Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 19

2004-03-16 24:00 (John) Interviewed another promising prospective tenant today, who works at our favorite Japanese restaurant but heard about us through our ad in the local Japanese weekly. It's a small Internet. Spent the morning trying to figure out how to get our washing machine fixed. I think a belt needs replacing: there's a strong smell of burning rubber. But enough about me.

Jamie had his usual routine day today: active morning, falling asleep on his afternoon walk. I noticed that he's figured out what mirrors are all about (they're for him and his dad to make faces at each other in), so I thought I'd see if he could make sense of the Nikon Coolpix 5400's LCD preview window. He's a little tentative about it still, but there's one good shot of him today looking at his own picture.

He now clearly understands the words "Up", "Down", "High", "Out" and "Mom". He may understand "Change" and "Home", I'm not sure. He can gesturally express "I want to get up" and "I'm hungry", and he's working on "I want to go that way".

2004-03-17 (Kristen) It's St. Patrick's Day, and Jamie's only green shirt is in the wash. His green item, therefore, had to be the green body on his Lamaze butterfly wrist rattle.

It was another sunny day in Jamieland. Ayami babysat for an hour so that I could get some work done, which I really appreciated. Jamie played with some of his toys, including a Lamaze sun/moon toy that I bought for him on Monday and the teething fish that his Tai Tai bought for him in Mexico. Surprisingly, I hadn't bought Jamie any toys yet, and I was overwhelmed by baby toys when I went into our local toyshop on the Danforth. I was about to make a clean getaway, when I saw a set of plastic keys by Brio, and the sun/moon toy, which has a lovely velvety sun and moon, and lots of bits hanging off that can be shaken, squeaked, and chewed. Option paralysis shattered, I ended up buying both. Jamie loves the sun side of the toy, and his eyes go wide and he wriggles his arms and legs when he sees it--just before it gets stuffed into his mouth. As John said, there is a special delight in buying your child a toy that makes him happy.

We all went to the Scrabble club tonight, and took John's godson Daniel along. Daniel kept Jamie entertained while we got packed up, and the two of them seem to have had a lovely conversation.

2004-03-18 24:52 (Kristen) It was quite the day today. Jamie woke up abysmally early (6:00) for a diaper change, and had trouble going back to sleep. Normally, the sight of my sweet little boy gazing up from beside me is a joy to behold, but this morning all I could think was "It's too early for this!" I was haunted by the recollection of my own early morning exploits when I was a child, and I can hear my mother laughing from here. Thanks, Mom. He did eventually make it back to sleep, but we had a great deal of difficulty finding our groove again.

The exciting part of today started when Jamie had his first taste of mashed banana. He has been sucking on bits of pear lately, and seems interested in food in general. I was having some banana myself, and was reading that banana was a good first food, so I thought I'd give him a taste. I mashed up a tiny bit, got a baby spoon that I had bought, and put it to his mouth. I expected him to lick it, or take some into his mouth and spit it out, as he has done with rice. No...it went in and didn't come out, and he was very excited and insistent upon having more. He had a few spoonfuls of banana before we called it a breakfast.

He loved the banana, but it does not seem to have loved him. He was very fussy and unhappy this afternoon, and did not settle for his usual afternoon nap: just two short naps when I put him in the stroller. Baby unhappy; mother at wit's end. He was having trouble nursing, and at first from his behaviour, I thought that it was his teeth. However, I finally figured out that he had a tummy ache when he finally nursed decently, got the gastro-colic reflex going, and had a poo. Happiness, bright and sunny boy; much relieved mother. I'll be doing some research into this, but I think that we may not have solids again for a little while as my nerves can't handle it.

Other than that, we bought Jamie a snowsuit and fleece suit for next winter (30% off, and he won't care what's in fashion next year anyway), as we have no suits for a one-year old or an eighteen-month old (lots for an older child). Shopping for him is way too much fun, and I'm avoiding the stores for the next little while.

2004-03-19 25:30 (John) Jamie kept to his preferred schedule today, taking a nap in the swing from 10:30-11:30 (thank you, Ayami!), and then a longer nap in the stroller from 1:30-4:30. The high point in everyone's day was when his grandmother Laraine arrived to surprise Kristen for her upcoming birthday. The look of stunned delight on Kristen's face when her mom walked into the room this afternoon was the happiest I've seen her look since Christmas.

Jamie knows how to make his dad feel good, too. Starting around 10:00 P.M., he started fussing and just plain bawling because he knew it was his bedtime. But every time I got to hold him (there's always tough competition at Daniel's house, and this weekend there's Laraine too), he calmed right down and started laughing.

2004-03-20 23:20 (John) I forgot to mention yesterday that Jamie's motor vehicle gene has been activated (it's somewhere on his Y chromosome). We were walking home along Broadview and a garbage truck roared to a stop in front of us. Since then, he's acquired a fascination for anything that has wheels and an internal combustion engine. We all went to the Silk Road Cafe for dinner, which for me meant walks along the Danforth between courses, with Jamie draped in Kate's Scrabble quilt and stopping to be admired by passersby every block.

2004-03-21 22:42 (Kristen) Another very rough night with Jamie, as he woke up every two hours to nurse and fuss. He woke up at 4:00 AM or so for a couple of diaper changes, and was in obvious distress from the suddenness and volume of his cries. It took some creative positioning on my part (hey...I am pleased that I had any neurons firing at that point), but he would sleep if he was either draped across my stomach, or if I was sitting upright, and he was more or less on my shoulder. I think that his stomach was bothering him again, as it is unusual for him to have one bowel movement, let alone two, at night, and his preference for the upright position is often an indicator that his stomach is gassy or uncomfortable. And I have no idea why this happened.

John's aunts Nobuko and Tomoko had invited everyone to The Dynasty, a Chinese restaurant on Bloor Street, for dim sum, and so Ted, Alice, Amy, and Ian, along with the three of us, my mom, and my aunt Millie, all went. The best part of this restaurant is that the Colonnade is closed on Sundays, so all the children go running around the little mall without disturbing anyone. We think that it's the real draw for the place, although the food was quite good. Alice ordered the congee, which seems like the next likely candidate on Jamie's list of introductory foods: a rice gruel without any flavourings or salt (those are added to taste). Jamie didn't spit the few test bites he had out, so it could be a winner when he's in a better mood. Lunch was on Nobuko and Tomoko, which was very generous of them.

Then we went back to our house for birthday cake. My birthday is on Tuesday, and John made my special birthday cake so that my mom could have some before she went back to Ottawa today. Gary, Ayami, and the Browning crowd all came over as well. It was a lovely time, but I was a little tired. I took Jamie upstairs while we were waiting for people to arrive, and my special little boy let me sleep while he lay on the bed beside me, content to suck on my fingers as I did. We were unable to get him to sleep for any length of time today, however, so we put a hysterically tired little boy to bed early tonight. Tomorrow, I'll have to make sure we get back on schedule, but it was a lovely weekend.

2004-03-22 26:00 (John) Jamie laughs when he hears Daniel's name now. Daniel's pleased. Jamie had his four-month immunizations (DTP, polio, haemophilus* influenza) and has so far had no more reaction to them than he had to his two-month ones (touch wood). He weighs 14 lbs. 12 oz. with two layers of light clothing, which in the words of Dr. Kennedy means that he's crossed the line, from the 25th percentile by weight to the 75th percentile. I'm guessing he's still around 95th by length, but no confirmation on that. Tom says that Jamie is starting to react to Peekaboo. We've decided not to rent out the small bedroom anymore, so Kristen has started moving some of Jamie's things into it, beginning with the most important (books). That's it for now, boy am I tired.

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

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