Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 21

2004-03-30 22:30 Briefly, as we've spent all day getting ready for our trip to Boston: Jamie can sense the excitement in the household, as he spent much of the day in the hands of all our friends who help look after him. Ayami in the morning, Ken and his long afternoon walk, our former tenant Chihoko in the late afternoon and then Tom, Michelle, Daniel and Ross in the evening. He was glad to get home and start the sequence of bedtime and bathtime rituals that would return him to normalcy - I hope we can bring along enough of the rituals and talismans to make this trip a success.

2004-03-31 20:45 We've made it safely as far as Montréal. The car rental agency upgraded us to a minivan, because they were out of full-sized cars, which made last-minute packing a breeze. ("Think we might need this? Toss it on the back seat.") We left only a little late at noon, made a half-hour detour at Loblaws to pick up trip provisions, and got to Kingston in good time at 3:15. Alissa made us noodle soup, while Amy played intermittently with Jamie and Ian watched Jackie Chan: The Animated Series (what a good show that is).

Oh, I almost forgot. The high point of the first leg of the trip for Jamie was when we stopped at the Quinte service centre and he got out and saw and heard the trucks roaring past. Ooh, trucks. It was at that moment that Jamie realised the point of road trips.

We were back on the road about 90 minutes later, and in Montreal about 2:45 later, at 7:30. It took Jamie a while to fall asleep after Kingston, maybe 45 minutes, but then he slept the rest of the way.

Kristen and Jamie have gone out for a walk, and I'm waiting to see who comes home first, Kristen or (our host) Justin, who's out explaining Urban Planning to Dummies.

2004-04-01 24:15 We got off to a reasonable start this morning at 10:00 A.M. and Jamie lasted until we reached Burlington VT at 12:30. We enjoyed a lunch at the apparently slightly overrated Five Spice Cafe there (not bad, but maybe the lunch chef was having an off day) and took Jamie for a walk looking at all the other places that we could have eaten (the place next door served Larb Gai - I didn't notice!). We were then going to drive down to Rutland to visit Tuttle Antiquarian Books, but ran into really foul weather, took refuge at a drive-thru Ben and Jerry's (how civilised) (I had a double scoop of Dublin Mudslide, K had one each of Cherry Garcia and Primary Berry Graham) before deciding to head back up to I-89 and hightailing it across the Green and White Mountains in torrential rains that reduced our speed to 70 km/h for most of the way. Jamie did sleep for three happy hours toward the end of it, but it was otherwise a very long drive.

Anyhow, we're safely in Westford now, Jamie and Mr. Windup Fish and Mr. Rubber Duck have had their bath and he's sleeping peacefully in Kristen's arms. Tomorrow, Kristen plays in the Early Bird, and I'm either going to take Jamie around this conference centre or down to Sasuga Books to go shopping. Don't know which yet, but am looking forward to the time with him either way.

We're here by the way as guests of BAT director Sherrie Saint John (which means she lets us work for her as late as we like, and beats us only as necessary), who got the longest series of laughs out of Jamie that I've heard in a while, just by being goofy and American and in his face.

2004-04-02 08:45 Jamie has a few different laughs. The best of course is the wholehearted belly laugh, but he also has the brief giggle ("You're being silly!") and the forced polite laugh ("I can tell you're trying to make me laugh by being what you think is funny, so maybe if I do this, you'll stop?")

He likes to play with and talk to his food. Sometimes his food is your finger, which means that he will try putting each of your fingers in his mouth in turn, and then examine them closely to see how they look. Then he'll babble quietly and tell each of them stories.

2004-04-02 24:45 I spent the afternoon looking after Jamie while Kristen played in the Boston Area Scrabble Tournament (Early Bird), where she finished third in her division. Jamie was a social butterfly, charming a growing circle of fans with his smiles and laughter. Toward the end of it, he started getting a little overstimulated, so we sat in a boardroom and watched the trucks go by on the Interstate outside. At one point, a convoy of five trucks went past and Jamie pooped his pants.

In the evening, Kristen looked after Jamie while I helped Sherrie run the main event, and Jamie gradually quieted down. Susi Tiekert gave us a lovely play mat, which I hope he'll use tomorrow. (He had unfortunately had a little too much of people trying to make him laugh when we put him on it the first time.)

2004-04-03 26:45 Jamie good boy. Tournament running fine. Jamie swam with Mom in hotel pool. Aunt Kristina and Uncle Bill visited for dinner. Dad very tired.

2004-04-04 00:45 The tournament wrapped up without too many further incidents, and we're enjoying Sherrie Saint John and Gregg Foster's hospitality tonight at their home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. Jamie is wide awake and alert, as has been pretty typical of his behaviour this trip. He's finding the places we take him and the people he meets just too interesting to fall asleep.

We're not sure we'll be home on schedule though, as a winter storm is supposed to cross our path tomorrow. We've got our fingers crossed.

2004-04-05 14:30 We're going to leave shortly to try to drive to Syracuse, and we won't update the site again until tomorrow night. Sherrie and Gregg have been great hosts, entertaining Jamie with Beatles singalongs, consultation Scrabble games, a big blue exercise ball and soothing views of bookcases (which remind him of home) whenever he fussed.

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

Back to Vol. 0 No. 20, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 0 No. 22.