Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 28

2004-05-18 23:51 (Kristen) Jamie is not spending a lot of time asleep at night, most likely because of his teeth, and it's turning me into a crabby person. [John: It is a measure of Kristen's essential non-crabbiness that it takes several nights without REM sleep to do this.] He wakes up at least five or six times a night to nurse, and is starting to get rather squirmy as a bed mate. The new tooth is adding a little spice to the whole arrangement as well, as Jamie thinks that biting the one that feeds him is kinda funny. We're working on this.

John and I went to get our hair cut today, and brought Jamie along. John walked Jamie while I went first, and had a few people at the bakery on Wellesley declare Jamie to be a "Gerber baby." Good taste on Wellesley. I took Jamie to visit Suzanne at UTP, and he behaved himself very well. Today I also learned that John's habit of sliding a string bean in and out of his mouth (much to the amusement of the children of our acquaintance and our son) was actually learned from his mother. Jamie had some soba noodles over at his Tai Tai's today, which were messy and fun, and also had some mango after seeing some on his father's plate. [John: The mango, as with yesterday's string bean, was soft enough that he could chew chunks off of it, and cut roughly into the shape of a string bean, so as not to be a choking hazard.]

He's advancing socially at a brisk pace. John was feeding him dinner tonight at the Sagara-West dinner table, with me sitting beside them and minding my own business. He dislikes food on his face, and dislikes having his face wiped. So, while sitting on John's lap, he grabbed my shirt, leaned over, and wiped his face off on my sleeve. Much laughter ensued, and so, feeling encouraged, he deliberately did it again and looked around for the reaction. Ha ha. [John: I should have taken a picture of Kristen's sleeve.] He thinks that "peekaboo" is hilarious, and laughed out loud when at one point he had forgotten to put his own tongue back in his mouth, and I imitated him. His little mind is expanding like the Big Bang, and every once in a while I get pulled up as I realize that he's smarter, and more advanced, than I realized. [John: I'm encouraged by how much he finds funny in the world. He not only has a very clear idea how things ought to be, but is secure enough to laugh at them when they aren't.]

2004-05-19 23:51 (Kristen) The head cold that Jamie so kindly gave to me has not yet abated, and Jamie is still sniffling himself. I think that it is affecting his appetite, as he seemed off his food today, as was I. Today's trick was spitting his food out, which he has never done before as that would be a waste of good food. However, interested he was not and ptui! out it came. Some went in, but not much. He wasn't even interested much in food at Tai Tai's, even when tempted with soba noodles and green beans. The mango was worth eating, however.

His sleeping pattern was utterly off today too. He didn't sleep at all for Ken on his walk, and I had to dash out of the house to save Ken as he dealt with a wailing baby. Nothing wrong; no diaper or mishap; just didn't want to sleep in his stroller today. I took him home, and he finally fell asleep for two hours after I nursed him in bed. I think that there are two more teeth readying themselves for presentation, and that they are still causing him grief. Otherwise, he was his usual cheerful self.

He doesn't want to show off his tooth, so I make nonsense noises for him to encourage one of his wide-open grins. Making "blah" sounds like a bad vampire is usually pretty successful. He also likes watching John and I play foosball*, as which John (the foosball* shark) smoked me 13-2. [John: just lucky, and I didn't have Jamie strapped to my front.]

(John) I did have Jamie strapped to my front while Kristen was playing Scrabble, and I tried shooting a little pool. It was challenging, as I couldn't bend over, and Jamie quickly figured out how to grab the cue stick and adjust my aim.

Daniel's been playing at the Scrabble club with us the last few weeks, and he's been a big help keeping Jamie amused on the 25-minute drive. Feigning pain seems to amuse him to no end, I'm not sure why. Daniel will let Jamie grab his hair, his nose, his ear, his jaw, go "ow ow ow" and Jamie will giggle happily. One of the times I tried to take a nap today, Jamie gleefully kicked me in the shoulder to make me go "oof". Only about twenty times.

2004-05-20 24:30 (John) Jamie can when he feels like (which is admittedly seldom) lift his tummy fully off the ground and crawl backward. Quite often, he will flip himself from back to front and front to back while lying down, usually to pick something up and examine it. It's also completely unsafe to leave him unattended on the bed now, as he can quite quickly rotate on a vertical axis, and spin himself to the edge of the bed.

He went for his usual afternoon walk with Ken, got in about an hour's nap, then sat and had tea (okay, dilute apple juice) with Kristen and the visiting Christine Miller, after which he went to Tai-Tai's for lots of soba, tofu and (his favorite) mango. Dinner was peach, apple and oatmeal puree. When he seems thirsty, he seems to understand that water or apple juice will slake his thirst more than breast milk.

I went to Future Photo at Eglinton and Laird to print a few (hundred) photos for Jamie's photo album, my parents, and a whole pile of extras for out-of-towners. Looking back, I see that I took about 1500 photos of Jamie in his first two and a half months, before the Nikon CoolPix 950 blew up. Then there were about 50 with Michelle's borrowed camera, and I've taken about another 1500 in the three and a half months since. So I'm slowing down, and feel guilty that his life is going underdocumented.

The Kodak kiosk ate my photos the first time I submitted them, so a photo tech named Nick very generously invited me into the lab to redo all the selections, crops and edits directly on the lab machines. Whee. I've had good photo karma lately, starting with when Ty at Nikon Canada rushed through the order on the Nikon Coolpix 5400 for me right before we left for Mexico.

Oh, back to Jamie. I have to remember to weigh him soon, although I guess I can wait until his six-month shots. He looks like he's been eating lots of solid foods, and we're guessing he's going to start stretching out again real soon. Maybe as soon as he finishes cutting the next couple of teeth.

2004-05-21 22:15 (John) Jamie isn't sure what the deal is with helium balloons, of which he saw lots at Ross' birthday. He thinks they're all some sort of trick that we pull with mirrors. He gets that if you pull on the string, it moves the balloon. And if you baff the balloon, it bounces up and hits you in the face. Jamie's favorite part of the party btw (aside from eating) was getting to climb the netting they had strung up around the ball pit (see photo). Maybe we should get some of it to put up around the house.

He does however know that the Japanese song Akatombo (Red Dragonfly) is one that We Only Sing When We're Out On A Walk, so when I started singing it absently while at my desk this evening, he excitedly dragged me (he can't walk or crawl, but he can pull you along nonetheless) to where I'd left the Snuggly and started gnawing at it.

(Kristen) I noticed today that Jamie's eye colour continues to change. Before, there were a muddy grey colour; now they are a definite greenish brown, and I noticed with a shock of surprise that they are almost the exact colour of my mother's eyes. I'll have to see the two of them together soon to compare. I think that his eyes will continue to change colour for another two months or so--I don't think that the colour stays firm until he turns eight months--but I wouldn't mind if they stayed this way.

2004-05-22 22:30 (John) What a busy day! We went to Ben Martin's 5th birthday party and watched the exotic animals his parents had brought in for the kids until Jamie found the traffic outdoors more interesting. Then Kristen topped Jamie up and went home to take a nap, while Jamie and I went out on a Long Expedition.

We walked along Fulton to Pape, and Jamie fell asleep about halfway there. I looked around Bill's Nursery, which was full of its usual Victoria Day weekend crowd of annuals, perennials and gardeners. Then all the way along Sammon to Greenwood, and down Greenwood toward Danforth until Jamie woke up. We took a break at Alison Motluk's house, picked up a hand-me-down outfit, agreed to come back for a second exersaucer, and set back out with a still awake but interested in sightseeing Jamie.

The Danforth out there appears to be a good place to look for halal chicken wings and pizza, a masjid, or hakka cuisine. (Take that, Google!) It's also a good place to find my neighbours: we saw Frank once and George twice. We stopped in at the Snow Lion (all things Tibetan and Buddhist) at their new location, chatted with Theodore for a while, who sent us home with some chai# rooibos* for Kristen (who was ecstatic).

Got home, but Kristen was still asleep, so we chatted with Ayami for a while and then went down to my mom's for okayu, miso and mango (still his favorite). Close to six, we finally made it home after nearly four hours, and had a quite evening at Daniel's.

(Kristen) Jamie is able to cock one eyebrow, which is something that neither John nor I can do. It gives him a sarcastic look which I think is all John, however. This evening, Tom and I were playing with Jamie in the basement, when we found a small ball. I rolled it to Jamie, who picked it up with Tom's help. The three of us played catch for about ten minutes, as I rolled the ball to Jamie, he yelled until Tom picked it up and put it in his hands, and then Jamie would "throw" (more allow the ball to fall out of his hands and roll) to me. He picked up on the dynamics of catch pretty quickly. Latent jock genes from my mom, along with the eye colour? We shudder to think. That nightmare that I have about sitting with the other hockey moms at 6:00 AM in a freezing ice rink is looking more and more possible...

2004-05-23 24:07 (Kristen) Jamie and I slept in late today, after a long night of tossing and turning. When we finally got up, it was almost noon, and we all went for breakfast/lunch at Schillings on the Danforth. We went home to do some gardening, and noticed two people walking by with signs for Jack Layton, who is running in our area for Parliament. The federal election was called today (finally!), so we got a sign and checked out the campaign headquarters on our afternoon walk. We also walked to Bill's Garden Centre, and down to Book City on the Danforth.

We headed over to John's parents' place for dinner, to spend time with Alice, Ted, Ian, and Amy, who had come into town for the weekend. Nobuko was also there, and was responsible for the lovely sashimi we had for dinner. Jamie hadn't eaten much during the day, and even wasn't all that interested in nursing, to the point where I was wondering if I should be concerned. He made up for it by nursing at dinner, then eating a small bowl of soba noodles, some miso and rice, and half a jar of mango and apple puree, topped off later by six or so mouthfuls of mango. I was afraid that he would burst, but he seems to know how much he can eat and how much he can't.

He finished off the evening by playing ball with Ayami and me. He definitely has the right idea, and even deliberately pushed the ball to me a few times. Most of the time, he picks up the ball (or has it handed to him) and licks it before allowing it to roll to me or another partner. He was grinning and kicking wildly, sometimes prefering to stand and let the ball drop and bounce, sometimes prefering to sit and let the ball roll.

2004-05-24 25:50 (John) Jamie and Kristen slept in again, but both slept a little better. Kristen's cold isn't as bad, and Jamie's teething pain seems lessened too. Kristen had some work to do this afternoon, so I took Jamie out for another longish walk. We set out at 1:00 in a drizzle, which turned to sheets of rain by the time we reached the Danforth. Jamie slept through the bad weather though, and by the time he woke up around 1:45, a strong wind was making quick work of the overcast sky. We walked to Logan, through Withrow Park and down to Gerrard, back over to Broadview and up to my parents' house, stopping only once to change a wet diaper.

Jamie was delighted when I told him we were on the way to Tai-Tai's, and giggled and smiled the last few blocks. Tai-Tai stuffed him with the usual rice, miso and mangos, or at least whatever he was unable to smear on himself, his dad, the floor, the walls, ....

In the evening, we took Jamie to see the neighbourhood pyromaniacs gather at Withrow Park for Victoria Day fireworks. Last year this time, we were just starting to tell people Kristen was expecting, and we remember wondering what it would be like bringing our baby along next time. It was pretty good. Jamie was enthralled, and Daniel and Ross were extra-careful with their sparklers.

Tonight in the bath, Jamie was unusually active and athletic. Thanks to some practice with Kristen earlier in the day, he insisted on showing how he could (with much wobbling) stay standing unassisted; and thanks to frequent workouts in the exersaucer, he could turn himself around 360 degrees while standing. He's also finally figured out what bathwater is all about. He practised gently squatting down into it and getting back up again, paying attention to what immersion felt like, waving his hand under water, slapping the surface, and stretching out horizontally as though about to dog-paddle.

Some of my other photos from today are also on our web server.

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

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