Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 26

2004-05-04 24:55 (John) We're stepping up Jamie's food intake, and he's never been so happy. Have we been starving the poor boy until now? He had tofu, carrot puree, pears and I think several other things today, but Kristen's gone to bed already so I can't get the full list. Jamie spent some time in the morning practising his keyboard skills at Fisher-Price's infant games section (whack the keyboard, make a funny noise, pop up a cartoon character). He demonstrated the existence of a function key which ejects the CD, but I have no idea which one it is. Did I mention happy? He was practically chortling all day.

2004-05-05 25:10 (John) Wednesdays aren't easy days for us, or they're a break in the weekday routine, which amounts to the same thing. On Mondays and Tuesdays, Ken takes Jamie out for his afternoon walk, on Wednesdays, it's Kristen, and he wouldn't go to sleep until they were finally back home. So everything seemed to happen two hours later than usual, but it all got done, so I'll stop complaining. Jamie was certainly quite happy all day long.

Sue pointed out that Jamie should be able to sit up in his U-shaped pillow, and he can! He can actually sit up fairly long without the pillow, and is learning to stop a fall by putting an arm in the way. Or he'll just roll with it, with surprising grace. His favorite is still standing up though, especially when there's an admiring audience.

Ayami made Jamie a paper kabuto* (Japanese helmet) in honour of Japanese Boys' Day (May 5th). Thanks, Ayami!

2004-05-06 15:30 (John) I keep forgetting to mention that Jamie's started babbling in classic repeated syllables: I've heard wa-wa-wa-wa-wa and bla-bla-bla.

2004-05-06 24:15 He's still off his napping schedule, though it's hard to tell now whether he's disturbed because we are, or vice versa. I got him to fall asleep for 40 minutes on the way home from miso shiru and rice at my mom's in the morning, and then not again (despite Kristen's efforts) until seven in the evening. He gave the impression throughout of not wanting to miss anything interesting going on. We must try to appear more boring.

Ken bought him a little (15? cm diameter) rubber ball, which he enjoys playing with from the comfort of his U-shaped pillow. Thanks, Ken!

Jamie went on two expeditions this evening. The first was when Kristen was showering. Jamie was lying on our bed when he heard the shower start to run, rolled over and with great effort and frustration tried to crawl to the end of the bed nearest the bathroom. He still needs a lot of help keeping his limbs in order and his belly off the ground, and some days I think it'll be years before he learns to crawl, though I think he'll be walking next month. He was so pleased with himself when he reached the end of the bed and I finally got the idea and took him to see his mom.

This evening, with balance support and guidance from Kristen, he walked from his bed to the bathroom, I think in search of me in the shower. He seemed much less frustrated with that process though. We really need to start crawling around the house to show him that it's cool.

2004-05-07 24:29 (Kristen) Jamie woke up around 8:00 this morning (groan), but allowed me to stay in bed until 8:45, when his chatting started to disturb his dad. Jamie was Mr. Vocal today, babbling and making noises in a non-stop stream of consciousness. Or, as my niece Rebecca once remarked about her uncle, "rarra-rarra-rarr all day!" He really is getting a very strong personality, and knows what he wants. Today, although we knew that he was exhausted, he would not go to sleep in his stroller. Finally, Ken and Tami figured out that he wanted the back of the seat fully upright so that he could see the world. Once that condition was met, he was asleep in two minutes.

John and I took Daniel and Jamie to the Coffee Mill in Yorkville, where Jamie was his usual charming self. An older gentleman came and admired him, and offered John $10,000 for me. We all agreed that it wasn't enough, although John said afterwards that he'd check on eBay to see what the going rate really is. Jamie has eaten a banana/apple puree that I remember from when I was a kid, and miso shiru with okayu (congee to the Chinese). I made a batch of okayu myself for the first time today, and made more than I knew what to do with (note to self: half recipe next time). Good thing that I like to eat it too. That will be part of tomorrow's lunch for Jamie.

2004-05-08 23:16 (Kristen) Today, we all went to our neighbours Betsy, Paul, Sam and Ben's house for brunch. Jamie and I went over while John was shopping, and he met us there afterwards. Jamie had a great time playing with the baby toys that Sam and Ben had collected together in anticipation of Jamie's visit. The best was an exersaucer*, which Betsy and Paul have lent to us. Jamie enjoyed sitting in it and spinning around, and I hope that it will give me a few minutes at a time in which to do things like dishes.

> We stayed until the middle of the afternoon, at which time Jamie and I went to get his stroller from Tai Tai and Ho Ho's place. Betsy and Sam walked with us, and (sure enough) Jamie fell asleep in the stroller with the back in the fully upright position. The somewhat funny side effect is that he falls asleep falling forwards, flat on his face into the blanket. I didn't get a photo, unfortunately, but will try next time.

We had coffee with Hans and Eliane, whom we ran into at Timothy's, and then went over to Tom and Michelle's for chicken katsu. Jamie managed to devour almost half a jar of apple/banana puree. Have we been starving this boy? He's putting on weight like mad, and his little arms and legs are gaining that "stack of donuts" look. He weighs about 17 pounds now, in his clothes, and those clothes (3-6 months size) aren't going to fit him much longer. He definitely wants to feed himself, but I'm thinking that I'm not in favour of this until I buy him some of those bibs with the long sleeves, like painting smocks. Come to think of it, given the amount of food that John was wearing, I may buy one or two for myself.

2004-05-09 23:38 (Kristen) It was my first Mother's Day today, and I was spoiled wonderfully by my two favourite guys. First, Jamie and I slept in and lolled slugabed for most of the morning. John and Jamie gave me my first Mother's Day gift (a sleeve with a belt clip for my iPod--yay!), and then we all had breakfast together, and headed out to the garden stores for bedding plants and gardening tools. John's mom came along as well, and we ended up in the Beaches (a lovely area of Toronto near the lake, natch) where I bought the perfect gardening hat, again courtesy of my son and husband. We had a snack at Il Fornello, and headed back home to plant. Dinner was over at John's parents' place and was courtesy of John's aunts, Nobuko and Tomoko. Jamie slurped back lots of miso shiru and rice, and even managed to eat almost half a jar of sweet potato (today's new food). Nobuko and Tomoko also gave Jamie a stuffed turtle that laughs in anticipation of his six-month birthday in two days. My baby is going to be six months old; I can't believe it.

Jamie was in a wonderful mood today, all smiles and happiness. He slept in the car for a while at the first garden store, and slept again in what we call the 'octopus harness.' He's napping often, rather than in big chunks, but today it worked out for all of us. He babbles away, with enormous smiles--no sign yet of 'making strange' with people. I thought that I heard him say "daddy" today, but since it was Mother's Day, he couldn't have. He was so easy to be with today, and such a joy, and I got exactly what I wanted for Mother's Day: a full day with my two favourite men. Thank you.

2004-05-10 23:54 (Kristen) Jamie spent a good deal of this morning asleep, which was bad news for the rest of the day. He did sleep for Ken for an hour, and on my lap for half and hour around 5:00 or so, but that was pretty much it. The day was far too lovely, and there were far too many interesting things going on. It was so interesting, in fact, that he refused to fall asleep in his stroller except for Ken. Even then, Ken had to keep moving, and wasn't even able to get his usual coffee at the Second Cup because that involved Stopping, and Jamie therefore Waking. He was blithering by the time 9:00 PM rolled around, and eventually had to nap before his bath in order to spare us all a load of misery

Tomorrow, he'll be six months old. It is so hard to believe. He is still gaining weight, and his legs and arms are soft and pudgy. For some reason, he laughs out loud in delight if I sniff him, and he has taken to grabbing fistfulls of my hair and yanking. I am seriously contemplating cutting my hair off at the ears. The exersaucer is still a huge hit, and I was able to keep him in there for over half an hour while he played and talked with Rika and Ayami. Thank you thank you thank you, Betsy and Paul. He had his first taste of barley cereal, which he enjoyed, sitting in the exersaucer, which is making do until we arrange for a high chair. It is much better than the bouncy chair, for obvious reasons.

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

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