, but understand. Jamie also was (likely) too tired for new things, since he'd had a long day at school followed by a playdate over at Jake's. Meatballs and lasagne were involved, I am told, and he had a great time. Liam went off to read more Sailor Moon books at Hakobune, which is what he likes to do. There were some toys left outside the daycare that they were giving away, and Liam's choices were a little Fisher-Price dog/ball, and a figure from Disney's Hercules, with long purple dress (I know not the character's name). I have no worries that Liam is in touch with his feminine or his masculine sides, but seems to mesh the two seamlessly. He is still completely obsessed with Kirby, and John has been helping him out with the game.

2009-10-02 24:11 (Kristen) The rain held off until lunchtime, allowing me to get Jamie and Liam to their respective destinations without drenching. John came into the area for lunch, so we all headed home together. Jamie had finished all of his Japanese homework early this week, so his reward was the Wii game Mario Party 8. He and Liam are delighted with new Mario adventures, and are happily playing. We went down to Gerrard Square and did some other shopping while we were there, in addition to the Wii game, then went to Daniel and Ross's for dinner. I really didn't see much of either boy this evening, and when we came home, Jamie zipped downstairs for a bit before coming up for the bath. It was very late, however, so it was straight to bed after the bath with no story. I don't like to do it, but they need the sleep so very badly.

2009-10-03 23:24 (Kristen) I had to wake Jamie up to get him off to school with John, but Liam slept in until almost ten o'clock. I thought about waking him up a number of times, but he just wasn't easy to rouse. When he did wake up, he was hungry and interested in playing as much DS as I would allow. It was a quiet morning, but by noon he was starting to feel, I think, the way I felt after a long morning of Saturday morning cartoons. Despite the weather, we headed out for a walk/ride to run errands on the Danforth. We did a bit of this and that, and Liam lobbied for a new Backyardigans book at the bookstore (but was denied). We made it back home after John and Jamie arrived back from school, and Liam excitedly declared as he headed up the front steps, "Jamie is my best friend!" It was very sweet. The rest of the day was pretty sleepy, involving lots of Mario Party 8, and more ramen soup for dinner. Jamie and Liam were both pretty happy about that. Jamie made me read more Jellaby to him, which he's really enjoying, and we did a little other reading (his turn). Jamie fell asleep soon after lights out, but Liam (for some reason...) took much longer to fall asleep.

2009-10-04 23:05 (Kristen) We got up, puttered (or played video games), then got dressed to meet Simon and his parents Peter and Leslie for brunch. Liam mourned his DS having been left in the car, but his steady requests for bits of Simon's breakfast indicated that he was more hungry than actually cranky. We had fun with Simon and his family. I'd asked Liam what toys he thought Simon was going to bring with him, and Liam replied, fairly quickly, "Cars." He was right. The boys shared a very large hamburger, and then we said our goodbyes before going to pick Daniel up at a nearby subway station. Every year around this time, we go out to Daniel's armourer to pick up new pieces of armor for him, or to fix/replace bits that are too small or need repairs. Jim lives about an hour away from our house, and the boys had fun with Daniel sitting between then for the trip. Once there, we got Daniel fixed up, and bought Jamie a pair of bracers and a little breastplate of his own. He now has Daniel's old shield, and is very pleased by this. The next generation of armoured children in our lives... Liam isn't interested in it yet, but I imagine that he will be in a short period of time. We drove back, dropped Daniel off at home, saw John's parents briefly, and then hung about the house doing much of what we did earlier in the day. Ross dropped by with some Finnish pancakes for us that Tom had made, and which we made short work of. Yum. Liam hadn't run around enough today, I think, so he took a very long time to fall asleep, with much flopping and turning to and fro. Jamie took a while too, but I'm not entirely sure why (and neither was he).

2009-10-05 23:25 (Kristen) It was time for Liam's first soccer class, and he was not interested in going at all. "My want my DS!" he wailed, before going off in the car with John. Of course he had a great time. He listened to the teachers (when one asked the class "WHat is my name?" Liam helpfully said "Tea-cher!" It was Ryan, but Liam still got points), ran, kicked the ball, and had a blast. Yay! Earlier in the morning, he was a monkey, demanding bananas. Jamie, in the meantime, went to school, came to Browning for lunch, and had a playdate with Jake after school, which they both enjoyed. Jamie did some homework at Browning, and played as much as he could with people and electronics, and Liam continued to be obsessed with his DS. All in all, it was a normal day.

2009-10-06 23:25 (Kristen) Today was better than yesterday, when I woke up annoyed that John had left the clock alarm on on a Sunday. D'oh. Jamie and Liam also woke up well, but I let John sleep in by accident, so he was late getting Liam to Hakobune. It was quiet until they got back, and then I hauled Liam out to get Jamie, over his protests that Kirby was going to be lonely. Or something like that. (Kirby is the main character in the DS game that Liam is obsessed with. The DS stayed home.) He and Jamie played for a bit in the schoolyard, then I got them to come to the Big Carrot with me for some groceries before coming home. It's easier when I have the two of them, because they keep each other amused and cared for. I saw Liam hit his head (lightly) out of the corner of my eye, and then Jamie give him a gentle hug and a light rub on the head before making sure that Liam found me for his Mom hug. I'm so glad that they have each other. They also chased each other home for a good section of the walk. Also very handy. Dinner was simple but the boys ate well, and the evening was full of homework and video games. Liam was put out that he was the spectator for a "no-fail" family game of Rock Band, but got over it.

2009-10-07 22:45 (Kristen) Life, I think, needs a reboot. Jamie was up around 7:30, and seemed all right at first. However, he was pretty tired and it began to show when it was time to go to school. Liam, in the meantime, woke up just as I was getting Jamie dressed and out the door, and was sleepy enough not to protest when I left him behind to take Jamie to school (John was at home, btw). Liam and I had a quiet morning, punctuated with some numbers and the ABC song, before John brought Jamie home for lunch. The kids ate well, and were all right, and there was only pro forma grumbling from Jamie when it was time to go back to school and leave his DS behind. Liam and John did some DS before it was time for us to go to skating (which I had spaced, d'oh). Liam did much better this week than last week. This week he cried while hanging on to a glider, instead of lying on the ice and crying. Progress... I had prepped Liam with talks about what was going to happen when he was on the ice: to shuffle, not walk normally; that he was going to fall, but everyone did and that was OK; that he was going to have a glider, and he should hang on to that. He certainly hung on to his glider. Eventually, he did get the hang of it enough that he skated, slowly, from the blue line to the door, crying, but with only 15 minutes left in the lesson when he came off the ice. Yay! Progress! I was happy about that, and Liam was very cheerful, while telling me "I cried." We got a ride back to the school, grabbed Jamie, then headed home as the weather was cold and windy and overcast. Brr. Jamie was pretty good about doing his homework when we got home, but we didn't get to his reading until after dinner. This is never good, because Jamie is just shredded after dinner and it's always hard going then. He had picked out another difficult book, and was utterly unengaged from the process. Eventually, after distraction/interruption number 15, I lost my temper and snapped. The exercise lost its fun, and we eventually had to abandon it and agree to complete it tomorrow. Jamie was upset too, and told me that he didn't like reading at all because it was "boring." There was nothing that he liked to read, and it was just a stab through the heart. I was a bad mother; I was pushing him too hard, he was pushing himself too hard; it was my fault for letting him watch too much television and play too many video games; and it went on from there in my inner monologue. However, I reminded myself that he was wickedly tired, and so was I, so we wrapped up the evening with a game of Ladybirds (Jamie's suggestion), and went to bed early. The boys were in bed at 8:50, and we read Jellaby, which both boys enjoyed. So, Jamie still enjoys being read *to*, at least. Lights out at 9:15, and Jamie was asleep by 9:30. Liam held out for another 15 minutes, flipping, flopping, and keeping up a sotto voce running commentary before finally being overwhelmed by sleep.

2009-10-08 23:23 (Kristen) Jamie slept until 8, when I woke him up. He woke up well, did everything that he had to do, and went to school with no mucking about and no whining/complaining/fuss. Wow! This sleep thing is really rather amazing. John took Liam to Hakobune, and I cleaned up the house for my dad's visit with his wife, Liz. They're staying with us until the weekend, and the house needed to be cleaner than it was. Everyone arrived here around 2:30 or so, and my dad came with Liam and me to pick up Jamie at school. Jamie was very upset because his adored Mr. Kat (his gym teacher) had been unhappy with the class for some goofing around at the end of class, and Jamie was in complete tears about it. Mr. Kat reassured him that he was doing great, but I think that Jamie just needed to decompress. Sensitive boy. Mr. Kat told me that Jamie tells him "Still like gym!" every time he sees him in the hallways. Mr. Kat is a very nice man.

We needed to get back home so that I could finish making dinner (a roast chicken, which needed stuffing), and the boys hung out and Jamie did his homework before it was time to eat. We ate early, because tonight was Curriculum Night at Jamie's school, and we needed to be there for Ms. Kidd's presentation at 6:30. We made it, and Jamie was very excited and proud to show us his classroom, his work, and his school. It was very interesting for us, and I think that I'm even more impressed with his school than I was before. Once home again, the boys hung out and Jamie did a little reading for me before bedtime. Bedtime was 9:40, which was about half an hour later than I'd hoped for, but I'm still pretty happy that it wasn't later.

2009-10-09 23:15 (Kristen) Jamie was a star again this morning, getting up and getting dressed, and putting his games down without fussing, and getting to school on time and cheerfully. Wow! He is really trying hard to be good and helpful, and I'm just as happy as can be about not having to fight him. More importantly, I'm really enjoying having a pleasant morning with my boy, and he seems to be doing the same. I dropped Jamie off, came back to see how Liam was going, and found hi in John's lap in the living room, having woken up ten minutes earlier. John went back to bed, and I got Liam ready for Hakobune. We said goodbye to Grandpa and Liz, then went off. When John and I picked Liam up after daycare, I went up to get him while John stayed in the car. Liam showed me his newest book, with another group of female Japanese superheroes in it. My son really doesn't care about traditional gender divisions, which is really rather cool. What, I'm going to stop him from reading about strong women and enjoying it?

Liam and I stayed home while John went to get Jamie in the rain, and we waited for Grandpa and Liz to come back so that we could go out for dinner. The boys alternately walked down to the Silk Road or rode on John's shoulders to "Keep Papa's head dry in the rain." There is a photo of Liam, complete with umbrella, riding on John's shoulders that is to die for. Dinner was very nice, and we all ate a good deal and had a good time. Jamie helped to serve the ice cream, as usual, and Liam protested that his mango ice cream was touching his lichee ice cream. Then, after a few bites of lichee, he wanted the mango ice cream back. It is, indeed, fortunate that I foresaw this and kept most of the scoop of mango ice cream in my bowl for safe keeping.

John reminds me that, yesterday, Liam was trying to get John to read to him when John was in the middle of helping Jamie do his homework. Liam then tried to read the book himself, and burst into tears after a few minutes because merely willing himself to be able to read wasn't working. Poor boy. We're starting to teach him to recognize a few words, if he's willing, because he seems to want it so much. We'll report back on whether or not it works.

2009-10-10 22:31 (Kristen) It was a rare Saturday with Jamie home, so it was a rare family outing to the St. Lawrence Market. My dad and Liz followed us down to the market, then parted ways with us as they went on to the next stop on their trip. Jamie was asking about them later in the day, and was visibly disappointed to learn that they had left. I think that Jamie was enjoying getting to know his grandfather, and Liz too. We bought a metric tonne of food at the market, and ran around picking up turkeys and other foodstuffs in our neighbourhood. Jamie was flat bored by the end, but managed to hold it together until we got home. I wish that I knew more about what they did for the rest of the day, but I was running around getting the house and food ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Jamie did spent 90 minutes with Gary, which they both enjoyed as Gary has been fighting an evil cold and so hasn't been around to play much.

2009-10-11 22:40 (Kristen) Jamie was up around 7:30, and came into bed with me and John until 8. Liam was up around 8:30, and came in with me and John until around 8:45, when I gave up and got up. Today was all about Thanksgiving dinner, and the boys were helpful in their own ways. They helped John buy a folding table at Canadian Tire to give us extra space for guests to eat at, and kept out of my way during food prep. When Ian and Amy arrived with Ted and Alice, Jamie and Liam were delighted. They brought a cool birthday present for Jamie, whose birthday is in a month, and Liam is looking forward to playing with the building system too. Dinner was a success, and both Liam and Jamie ate about half of the sushi that John's aunts brought before dinner even started. So, not much turkey went into either boy, altough Jamie did eat well, and ate a pumpkin tart that Alice made too. Yay, someone to share pumpkin pies with! The day and night were chaotic, but in a good way, and all were fed and made happy with food. Jamie and Ian played video games together, and Liam followed along. It was a good day, and the boys were in bed almost indecently late.

2009-10-12 23:43 (Kristen) Jamie and Ian were up early this morning, playing video games, and that was pretty much what the boys did all day. They played old video games, new video games, cooperative and competitive. They played them upstairs, and downstairs. Amy watched, or played her own, as did Liam. It was not the most productive day we've ever had, but it's not every day that you can blow off a day playing with your cousins like that, and everyone seemed to have a really good time. Ian and Jamie have that same deadpan, "are you really serious?" sense of humour, which had me shaking my head more than once as I listened to them, but it was fun to see them together. Ted, Alice, Ian and Amy left around four to go and see Tai Tai and Ho Ho at their house, and Jamie and Liam played with the present that they'd received last night from Ian, Amy, Ted and Alice. We ate dinner with the Browning folk, as is usual for a Monday night, and the kids were happy when they went to bed.

2009-10-13 23:48 (Kristen) I slept in by half an hour, so this morning was a mad race to get kids ready and to their respective destinations. Jamie was really good with the abbreviated morning routine, while Liam too was happy and easy to get going out the door. After Hakobune, I took Liam to the house of a school mom friend of mine, and played with her kids' toys and with her son Evan. Liam liked their cat, as well as their toys and the fact that they too like the Backyardigans. We picked up Jamie, who wanted to play with Jake, and so we all ended up, for complicated reasons, over at Jake's house. Jake's mom Michelle fed the boys dinner, and Liam was terrified by Jamie's friend Charlie in a zombie costume and burst into tears. Poor Charlie felt pretty badly. I got the boys home around six, let Jamie play for a bit, and then did some homework with Jamie. John did Japanese homework with Jamie after a short break, and I did some work with Liam. Bed was a little late, and the boys were a little wound up, but all was well in the end.

2009-10-14 23:31 (Kristen) Liam was up early (groan), but Jamie slept until 8. I got Jamie to school without too much trouble, while Liam stayed home with his dad. It was a quiet morning with some book reading (Green train! Blue train!) before Jamie came home for lunch. I had to hand feed Liam again, as he's going through a phase where he'll only eat until the hunger pangs are gone before running off to do something more important. Jamie went back to school with John, then I went with Liam to skating. It was a better class than before (every time, a little better), but I think that Liam needs more closely fitting gloves so that he can control the glider better. I explained to him that when he hangs off the glider, he puts extra weight on it, and that makes it harder for him to push it around. He understood with a bright burst of comprehension that I hope we can translate into next week. On the bright side, he can pick himself up off the ice now with the glider's help. We came back, and found Jamie. Jamie wanted to play in the bright, cold afternoon, and we let him play for a while before finally calling time when noses were red. We went back home, did homework, ate dinner, did a little more, then went to bed around 8:50 for 20 minutes of reading before lights out. Both boys were asleep by 9:25, which was great.

2009-10-15 22:47 (Kristen) I'm knitting a sweater for Liam that was (although I did not share this information) originally going to be for Jamie but he grew after I'd started it a year or two ago. Liam is excited that I'm knitting him a sweater. Jamie is wondering where the hell his sweater is, and has been asking me as often as Liam has (frequently) about *his* sweater, and when will I knit him one? I have chosen a design, and will be going to buy wool soon. I will have to knit the sweaters in parallel, however, so that both boys can see that they are both getting sweaters, and that I love them equally as a result. Jeez.

2009-10-16 22:58 (Kristen) We got Jamie to school with seconds to spare, it seemed, but on time. I took Liam to Hakobune, but wanted to do some shopping afterwards on Queen Street: specifically, to find some wool for Jamie's sweater. I took Liam down on the streetcar, which he enjoyed except for the part where he had to put his DS down to transfer streetcars. He was very good in the wool store, which was not the most fun he'd ever had, but he still found the different colours and textures interesting. I was not so happy at the end when he decided a knitting needle made a good rapier, but it was very good behaviour for a three-year-old. Afterwards, we walked to Bakka-Phoenix, where Liam saw Michelle when we went in. "What are you doing here?!" he exclaimed, not realising that Michelle has more than one setting to live in. He played his DS while I browsed and chatted, and was very very good again. I should add that I now feel some empathy for my mom (yet again) as Liam and I were on the elevator in Broadview Station. A woman commented that he knew his numbers, after he pressed and identified the "3" button (3 is also his favourite number, of course). The woman asked him who had taught him his numbers, and he said (after a moment) "My dad." Because, of course, I've never worked on him with his numbers or anything. Chopped liver. That's me. In case it's not clear, I once did this to my mother too.

We met up at home, and John told me that Jamie had come out of school with his arms piled high with his stuff, and that a girl from his class was trailing him, and picking up the stuff he was dropping. Jamie has been forgetting coats, mittens, sweatshirts, and other stuff this week in an unprecedented orgy of lost stuff (he's never been this bad). Distracted boy. We had his friend Charlie home for a playdate, then went to Browning for dinner. We came home early, put the boys to bed early, and they fell asleep early.

2009-10-17 23:05 (Kristen) I have no idea what happened today. John had the excuse of not being able to sleep last night and the boys slept well enough, but I was a zombie mother. Liam played DS all day in his pajamas, and was lucky to get fed. Large parts of the day vanished without a trace. John did the market shopping, dropped Jamie off at Japanese school, and picked him up again. I did make dinner, although it was a very simple one. We got the boys out of the house in the evening with the excuse that we were low on our personal ice cream intakes, and found Daniel, Ross, and their houseguest Terry to join us. Terry is a good deal of fun, and can run down the street with Jamie slung over his shoulder for quite some ways. It was after ten when the lights went out, but the boys were asleep fairly quickly.

2009-10-18 20:45 (John) Among the many personality traits that make Liam who he is (an appreciation for feminine fashion and Sailor Moon, obsession with Nintendo DS Kirby Squeak Squad, the ability to turn a tantrum on or off in a split second, incredibly general cheeriness and enthusiasm) is one that I'll never be able to attribute with certainty to nature or nurture. He asks for my time several times during the day, will have a tantrum if it is refused, but is always satisfied with a relatively short interval - long enough to defeat one tricky enemy in KSS, or to watch an Anpanman video together.

2009-10-18 47:44 (Kristen) Jamie has been having some trouble with another child in his class, and we've been working on different ways to deal with it. I've tried showing him that there are multiple points of view, but we're settling on "you don't have to be friends, but you do need to be polite when not being provoked." He finished a hard book for reading practice today about Lipizzan horses, which took us about a week because he'd declare himself "tired" after a page or two. We're fine with working out the words, but still working on stamina...He's very proud that he finished the book, however, as I think it may be at the hardest level available in the graded "read-a-book" bins in his class. So am I.

2009-10-19 23:53 (Kristen) I got Jamie off to school on time this morning, which not something that I take for granted. When I got back, Liam was happily playing with his DS. He did step away from the electronics for a bit, this morning, to play with me and John and to fill us in on his morning thoughts. I appreciated this more than might be obvious. Jamie came home for lunch, food was ingested (quickly and with gusto by Jamie, with less gusto and more distraction by Liam), and Liam and I took Jamie back to school before proceeding further afield with errands. We spent time at the library reading books and came home with a big pile of them in the end. First, however, we bought brussels sprouts on the stalk (I swear it looks like a brussels-sprouty Christmas tree) as Liam and I both thought it was cool, along with other veggies, then stopped for a cookie at the Second Cup. We bought one for Jamie too, picked up bread and other staples at the Carrot, passed up the bookstore despite Liam's pleas for a new Backyardigans book, and then found Jamie. We had to go back in to find Jamie's glove (failed...will look again tomorrow), and ended up buying our Halloween pumpkins, which the school sells in anticipation of the annual Harvest Fair. By this point, the wagon was so full that Liam couldn't fit in it anymore and had to walk home. First, the boys played for an hour at the school, and then we walked home. Jamie did his Japanese homework, and we went to Browning for dinner with two very hungry children as we went over a little late. They settled down eventually, and ate, played, and had their usual good time. We were home late too, so Jamie was asleep after 10. He's got a field trip tomorrow, but I anticipate he's going to be very very tired, and may even fall asleep on the bus coming home.

2009-10-20 20:10 (Kristen) Jamie and John went on a field trip with Jamie's class today, and report that they had a blast. They went up to a working farm north of the city, where they are set up to receive kids and talk about where food comes from. There were baby goats that were born as the kids were unloading from their bus, pot-bellied pigs, cows, goats, and sheep, along with various types of fowl. The boys, in particular, enjoyed getting the turkeys to run to and fro in a panic with a sound that the farmer taught to them. They climbed on hay bales, picked pumpkins, and saw a ten-minute lecture on where food comes from, just to make sure that Education was achieved. Jamie was so tired that he passed out and slept for half an hour on the bus home (but won't admit it). The nap was fortuitous, as Jamie just wouldn't have made it past dinner without one. He was one tired puppy tonight.

John also reports that Jamie has a small bevy of girls vying for his attention. Makaiya has declared Jamie to be her boyfriend again, and I'm not sure where this leaves Jenna, who is the only one to call Jamie "James." Knowing Jamie, she's still in the picture, because exclusivity isn't an idea he's familiar with. He's going to drive the girls crazy with his general cluelessness until he hits puberty, and that's all right with me.

Liam, in the meantime, had a good morning at Hakobune, and was in a great mood on the way home from daycare. We read a few books, he played his DS, and it was a good day for him. He really likes a book called Rhyming Dust Bunnies, which he thinks is hilarious, and will shout out his favourite lines whenever he can. Liam is also very happy because John was able to unlock "Extra" mode on Kirby's Squeak Squad for the boys, and can play five levels on his own of Marble Blast. John also points out that Liam, when Chelsea was over having her Japanese lesson, was able to identify the hiragana character "shi" by himself. Yay, Liam!

2009-10-21 23:15 (Kristen) Jamie's big achievement today was reading his borrow-a-book in one go (minus one page, which we read last night). It was the longest book he's read to this point, and certainly the fastest speed. He had math homework, which I got him to do by timing how quickly he could do it. Page 1 (counting) was finished in 60 seconds; page 2 (more counting) in 48 seconds. He liked that. Liam's achievement was to stand on the ice by himself and figure out how to use the glider in an effective way. He initially was. not. going. on. the. ice, and I kept him off, watching the other kids and eating goldfish, until he got restless. Then I dumped him onto the ice. The teachers tried to get him to skate without a glider, but he clearly can't. He did skate holding one teacher's hand, however (step step step), for a distance, and he did stand on the ice without falling. In his little black snow pants, black helment, and grey sweatshirt, he looked like a little emperor penguin chick from a distance. Thump! They gave him a glider, which he figured out how to use properly when he took his mittens off. Then he was starting to use it to bump balls on the ice, and actually have a good time. He even took two solo steps when motivated to choose a sticker at the end from the teacher, who stood just far enough back from the glider to make him come over to her. He was very happy when he came off the ice. Tom and Jack insisted that Liam come over for a playdate, which we did, and Jamie came over too when school was over with Charlie (Tom and Jack's brother). The boys had a great time, we all played together, and it was with some reluctance that we left. It was a quiet evening, and that was good.

2009-10-22 23:42 (Kristen) When John dropped Liam off at Hakobune today, he reports that Liam said to him, "I'm going to have fun playing at Hakobune now. See you later," before running off for an exciting morning of books and play. I may have mentioned that when I was a small child, I always had my nose in a book despite the irritated demands of my playmates to play with *them*. My younger son may have a bit of that in him too. Jamie had a playdate with Jake, and had dinner there too. Apparently the other boy visiting asked Jake's mom if they were going to be having "English" food for dinner. He was out of luck, because they had miso soup with tofu. When I picked Jamie up, I asked him what he had for dinner, and he said, "I think that I like Michelle's [Jake's mom's] soup better than yours. Sorry, Mummy." Then he suddenly worried that my feelings might be hurt, but I assured him that Jake's mom was a great cook and that I'd get a recipe. He was relieved.

2009-10-23 23:31 (Kristen) When Jamie came home from school today, Liam ran to meet him at the door. He threw his arms around his brother, saying "I love you, Jamie! I missed you! Here's your DS!" Jamie was more than a little delighted with this greeting, I think, judging from the look on his face. I think that it's the little brother equivalent of "pipe, newspaper, slippers."

We went to the Harvest Festival at Jamie's school, and had a great time eating hot dogs, picking up books, and eating cupcakes. It was dark and pouring rain when we left, so we walked over to Browning, where we dropped the boys off for a night of babysitting. John and I came back to pick them up at 9:00. The boys had been great, and had a great time, but went to bed far far too late.

2009-10-24 23:35 (Kristen) We were up a little late this morning, and so Jamie was ten minutes late getting to Japanese school today; John said "it was horrible," so I think that we'll all be up earlier next week. John came back to pick up Liam and me, and we went down to the Saint Lawrence Market together. Liam was insistent that I not drive, and when asked which parent should drive, he said to John "Papa! You win!" Then he turned to me and said "You lose!" and rubbed it in a little more. Gleefully. We did our shopping, came back home, and then John went to get Jamie at the usual time. Liam gave Jamie his usual effusive greeting, and they played happily for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, our neighbours decided to have some sort of party with live music, and it was loud enough that, even with an alley, a garage door, and a yard separating us, the boys oculdn't sleep in their room. We have them in our room for now, so that they can sleep, but it was funny doing so. Jamie objected that John wasn't lying down with him, the way we used to; John pointed out to him that he and Liam are much bigger now, which is why everyone is sleeping in their own beds now. John just moved Jamie to his bed, and wonders out loud how he got to be so big. He was just a baby not that long ago...

2009-10-25 23:21 (Kristen) We all slept in until 9, which was lovely. Edna came to clean the house, and we all cleaned, played DS, or computer games, depending upon our ages. By lunchtime enough DS and computer gaming had been done, lunch was produced, and arrangements were made for a playdate at St Barnabas with a friend who was looking after her boyfriend's son. Jamie and Graham had a great time once they got together, and Liam, who had melted down on the way (unlike Jamie, who melted down when we were trying to leave) eventually perked up when his promised cookie finally materialized. The boys played soccer, climbed on everything, played with dirt, and had fun being boys. We eventually came back to our place via Jackman, where Jamie ran into Jake and Liam fell and gave himself an almighty good whack on the head when he slipped while climbing a caterpillar apparatus (short fall, but a lump was made). We made it home, where Jamie and Graham played some more, and Liam played with his beloved DS. Eventually Graham and Jennie went home, just as John returned with Daniel and Jim, our armourer, arrived. Jamie has some armour of his own for Hallowe'en, and Daniel's suit of armour continues its path to awesome. I made grilled cheese and soup for dinner, which the boys wolfed down. Unsurprisingly, really, given how active they'd been in the afternoon. Our friends Reid and Luisa were getting rid of a single bed, and John drove over to pick it up for Jamie, whose bed isn't that comfortable for him. We gave his old bed to John's parents' tenant, who hasn't a very nice bed, so everyone is happy and no beds were thrown away. Yay, green living. Jamie had a moment when we were disassembling his old bed when he was very unsure and wanted his old bed back, but he was delighted when his new one was set up and he could test it out. It's a real improvement, and while he's still finding it strange and adjusting, it's a Good Thing.

2009-10-26 22:57 (Kristen) Today was Show and Tell, and I suggested to Jamie that he take his Japanese Pokemon Encyclopedia to show his classmates, as the pokemon have different names in Japanese sometimes than they do in English. He says that it went very well, and the book looked like it had been well looked over. He seemed happy. Liam went off to soccer in protest, but had a great time once he was there. Jamie had lunch at Browning then ran off to school, while Liam showed up soon after Jamie left. They met up together, finally, after school at Browning again, and they were happy to play together and have fun. Jamie stayed close to Ross, as Ross shows him new and cool online video games, and Liam was a small, sensitive, melty boy on occasion. Both he and Jamie didn't get enough sleep the night before, and it showed. Dinner was made and eaten, and lots of fun was had doing this and that. Jamie did homework, and Liam played with his DS, accosting John (in the main) to help him "help Kirby." He loves his father very much, but was unimpressed with him when it was time to go home and get ready for the bath. I was out playing trivia, so I wasn't there to help stave off meltdowns from Sensitive Tired Boy. As he was falling asleep, Liam said to John, "I like Mummy. I no like Papa." Jamie, of course, was scandalized by such a statement.

2009-10-27 23:15 (Kristen) We were all up a little early this morning, as we all had to be out of the house to our respective destinations by 9:00. When I picked Liam up, he was playing hide-and-seek, and was hiding against the door out into Goforth Hall. When I opened the door, he was right there and delighted, absolutely delighted, that I'd found him. We went home, went out again to pick up Jamie, and played in the playground for a while. Liam was a frog for quite a bit of time, which meant hopping up and down in one spot yelling "Ribbit! Ribbit!" as loudly as he could. Liam Frog is not a quiet frog. Jamie was tired when we got home, but still managed to do his homework. We were in bed a little late again.

2009-10-28 24:19 (Kristen) Liam wins both today's high and today's low. The high was when he went to skating and was so pumped about it that he shoved his way to the head of the line and was the first child on the ice. He skated all over the rink with his glider (this is a boy who was last on the ice last week, and only at the end figured out how to use the glider) for the first half of the class. Then the instructors, who had been each working with him to do this and that, took away the glider. I thought "uh oh," but he *skated* the ten feet to the glider! That was it! He spent the next ten to fifteen minutes skating, falling down, skating, falling down, and getting right back up again. He was so game, and never gave up once. We'd had a talk beforehand, and I'd given him warning first thing in the morning tht this is what we were going to do, and it worked. He was a very proud boy when he got off the ice today.

The low was when he started to sniffle as he was going to bed tonight, and his little nose is now so stuffy that he keeps waking up every fifteen to twenty minutes. There is no fever, so I'm not worried yet, and I've been fighting cold-like symptoms myself for the last day or two, so I do very much hope it's that.

Jamie had a good day at school, made better by it being pizza day, I think. He was disappointed that there were no playmates available for playdates, but we're going to have Liam W. over next week sometime, and I think that Jake is scheduled for tomorrow. He did his homework quickly and well, and seemed to have a good day overall. Tomorrow we go to get vaccinated against the swine flu, if the lines aren't too long. The logistics are a little tricky, but if Liam stays home with a cold, it would be easier to arrange.

2009-10-29 47:47 (Kristen) Liam slept badly last night, and we decided to keep him home today in the hope that he'd rest and kick the cold that was disturbing his sleep. The City of Toronto was holding an advance vaccination clinic today for children between 6 months and 5 years old, and for people who have extra problems (such as asthma or pregnancy). As three of us fit those descriptions (asthma, not pregnancy!), we thought it a good idea to get shots. John lined up at 10, the doors opened at noon, and I arrived with the boys around 12:30 (after signing Jamie out from school) when it looked like John was getting close to the head of the line. The line slowed down, of course, at that point, but it wasn't a bad thing. The weather was fine, there were hundreds of kids (of course), and the children all ran and played with each other. Some people brought portable chairs, portable DVD players, toys, food, drinks, and friends, and while it wasn't exactly festive, it was a bearable wait. We finally had our shots and were out around 2:30, and dropped Jamie off at school. Unfortunately he missed being in his class photo (how did we not know about this?), but being protected from the flu is important too. It was a quiet evening, marked by Jamie finishing off his read-a-book on city birds, which was the longest book he's read to this point.

2009-10-30 24:00 (Kristen) Liam and Jamie were excited about wearing their Halloween costumes to their respective parties today. Liam was a dragon at Hakobune, and was very pleased when I put the costume on him before I left. When I got back, he had a little construction paper bag with chips and some candy, and was very pleased. When we left, however, he stepped into a puddle with his shoes on, and was in a progressively worse mood, whining and making uncharacteristically unhappy but nonspecific noises. He just wanted to go home, but was happy to have some candy when we went to Jamie's school to see the Halloween parade there. John was already in the school, as it was raining and the parade had to be held inside the halls. He says that Jamie looked very good (and he did), but received a lot of attention from the grade 5 and 6 kids, boys in particular, who all seem to know him. They called out his name when they saw him coming down the hall with his class, and gave him high fives. Apparently his reading buddy David is in this bunch, and Jamie has made a real impression on him and his friends. They play hide and go seek and tag at lunch sometimes, Jamie says. He also saw Ross, dressed as a wizard (as usual), and Ross, when he saw Jamie, shouted "Finger of Death!" Jamie, of course, made his saving throw. After the parade, we helped out a little with Jamie's Halloween party, then took Liam home. Liam wasn't feeling very well by this point, and by the time I came home from picking up Jamie from school, along with his friend Sam and his little brother Harry, Liam was quite unwell. He had a strong fever, and so we gave him some liquid Tylenol. This knocked him out for half an hour or more, and brought down the fever. He was feeling better by dinner time, but spent the evening watching Totoro and playing DS instead of going with John and Jamie to Browning for dinner. He was chipper when John and Jamie returned, but I could feel his fever wanting to come back, so it was more of the hated Tylenol ("I hate the taste, May-ee"). Jamie was asleep almost instantly, and Liam wasn't that far behind.

2009-10-31 23:18 (Kristen) Jamie went off to Nisshu Gakkuin today, but Liam stayed home with me instead of going to the market with John. He didn't sleep well last night, so it was thought best if he stayed home. This he did, and played DS, and watched a little more Totoro, but more Anpanman. While he did, I decorated the front porch so that it would be spoooooky when Jamie got back from school. John came in with the dire news that someone had stolen all the crap off our front porch. Hah. Jamie did, however, pronounce the house acceptably spooky. The rest of the afternoon was spent carving pumpkins and otherwise getting ready to go out. Liam's fever hadn't come back all day, so we let him get into his dragon costume, a perfect match for Jamie's knight costume, and the boys went out trick or treating with John while I stayed behind and handed out candy. They stayed out much longer than I expected, and Liam only came home, I suspect, because he was cold. Daniel was wearing his full armour, and so he and Jamie went out for a bit together, and they made a great pair. Eventually all costumed individuals and their parents were at home, eating candy. The boys don't eat chocolate, so they very generously gave me all their chocolate bars. They managed to not get many, as John told me Jamie said to each house "I'm allergic to chocolate," and was able to get alternative candies at most places. That's good, because I don't need that much chocolate, myself. The boys went to bed late, excited but happy.

2009-11-01 23:26 (Kristen) The boys were up very early this morning, and I had trouble keeping them in bed until a reasonable hour. They were wide eyed and bushy tailed, and talking Very Loudly until I finally got up, in a less than happy mood. I eventually figured out that it seemed so early because John had set the clocks back the night before for daylight savings time. So, we were all jetlagged by an hour or so. Aha. The boys played with their DSes, and with little remote controlled cars that our Scrabble friend Libero brought for them. It was a very quiet day, as per Jamie's request, broken only by a rare trip out for dinner, as we were all very tired for some reason and none of us wanted to cook. The boys were in bed again somewhat late, but not too badly so. Liam was having trouble sleeping again, so I fell asleep with him.

2009-11-02 23:30 (Kristen) I thought that it was just something comedians talked about kids doing, but Liam is happy to run through the house saying "Candy candy candy!" in his search for sweet things. He does understand, thankfully, that one does not eat candy for breakfast, and is willing to eat that meal first before setting out on his candy quest. Jamie was up at 8:14, as I slept in, but was game enough to make it to school on time despite a good deal of the hated rushing. Liam, on the other hand, slept until almost 10:20, which he clearly needed. He was in a fabulous mood when he woke up, and was happy to eat, chatter, and play a little with his beloved DS before going off to play soccer. "I'm going to kick the ball!" he said excitedly before setting off with John. I picked Jamie up from school, and when we found Ross, he and Jamie ran to Browning together. Ross even held Jamie's hand as they crossed the street, leaving Ken and me way behind. I joked that we weren't needed at all to bring the kids home! They went back to school after lunch the same way. I went home to look after Liam while John had lunch at Browning and did some work, and tried to feed Liam some lunch. He's still not that into food, but that would explain his total meltdown when I pried the DS away from him to go and pick up Jamie. He cried the whole way, and didn't calm down really until he'd eaten a bag of chips. Hmm. Afterward, we went over to Jake's for some candy and playtime, then back to Browning. The kids played while we made dinner, but then Jamie had to do homework. I went to Trivia after doing some reading with Jamie, but John says that he and Jamie worked on Japanese homework until 8:30. It sounded exhausting. They were still up when I got home a little before 10, so I was able to put the boys to bed. They didn't stay up long at all, but Liam's been waking up every ten to fifteen minutes, coughing. He's had a drink and put himself back to sleep a few times, but I feel like I'll be in there, sleeping with him again tonight.

2009-11-03 24:15 (Kristen) The end of daylight savings strikes again, as I was woken up by both boys being loud as crows in the morning, happy to be awake, and notifying me in their own ways that it was daytime, Mummy. It was also about 45 minutes earlier than I'm used to, and as I'd been up quite late the night before, I was no entirely happy about it. And yet, we soldier on. Jamie got to school on time and with a little to spare, and Liam was at Hakobune on time too. Wow! Liam greeted me with an enormous running, "leap-into-Mummy's-arms" hug, and I whisked him off home. I should mention that, instead of playing DS the entire ride there and back, we read Rhyming Dust Bunnies, which is Liam's favourite book right now. He also pounced on me to read Blueberries for Sal, which delighted me. Maybe the end of the DS obsession is in sight? There might be room for other pursuits? I live in hope! We went to pick up Jamie, played a little, and then Jamie went home with Gary (who happened by at the wrong time) while I went to get a few groceries at the Big Carrot with Liam. He fell asleep just as we approached our house, despite his protestations when prevented earlier that he wasn't sleepy and he wouldn't fall asleep, and was made to walk the last few metres home. Protest. However, it was close to 5:00, and a nap at that time would have been more than disasterous. The kids played, ate dinner here and there (it was far from an organized family meal night), and stayed home with John after I went a few houses over to go to my book club. John informs me that the new rule for nights when I'm out is that they only speak in Japanese when I'm not there. They forget every few minutes, of course, but then they remember and start again. I'm all in favour of this, and may use it was an excuse to go out. "Oh, don't you want a Japanese boys' night again? Don't the kids need some language practice?" We'll see. I came home to put the boys to bed with John, and they were bouncing off the walls. As I came upstairs, John was pretending to call me on my cell, saying to come home right NOW, and Liam delightedly pounced on me, saying that he *knew* I was coming home to put *him* to bed. The boys were asleep in less than ten minutes, which was a clear indication that it had been a long and satisfying day.

2009-11-04 21:52 (Kristen) In keeping with my new theory, I have started Liam's days with a rundown of what we're going to do. It seems to be working, and some of the transitioning problems we'd had have not been present. Yay! Got Jamie off to school in the morning, and Liam had a quiet morning playing DS and other things before Jamie came home for lunch with John. After lunch, Jamie went back to school and I took Liam to skating. He had another good class, but he was just wiped after 20 minutes on the ice, and had to come off. I could see him taking longer and longer to get off the ice each time he fell, so wasn't surprised when he skated to the gate and cried to come off. We went over to Jack's house, after Jack and Tom chorused that they wanted Liam to come over for a playdate. I went to find their brother Charlie and Jamie too and brought them back for a spell too. Jack, Charlie, and Tom all had H1N1, and are all well now, but are just starting to get back into their usual round of playdates. They're about crazy for company, so it was a raucous time, as the siblings have seen as much of each other as they can stand and were more than pleased to have someone else over to play with. We ran home to do homework with John, then had dinner. We did more homework after dinner, and Jamie was very tickled to see that a book he'd thought too hard a month ago was now very easy (Danny and the Dinosaur). Liam didn't get much attention, unfortunately, as he'd wanted it, but we all watched Robot Repairman (Backyardigans) together before a short play with Gary and bathtime/bed.

I forgot to mention that Jamie forgot his coat yesterday in the school. We found it in the lost and found after school, but later, when I was talking with another parent, I pointed him out. "Oh, THAT's Jamie!" she exclaimed, and said, "He's very silly, isn't he?" After confessing that yes, he was, she said that she'd seen him at lunch (on a cold day) without his coat and asked him where it was. He looked up and said, "Umm...I forgot it? Umm...I ate it?" and ran off. That would be my son.

2009-11-05 23:07 (Kristen) Tonight, when I brought a complaining Liam up to the bath, he protested to his dad that he wanted to play his DS. John explained that I hadn't allowed the DS into the bathroom in case it got wet and was broken. Wouldn't that make Liam sad? "My already sad," Liam replied. The pits of three-year-old despair.

It was a quiet day, all things considered. Jamie did manage to finish off the rest of his Japanese homework for the week, and Liam is showing signs of emerging from his Kirby obsession. They're both starting to get me to read to them more, which is fine by me.

2009-11-06 23:42 (Kristen) Jamie had a big day, with a trip to see the play Alice in Wonderland in the morning, with his class and a big playdate at his friend Sam's (referred to in the family as a "big fat playdate" since it's gonna be big with lots of kids). He tells me that he ate pizza and had ice cream for dessert, and it sounds like it was a total blast. He was exhausted when he was dropped off at Browning at 7:30. Liam had a great time at Hakobune, and put up with me dragging him to the library, toy store, book store, and grocery store. He loves the library and makes sure that we go home with a stack of books for him, and always expects a book will be bought for him when we go to the bookstore. He made sure that we bought the raisin bread by holding onto it and refusing to put it back. He certainly ate two pieces when we got home as snack, so it was the right thing to do. By the time we got home, he was tired but still in a good mood. Both kids were more than ready for bed when we got home, and fell asleep in about five minutes flat.

2009-11-07 22:22 (Kristen) Jamie woke up at the usual time, had breakfast, and complained that he didn't want to go to school this morning. I didn't take much notice, but brushed my arm against his forehead as he was going upstairs to brush his teeth. Uh oh. I asked John to confirm, and we agreed that he had a fever and should stay home. So, it was a somewhat irregular Saturday, as both boys were home and John was out at a Scrabble tournament. We managed to stay in without any real meltdowns or trauma, and without too many declarations of "I'm bored!" I pulled out a "excavate your own velociraptor" kit of Jamie's, which kept us busy for a good part of the day pulling plastic dinosaur bones from a block of plaster. Liam played with his DS, helped a little to brush away "dirt" from our dinosaur bones, and watching "Robot Repairman" (Backyardigans) over and over as much as he was allowed. Jamie's fever remained low but present, but he had no other symptoms and was both functional and in a good mood. We had dinner, and watched some "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" before John's return, and bedtime.

2009-11-08 23:42 (Kristen) I fell asleep with Liam last night, but Jamie ended up with John after having a nightmare or two. The boys were up by 7:48 (if I recall Jamie's announcement correctly), and John was off to his Scrabble tournament by 9:30 or so. I was pretty sure that Liam was going to explode spontaneously if we didn't go out, and so we arranged to have our friends Peter, Leslie, and Simon come over for lunch and a playdate. Both Jamie and Liam exploded simultaneously as we were trying to get out the door, and I was both unhappy and unimpressed with this, but we managed to get them out the door and down to the Detroit Eatery for lunch. Jamie managed to keep a rather impressive grump out until we reached Jackman, then more or less gave it up in the face of a beautiful day. Liam's meltdown was largely a reflection of Jamie's, as he was upset that Jamie was upset, and insisted on holding Jamie's hand until Jamie felt better. We stopped off to see an open house for a newly renovated home near Jamie's school, and Jamie and Liam both enjoyed running through a large uncluttered home with lots of doors and closets. Jamie asked it we could buy it, and I told him that we could if Mummy won the lottery last night (which I do doubt). This led to an explaination of what lotteries were until Jamie got bored and we headed out to get our lunch. The boys ate suprisingly little of their food but did hoover back half a strawberry milkshake each and steal some of Simon's onion rings. Then it was off to the playground to burn off more steam, which they did. Jamie did manage to give himself a really impressive lump just above his right temple on a gate lock, which occasioned me running across the street to the Second Cup for a cup of ice to bring down the swelling. It did, but he has a really impressive lump still, with a bit of a contusion. Ouch. We went home after an hour or so, and waved goodbye to Simon and his parents as they went on to their next engagement. Dinner was haphazard as my initial meal didn't work out, and we were all happy to see John when he got home from the tournament. We were all pretty tired by this point, and so it was an early bath and into bed. Both boys were asleep by 9:30, which was very very good for all.

2009-11-09 22:07 (Kristen) We've got Party Week here at our house, with my dad's birthday today, John's mother's tomorrow, and Jamie's on Wednesday. John has his usual Scrabble night on Wednesday, and we usually have a separate party for Jamie and Sai, but there were other people to factor in and it became Complicated. So, at the last minute, we decided to have a party for Jamie over at Browning with the Browning crowd. Liam went with John to soccer, while I took Jamie to Browning for lunch, then Gary dropped Jamie off at school while I took over Liam after he ate lunch at Browning post soccer. The afternoon was spent shopping for presents for this, that, and the other child, and then realizing that I'd forgotten to buy cake and had no more time, so John had to run out and buy some. Jamie had an impromptu playdate with Aidan, so John and I took Liam for a quick checkup (all systems A-OK) after his long cold and then went to Browning to wrap presents and otherwise prep for a usual dinner. I already had plans to go and play pub trivia tonight, so we really had to rush. Jamie was suprised, although he said that the minute the lights went down, he knew that there would be cake (for him). John had found a table top hockey set at the Games Convention on the weekend, for an excellent price, so we gave it to Jamie for his birthday. It certainly wasn't what I would have picked for Jamie to like, but everyone had a fabulous time with it, and it was a real hit. Hooray! I'd gone to trivia by the time they were playing, but heard all about it. The boys were still awake when I got back home at 10:20, but Jamie must have fallen asleep earlier as only Liam was asleep when I got upstairs. He took about ten minutes to calm down enought to sleep, but it still was waaayyyy too late.

I forgot to add that today was a beautiful day, with the temperatures in the high teens (Celsius), and I was thinking all day about how the 9th of November, 2003 was exactly like this. I was out raking leaves, taking a chance to get some work done before the baby was born, and everyone told me "Oh, you'll have the baby soon!" I was "Yeah, right, the baby'd be a week early!" Sure enough, I was in labour the next day, and Jamie was born the day after that. But today was just like that day, and I remember how I felt so very clearly.

2009-11-10 22:36 (Kristen) John had a five-minute conversation with Jamie about how you get someone to marry you. "How do you *know*?" he wondered, and John explained that you would likely know because you've been spending a lot of time with this person. Then Jamie wanted to know how proposals worked, exactly, and so John asked him about his prospects. "I could get Makaiya to marry me," Jamie said. "Maybe." John reminded him that he had a lot of time, and that he'd know when the time came. "OK," he said, "but I think that it will be Makaiya."

Today was a Jackman/Hakobune day, and the boys both made it off to school/daycare without incident. Afterwards, I realized that it was my last chance to pick up a piece for part of Jamie's actual day of birth present (a binder with card sleeves for his Pokemon cards for easier display, access, and transport), and made Liam walk all the way from Hakobune to Bathurst and Bloor (over a kilometre, for sure). He complained for part of it, but enjoyed the walk over new and unfamiliar edges, ledges, and benches. Beside the comic store that was our ultimate destination was a toy store I'd forgotten about, and which contained a copy of the old version of Battleship: almost impossible to get, now that the new hexagonal version is available. We played a lot of Battleship over the summer, and Jamie has really wanted a copy of his own, so voila! Luck! I picked it up. We picked up the rest of our things, and Liam was getting pretty tired by this point and so we went home. We went out soon after to get Jamie, and Liam did not step out of the wagon once in the playground. John met up with us and we went home for homework before going to John's parents' house for dinner. It was John's mother's 76th birthday, and we celebrated with takeout Indian food from John's mother's favourite Indian restaurant. Yum. The kids had fun seeing her and being back in their house, as we haven't visited with them much since she's been ill. The boys played the piano, and Jack taught Jamie how to play 'Chopsticks." Once home, we had another rousing game of table hockey with Gary and Ayami, complete with yelling, cheering, and trash talk, before it was early to bed. I think that Jamie took less than five minutes to fall asleep, and Liam not much longer than that. Boy, were they tired.

2009-11-11 46:57 (Kristen) Jamie was up early this morning, and indignant that I hadn't wished him a happy birthday as he crawled over me to get out of bed. I told him that I was still asleep, and wished him a happy birthday, and that was all right. He was excited about opening his presents later in the day, but first we had to take him to the dentist for an emergency appointment when he knocked a filling out of a front tooth. I first heard of it when John called downstairs less than half an hour after I'd dropped Jamie off at school, telling me that the school had called, Jamie had chipped a tooth, and was all right but scared and wanted a parent there. I ran back out the door and sure enough, he'd knocked the filling out of a front tooth he'd had a pulpectomy on when he was 2. It took up about half the tooth, so it looked quite startling. Poor boy and his poor dad went off to the dentist for an assessment, and, as he's in no pain, they'll rebuild the tooth in a week or two. In the meantime, no tough, chewy foods like bagels for him. Vicky, the receptionist, did give him a birthday muffin, however, and he got to have a sushi lunch with his dad at the Eaton Centre, which wasn't bad, before going back to school.

In the meantime, Liam and I watched some of the Remembrance Day ceremonies on television and ran outside to see four vintage warplanes fly by after their 11:00 flyby downtown. It was a pretty mellow morning for us before going out to skating, which was not a great success. He was in a cheerful, happy, excited mood, all ready to skate, until it was time to go onto the ice. Then: he balked. Like a mule. There was no way he was going onto the ice. He claimed that skating was too easy, and that he was afraid of falling. I have no idea what happened. He eventually went onto the ice for about the last fifteen minutes of class, but it wasn't an enthusiastic fifteen minutes. Afterwards, we played with Tom and Jack at their house, and Jamie came over too to play with their older brother, Charlie. John picked us up, we went home for food and homework, and then settled in for a quiet evening while John went to Scrabble.

John came home early, however, so that Jamie could open his birthday presents with all of us. We gave him the first season of Dr. Who, the next three volumes of Bone, and a clear blue plastic binder with plastic sheets inside to hold Pokemon cards, with two new packs of Pokemon cards. I'd put all of his Pokemon cards (minus the new ones) into the pockets, so they're all arranged for display and easy access. The binder was his favourite gift, and he was absolutely delighted to have it. Jamie and I have had a long talk about how Pokemon card trades are supposed to work, so that he won't get fleeced by the bigger kids in the playground, and I'm pretty sure that he's prepared. It's not like any of the kids play; they just trade cards back and forth...but it was the simplest thing that Jamie was most happy with. And that was cool.

2009-11-12 23:10 (Kristen) Liam's nose was running this morning, and Jamie's fighting a cough. Can we please recover from the old viruses before new ones take their places? It meant that Liam, in particular, was in a mercurial mood. One minute he was sunshine and the next the world was coming to an end, or (worse) he just kept up a low-level stream of complaints. Not really like him, but no fun for anyone. Jamie had a good day, but lost two larger paper components of his Pokemon game in the schoolyard. We'll likely get new ones from his friends for his borthday, so I'm holding off on any replacements until then. In the meantime, the kids spent a quiet day at home after school. Jamie and Gary played table hockey, and Jamie disappeared downstairs to play with Gary and Ayami for a little while longer than I realized. When I went to get him, he was tired and very grumpy, and it was less good than usual to drag him upstairs. Liam, this time, fell asleep in less than five minutes, while it took Jamie much longer to fall asleep, after a long long conversation about this and that.

The latest linguistic game in the house is to read a bath book with pictures of a cow, a house, a cat, and so on, and to state what the picture is in English, Japanese, and Spanish (thank you, Go Diego Go!). They look at a picture, and say "Mummy says..." (children then chorus, "Cow!"), "Papa says..." (children chorus, "Ushi!"), and "Diego dice..." (children yell "Vaca!"). Liam, in particular, is acquiring a small arsenal of Spanish words, which is rather fascinating.

2009-11-13 21:54 (Kristen) Today was a professional development (PD) day at school, so the kids were all off for a long weekend. This meant that I took Jamie with us when Liam and I went to Hakobune, and Jamie was able to say hello to the teachers there. He was oddly reluctant to go, and I got it out of him that he missed his friends and teachers; I imagine that he felt odd going back and knowing that he wasn't going to be there himself anymore. Liam stopped for a moment and I thought we might have a scene when he realized that Jamie wasn't going in too, but it was all right. Jamie and I went to Starbucks, like we did this summer, where Jamie played on his DS and mused that it was amazing that two people could become friends over a DS (him and Sadaru). We read some Bone, then went for lunch with John ad Nataraj and made faces at Gary through the window at BMV. John drove us to pick up Liam and drove us all home before going off to some appointments of his own. The rest of the day was pretty low energy, but the energy ramped up again when we went over to Browning for dinner. Much fun and mayhem ensued, then it was time for home, and bed. Liam has Rhyming Dust Bunnies almost completely memorized, and I need a copy of our own, stat.

2009-11-14 47:04 (Kristen) Jamie made it to school this morning, and John made it to the market to pick up our groceries. When he came back, we had a bank appointment and had to take Liam with us. He was good as gold for the long time we were there, playing with his DS and checking in with us on occasion to make sure that we were still there and still loved him--check, back to his DS. We put him in the office one over because (for a series of long and silly reasons) the office we were in did not have an outlet for his DS charger. We finished up, picked up things for Jamie's party tomorrow, and then decided on the spur of the moment to go and get Jamie en famille. Liam started to complain that he was feeling sick, halfway up, but it really meant "I'm falling asleep now! Clunk." D'oh. John went and played with Jamie after school for a bit while Liam slept in the car for about an hour and a half. Sigh. He woke up when we got to Loblaws for more party supplies, and was in a pretty good mood. As he'd not been in all that good a mood, good behaviour at the bank aside, the nap was good. We got home, and vegged out for the rest of the day, all of us tired tired. Liam, of course, took a little while to fall asleep because, well, he'd had a nap.

2009-11-15 23:08 (Kristen) Jamie was crazy excited that it was his class party today, and we had about sixteen children show up at Playground Paradise (you don't think that I would have sixteen six-year-olds in my *house*, do you?!) for the festivities. Jamie was very happy and the kids ran until they were just about to lose it when we called them in for snacks. Then it was back out to the playground to play for another half an hour before cake. We had a Star Trek ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, which hit the spot for almost everyone. Yum! Then it was more play before it was time to go. The kids were great, no one was hurt seriously (various bumps and bruises, of course), and Daniel earned a few crateloads of karma points by offering himself as a target to overwound, oversugared kids. It was all good. Jamie spent the afternoon unwrapping presents, and was delighted with them. We have a house full of new toys with teeny tiny parts, so I'll be reorganizing the toys soon to make room for them. We spent the afternoon in a bit of a daze before going to John's parents' house for dinner with them and John's aunts to celebrate all the various birthdays in the family this month. Jamie got a Battleship game from his grandparents, and proceeded to beat his grandfather at it, much to his intense delight. We had fortune cookies, and had a hilarious round of "What's your fortune?" Liam's was "Others love your dramatic side," while Jamie's was the accurate "Friends are more valuable than money." As Jamie's real wish for his birthday was to have a big party with his friends, I'm happy that it came true. The stuff is nice, but friends are where it's at, and he seems to have a nice bunch of them.

Needless to say, the boys were unconscious in about two minutes flat when the lights went out tonight.

2009-11-16 10:11 (Kristen) I forgot to mention, last night, that Liam made us all laugh when we were over at John's parents' house by yelling "Otooo--san!" from the living room when he wanted John's attention. It's the first time he's called John "Dad" in Japanese (although Otosan is formal enough that it could be "father"). He understood everything Hari-kun's mom said to him in Japanese yesterday, and his teachers at Hakobune are saying that he's speaking much more Japanese now. I think that all the Sailor Moon book reading is, in part, paying off. He was speaking Japanese reflexively, I think, last night because he heard other people speaking it, but the inflexion and tone he had in his "Otoooo-san!" was very funny.

2009-11-17 23:09 (Kristen) This morning, Liam insisted (unusually) on accompanying me and Jamie to school. As it was 8:35, we were leaving, and Liam was still in his pajamas, this posed a problem until I decided to put his sneakers on without socks, and let him come in his coat and pajamas. I wrapped a blanket around his legs and put him into the wagon, and problem solved. He had fun at soccer, and Jamie had fun at school, and all was well. In the evening, we were over at Browning for dinner. Simon, Peter, and Leslie were there, and Liam and Simon had fun playing with Tom. At one point, Jamie and Liam were attacking Basil, Ross's friend who was also over for dinner, and Liam kept yelling "Demon fang! Demon fang!" This is, apparently, a spell in the video game "Song of Symphonia," and Liam has picked up on it as a thing to yell at a person while attacking them. Good grief. A good time was had by all, and the boys were in bed far too late, again. Tomorrow night, we'll have to go to bed much earlier or it will be Not Good.

Please note that John has been working feverishly to update the photos of the boys in the blog, and that we are now Up To Date. We've also sorted out some problems with missing entries (some fixable, some requiring rewrites), and we hope that everything is Peachy Keen, Hunky Dory now with the blog as a whole.

2009-11-18 25:18 (Kristen) Liam was fine this morning with staying home while I took Jamie to school, and decided that he wanted to stay home all day to play DS instead of going to Hakobune. Not an option. There was some yelling, tears, and general protest as I hauled him off to the bus stop, but I explained when he was still crying on the bus that this was not on, and why, and he gulped back the tears and stopped. Strangely rational sometimes, is Liam, but you can never really comfortably predict it. He brightened up, of course, by the time we got to the daycare, and he ran off as usual without a second glance. John and I picked him up afterwards, did a little shopping, then headed for home. He got to play his DS for an hour or so as I ran errands in the neighbourhood and he got to sit in the wagon. More than one adult looked at him, enviously. We got Jamie, and came home for some intense Papa time before he leaves on his long, two-week-long trip tomorrow. Liam is, I think, more sensitive to this departure than before, and is insisting on more personal time, or he could just be crabby in general. Jamie is an old hand, and knows that he'll get to talk with John on Skype, so it's not all bad. John's mom came by and Jamie did some Japanese reading with her. There was some intense World of Goo playing, I think, with John and boys, and then it was bedtime. This required one last game of Bath Towel Vampires, but Liam pointed out that he is allergic to purple bath towels, and therefore cannot be turned into a vampire by Jamie (who was wearing a purple bath towel). We wonder where this idea of "being allergic" to something made it into the mind of our three-year-old boy...

2009-11-19 23:18 (Kristen) John left this morning for a two-week trip in Asia (Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore). His taxi arrived after he walked Jamie to school, and played one final level of Kirby with Liam. He got a kiss from Liam and a hug too. Liam and I hung out for a bit, then picked Jamie up at school for lunch. We had lunch, dropped Jamie off at school, then went to skating. The instructors pulled out the glider again, as Liam was somewhat apprehensive about going back onto the ice, and he spent most of the class with it again. I think he just needed a little confidence again. When he wanted to get off the ice, I told him that he could if he skated to the red line and back without it. He did, and didn't fall, which ended the class on a good note for him.

We played over at Charlie, Jack and Tom's house afterwards, and Jamie came along too for what has been a Wednesday afternoon tradition. Unusually we didn't have to head back early to do homework before John went to Scrabble, so we were home around 5:30 or so. We, daringly, did homework after dinner and it worked out. It helped that it was math, which Jamie can do in a heartbeat. This page took longer because there was colouring involved. As recompense, we did some timed addition practice, and Jamie tore through 40 very simple (x+1) addition questions in a little more than a minute and a half. He liked that. Liam did some mazes earlier in the day, and I'm hoping to get him back into the habit of working when Jamie does. It was later than it should have been when we got to bed, as I was pretty tired and losing track of time too easily.

2009-11-20 22:28 (Kristen) My alarm was set at the right time, but my morning routine fell apart quicker than I would have liked. We did manage to catch John on Skype this morning aorund 8, when he was about to go to bed in Japan. It made the kids happy, but I fell behind in my appointed tasks and got Jamie to school just as the second bell sounded. Gleep. Liam and I, after what was a stressful departure from the house in pouring rain, wandered over to McDonalds for an apple juice and a sausage McMuffin. Liam was cute and remarkably quiet as he wolfed the whole thing and ate some of my hash browns besides. He never eats the hash browns. Sigh. It's not like I needed the calories anyway... I dropped him off at Hakobune, and note that it's the first time in ages that he didn't ask to play his DS on the subway, even though I'd put him into the stroller for ease of movement (for me). He, in fact, didn't remember it until we were on the subway on the way home. In the meantime, Mrs. Sasaki told me that Liam has joined in the Christmas pageant rehearsals (last year he completely refused) and has been dancing and singing. He's been dancing around the house lately, with lots and lots of spins, and he does like singing. Cool! We went to Book City because he asked to, after a few errands, but he wasn't interested in the books by the time we got there. We had a bathroom break, picked up some groceries at the Big Carrot, and went to get Jamie. Jamie came out into the rain wearing his sneakers and no coat, so we went inside for another Liam bathroom break and to dress Jamie properly. Jamie is excited because his class is going to have a baby from Roots of Empathy visiting (Wyatt) next week. I reminded him that Liam had been a Roots of Empathy baby, and Jamie asked why he wasn't one too. This required explanation that babies in the program have to be a certain age by November, and Jamie hadn't been born until November. OK, he'd concede that one. We went home, vegged, ate dinner, and then did homework and wrote out thank you cards for birthday presents. We had a long Skype session with John (almost like being there but you don't have to wipe bottoms), and then I put the boys into the bath early. Liam by this point was crazy tired, and had his impulse control on Off. It was just better that way, and he fell asleep pretty quickly. Jamie took longer, but it still wasn't all that long.

2009-11-21 23:18 (Kristen) Our morning was made much much easier by Tom's offer to drive Jamie up to Nisshu Gakkuin. Yay, Tom! I think that Jamie enjoyed himself. Liam and I folded laundry (rather, I folded laundry and Liam didn't knock it over too much), and chatted a little with John on Skype. We picked Jamie up at school, played a bit in the playground, and when plagued by hunger and caffeine withdrawal, we went and had a quick snack at Starbucks. Home again by four, then off to Browning for dinner at 6. We stayed for quite a long time, enjoying a quiet evening of video games and company before Tom helped me to bring the kids home. We had a quick bath, after which I combed the kids' hair. Jamie laughed at the wing appearance of Liam's hair when I combed it back smoothly, and laughed even harder when I did it to his hair. "I look like Malfoy!" he laughed, and I had to admit that I'd been thinking the same thing. But our Jamie won't be in Slytherin House, that's for sure! It was a day that went more easily with friends. Both boys are crazy excited that Grammie is coming tomorrow, and we're all looking forward to her safe arrival.

2009-11-22 23:28 (Kristen) Today was spent largely in anticipation of Grammie's arrival. Jamie declared that he was *so* excited that he could hardly stand it, and Liam kept asking when Grammie was going to be here. I had plans to take them to a playground in the afternoon, but Jamie begged to be allowed to stay home. Since he runs about so much normally, I didn't see a problem with that until later. The boys played a lot of DS and did a little of this and that for the day until Grammie arrived. Then the smiles were large, and the pouncing was great, and they were delighted to have her here. I had gone out in the morning to pick up something and the boys had spent the morning with Gary and Ayami, so after Jamie did his homework with Ayami in the evening, I said no going downstairs. We excavated some velociraptor, and then the boys discovered that their brother was a fun person to play with. They spent about half an hour running around the house like mad wild things, pretending to be pirates and laughing nonstop the whole time. Liam was most definitely a pirate if you asked him about it. "Are you the Dread Pirate Liam?" "YES!" The boys have plans for Grammie for this trip. Pirates may or may not be involved. At 8:00, I decided that it was time to wind down, and put the boys into the bath and read them books/let them watch Anpanman. The lights were out a little after 9, and they definitely needed the 8:00 stop time to wind down at that time. Jamie fell asleep pretty quickly, but Liam flopped and tossed for a little while before finally falling asleep.

2009-11-23 22:04 (Kristen) I forgot to mention that, when my mother arrived yesterday, she was in such a hurry to get out of the house that she forgot her suitcase. However, a veteran traveler, she had her toiletries and sundries in another bag. She had just exclaimed that she at least had some underwear, when we heard from the next room "Underwear!" and a huge laugh. That was Liam, in a startlingly quick display of preschool wit. It was quite funny. "Underwear!" *snehsnehsneh* Grammie watched Liam while I took Jamie to school, and then we hung out until it was time to take Liam to soccer. Liam was not entirely focused on his game, running about then coming to me to ask for a snack, a cuddle, or just to check in. My mother says that I did the same thing at his age when I was in ballet class. Liam had two collisions with other kids that more or less ended the class for him, but he was all right in time to join the final circle and get a sticker on his hand. We then went to Winners to get some clothes for my mom, and Liam ate a fair amount of chicken curry from a west Indian curry place in the food court nearby. While in the mall, Liam insisted on getting (but was denied, gently) a very shiny pink purse and a pair of white and pink winter boots. I explained that we weren't buying anything today, but he was still heartbroken temporarily when we left the stores without them. They were pretty, and my son likes pretty things. We went back home, and I picked Jamie up after school. The weather was turning cold, so he didn't mind too much that I asked him to come home. In the meantime, Sam gave Jamie a birthday present (Mario Power Tennis for the Wii!) and they made a playdate for Wednesday. Once home, Jamie did some homework with Ayami and with me before we went to Browning for dinner. Tonight was the Big Experiment: I went to trivia, leaving Grammie to take the boys home (with help from Tom and Gary), and put them to bed Without Mummy or Papa. I had a great time at trivia, and came home with a feeling of some trepidation, wondering what I would open the door to. First I couldn't open the door because Grammie locked it, but once in I was greeted with: silence. Both boys went to sleep for Grammie like little angels. Wow. No fuss, no bother. It was the first time that the boys went to bed for anyone other than me or John, and apparently Jamie declared that he was going to stay awake for me and wait just before he fell asleep. Liam took a little longer, and asked for me, but it was more a statement than a demand. He too fell asleep. What a feeling of liberation. I think that I could do this again!

2009-11-24 22:16 (Kristen) Today was Jamie's dentist appointment to fix his front tooth, which he was happy about and nervous about at the same time. His appointment was at the awkward time of 11:15, as we had to drop Liam off at Hakobune at 10. Rather than do a whole bunch of driving back and forth, we decided to just take Jamie with us. He enjoyed a mellow morning at Starbucks with Grammie and me, and then was a star at the dentist. I lay on the chair and Jamie lay on top of me, and our dentist, Dr. DaCosta, was very patient and informative with Jamie. I think that the hardest part for Jamie, in truth, was not being able to ask questions for part of the procedure as he needed to keep his mouth open in a particular position at that point. He did very well, and I was proud of him. We took him for pizza for lunch, as it was lunchtime, and then picked up Liam. We brought Jamie back to school, then took Liam home. Grammie went to get Jamie, and brought him home for some more homework with Ayami. Liam had woken up early (7:30?), and so was so tired by 8:00, when I had the boys watching So You Think You Can Dance? ("I don't want to watch this!"..."Hey! This is cool! Let's dance too!") that he was rather out of control. Grammie was having dinner out with Auntie Millie at the time, so I bathed the boys quickly and sent Jamie to spend time with Gary and Ayami while I got No Impulse Control and Totally Irrational Boy to sleep by 9:15.

2009-11-25 22:23 (Kristen) It was so dark this morning when I woke up, late, that it looked like it was barely dawn. The clouds were a heavy gray, and it drizzled on and off all day: a textbook example of a dreary November day. The boys had a hard time waking up too, both of them in bed with me after Liam wet himself in the night (possibly forgot to take off his pants on the toilet; I'm not sure how he did it because he was quite wet, but his bed was dry) and came in with me for comfort, and Jamie showed up in the early morning. I got Jamie off to school, arranged a playdate for tomorrow with Jake and Charlie over, then went back to work while Grammie babysat Liam. In fact, Grammie made coffee, did dishes, watched Liam, and made lunch while I worked. This must be what life is like with a wife; I could get used to this. In case it isn't clear, I really appreciate my mom. Jamie had a pizza day lunch, so he wasn't home for lunch, and he had a playdate with Sam after school, so I didn't see him again until I picked him up at 6:45. In the meantime, we took Liam to skating, where he once again dug deep down and managed to both stay on the ice the entire time and skate without his glider for the end. He was pleased as pleased could be with himself. We got a doughnut at Tim Horton's for him (a classically Canadian thing to do after a trip to the arena), then headed home for more Grammie time and work for Mom. It sounds like they had a good time together. I got Jamie, did homework with him, and let the boys play like hysterically happy things with the collapsable tunnel before we started to let them wind down, play Battleship with Gary, and get ready for bed. They still took a while to fall asleep, despite a long story time, and I hope that they sleep well. They were pretty tired today, but that was in part because of the low pressure and dim light from the weather, which meant that I had to have house lights on during the middle of the day. I hope that tomorrow's weather is nicer.

2009-11-26 22:33 (Kristen) I took Liam off to Hakobune this morning while Mom relaxed and did some necessary shopping around the Danforth. Jamie went to school happily and with no trouble. I forgot to mention that he had Scientist in the School yesterday, and was bubbling forth on energy sources after I asked him. He had a good time. Liam had the usual "I don't want to go!" reaction to leaving the house and the usual good time at Hakobune. I brought him home, where he played with the tunnel, cushions, and other objects until it was time to go grocery shopping and to pick up Jamie, Charlie, and Jake. The kids all played around for about 45 minutes outside the school with Michael and Isabelle, and then came home to warm up. I fed them at 5:00, which was just the right time. Jake went home at 6, and Charlie's mom came soon after to get him. John's parents dropped by with some food, and stopped to chat for a bit, which was nice. Jamie did his homework with Ayami, finishing for the week except for some reading. He then played a little Wii with Liam before heading off to Browning for a short playtime with the Finnish son of a friend (relative?) of Tom's. Alexi doesn't speak any English, and Tom reports that any linguistic awkwardness was forgotten in a rousing game of "Attack the Tom." Jamie was home by 9, and the boys were immediately popped into the bath for a shampoo and rinse, and straight into bed. They were asleep around 10:00.

2009-11-27 21:42 (Kristen) Once again it was the mad rush out the door, but Jamie is getting better at understanding how much time he has from the time he gets up to the time we have to leave. He wasn't happy about not riding his bike to school today (strong possibility of rain, not going home after school), and complained bitterly about it until I got him distracted by asking him how to spell words like "stop," "go," and "run." He's still learning how to listen for vowels. I ran back, got Grammie and Liam, and headed out to Hakobune. We arrived on time, dropped off the Liam, and picked him up again at 1:00. He was happy and cheerful, as always, and happy to see us. We went to do a little shopping, then headed home to drop off things before picking up Jamie at school. We had been invited to Liam's friend the Dread Pirate Simon's birthday party, which was to start at four. As the Dread Pirate Simon lives in a different part of the city, we grabbed Jamie and headed out across town. The boys handled the drive well, and Jamie passed the time by telling me about Wyatt, the baby who is coming into his class as part of Roots of Empathy, and what he could do (or not do). This led, unexpectedly, into Jamie asking me to tell him things about my life from before he was born. I told him one or two things, and he asked me to tell him some more before we wandered off into some other topic, but I liked that he was curious. We arrived at Simon's, where the kids played with Simon and his friends, decorated cookies with icing and a billion trillion sprinkles. and ate pizza and some fabulous gelato from La Paloma. As Simon's mom put it, "After looking online at ice cream cakes for half an hour, I remembered that I lived near La Paloma and why was I not just going there?" Good choice, totally. The boys had a lovely time, and we pulled them out, despite still going strong, around 6:20. We got home around half an hour later, then let them organize their own time until 8:45. At that point, I noticed that Jamie's face was practically ghostly (under the remnants of gelato, pizza, and icing). Up to bed we went, where the boys were fast asleep by 9:20 or so. They were both hysterically tired, and I think that we avoided a total meltdown of epic proportions on both sides by milliseconds.

We received a postcard from John two days ago with a picture of Tokyo and Mount Fuji on it, and the boys were very happy to see it. We are wondering if any more postcards might be on their way?

2009-11-28 23:04 (Kristen) We piled into the car to drive Jamie up to Nisshu Gakkuin this morning. We got Jamie to class almost exactly on time, and I got a moment to chat with his teacher (whose name I consistently forget). She asked me who was Japanese in the family, as I clearly don't look Japanese, and I explained it was through Jamie's dad. I can't read if she's just curious, or if there are other levels to the question that I'm missing. I went back to the car to find Grammie and Liam, and we went to the local Starbucks. When I came back, Liam had taken apart the card and chip for his DS, despite repeated warnings not to do so, and I spent a bad minute or two looking for a tiny little chip until Liam informed me that he was sitting on it. After his dropping the thing and cracking the case (not fully, but still...) and jamming cards into the DS the wrong way, I'd had enough. I explained that I was taking it away for a little while, and that was more or less that. He went the rest of the day without his DS, and spent it watching television with Grammie and playing games with Jamie. He survived surprisingly well, actually. What little DS time he had was when he looked over Jamie's shoulder as Jamie played, but I put Jamie's DS up high as Liam is also forbidden his brother's DS. This is because Liam keeps erasing all of Jamie's progress at Kirby's Squeak Squad, and I'm tired of that as well. Jamie is too, but he was very good and understanding about it. Liam also defaulted to playing with the Wii, and made Grammie play with him as I was upstairs, working to meet a deadline. Grammie reports that Liam, frustrated with Grammie, at one point leaned forward slowly and put his face into his hands. Very funny. In the evening, after we picked up Jamie, played at the playground, picked up a donut at Tim Horton's and went home, Grammie made dinner and I played Ladybirds with the boys. They were pretty tired, so I put them into the bath early and we read before bed. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

2009-11-29 23:46 (Kristen) It was gray and gloomy today, and we needed to turn lights on in the house to read and do much of anything. Jamie was up around 7:45, and Liam was fussing around 8:00. I went in with Liam, and managed to stay in bed with him until closer to 9; then they started to climb all over me or play video games nearby, and that was that. We lazed in our pajamas into the early afternoon, while Grammie watched Christmas movies on YTV with Jamie and Liam. The boys played together very well all day, but were more than a little wound up by 3:00. We went out to run a few errands and had lunch at Harvey's. Jamie devoured his whole burger and some fries, while Liam ate fries, ketchup, and the bun and cheese parts of his burger. The burger itself got nibbled but not much else. We also picked up some Timbits, on Jamie's particular insistence. Once home in the pouring rain (the sky was green, and it felt like living under water), I came downstairs to find Jamie watching Home Alone. I stayed with him to explain the movie, which he'd just turned on: why the boy was home alone, and that the violence was cartoonish, like Team Rocket blasting off on Pokemon, even though it was live action. Glad I did. In the evening, we went off to Browning for some chicken katsu and fun with the Browningites. When we got home, Jamie did a little Japanese homework with Ayami, then it was off to bed. Liam, for some reason, couldn't sleep and tossed and turned until 10:20. No idea why.

2009-11-30 23:03 (Kristen) Despite going to sleep a little late last night, the boys were up early. Why, I have no idea. I got Jamie off to school, then came home to some light housework with Mom. Liam is on Day 2 of No DS, and coped by playing Wii and playing with toys. There are toys all over the place, but he's having a good time. Grammie and I took Liam to his last soccer class of the year, and then off to Tim Horton's for lunch. He liked his bagel and cream cheese, but was looking a little tired. We went to Winners to look for some sheets for the boys' room, and Liam was off and running all over the store. He tried on shoes, much to the amusement of the people around him, oohed and aahed at the pretty dresses and things, and hid amongst the clothes (which I remember doing too as a kid). However, his goodnatured hijinks soon turned into an expression of fatigue, so we headed home. Grammie looked after the boys for a good deal of the rest of the afternoon while I replaced a toilet seat in the bathroom. The boys were tired when we went to Browning, but Liam was exhausted to the point of acting out blindly, in that overstimulated toddler way he still has. We got dinner into the boys but Liam melted down on Daniel and Gary twice, and was only consoled by Tom playing World of Goo with him. I had trivia (we won the semi-finals, for those following along), so Grammie once again became My Heroine by taking the kids home and putting them to bed by 9:00. They were asleep a little after 9, I think, and she says that the boys asked where I was. She told them, and told them when I was expected back. They then fell asleep. Amazing.

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.

2009-12-08 24:15 (Kristen) We decided, after Liam had a bad night, to keep him home. We also kept him home because his eye was red, swollen, and glued shut with evil green goo, requiring me to make an appointment with our doctor right away after I dropped Jamie off at school and her office opened. Dealing with Liam in the morning meant that I had to drop Jamie's lunch off later in the morning, but that was fine; it was his Pokeball lunchbox, which suited him just fine. I picked him up after school and brought him home right away so that he could do homework and suchlike. Liam stayed behind with John, and the boys played while I prepared the outside of the house for an oncoming storm. The evening itself was quiet, with homework, reading, and other fun. Jamie is reading a book that I bought him about bats, and a read-a-book from school about tigers. He seems to be enjoying both. Liam was difficult to put to sleep again tonight, and I'm not enjoying it very much at all.

2009-12-09 24:19 (Kristen) The first big snowfall of the year has landed on us, and the boys were delighted. It was already turning to slush by the time I got Jamie out the door (and I am cursing the extra time winter clothes take once again), and we got to school in the rain. He had a very hard time not stuffing his hands into every patch of white he could, and I regretted not being able to let him. I went back home to look after Liam, who hates his eyedrops with all his might. I had no idea there were so many little muscles around the eye that can be clenched tightly to prevent mothers from giving their children eyedrops. I took Liam out with me to pick up Jamie, since Liam wanted to see the snow, and because John made a tiny snowman that lived on our front porch that made Liam think snowmen. We walked there, picked up Jamie, and then I let the boys play for about twenty minutes as the rain had finally stopped. Liam walked through every piece of slush he could find, and at one point was in a sea of slush that looked like the fractured surface of the arctic pack ice. I was thinking that he was going to float away on an ice floe for a moment. Jamie spent his time throwing large chunks of snow at the wall of the school or through the chain link fence nearby for fun (with his friends). We took longer than usual to go home because it was the first snow, and it really is asking too much to ask two boys to hurry home through that. We got in, ate dinner soon after, and watched a movie before Jamie did his math in a hurry, read a little, then went to bed. Once again, it was hard to get Liam to settle, and I'm not entirely sure why this is. Going to Hakobune will be a good thing for him, I think.

2009-12-10 23:40 (Kristen) Liam has been picking up unfortunate phrases from video games the other kids are playing. From Soulcaliber IV, it's "Round 1! Fight!" The less violent and even pacifistic games hold little phrases that can cause trouble for a small child. In Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Dance Party, the Venuemaster, when waiting for someone to do something, cries out (in a suitably unimpressed voice) "Boring!" This is now Liam's rallying cry when he is waiting for someone and thinks it's taking too long. *mother facepalms* He's also obsessed with the anime opening sequence of Tales of Symphonia, and I'm trying to track down the OVA to preview it for suitable Liam watching. He seems to like anime, and will watch Fruits Basket with me. I don't really have any other child-acceptable anime: FullMetal Alchemist is just a little too intense...

The weather was fine enough in the morning, but the wind in the afternoon was vicious. When Liam and I went to get Jamie, the wind just sliced through us and made Liam very very unhappy. We took more time than usual because we had to get Charlie's DS so that he could come over to play with Jamie, but the boys also needed to check out each chunk of frozen snow to see if it could be thrown or otherwise messed with. When I got home, I found that the windchill was -17, which explained a good deal. I spent a good part of the rest of the day baking cookies for the Hakobune Christmas party tomorrow, and the boys enjoyed taste testing. In face, there is a vocal segment of the house that is demanding more cookies, and NOW.

2009-12-11 23:48 (Kristen) Jamie was up easily enough but Liam really really didn't want to wake up. When he did get up, he was cranky and miserable and vocal about it. I fed him porridge in the care, as it was the day of the Hakobune Christmas Pageant, and we were late. We did, in the end, make it on time, and Liam was fabulous in his white shirt and dark dress pants as he danced and sang with the other kids. He was very serious about it, and I was surprised at how much work he clearly put into it. We were very proud, and slain appropriately by the cute. Afterwards, we ate snacks and talked with other parents and ran around madly with other kids as was appropriate to each. One parent said that it was strange not to see Jamie here, and I was very pleased that Jamie is remembered, and made such an impression. Afterwards, we went to MEC to buy a new winter coat and snowpants for Jamie, who has shot up over the last month and now has at least half an inch of wrist sticking out from the cuffs of his old coat. I always feel frugal buying coats and snowpants like this, because I know that Liam will get good use out of them too. Liam spent his time running around the upstairs at MEC, and played with a couple who were trying out tents in the tent section. I told Liam not to go into the tents with his shoes on, and he just took off his shoes. Sigh. At one point, I turned my back for a moment to talk with an employee in the shoe department whie Liam was "trying on" shoes. I turned back and he was gone. A staff member helped me to find him, back in the tents as I realized eventually, because he had No Shoes On, and therefore it was OK to be in the tents. Words were spoken, hands were held, and small children were kept very close afterwards. We went home and I picked up Jamie, but we didn't do much after that until it was time to have dinner at Browning. John was home early, exhausted, but I brought the boys home around 9, and it was lights out soon afterwards. Liam is continuing to have difficulty settling at night, and I'm going to have to work out something to calm him down because it's not all that much fun at the moment.

2009-12-12 22:25 (Kristen) Jamie went off with John to Nisshu Gakkuin, and Liam slept in until after 9:30, so he didn't go with John to the market. Instead, John, Liam, and I went on up to Nisshu Gakkuin ourselves for around noon, as John and I had a parent-teacher interview with Jamie's teacher there. Liam scored a piece of pizza because it was pizza day, and that and the DS kept him mostly amused while John and I talked with the teacher. Turns out that Jamie's doing great; he aced a test he'd done a few weeks ago that was supposed to see how well he could function in Japanese without someone reading the instructions to him: he's soooo busted now. I'd been a little worried, but clearly all is well. Our interview was pretty much a repeat of the interview we had with his English teacher: doing well, nothing to worry about. Whew!! I took Liam with me on the subway home, doing a little shopping along the way, and racing home using the "Going to the moon!" song to keep us moving. Jamie and John were already there (Liam and I were slower than I thought), and did five pages of homework before the night was through. John will be in Mexico next week, and so he wanted to get a good run at Jamie's homework dealt with before he left. Liam played with this and that, doing some homework as well. He gets irritated when I correct the way he holds a pencil, however, so I have to be careful not to push him too hard.

2009-12-13 22:36 (Kristen) Again, it was a lazy Sunday for the most part. The boys were allowed to stay in their pajamas until after lunch, and they spent the morning watching cartoons in the tradition of classic childhood. They also had some timbits before breakfast, courtesy of a Scrabble player who had come over for a meeting with John about school Scrabble, which heightened their energy levels quite a bit. In the afternoon, John had some trouble getting Jamie to focus on his homework, so that we ended up being a little late for the going-away party at the Silk Road Cafe with John's parents. In the end, all was well, and the boys packed away their usual impressive amount of chicken and broccoli. John's parents were well, and happy to be going south. We walked home via their house, with many goodbyes, and got the boys ready for bed. Liam is still taking his eye drops, and I've figured out that I need to wrap him up like a burrito in his comforter--"bunnying" him, if you will--to put the drops in. He still hates the drops, but he loves being wrapped up "like sushi," he says, so that would explain why he asked me to put his medicine into his eyes this morning. I was puzzled as heck until I figured that one out.

2009-12-14 22:45 (Kristen) John left very early this morning. Jamie was already in bed with us, and he woke up not too much longer after John left. Liam, however, was fast asleep until I woke him up at 8:30 to wrap him in a blanket and put him in the stroller to accompany Jamie and me to school. We went back home, and Liam spent the morning playing quietly until it was time to go to Browning for lunch. Ken came back with Jamie, and we had a lovely lunch until it was time to walk Jamie back to school. Ross had left before Jamie, and he was running pell mell after Ross when he reached the corner. Ross was already across, and a woman I know from the playground, on her way to school, identified Jamie and said that she'd noticed him chasing Ross, and would accompany Jamie acroos the road to catch up to Ross. Jamie apparently gave her a very suspicious look before being reassured that it was all right, and did. The mother told me, as I ran up after, what she'd done, and that Jamie had been very suspicious! I was all right with it, but it was a little strange. I saw Jamie inside, and went on to go Christmas shopping with Liam. I got back in time, picked up Jamie, and we all went home to veg before dinner at Browning. That was fun, and the boys were good and ate at last most of their meals. Jamie, at one point, asked me with real concern if I wasn't supposed to be at Trivia, and I thanked him with a kiss but reassured him that Trivia was over for the season. We were home by 8:50, talked with John on Skype, then went straight to bed. Both boys complained that they weren't tired, but they both fell asleep quite quickly.

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.

2009-12-22 22:51 (Kristen) Today's plan was to run the boys around at an indoor playground and then go to the dentist. Turns out that the dentist is tomorrow, so we got extra time at the playground. Yay! This outing was a big Posse playdate with siblings and a few other friends along for fun. We ended up, for a long list of reasons, at a place called Funnelz, which was pretty big and more than enough fun for all the kids for over three hours. They ran, jumped, slid, and threw foam balls at each other, and ate pizza and drank juice when their engines ran out of gas. Brilliant. They were so exhausted that Liam fell asleep for 20 minutes (which, unusually, was a good thing, as you'll read in a moment) in the car on the way home and I wasn't unhappy. Liam had slept very badly last night; so badly that I had to go into his bed to keep him mostly calm for the rest of the night. Even then, he was awake at 7:07, and while I was able to keep him in bed until 8, it was not restful. I let him get up at 8, I slept until John woke me up at 8:45 to tell me he was leaving for a meeting, and I was a Foul Mummy until I had a cup of coffee. Some days, you do what you can with what you've got to make it through. We had toasted chicken salad sandwiches with cucumbers and avocado on the side for dinner, but Liam refused to eat the chicken salad or the bread, melting down in favour of a cookie. He was denied. Eventually he ate some yoghurt for dinner, and we just had to be happy with that. On the bright side, we put the tree up tonight, which was great. I think that Jamie was about to explode if we didn't put up the tree, or if we did. He was so hapy to be putting the tree up with us that he said that his legs wouldn't stop dancing.John bought some egg nog to celebrate, and Jamie (upon sipping his) declared that the taste was so good that it made him fall to the floor (then he fell to the floor). It also turned him into a zombie, and did a few other things to him. The power of egg nog. The boys finished off the evening by rediscovering their Lego, and played more or less together with that until Liam discovered the tiny tiny pieces of the space ship that Jamie was building. Then it was time to find Liam Lego of his own...

2009-12-23 22:44 (Kristen) John let me sleep in this morning, which was lovely, and appreciated, as Liam was up coughing in the night about half an hour after I went to bed (late). He would cough, scream in anger for a moment, then fall back to sleep. I ended up sleeping in his bed as being there seemed to calm him down faster, but it was a jumbled night again. We went to the dentist in the afternoon, and I am the only one without a return visit planned. Jamie has another tooth with no enamel that needs work, while Liam has a teeny tiny cavity at the very back in a deep crevice in his back tooth. Liam won't need freezing, but Jamie will. In the meantime, I'm delighted to report that both boys were as good as gold for the dentist, and that Liam, when it was his turn, even ran to the chair and sat down, gleefully, with his arms on the armrests. Both boys wore sunglasses to protect them from the bright lights, which made them look like they were sunning themselves as they reclined. I was shopping and met up with them after they'd arrived at the dentist's office, and I found them in the waiting room, playing MarioKart DS with another boy who was also waiting for his dad. The boy's dad came out, saw all three boys playing, and his jaw dropped. It dropped further when he found out that they were all linked and playing the same game. He hadn't known you could do that. Very funny. Dinner was takeout from the Silk Road, as the boys had seen and coveted John's hot and sour soup from eariler in the day. John was out at Scrabble, but came back in time to put the boys to bed. It was late, though, and they were tired.

2009-12-24 22:54 (Kristen) Liam had another bad night, and so did I, and so I was surprised when John told me it was 10:15. Liam had only been up a few minutes earlier, it seemed, and I have no idea when Jamie got up. Justin had come to visit and stay overnight, and was now leaving. Liam demonstrated his new "shy" behaviour to Justin, which continues to surprise me as he's never been shy before in any large way. We spent the day dealing with the last of our Christmas tag ends, and spent the afternoon watching Christmas children's television programming. Jamie helped me and John to put up the Christmas lights outside as the snow gently fell, and then we got packed up to go to my Auntie Millie's for Christmas Eve celebrations. Jamie was fine once we got there, but Liam was overwhelmed by the strange people (Jeff had brought his girlfriend Jessie, and her two sons Connor and Taylor) and refused to join in. He and John stayed in the living room eating nibblies and watching for the cat, while Jamie and I stayed upstairs. Jessie's boys were tired and not feeling well, so we moved on to presents early. Liam was willing, by this point, to come upstairs for presents and to not scream, and we spent a happy half hour doing just that. Then it was time to go home, and we did (stopping off at a McDonald's for a snack before bed, as the boys hadn't eaten as much as I would have liked). They were willing to go to sleep much more quickly than usual because they were tired, it was late, and because Santa doesn't come unless you're asleep. And that's important.

2009-12-25 24:40 (Kristen) I don't know what time Jamie was up, but Liam and I slept until about 9. I had to wake Liam up with promises of presents; he was solidly and completely asleep, and I felt badly waking him. However, Jamie was *very* ready to go downstairs to find what Santa had left. He was very excited to see the note that Santa had left, thanking Jamie for the cookies that were left out (as Jamie was very worried that I'd forget, he was happy to find the proof that I'd not forgotten), and was so happy to find proof that Santa existed. Santa left Liam a Connect 4 game and Jamie a certificate indicating that he was now a Captain at MechQuest (a commission purchased by Santa). We all enjoyed opening our stockings, and then headed over to Browning for the traditional breakfast and present opening. We opened the rest of our presents there, and I think that Jamie enjoyed having Super Mario Bros. the most, while Liam was very very happy to have his own copy of Rhyming Dust Bunnies. Unusually, we didn't go to Ottawa today, as John (our sole driver) is very tired and worn out from traveling, so we'll be going tomorrow. Instead, we stayed and played at Browning for most of the day, then headed home for a dinner of leftover Chinese food and fresh dumplings. John and I have been getting prepared for our drive tomorrow, and we hope to leave very early to avoid the unpleasant ("wintry mix") road conditions on the highway tomorrow as a winter storm moves in with freezing rain, etc. Wish us luck!

2009-12-26 23:59 (Kristen) The threat of deeply unpleasant weather had us up, awake, fed, and on the road by 9:30: a new car trip record for us, I do believe. The boys were good, and kept themselves entertained with Timbits from a pitstop early on the way. The highway was wet, with enormous plumes of white spray kicked up by passing cars and heavy trucks creating a heavy mist over the road. At certain points, I didn't even try to focus on the road, and was glad that John did. We arrived three hours later in Kingston, where we stayed for two hours, enjoying time with Ted, Alice, Ian, and Amy, and eating delicious ham and cheese sandwiches with faces of Elmo and Cookie Monster on them. Alice had received a Sesame Street sandwich grill, and Liam was very excited at the sight of it, so that's what we did for lunch. After a pleasant time exchanging gifts and catching up, we headed back onto the road. The roads were drier after Kingston, but the freezing rain that had fallen earlier in the day was still causing problems on the 416. Night started to fall as we headed up the highway, and it was dark by the time we reached Ottawa proper. Liam and Jamie were watching Backyardigans by this time, and everyone was happy and doing well, if a little stir crazy. When we arrived in Ottawa, Becky, Auntie, and Grammie were waiting for us, and we had lots of fun pouncing, jumping, running, talking, hugging, and doing all those things we needed to catch up on. The boys were still a little tightly wound, but were doing better after dinner. Poppy was over by then, and we all exchanged presents and had a great time until it was time for bedtime. The boys had Grammie tell them a story, and they fell asleep pretty quickly.

2009-12-27 23:11 (Kristen) I had, at any given time last night, one or two boys either beside or on top of me. I suspect that Jamie was trying to wake me up on purpose when he did that, as the words "I'm bored!" may have escaped his lips, but it was too early in the morning for me to want to hear them. Liam just lay as close to the edge of the bed as he could, requiring me to not be fully asleep, as I had to make sure that he didn't fall out of bed. And I, I was too tired to get up out of bed and find one that was empty. Jamie was up at 8:15, and I think that Liam and I weren't that far behind. They played with Becky and did a little of this and that before we all got into the car to go for Sunday brunch with my dad and Liz. The boys were happy to see them, but Liam was a little shy about being in a room full of people, even if they were loved people. He hung back and ate muffins in the kitchen, which made him happy. Jamie was all over, I think, and a bottomless pit of a boy. Much fun was had by all, and the boys enjoyed the musical part of the day, which included Grandpa, Jen, and Anna seranading the rest of us. My father has given me his old guitar, which he played for me when I was a little girl, and I'm not sure who got more pleasure out of seeing my boys strum the strings as I chorded, me or him. The boys certainly enjoyed it, and seeing what different sorts of sounds they could make on the guitar and why. Eventually, it was time to go home, and the boys played with Owen the whole way. He came back to Grammie's with us and romped and wrestled with Jamie and Liam, to their great delight. We had dinner, and watched the new Star Trek movie all together before it was time for Jen and Owen to go home, after which the boys, John, Grammie and I finished the movie off. Liam was behaving like a very tired boy and Jamie was too, in retrospect, as they fell asleep very quickly once we got them into bed and read them The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The Grinch got far far fewer questions than the Star Trek movie did and was easier than the Trek movie: fantasy is always easier to explain than bad, if fun, physics.

2009-12-28 23:54 (Kristen) Today's outing was a visit to the house of our friend Badger and his family. We had Owen with us, and the boys were thrilled to have him with us both on a trip to the mall, including a mad game of tag at the play park, and in the car to Badger's. Jamie announced that he knew Badger's address, which suprised us: "Well, what is it?" "Fish!" he announced triumphantly, as Badger's house has a fish on the front of it. Well, there you go. Once we got there, we exchanged presents and saw that Grammie, Jen, Becky, and Ian were already there. The kids romped and played for hours, the adults talked, and wonderful food was eaten by all. My highschool friend Kate came too, with her lovely twin girls, and the afternoon was full of fun and remembering. Jamie and Liam played well with everyone, but the highlight of Jamie's day was when Badger gave him a kung fu lesson. The boy has to work on his punches, but he has a killer elbow attack. He was delighted, and asked Badger to teach him more and more techniques for about ten or fifteen minutes. He walked off happy, and John and I were deeply delighted ourselves with how much he'd enjoyed himself. Eventually things wound down, and we went to Poppy's to have some dinner. The kids played together happily, watched television, and the adults did the same. By the time we got home, the boys were exhausted and happy, and so were we.

2009-12-29 23:54 (Kristen) I ended up in the same bed as Liam again last night, as it's the only way he would settle down enough to get some sleep. We got up individually between eight and nine, and enjoyed a visit from Mrs. Engelbrecht and Carrie, who came with presents for the boys. We rushed after they left, however, to make it to lunch downtown with Ted, Alice, Ian, and Amy, who are also in Ottawa for two days. We all had dim sum, which was yummy and had something for everyone to eat. I have to remember to put slivers of ginger in my congee from now on: yum! The boys loved the mango pudding at the end, and Jamie enjoyed playing with the animation program on Ian's new DSi. I suspect we'll be buying one for him sometime in the next year for that program alone. He wants us to buy one when we get home, but we've told him this is Not Likely. After lunch, we came back for a calm afternoon of this and that, and I spent some time playing my dad's guitar in the living room with Liam. He likes to strum the strings, and to play with different kinds of sounds. Eventually Auntie Jennie came over, we had dinner, and watched the first half of Mary Poppins, which the boys were enjoying. It did bother Jamie, however, that no one ever actually gives a definition of "supercalafragalisticexpialadocious".

2009-12-30 23:43 (Kristen) The boys were unhappy about going home, but eventually were resigned to it. We ate our traditional departure breakfast with Jennifer, Anna, Grammie and Rod, Grandpa and Liz, and Anna's friend Taylor, along with Matthew, the son of Jennifer's boyfriend. Jamie and Matthew had fun playing DS together, and Liam had fun hanging with the relatives. Then we hit the road, and met up with Ted and Alice and family on the way as they headed back to Kingston. We stopped off for lunch at Ted and Alice's house, then raced home to find Becky and Ian already ensconced at our house. The boys were delighted to see them, of course, but then it was time for bed. Big day tomorrow, with New Year's Eve to celebrate.

2009-12-31 23:58 (Kristen) We all got up late, but the boys were delighted to have Ian to pounce on in the green room (much to Becky's amusement). They spent the day playing Super Mario Bros. and watching Spirited Away, and it was very funny to watch three people (Ian, Liam, and Jamie) play Super Mario Bros., which is a very frustrating game to play in teams. Ross came over to play some Rock Band 2, as well as Mario, and our house was full of the sound of happy children for a good part of the day. We had ramen for dinner, but Liam in particular was already pretty tired and didn't eat much. I later figured out that he likes to eat his ramen with a fork, but won't ask for one--that solved a mystery, as he usually inhales his ramen, and I was puzzled. He fell asleep in the car on the way to Reid and Luisa's for the New Year's party, but woke up after ten minutes when we arrived. The party was fun, and the boys ran about doing this and that with the other kids. Liam only played strange a little, but soon got over it and was romping around with Tom and other people. He was completely determined to play Rock Band, which had its ups and downs, and Jamie had fun playing it too. I should set it up for them to play more at home. I had the boys in their pjs and with their teeth brushed around 10:30, when JOhn (who had gone home to nurse his cold) picked us up. Jamie fell asleep in the car, while Liam took a while longer to fall asleep. He's going to be shredded in the morning. One funny incident happened when I was downstairs with Liam playing Rock Band. I had Liam on my lap, and Jamie kept insisting that I come upstairs Right Now to help him with something. I got Liam off my lap, finally, and went upstairs to see what the problem was. Jamie dragged me into the living room, and over to a plate of cookies on the coffee table. "Mom, can I eat this?" he asked. And that was the entirety of his emergency. *headdesk*

2010-01-01 24:06 (Kristen) Happy New Year to all of you blog readers. It's been over six years that we've been keeping this blog, and we've amassed an amazing record of our boys over that time. We have an entry and a photo for every day of our boys' lives, which is either great dedication to this project, an expression of love to our relatives and others who can't be here with us on a daily basis, or a very impressive case of OCD. I'll let you make your own decisions.

We started the new year off by sleeping in. I think that I got up around 10:45, and I know that the boys were flaked out with me and John for a good part of the night. In fact, I even took Jamie back to his own bed once before he ended up back in bed with us. They're getting big; it's not contributing to good sleep anymore to have them there! We ate breakfast late, of course, then waited for John's aunts to arrive with the traditional New Year's Day feast. Ian and Becky enjoyed the food very much, and Jamie and Liam devoured anything that looked like sushi. I got Jamie to eat a piece of really lovely tuna sashimi, and he liked it very much. He was less thrilled with the octopus, but we'll try again with that. We had a lovely time with John's aunts, who spent the afternoon with us and went home around four. John taught Ian how to play Scrabble, and we did this and that until it was dinner time, when we went to Browning for some chicken katsu, courtesy of Tom and Michelle. It was a lovely evening, and all the kids had a great time before we came home far too late at 9:30. Liam fell asleep around 10:45, but Jamie wasn't asleep until well after 11:00. We'll have to work very hard to get them to sleep earlier tomorrow in anticipation of the return to school on Monday.

Jamie and Liam are growing quite fond of Ian, who plays hours and hours of video games with them. At one point, Ian was lying down and Liam kept putting layers of small toys on him, telling Ian that he would be comfiest that way. I had to intervene, telling Liam that Ian was quite comfy now, and didn't need any more toys on top of him.

2010-01-02 21:32 (Kristen) Our cleaning lady was coming this morning at 9, so I was up at 8:30. Jamie had come into bed in the night with me and John twice, and Liam came too at some point, and when Jamie came the second time, I collected Liam and slept in Jamie's bed. Appropriate, somehow. I was up at 8:40, and was already into theswing of cleaning by 9. Liam was dying to pounce on Ian and Becky, and I let him do the desired deed, one in each room, around 9:30. He was gleeful. Jamie was up around the same time, so we took advantage and dressed and fed them early. John took the whole crew to the St Lawrence Market, while I cleaned and worked at home. I met up with everyone at the bus station, and was there for the goodbyes. Jamie made darn good and sure that he got his hugs goodbye, and Liam was pretty firm about it in his own way. After we left Becky and Ian at the bus station, we ran an errand or two then went home. Liam fell asleep in the car as we were driving up Pottery Road, less than five minutes from home. We let the poor underslept boy sleep for about half an hour before I gently woke him up in front of Mary Poppins. That forestalled much potential screaming. We watched the movie, played Super Mario Bros., then switched when the complaining about partners became too intense to Rayman Raving Rabbids. It's a hard game, so John and I got sucked into playing it too for a while after dinner. At dinner we had New Year's leftovers, and Liam had his first bite of mochi (it's so sticky that he can only eat it with careful supervision). He ate a mochi and a half. We put the boys into the bath at 8:30, and now it's time for bed.

2010-01-03 22:34 (Kristen) Liam didn't fall asleep until after 11:30 (I think...) last night. Maybe it was the nap; maybe it was that he was hungry in the end. John gave him a slice of apple, and he fell asleep soon afterwards. Either way, I think that naps are, officially, verboten. No, nay, never, as they say in the song. The boys were both in bed with us this morning, tossing, turning, lying on top of us, and otherwise ensuring that we were all up by 10. As we'd all gone to bed a little late, 10 was probably best. This meant, however, that the boys needed a good run around. We decided on an outing to the Science Centre, along with a trip to Loblaws to open a bank account for Jamie and his mad savings. The boy is a scary good saver, and John has been coming up with ways for Jamie to manage his money, mostly in response to Jamie's frequent requests to spend small amounts of money (nova gems: 200 to the dollar) playing Mechquest. Now he has his own account, his own bank card, and his own system for saving up, courtesy of his dad. Liam had fun running away from me in the large crowded Loblaws as we picked up a few groceries, which led to Words from me to him about said activity, and restricted choices regarding movement on his part. We ate some sushi for lunch, then headed over to the Science Centre. The boys stopped first as a K'Nex display in the Great Hall, where children were building anything they could think of with huge bins of K'Nex, and both boys enjoyed doing that. Then it was down to KidSpark, where they exhausted the left-hand room in about an hour and a half. They particularly enjoyed the water exhibit and the soap bubble exhibit, and the two-sided walls with movable pins that hold shapes pushed into them. Eventually they were tired enough to want to go home, and we did. John was allowed to listen to the radio for one song before Liam was chanting that he wanted *his* favourite song, which is "Soak Up the Sun," and which he asks for by name. Then he sings the chorus, which is really sweet. Once home, we had dinner, played a round of Pictureka! (which is perfect for the boys), and played more Super Mario Bros. Liam gets a little too wound up in the game and had started speaking very sharply to people he's playing with, which I am nipping in the bud right smartly. I should have reminded him that he had told John last night that he didn't like it when Jamie yelled at him when they are playing Super Mario Bros. (also known as Divorce Bros. around here), and that he thought Jamie was being rude when he did it. We got the boys to bed on a school-night schedule, and they fell asleep without too much waiting on my part; Liam put up a fight, but eventually succumbed.

2010-01-04 23:17 (Kristen) John woke me up with a start at 8:30 this morning, telling me that it was a school day and we were late. Boy, were we. Somehow, I managed to get Jamie dressed, out the door, fed, and at school on time. I am unsure how I managed this, but all was well in the end. We had lunch at Browning, and dinner too, all of which went well. It was nice to be back into the swing of things. I took Liam with me in the afternoon to the library, and he was put out that it was too cold to sleep in the wagon. I was relieved that it was too cold for him to sleep.

2010-01-05 23:22 (Kristen) Liam was back at Hakobune, in his usual joyful way, and Jamie was back at school with more time to spare, although he complained bitterly about walking and not being pulled on the sled as it had snowed lightly the night before. I picked Liam up after Hakobune and took him to Dr. Da Costa's office for his filling appointment, and we met John and Jamie there, who were ready for theirs. Apparently Jamie brushed his teeth for Dr. Da Costa before I got there, and he pronounced his time spent and technique good. Jamie had to have two needles for his filling on a back molar, and he was very very good given how anxious these things make him. He fussed over his numb mouth for a few hours, and disliked being unable to eat or drink, but these were minor points given how good he was in the chair. Liam too managed to be very good as he got some preventative work done on a back molar. We headed home, played some games, and did homework. Jamie was very tired by then, so he was not his usual easygoing self about it, but we got it all done. The boys were clearly exhausted by the end of the day, and were easy to put to bed.

2010-01-06 23:30 (Kristen) The plan was to go up to the Japanese Cultural Centre this evening with Jamie and Liam in tow in order to establish with the sensei teaching judo there if Jamie can register. There was some confusion over whether or not he had to go two times a week, and as the second class was on Saturday mornings, that wasn't going to work (if so). First, Jamie went to school and Liam went to skating, and then the boys visited for a little bit over at Charlie, Tom, and Jack's house. We raced home, with much complaining by both boys over how I was making them walk, then got ready for judo. John drove us up, and we arrived an hour and a half early, so I fed them dinner from their bento boxes while John went on to Scrabble. I spoke with Russ-sensei about half an hour before class started, and he gave Jamie the all clear to start judo once a week. I told Jamie, and started to explain to him how he should behave in class, complete with bowing etiquette (the boy has a lovely bow), and so on. He was getting very nervous, and was peppering me with questions about what to do where and wehn, when a father with two orange belts in the class got one of his sons (Barret) to help Jamie out by taking him into class, showing him where to bow, and where to sit. Liam and I got to watch the class through a large window with benches and chairs in front of it. Jamie was very serious, and quite nervous, for the first little while, but the sensei made sure he did the right things at the right time, and he and the other first-timers spent the bulk of the class with him to learn the proper warmup exercises. I was a little worried at first, as I couldn't tell if Jamie looked tired, frustrated, or about to cry, but he really tried his best and tried hard, even when he clearly was operating outside his comfort zone for strength and novelty. When he came out, he was very proud of himself for lasting through a 90 minute class, and felt the strength of his accomplishment. "I love rolling!" he cried, and was very proud in particular that he did the backwards breakfall exercises, which I know would be difficult for him because he hates falling. I was very proud of him as well, and spent the money on a gi for him as it seems clear that he enjoyed the experience and is looking forward to going back. Liam kept talking about how long it was going to be until he was six, and he would be able to do judo too. I think that it's going to be a loooong two and a half years for him until he can. John picked us up at 9:20, and the boys were in bed at 10:15. A little late, I think, but we'll work on getting him into bed faster. A shower after class at the JCCC might help speed things up, as there is no way he can go to bed after judo class without one!

2010-01-07 23:27 (Kristen) I was wondering if Jamie would be sore today after his judo workout, but there didn't seem to be any. Just some residual fatigue, perhaps, but he seemed to cope well enough. Liam had fun at Hakobune, and went grocery shopping with me and John afterwards. He was talking into it with the promise of being able to pick out some food items for himself: he chose some sushi, and some cheese (we talked him out of the extra aged cheddar and into some mild cheddar--responsible parents we). I picked Jamie up at school, and we came back in the cold wind (Jamie hates the wind when it's cold, and so do I) to play video games, do homework, and have dinner. It was a quiet night, with a game of Wii Music to entertain us. It was very cute watching the boys try to play the instruments, and the "video" we made was hilarious in its badness. They enjoyed themselves, though. Then it was time for bed, and they went to sleep more or less willingly.

2010-01-08 23:34 (Kristen) It was the usual mad struggle to get out the door today, complicated by snow pants and other cold weather gear. Everyone eventually got to their destinations, which was the point, I suppose. Liam went with me to our doctor's office after Hakobune to get his eye looked at, as he's given himself another eye infection. Warm copresses and vigilant cleaning seem to be clearing it up without antibiotics, so we'll continue in that vein unless it gets much worse. I picked Jamie up at school; he was trying valiantly to arrange a playdate with Charlie, who was in a bad mood and having no playdate at all in the end. Jamie was all right with coming home, as we were to say goodbye to Ponyo today. When Andrea came over to get Ponyo, however, she and her boyfriend offered the fish to Jamie and Liam, knowing that they'd enjoyed having the fish around (and they have many). Jamie and Liam were both delighted, and I have to say that I've enjoyed having a fish around the house. Who knew? As Ponyo is currently living in a vase, I think that we'll have to buy him a decent fishbowl to live in: one that isn't so tippy. That will be fun. John and I dropped the boys at Browning so that John and I could see a movie together, which was lovely. They didn't miss us at all, but appreciated us when we came home. Bedtime was a little later than I would have liked, as Jamie has an unusually busy day tomorrow, but the boys did fall asleep almost instantly.

2010-01-09 20:44 (John) As we were driving to Browning from the second birthday party today, Jamie burst out uncontrollably singing the "Best Day Ever!" song, whose lyrics go "Best Day Ever! Best Day Ever!" and then repeat. The recipe for a BDE consist of waking your parents up in the middle of the night with a nightmare, so that they'll be quiet and subdued the rest of the day, then leaving after a half day of Japanese school to drive up to an indoor playground birthday party (Harry-kun from Nisshu Gakuin) in Barrie with your dad, getting him to entertain you making up stories, arrive early, spot "Big Al's Fish Aquarium" next door, spend fifteen minutes frantically watching the clock while running around picking up things for Ponyo, then spend two hours at the playground alternately inhaling calories and burning them off, running around with a pack of kids and getting your dad to throw you on a mat to practise your newfound Judo breakfall skills, then hitting a Starbucks to buy a cinnamon roll to keep you going on the ride to the second birthday party (Jack B. from Jackman) at Funnelz, where you eat another couple of slices of pizza, a huge bowl of fruit, pretzels, chips, anything else within reach, while you bounce in the bouncy castle, go down the big orange slide, shoot balls at other kids, and just run as though you'll suffocate like a shark if you stop moving, then pile back into the car and drive to Browning for dinner, and video games, and more fun. I hope he sleeps okay tonight. I know I will.

2010-01-10 23:05 (Kristen) I don't really know what time we got up this morning. In fact, we didn't really get going today until well after 11; Liam wore his pajamas into the afternoon, to be sure. We are a household of lazy slugs. Once enough of the day had passed I put away the Christmas tree, and the boys played games with their dad. Our friends Peter, Leslie, and Simon came by, and Liam actually stopped playing video games at times to play with us, then went back to his games. We passed a pleasant afternoon, however, and Liam and Jamie enjoyed playing Pictureka! with everyone. Dinner was late, but the boys were hungry enough to eat lots, and the evening was spent playing more video games. Tomorrow, the machine is getting turned off because Jamie will be back at school, Liam may have a soccer game, and we'll be out a lot. This would be a Good Thing, I think.

2010-01-11 22:30 (Kristen) Liam spent less time playing video games today, but not by much. Baby steps, baby steps with our little addict. We did read some books and play with Lego, which he liked. John and I had hoped that he'd have soccer today, but he's still third on the waiting list, which means it's unlikely he'll be having his class this term. I am investigating the idea of gymnastics, but we'll have to see what availability is like. In the meantime, we had lunch at Browning, and dinner too. Jamie had his first singing lesson this afternoon, with his teacher Andrea (who gave us Ponyo) showing him some singing patterns and teaching him "Hakuna Matata." He liked the song but didn't remember it from the movie The Lion King. He kept dissecting the lyrics, which I think Andrea found quite funny, trying to find exactly what 'hakuna matata' means in actual conversation. He learned some theory too (this is a whole note, this is a half note, this is a quarter note), and has quite a pleasant voice (if I do say so myself). His teacher is excited because she now has a *boy* singing student: all her other voice students are girls, apparently. He expressed a desire to learn to sing "O Canada," since it's one of his favourite songs. That and "Soak Up the Sun," which Liam has convinced (bludgeoned?) him to like as well. Liam is one stubborn little boy. He had wanted Tom to play Soulcalibre 4 with him, which neither Tom nor I are particularly thrilled that he likes to play, and Tom said that he wasn't fond of it. Had he tried it? No, says Tom. "Then you have to try it first," cajoles my three-year-old son. Hmm. Both boys continue to radiate unusually high levels of cute, and to be clever as all get out. Jamie was enjoying playing chess with Tom tonight, and particularly enjoyed when Tom allowed him to win. Tom says that Jamie has an excellent grasp of the idea that you need to protect your pieces, and managed to surprise him with a checkmate from an unexpected place (although the checkmate was expected, as Tom was leading Jamie to it). Jamie has been playing a little computer chess, and we're suggesting that he might like the chess club at school. Jamie's immediate response was "I need to practice first." John could have a new chess partner.

2010-01-12 23:00 (Kristen) I took Liam with me to the library after daycare, and (as usual) he piled the stroller up with all the board books he wanted me to read to him while we were there. We read at least 8, then I took my own books and went with him to the desk to take them out. Liam exclaimed, after one fell into his lap, "Moon!" "What?" I said. "Moon." Cautiously, I said, "Moon where?" "Here. Here is an 'o'," he said, pointing to the word "moon" on the cover of the book The Boy in the Moon. Yes. That would be right. Then he cheerfully added "N-O spells 'No!"", which I taught him a day or two ago. I praised him for remembering, and now wonder what else he can read and how in the world he's picking it up...

Jamie was not in a good mood after school. First he thought that he'd lost his new red hat, and we had to search all over for it. Then he was displeased that I didn't let him play after school, because it was cold and because Liam had been out all afternoon and really wanted to go home (and so did I). I explained that we had to put Ponyo into his new tank, which we did together. Jamie was rapt, watching his happy fish swim in his large (compared to the vase he was living in) new tank, and swore that Ponyo said "yes" when Jamie asked him if he liked his new tank. It is a good thing for everyone. He had a hard time doing homework tonight because he was tired and hungry, but we eventually got through it. There was Super Mario Bros. in the evening, with the usual male negotiation to make it work, and the usual admonitions to speak to each other nicely while they were playing, then bedtime.

2010-01-13 22:53 (Kristen) Of course, when I tried to repeat Liam's amazing reading feat in John's presence, Liam decided to pull a Michigan J. Frog and just metaphorically "ribbit." It was probably a fluke, although he did happily tell his father that 'N-O means no." He spent the rest of the day playing as much Super Mario as he could get away with and having hysterics when pulled away. The thing that I am looking forward to most about two weeks in Mexico is No Wii. Srsly*. When he could be pulled away from it, he went skating (did all right, good finish that he was proud of), and went with Jamie and me up to judo class. Jamie had a good day, since he had Pizza Day at lunch and had John in class to help with Scientist in the School in the afternoon. He enjoyed judo class even more the second time, he said, which was lovely. I, however, was completely worn out with chasing children, and answering question after question after question (What's on this form [a medical release for judo]? What's epilepsy? What's diabetes? What's...). I was most grateful when they went to sleep.

2010-01-14 23:19 (Kristen) Liam complains bitterly any time I make him walk with me to the bus, or anywhere else he doesn't feel going, by telling me that his feet hurt and he just can't walk, with tears. If he wants to go somewhere, not a peep. My son, the Oscar is yours! He was unhappy when I made him walk to the bus this morning, but this was because he hoped to play with his DS while I pushed. No such luck as the weather was still, despite being balmy, too cold to go without mittens. He was fine by the time the bus showed up, and even managed to make it to Hakobune without the DS when we discovered, to our horror, that it had run out of batteries in my bag sometime overnight. I picked him up daycare, then took him (at his request) to a "coffee shop," after I'd mentioned that I'd be doing just that while I waited for him to be finished at Hakobune. We ran into John on our way to the Second Cup in our neighbourhood, which pleased liam greatly, then were off to the Second Cup after buying some pants for Jamie on sale at Snug. Jamie, who suddenly doesn't fit a number of his pants any more...Liam enjoyed his gingerbread cookie, particularly so since he had barely touched his lunch (as I found out after he devoured the entire cookie in short order, an unusual speed). We walked to the school to get Jamie and his friends Charlie and Jake, and then the boys all played in the schoolyard until 4:15. We walked home (again, no peeps from Liam), where the boys played all varieties of video game and had dinner. In the evening, after Jake and Charlie went home, Jamie did his homework, Liam played, and we all ended up playing four-person Super Mario Bros. Liam took a while to settle down, which surprised me; Jamie fell asleep very quickly, which I appreciated.

2010-01-15 23:52 (Kristen) Liam protested his long, long, cruel march to the bus stop today, and had tears still on his cheeks when the bus arrived. The driver, bless him, offered Liam a transfer as we got off the bus, knowing perfectly well that Liam's little face would light up, and he would walk off the bus with an enormous smile on his face. As we were going inside, though, Liam suddenly remembered that he didn't have one for Jamie. I explained that Jamie didn't need one because he wasn't there, but that didn't matter to Liam, who insisted that Jamie needed one too as a matter of fairness. We worked our way past it to the subway, where it was discovered that I had failed to bring the DS. Oops. He was genuinely disappointed, so I spent the next ten minutes entertaining him with the windup hand. He laughed, and all was well. I picked him up at 1:15, and we hung out together in Goforth Hall, talking, cuddling, and looking at the ceiling while lying on the ground. I felt no hurry to be anywhere, as Jamie was going to his friend Dylan's after school for pizza and a movie, so we eventually decided to go home. Liam played Wii, and I cleaned up the toy room. I'm boxing up old toys and toys that aren't played with much, and it'sstarting to look a bit better. Every Christmas, it is necessary to purge and to box, if only to find room for the new stuff! We went to Browning for dinner, and Jamie came back with John at 8, having eaten pizza and watched ET. He managed to lose his tare panda bag with his water bottle and a fork and spoon set, however, and I hope that it was just left at school or at Dylan's. It would totally suck if it was lost. The boys fell asleep in seconds flat.

2010-01-16 22:49 (Kristen) John took Jamie up to school this morning before heading out to Kingson this weekend for a Scrabble tournament. Liam and I hung out at home before heading out to pik up some supplies at the St. Lawrence Market and coming back home. I interviewed Liam at one point today, asking him the following: a) What is your favourite colour? (pink and purple); b) what is your favourite food? (waffles), etc. it was fun, and Liam told me that there is a Liamland out there. I look forward to hearing more. We went up to pick up Jamie, played in the playground for a bit, then went to Indigo to spend our gift certificates from Christmas. Jamie bought the last two volumes of the Bone series he loves, along with Jellaby: Monster in the City and a book about a talking pig named Mercy. Liam got a book on penguins, and a little deck of cards with a story on them. Parents are supposed to talk with their children about the cards and let the kids tell stories about them, and I asked Liam what he thought was gpoing on in one with a picture of a fairy and a raccoon. He decided that the fairy was making the clouds dance, which was enough to make me think that the deck might be worth buying. He also played with a toy for a bit that was the Leapfrog version of a Blackberry, but I passed on it as we have som many things like that. We checked out the bath toy situation at Toys R'Us, which was that they had none, then went to Daniel and Ross's for dinner. They are babysitting a small peach-faced lovebird named Tisha, and the boys were both fascinated with the bird, if also a little shy of it. By the end of the night, however, the bird finally landed on Liam, who was delighted and literally tickled by the bird walking all over his shirt. It was delightful to see. The boys went to bed a little late, and I hope that they sleep in tomorrow.

2010-01-17 23:03 (Kristen) We slept in a little this morning, then got dressed and got ready for the day. It was a pretty calm day, the way that I like Sundays, by and large. Our cleaning ladies came, and one brought her eight-year-old daughter as her babysitting had fallen through. She was shy, as were the boys a bit, but they all bonded over a two-hour marathon of "Kid vs Kat." Jamie missed his father quite a bit, and was very excited when John came through the door at dinner time. Liam was happy too, as he didn't articulate his longing for his father as well as Jamie did, but I'm sure it was as heartfelt. They mobbed their dad, ate their dinners, played four-person Super Mario Bros., then went to bed. Well, Jamie went to bed. Liam stayed awake until at least 11:20, which is when I fell asleep for a bit. I have no idea why he stayed up so late.

2010-01-18 23:19 (Kristen) Monday crashed in on us, cloudy, gloomy, and Monday-like. Jamie and I got dressed, bed, and out to school, where I found the water bottle and other lunch items that he'd sworn he'd put into his backpack on Friday and lost, because it wasn't in the backpack when I checked and "I *know* I put it in there, Mummy!" I'd suspected that such was the case after the hat incident, and I'm glad that I hadn't gone walking all over looking for the thing, now. Liam woke up soon after I got home, and I managed to keep him occupied with things other than Super Mario for a good part of the morning. He still collapses into instant antrum when I take it away from him, despite warnings and lead time, but we're working on it. Lunch was at Browning, and then I brought him home after Jamie went to school with John for his playdate with Jack, Jamie's friend Charlie's little brother. Jack had a great time checking out all of Liam's toys, and Liam was interested in them when Jack showed interest (and because I'd shut off the Wii and hidden his DS). We all had snack, watched some Pink Panther at Liam's request, and walked to the school to pick up Jamie and to hand Jack off to his mom. We stayed in the damp cold to play for a while at Jamie's request, and met up with John on the way home. Dinner was at Browning, and I managed finally to put my foot down and say "No Soulcaliber IV," a game that the kids are mad for but which I think Liam is too young and Jamie too. It's not popular with Tom and Michelle either, so they were happy to have the kids playing Katamari Forever instead, as was I, and as were the kids, for that matter. They all had fun with Katamari, and all was well in the end. We headed home late, and put the kids straight to bed after a story or two. I had to help John at one point, and asked Jamie to read part of Liam's bedtime story. He did manage to read three pages to his brother, which we praised him mightily for, and I hope that we can get him to read more to Liam in the future.

2010-01-19 23:41 (Kristen) Today started off so well, really. Jamie made it to school on time, without complaining, and I got Liam off to Hakobune with a similar lack of fuss. When I picked him up, he was in a great mood and we played in Goforth Hall for a bit before deciding to go to the Second Cup in our neighbourhood for a cookie. He had fun dancing with me first, and lying on top of me, and pouncing, and cuddling, and generally being fun. Once we got to the Second Cup, he demolished his cookie and needed to go to the bathroom. We went into the bathroom on the main floor, to avoid the stairs to the basement, did what had to be done, and left the room. Liam went ahead as I followed out, turning around to make sure that we hadn't left anything in the bathroom as the door clicked shut. Then I heard a scream. Liam had his finger caught in the door, near the hinge. I somehow got the door open again, and got him to our table to inspect his finger. The women there had a cup of ice all ready, and we put his finger into it before we even got back to the table. There was no blood at first, but then the ice started to turn red, and there was a lot of it. I looked at the finger, and it was immediately clear that we needed a doctor, as it had a huge gash in it. The Second Cup baristas (I wish I could remember their names) helped us put our stuff together and get coats on, and I ran out with Liam in my arms to the nearby walk-in clinic, two blocks away. A man, who had been about to leave the building with his wife and small baby, helped me to get Liam to the clinic on the second floor and helped me to carry my stuff into an office while I carried Liam. He even called John for me on my cell, then left: I am not even sure that I thanked him properly at that point, although I know that I did say thank you more than once. Whoever you are, thank you. John arrived just after the doctor saw Liam (a priority patient, who was clearly in pain as he continued to scream) and told me that we needed to go to emergency, as the finger tip was cut 50% through. There was certainly a lot of blood. More angels came through for us: Gary, Ayami, and the Browning clan picked Jamie up from school and took care of him while we were at Emergency with Liam, and the policeman at the speed trap we tripped as we raced to Sick Kids' let us go with nary a murmur when John said "My son caught his finger in a door, we're trying to get to Sick Kids'."

We arrived, and found ourselves in the gentle, slow, but helpful and inexorable wheels of the emergency ward. It was busy, but we quickly got to x-ray, to find if Liam's finger was broken. Liam, in the meantime, had fallen asleep in my arms in triage, thank goodness, worn out with the ordeal. He woke up again as we had to unwrap his hand to x-ray it, but we managed to keep him happy with sitting on my lap and watching videos on John's computer. We had been told that there was a good chance that they'd have to put him out under a general to fix the finger (the nail had to be lifted off and the finger laceration stitched and the nail replaced), so he was Nil-By-Mouth Boy for the rest of our stay. We saw a number of excellent people, but, to make a long story short, we got to see the surgeon around 8:30 (we arrived around 3:45, I think) for the procedure, when they decided to try a sedative and a local (the sedative delivered by nose). Surprisingly, it worked: John kept him distracted with Anpanman videos while I stood by his head and kept him calm while the surgeon fixed the finger (I lost count after six stitches, but I think that there are eight), reseated the nail, and glued it into place before wrapping Liam's hand with a heroic quantity of gauze. The tip of the bone is, indeed, broken, but (like a toe) there isn't much to be done, and it should reseat itself (it's a tuft fracture, for those who like to know these things). However, despite the gruesomeness of the event, and the pain involved for Liam, he's actually in good shape. There was a severe laceration under the nail, but it stitched up nicely, and he should come out with a good story and a slightly bumpy nail in the end. He really doesn't like to draw attention to the hand, and is on a lot of painkiller (Motrin every 6 hours) but is otherwise in good spirits. He was given a stuffed turtle (officially named the Fire Koopa, even though it's blue), some stickers, and a car, and the person assigned to keep him happy (yes, they had a person whose job is to monitor the child's mood and make sure they are kept as calm and as untraumatized as possible under the circumstances. Really really good) even gave him an extra turtle for Jamie. In the meantime, Jamie was fabulous for Gary and Ayami and was asleep around 10:15. Liam, John, and I were home by 10:30, and Liam was asleep around 11:30. I'm sleeping with him tonight to make sure he sleeps well, to give him his meds at 5:00 am, and to make sure that he doesn't fall out of bed and that he keeps his hand elevated. I am grateful to Sick Kids' and all the people who helped us, and for all the good wishes we received on Facebook from our friends and family. Now, however, I'm just profoundly glad that this day is over. Really, really glad.

2010-01-20 24:14 (Kristen) Thank you again to everyone who sent Liam hugs, good wishes, and positive thoughts. He's doing better today after sleeping until 9:00 or so, and spent the day playing as much Super Mario as he could talk people into playing with him. Jamie got up before Liam and had lots of questions about what happened; later, when he saw Liam, he gently admonished his brother to be more careful around doors, and Liam just as gently and seriously agreed. I forgot to mention that Liam told me yesterday, as I was running him to the clinic, that I should be more careful with doors. He repeated his admonition today, and I reminded him that we would *both* be more careful in future, and agreed again that this should be so. In the meantime, we had a quiet morning at home, and I picked Jamie up from school for lunch. He and Liam were delighted to see each other, as they hadn't seen each other since yesterday morning, as Jamie reminded me. Liam gave Jamie his turtle, who has been christened the Ice Koopa. Both boys love the turtles because they have decided that the turtles are koopas, and they have joined the ranks of Favoured Stuffed Animals. Jamie went back to school, and I decided that Liam and I should go out for a walk in the stroller. Liam wanted to play video games, but I won. Really, he won in the end as he fell asleep not five minutes out the door. Rats! He slept for about 45 minutes, and woke up after we got home from picking up Jamie. Jamie did a heroic amount of homework, as we hadn't had a chance to do any yesterday, and John took him to judo. By all accounts, it was a good class. Liam, in the meantime, played Wii until I broke and said no more, and then watched some of Blue Planet with me (interested mainly in the five minutes of penguins) before playing with his DS. His hand looks like it could use a rest, however, which has me (of course) somewhat concerned but not overly yet. Jamie and John came home with Timbits, which were greeted rapturously. I forgot to mention that Tami Sagara came by around 5 with three long rolls of futomaki*, as a treat for us and particularly for Liam for dinner. That was a *huge* help, and yummy too! Jamie went to bed late, but Liam didn't fall asleep until after 11:00 again. No nap tomorrow.

2010-01-21 24:14 (Kristen) I started to ease back on the painkiller today, which left Liam more than a little grumpy. He hated *everything*. "I hate that" was the phrase I heard most, but he seemed to ease up by the end of the day. Thank goodness. He goes back to Hakobune tomorrow. In the meantime, Jamie was out of the house for most of the day. He was over at Jake's for a playdate, which was great for him, and had dinner there as well. When he got home, it was more playing, and then bed.

2010-01-22 62:15 (Kristen) Liam went back to Hakobune today. He was a little apprehensive about going in, which was understandable. He took his stroller blanket in with him, which helped, and he apparently was good all day. He is making strides at using his chopsticks at lunch, but was defeated by the sugar snap peas--difficult for the moderately experienced, let alone beginners. However, he did eat the rest of it with his chopsticks, which was cool. He was very tired and lay down on his blanket at one point, thinking about sleeping, but the other kids didn't let him sleep. That was all right, really. We did some grocery shopping afterwards, and headed home leisurely as Jamie was off to a playdate at his friend Sam's, and so we didn't have to rush to get home. Dinner was at Browning, and it was a bit of a challenge to keep Liam away from Soulcaliber. Fortunately, he really likes Katamari Forever, so Daniel kindly stepped away from the PS3 to let Liam play the other game. I'm trying very hard to keep the boys away from Soulcaliber and I can do it with Liam, but have pretty much failed with Jamie. Liam is the one with the video-gae fueled fantasy life, however. As we go out to the subway, he's Mario and I'm Luigi. On occasion, he's Bowser or Bowser Junior. It's "fight!" and much play fighting and I have to think of ways to funnel this energy into some more positive outlets quickly. Jamie still loves judo, which pleases me greatly, and I'm hoping that something like that might appeal to Liam. Given the cries of "I need a *sword*, Mummy!" coming from the other room, however, it may be kendo for him. Jamie came back after a fun playdate with Sam, and played as well. The hard part of the day came when it was time to change Liam's bandages for the first time since the accident. We had to soak the hand for ten minutes, which we did, but the water wasn't warm enough at first. Liam was hysterical with fear and pain, and it took both me and John to calm him down with repeated stories and songs and quizzes about who does what at Super Mario, and more hot water and gentle swishing to get the last bit of dressing to detatch from the surgical glue on Liam's hand. We got it, however, and wrapped the hand up as quickly as we could. He really doesn't like to see the hand, and I don't blame him. Jamie was equally traumatized hearing his brother scream, and John told me stories about a friend's father (a doctor) who would stitch up her brothers without anesthetic to distract me as I worked. It can always be worse. In the end, Liam fell asleep quickly, as did Jamie, and we'll tackle the bandages again tomorrow.

2010-01-23 38:30 (Kristen) Liam slept in, which was nice. Jamie was off for a half day of Nisshu Gakkuin today, as it was midterm exam day. John took Liam up to pick up Jamie, and the boys played for a bit in the playground before coming back down. Jamie had a birthday party at a bowlerama, and John took him there while Liam and I stayed home (bowling not being a great activity for him right now). John reports that Jamie was apprehensive about bowling: he'd never done it before, he wasn't sure what to do, and so on. The boys were divided into two groups of five, and Jamie went on to win his group. So much for that. It was five pin bowling, automatically scored, and the boys were throwing underhand with both hands, and John also reports that it may have been set up to make it difficult to get a gutter ball. Jamie did get one, and was apparently quite put out with himself about it. Still, he had a good time. In the meantime, Liam and I went to the Manulife Centre to look for backpacks for the boys' trip as presents from Nobuko and Tomoko. Instead, we found some carry-on luggage for them, which will be very useful with the traveling we do as they will now have luggage of their own. Both are rolling suitcases, and Jamie's is a bright metallic blue. Liam has a Wonder Pets suitcase, with a matching backpack (cecause he needs a new one). Liam was so delighted with it that he pulled the suitcase all over the store, wearing the backpack, and charmed the hell out of the staff. He pulled the suitcase over to Yamato, the restaurant where we were meeing Nobuko and Tomoko for dinner, and sat with me reading Chicken, Pig, Cow by our friend Ruth Ohi while we waited for everyone else to arrive. The boys were very active throughout dinner, possibly from fatigue, but Liam in particular inhaled his food. Then it was time to go hom and go to bed. Tonight's bandage change went much better than last night (I had actually had to replace a bandage this morning because the tube around his fingers got loose and was working its way off. And I'm *not* jamming it back). Sleep came quickly for both boys, if somewhat late.

2010-01-24 24:03 (Kristen) When John was in Japan, he bought a used Wii so that we can play Wii games (which are region encoded) from Japan here. In particular, we have been waiting for Super Mario Galaxy 2, which was rumoured to be released six months earlier in Japan than in North America (release dates now changed). We have a new television and stand in the green room which, today, I set the Wii up in. Jamie was beside himself with excitement, and spent a good hour or two playing Pikmen. He can't read the kanji in a game that is surprisingly text heavy, so John moved his computer into the room and read what Jamie wanted read while he worked. There was a lot of Japanese flying around, which was great as Jamie's Japanese (and Liam's too) has not been progressing as well as we'd like. He's great at the homework, but he is less sure of himself and is frustrated that he doesn't have the vocabulary he wants to deal with conversations. Liam's Japanese needs work too, so it was nice to find something to talk about in Japanese that they enjoyed. I started packing for the trip, and put a spare change of clothes, etc., in the boys' carry-on. Liam loves his new backpack and carry-on bag, and was running around before bed in his all-together, wearing only the back pack and then wearing the backpack and pulling the carry-on bag. He ran into the office, grinned at John, and said "I have to catch a bus" before running off again. Hilarious. The day was spent cleaning, playing games, and going over to Browning for an unexpected but welcome shared dinner. Liam had some trouble falling asleep, but Jamie managed just fine.

2010-01-25 23:16 (Kristen) A conversation I had with Jamie on Saturday in the car after listening to the Spiderman theme--Jamie: I don't like Marvel comics. Mom: !!!!!!!! (sobs) I may have to have a conversation with my niece about this whole "DC Universe" thing that has infected my house...

Liam woke up early, around 7:45, and I wasn't able to get him back to sleep. Jamie managed to get to school with a minimum of fuss and muss, but forgot his judo gi at school after taking it in for show and tell. Lunch was at Browning, and afterwards, I took Liam back to the bathroom at the Second Cup to make sure that there wasn't any lingering trauma associated with place. He didn't want to go in, and cried a bit, but I calmed him down and told him that he was safe, that he wasn't hurt, and that we were going to be very careful to make sure that he didn't get hurt again. He seemed to accept that, and enjoyed eating his mitten cookie, along with my gingerbread cookie, afterwards. We picked up Jamie, and brought him home for his music lesson with Andrea. That went well, and Jamie sang one of his songs for the rest of us (which we enjoyed) afterwards. Dinner was at Browning, where Jamie and everyone played quite a lot of Katamari Forever while John and Liam played Super Mario 63. I was out at trivia, but got home in time for bed and to change Liam's bandage. We're due at Sick Kids tomorrow at 8:30 for a follwup appointment at the plastics clinic. His finger seems to be still raw but healing, but we'll see what the experts have to say.

2010-01-26 23:58 (Kristen) I was up at 7:00 this morning to get Liam to the hospital for 8:30 so that a doctor could look at his finger and tell us how it was doing. I woke Liam up a little before 8, armed with breakfast, and we got right out of the house and onto the bus. He ate all his breakfast on the train, and we managed to get to the clinic almost on time. The clinic was amazingly fast, and the resident said that Liam's finger was doing very very well, and that we should wrap it in gauze for another four days or so before moving to band-aids, as band-aids are rather sticky (and we don't want sticky right now). Liam hates seeing his finger, and cried until we hid it with a washcloth: then he was fine. We finished up at the clinic, then walked to Hakobune, where Liam was somewhat reluctant to go in until he had a cuddle. He took his "koopa." I ran around for a bit, then came back to get him, and we headed home. After some Pikmen, I took Liam with me to pick up Jamie, Charlie, and Jake, and to take them to Jake's house for some playtime. Jamie was pretty tired when I got him home, but he did half his homework well. Liam was doing well, despite some resistance to having his bandage changed, and I went off to my book club meeting. When I came back at 10:15, the boys were still awake and had not been behaving, as John told me. It took some effort to get them to go to sleep, and I don't know why they were so wound up unless they were just that tired. John reported that Liam and Jamie spent a long time playing toether in the bath, which they haven't been able to do together for a week, and they enjoyed being able to do so again.

2010-01-27 23:44 (Kristen) The boys are getting excited about our upcoming trip to Mexico. John and are doing lots of packing, and getting everything ready. The boys are asking us when Grammie and Becky are going to arrive, and when we're going to be able to go to the beach. It became clear that Liam was expecting to go to Wasega Beach, and wasn't all that pleased when he learned it was going to be a different beach, but he seems to be coping. Errands were run today, and Jamie, Liam, and I ate a spicy tofu dish for dinner that we all enjoyed. Spicy isn't always a problem with them. In the evening, it was time for Jamie's judo class. He was tired, but still put in his best effort, and I think still really enjoys judo. He was impressed with some of the throws the black belts were throwing about, while Liam is fascinated with the kendo practitioners. He had a shower at the centre, John picked us up, Timbits were provided, and we headed home to bed, late again.

2010-01-28 24:08 (Kristen) John and I didn't get much sleep last night after doing lots of packing. The boys were a little slow getting up too, but we all managed to be where we needed to be on time. We picked up Liam, did some last minute groceries, and I went to pick up Jamie from school while John and Liam did necessary things around the house. We hadn't been home for too long when Becky and Grammie arrived. The boys happily played with Becky while Grammie and I made dinner and John packed some more, and drew wonderful pictures of our fish, Ponyo. I didn't know that there were so many heavy armaments around our fish tank, but clearly I didn't look properly. After dinner, Jamie played with Gary for a while, while Ross came over to visit with Becky and to be pressganged into being Liam's Super Mario Bros. Wii slave. The boys still went to bed a little late, but fell asleep quickly. They're all excited, and so are we, to be on a plane tomorrow.

2010-01-29 21:48 (John) Our trip to Mexico has begun fairly smoothly. We were pretty much all set twenty minutes before our planned 10:00 A.M. departure, filled in some time with Super Mario Bros. Wii (still haven't recovered all of the seven levels' progress that Liam erased), and some more with preparing the kitchen for post-plumbing drywall repair in our absence.

We bundled into two warm, idling cars outside in the nippy -14°C sunny weather, waved goodbye to Ayami and headed down Pottery Road. I got as far as Bayview before I realized I'd left my wallet behind, one of the very few mission-critical inventory items. For one thing, it's got my Aeroplan Elite membership card that gets us into the Air Canada Lounge.

Leaving Laraine and Becky at the Brickworks, I zipped back for the wallet, and we hit the road again. I was a little nervous about losing Laraine, who was not familiar with the route, but as she was also not familiar with the current Toronto vogue for road safety, she had no trouble keeping up with my lane changes in heavy traffic. We parked at the GTAA reduced rate parking lot, took the monorail to Terminal 1, checked in through the empty Executive Class queue, paused to attend to Liam who was tired and ran into a ledge at temple height. No waiting either at security, but the express people mover was out of order, so we made it to the Air Canada lounge about 90 minutes before departure.

The kids sat down to watch YTV on the giant screen in the kids' section, while we all took turns at the buffet. Everyone ate and drank well, except for Jamie, who after a large quantity of crudites, olives, bread, fruit salad and soup said "I want some real food, like a hot dog or a hamburger". I suspect he is continuing to grow, he is eating like a teenager.

We were the first to board our flight (Elite members with small children, doubly eligible for preboarding). For most of the flight, Kristen sat on an aisle seat blocking in the boys on window and middle, while I was on the facing aisle seat one row back, and Laraine and Becky were two more rows back. Toward the end of the flight, the boys wearied of video entertainment, food (we had lots with us, but I gave in and bought Jamie a chicken pizza) and DS games, so I stepped in as the relief parent and kept the kids entertained with explaining the approach and descent and what lay ahead.

The Cancun baggage handlers obeyed the priority baggage tags for a change, so we made it out fairly quickly, got the green light at customs, were met by a van my aunt had hired, and I got my usual crash reactivation of my fluently mangled Spanish chatting with the driver.

We settled into our rooms at the Hotel Ojo de Agua, my parents delivered food, and I'm about to take a nap while waiting for everyone else to come back from ice cream at the zocalo.

The kids have been deliriously happy and excited all day, but extremely well behaved. I am pleased.

2010-01-30 21:00 Jamie woke up at about 7:30 this morning. I hustled him out onto the balcony and gave him his tropical haircut: about a half inch shorter all round, and a lot thinner, especially at the back. Based on observations from later in the day, I need to thin it out even further. We went down to the beach with Becky, visited my mom, then came back home an hour later as Kristen and Liam were waking. I repeated the haircut with Liam, then everyone went out for breakfast at Mama's Bakery and I stayed home to go back to sleep. (They did bring me back a sticky bun.)

My parents' tenants inflated our dolphin for us (vinyl, with handles for a rider, about five feet long), and the boys delightedly played with it in the surf until lunchtime. Jamie had enchiladas again, but also sampled everyone else's grouper filets. After lunch, we had some quiet time in the heat of the day, before returning to the beach for sand play.

At Liam's request, I made some Super Mario Bros. toad houses out of sand (make a large sand castle with a bucket, then sculpt away everything that doesn't look like a toadstool). By the time they were finished though, his imagination had taken him on to Mario Tennis. The following conversation ensued. Dad: "Look, Liam, toad houses!" Liam: "Them are not toad houses." Dad: "They look like toad houses!" Liam: "No. Mario Tennis have no toad houses." Dad: "But what are they then, if they're not toad houses?" Liam: (mustering all his three-year-old gravitas and daring me to contradict him) "Muffins."

My mom and I split cooking duties tonight. She made a noodle stir-fry, I made frijoles refritos, and fried bananas. Everyone has eaten their fill and headed back to the zocalo again for shopping and ice cream, leaving me to take another nap.

2010-01-31 22:00 (Kristen) Yesterday, I changed Liam's bandage and decided that it was time to reduce the amount of bandage to just a fingertip bandage from a gauze pad and a half roll of gauze. I thought that Liam would be happy at this sign that his finger was getting better. No. Instead, he screamed and cried and demanded gauze. Why? I am not sure. Possibly he is afraid that it will be hurt, and that the gauze will protect it, or he is just afraid of seeing it, since he hates the sight of the wounded finger more than anything. In the end, we wrapped a placebo layer of gauze around the bandaid, and we're all living with that.

John and Jamie once again were up earlier than me and Liam, but not by much. I made breakfast (Mexican scrambled eggs: eggs, tomatoes, and avocados, which are red, white, and green like the Mexican flag), and then Becky and Grammie arrived for more of the same. We headed down to the beach, eventually, for much sand play. Unfortunately the lovely weather turned around 11, and the wind shifted direction to the north. We went up to the Ojo for lunch, where we ordered two orders of fish and one enchilada, and decided to split it four ways. Liam was more than a little put out that his pescado a la mantequilla was to be shared, and Jamie wanted more fish too. In the end, both boys ate more than a full adult-sized portion each of food. I think that we're feeding them well. Because it was spitting rain, and because the lions were feeling somewhat torpid, we went back to our room for some quiet play. Liam just lay on his back and did nothing on the bed for a while, which was very unusual, and indicative of some fatigue, but he didn't nap. Perhaps he should have. By 7, he was tired and clumsy, which meant that when he tripped and scraped his knee on the way to the zocalo for ice cream, he was in a very delicate state. He screamed for a while, and demanded to be carried to the zocalo, and limped visibly and with great effect when made to walk on his own. We made it back home after ice cream (lots) and demands for more ice cream (Liam), where it was time to change Liam's bandage again. He screamed enough that he exhausted himself utterly and fell asleep on the bed while the lights were on and I was about to brush Jamie's teeth. It was a bit of a relief to the rest of us that he was asleep. Jamie was good and went to sleep soon afterwards. I have no idea what the weather is supposed to be like tomorrow, but I imagine more of the same. Grammie and Becky are off to Chichen Itza tomorrow, so we'll have a quieter day, either way. Jamie in particular has been delighted to have Becky here, and was visibly crestfallen when he found that she was taking a nap this afternoon instead of being free to play on the sand with us. He has been showing a little more independence, running between floors and between rooms by himself (with adult ears open and supervising, of course) and has been asking for even more independence. It's nice, but surprising, and has required some adjustment in my thinking as I try to find the right balance between independence and necessary adult supervision.

2010-02-01 22:00 (John) It was my turn to sleep in this morning, and the boys got Kristen out of bed early. We're without Becky and Laraine today, as they've headed off to Chichen Itza to explore ruins for the day. We headed down to the beach as usual around 10:30, built drip castles, dug holes, splashed in the water (Jamie managed to immerse his face for the first time), and had our usual lunch at the hotel restaurant. In the afternoon, Kristen napped while I played quietly with the boys. We went out for dinner at Hola Asia with my parents (Liam scraped his knee again on the way, and is accumulating quite the collection of injuries: black eye, double scraped knee, smashed finger, ...), where I enjoyed the Thai fish cakes, Jamie hoovered a virgin pina colada, and Liam ate an awful lot of pad thai with his fingers. Becky and Laraine met us for ice cream, we walked home and went to bed a little earlier than usual.

(Kristen) Jamie woke me up early, a little after dawn, and I could have been happier about it, I suppose. He is very insistent: "Mom! I need help with this! Mom! I need help with that!" And so on. We spent the morning on the beach, and John got Jamie to put his face into the water. When Jamie came running out to tell me, I was alarmed at first until John explained that it was *deliberate* and worth praising Jamie for. I corrected myself. The boys and I made clothespin cars and played with those for a bit while John slept in the afternoon, and then I let them play DSes so that I could fall asleep. They then, unbeknownst to me, woke up John and kept him up for the hour or more that I was asleep. By the evening, Liam was blithering and tripped again when we were walking to Hola Asia. Becky and Grammie had been on a trip to Chichen Itza, so we kept looking for them returning in the zocalo when we were there: they arrived just at the end of dinner, but joined us all for ice cream. Jamie was disappointed that it was raining when we came out of the ice cream shop, as it meant no playground, but Liam was tired enough that John's parents drove us back to the hotel to avoid another Liam disaster involving blood and bandages. The boys fell asleep relatively well. They're eating enormous quantities of food, and are enjoying their trip very much.

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.

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* For the benefit of Scrabble players, words that are not in the Scrabble dictionary are marked with an asterisk. For the benefit of North American Scrabble players, words that are acceptable only in international play are marked with a #.