Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 7

2003-12-23 10:45 Christmas cards received: The NSA office, Sherrie Saint John & Gregg Foster, Brian LeLacheur, Rod & Nicole Mallet.

Lunch at Michelle's house, then off to finish Saturday's grocery shopping, figure out what we're serving Kristen's family when they arrive tomorrow, then the whole afternoon spent driving and walking all over Toronto passing Jamie back and forth trying to get our Christmas shopping done. Jamie was well-behaved and mostly bemused throughout, and a welcome source of distracting attention from passersby.

I (John) managed to drop a cutting board on my big toe while preparing salmon dinner at Michelle's house, and now have a bruise (more technically a subungual* hematoma) covering the bottom half of my the toenail and a similar area of the portion of the toe proximal to the nail. I was pleased that I was able to confine my remarks on the occasion to a quietly repeated "Mmmph, mmmph!" and not disturb Jamie, who seems to be forming the opinion that his dad is a doofus, possibly because he can't figure out how to get milk to come out of his finger.

2003-12-24 12:00 Jamie slept for a five-hour stretch last night. Kristen's elated. I managed to do the same, thanks to the miracles of modern analgesia, and am happy too. Only one day of Xmas shopping left. Cards received: from my sister Pauline and her family, Ron and Susi Tiekert, K's cousin Gwen Mann (who included a copy of Robert Munsch's I Love You Forever and some photos from her visit), Craig Rowland (possibly several days ago, and mixed in with more recent mail).

2003-12-24 27:07 (Kristen) It's far too late at night after a fun, exciting, and eventful day. My mom. sister, and her family all arrived safely from Ottawa to share Christmas with us (John is still exulting that he dosn't have to do the usual five-hour Christmas Day drive to Ottawa this year), and my aunt and cousins arrived later on. We had fun preparing a mountain of food, including some dynamite curried herring and a Martha Stewart guacamole.

My family opens presents on Christmas Eve, and so the present-opening orgy started at 8:00 PM. Jamie made out like a bandit, with wonderful presents from everyone, and lots of love and attention from his cousins. Mom/Grammie spent much quality time with him, and had to be reminded to share. As of now, he has finally crashed out, and I think will rest well after all the stimulation.

He definitely recognizes faces now, and will track a face he wants to interact with with his head and eyes. He and I had a good conversation tonight, where he responded to me with sounds of his own, in a deliberate fashion, and with lots of broad smiles. He also grooved on some Christmas tree lights; it's been a good day.

2003-12-25 26:00 (John) I think we're going to go back and fill this one in later, as I'm blitheringly tired, and I've already asked Kristen to take Jamie to bed. Very briefly then. Up at 9:00 A.M. to deliver presents to neighbours, step in briefly at Karen Whitehorn's to meet her parents and ogle her presents (telescope for her, digital camera for Alexandria), then brunch and presents at Daniel's house. More about that loot later. Made the 2:30 Markham showing of Lord of the Rings, meeting Jason and the kids (Jamie's cousins) at the theatre. Kristen watched the film from a standing position at the back of the theatre, occasionally slinging and nursing Jamie. I spent some time peering around a barrier while trying to shield Jamie from the excessive noise, and a good deal of time running cousins to the bathroom, the concession stand, or changing Jamie. I think it would be an exaggeration to say that I saw the film. About 7:00 P.M. saw us arrive at Kristen's Aunt Millie's house for the last part of the Christmas celebrations, a turkey dinner. Everyone was absolutely delighted to see Jamie wearing a Gap Santa suit, a gift from Aunt Millie soon after he was born. Off to bed to get ready for Boxing Day sales tomorrow.

2003-12-26 27:26 (Kristen) Hugely busy day today. My mother woke up with some sort of flu, and so it was decided that everyone would go back to Ottawa tomorrow, health permitting, as my mother is the only one of the three adults who can drive. We bundled up everyone (my aunt stayed with Mom), and headed out to the stores. Jamie hung with Auntie Jen while we went to the Gap, Indigo, and the Second Cup to spend gift certificates. He was very very good for his aunt.

We had been invited to go to Reid and Luisa's games party tonight, and took Jason, Owen, Anna, and Rebecca with us. Everyone seemed to have a fabulous time, and Jamie spent well over twenty minutes on the couch with Michelle and others, smiling and kicking, and interacting. He exhausted himself and his mother afterwards (brain activity requires sustenance, lots of brain activity requires lots of sustenance), and we napped while John, Rebecca, and Anna continued to game. We made it home by 2:30 AM or so, and my son has been asleep for three and a half hours. I envy him!

2003-12-27 24:48 (Kristen) We bid goodbye to Jamie's grammie, cousins, and uncle today as they blasted off back to Ottawa. Jamie slept well last night, although his mom and dad were feeling pretty tired all day. John took Michelle's sister Kelly and my sister Jen (who is staying for a few extra days) to the St. Lawrence Market, while Jamie and I started watching the extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring and napped. We then went out to Chinatown in the late afternoon so that John could see Dr. Ling (and take advantage of Kikiwai's Boxing Week sale, and Jamie once again slept most of the time we were out.

When we got back, we went over to Michelle and Tom's for a big family dinner with friends of Michelle's parents. One of the guests, Sandra, had a dream before I announced that I was pregnant that Ken (Michelle's father) was holding a baby boy with dark hair, and that he would be born on the full moon. Well, both came true, and she's a very interesting person. Jamie, however, had a bit of a meltdown, nursing and crying alternately for a few hours, and being difficult to calm. He's very tired, but just can't fall asleep. I think that he's a little overstimulated with all the excitement and new people of the last few days, and could use some peace and quiet for the next little while. It is also possible that he is going through a cognitive leap, as he is now demonstrating more interest in his world, and is being more interactive with it. He will follow people around with his head and eyes, and will converse with them and smile broadly. This would require some adjustment, and explain in part his "mummy-centricity".

(John) Jamie can make quite a variety of sounds now, and we almost had a conversation of sorts tonight. I lavished praise on him every time he said something resembling a Scrabble word, and he managed to utter a few each minute for me.

2003-12-28 26:00 (John) Jamie stayed home this morning while I took our friend Ayami to TEGH emergency with a bad nosebleed. It was weird being back there without Jamie, and if I'd had time (and if the hospital weren't under a post-SARS flu-season lockdown) I would have loved to visit the birthing centre again.

Jennifer's still here (yay!) so I spent the afternoon sleeping. I have no idea what Jamie did, but he seemed happy before and after my nap, and that's just fine with me.

In the early evening, we went to an informal reunion of my high school class. It was a real kick to see my classmates as parents, and less of a mental stretch than it was trying to picture them as doctors and lawyers.

Dinner at Sher-E-Punjab, which was packed, which meant that getting to and from the table and down to and back from the bathrooms was an arduous process of stopping to let people coo at my baby. I don't mind. :)

Justin's visiting, and brought a Living Room Ornament for Jamie, which I will photograph Sometime Soon.

2003-12-29 02:50 Jamie chortles and coos on the change table now, and just now he grabbed onto the rail to roll himself onto his side. Boy, were we both surprised!

2003-12-29 25:05 (Kristen) Jamie didn't go to sleep until Very Late last night (3:00? I fell asleep as John did the last diaper change of the night), and had been acting very unsettled lately: lots of crying, and difficulty falling asleep. He's normally a very calm little boy, and so this is out of character. We thought that it might be because of all the excitement lately, and decided that it would be good to have a quiet day today.

We got up late-ish, and joined Justin (who had stayed overnight), and Jennifer downstairs. Ruth, Sara, and Annie came over to see Jamie, and we had a lovely hour before they had to leave. After that, John went out to see The Return of the King again (there are battle scenes! he says, as he only saw the quiet bits when we took Jamie the last time), and ended up being out of the house for most of the day. Justin, Jennifer and I stayed home, and watched the second half of the extended DVD of The Two Towers (which is better than the theatrical version...see it). Then we went to the Second Cup for vanilla lattes, took a quick look around Book City, and headed back. Craig came over to show us Castlemar, John made it back in time for a late dinner, and bed was sought far far too late, yet again.

Jamie continued to feel out of sorts today, with lots of nursing and pooing, and waking up out of sleeps with a sudden, loud cry. It doesn't seem to be gas, but he seems to be in real discomfort. Could it be teething this early? Jen spotted a white line on his front bottom gum, but it's hard to tell. I think that I'll sling him tonight and walk him around the house, and see how that helps if he stays this periodically upset. It worked when we walked to the Second Cup....

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