Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 34

2004-06-29 12:28 (Kristen) Jamie and I went out for coffee this morning with my friend Hadley at the Second Cup. Jamie was due for his morning nap, but was too interested in the aggressive sparrows and chickadees trying to land on our table to sleep. He had a heavily medicated look to him, and he kept peering at Hadley (who is a very nice, child-friendly person) as if to say "who are you, lady?" He ended up falling asleep in my shoulder for around twenty minutes, which was very sweet.

He had a better day today than yesterday, but he's still a little out of sorts. There is still a raised round welt where he had his needle, and I think that he's still fighting off the effects of the vaccination. He went for a walk with Ken, but woke up on the way back so I rushed out to save Ken from a screaming Jamie. We ended up walking to the bank with Ross and Daniel, who showed up looking to spend a little time with Jamie, before ending up back home. This evening, we went to the Oshawa Scrabble Club's end-of-the-year banquet, and Jamie slept in the car on the way there and back. What a good boy.

2004-06-30 23:55 (John) We're going to Albany this weekend, to run a Scrabble tournament, leaving our house in the capable care of Gary and Ayami. We should have Internet access along the way, but if we don't we'll save up Jamie's blog* entries and photos and post them at the next opportunity.

Today amid frantic preparations for an early morning departure tomorrow, Jamie and Kristen went to see a Mommy and Me showing of Hidalgo at the Music Hall (sadly, the last in the current run of such showings). I met up with them while running errands on the Danforth, and we went to my mom's for a quiet family dinner. I'm still feeling lousy, so it was a pleasant respite.

Jamie took the opportunity to do his first real crawling. My theory is that he's still too whacked from his shots two days ago to walk, and that he finds crawling slightly more comfortable. He looks tired (my mom said "He looks grown-up"), and tonight instead of his usual cruising around the bathtub rim, he just wanted to sit in my lap and read bath books, which he hasn't done in weeks. Poor boo. Wish us luck for the trip!

2004-07-01 36:10 (John) Well, that was a really long day, but Jamie was much better behaved on the trip than last time. It went something like this. 9:45: leave house in rental car. 9:58: arrive at ferry dock (Jamie admires bus). 10:30: board ferry (Jamie admires hold full of cars). 10:45: scheduled departure of ferry. 11:15: actual departure of ferry.

Jamie liked being able to roam the ferry and to look out the side of the boat at how fast the water was streaming past. We tried going out onto the top deck once, but the wind was too strong for either of us to keep our eyes open, so we went back in. Then halfway through the trip, we met David Oxtoby, his wife Julie and their kids. David is the son of the late Will Oxtoby (in no particular order: renowned religion scholar, family friend, the minister who married us, UTP author when Kristen was a UTP editor, and my sister-in-law Alice's uncle). One of the many things about which Will was quite particular and knowledgeable was trip planning, specifically so as to enjoy the trajectory and not just the getting from Point A to Point B. It was hard not to feel his unseen hand steering us all together to enjoy the rest of the ferry ride playing cards together.

14:00: ferry arrival. 14:45: pulled aside for secondary inspection (Jamie napping). 15:40: secondary inspection, consisting of being asked same questions as at first inspection, by a different person. 15:45: clear U.S. customs. 16:15: reach New York State Thruway. Jamie alternately slept and sat quietly until our arrival at the Albany Marriott at 20:15. I went straight to bed and slept through until the following morning (when I'm writing this), and still feel completely exhausted. Kristen's got a sore throat. Jamie's fine, and as usual enjoying exploring his new surroundings.

2004-07-02 26:05 (John) We spent a fairly quiet day getting ready for the tournament by catching up on our sleep, always a scarce commodity on these weekends. Lunch was club sandwiches, chicken Caesar salad and soup of the day, with a free helping of vegetables from the buffet for Jamie to munch on. Jamie's been introduced to the staff and a few of the players who were around early. I'm hoping Kristen and Jamie will be feeling better before the end of the tournament and able to spend time in the tournament room. Kristen and (we think) Jamie are coming down with the virus that felled me last weekend, which makes it an evil one, with an apparent incubation time of four days and a recovery time of more than a week (judging by my continued malaise).

2004-07-03 26:05 (John) Kristen thought she had strep throat when she woke up, I think she has the slightly less common condition of "hideously sore throat from starting the night with a bad sore throat and sleeping with a sick baby lying across your chest for comfort, forcing you to snore and aggravating the pain in your throat." Kristen and Jamie took Tylenol in the afternoon to bring down mild fevers, slept soundly and felt much better for it. I ran the tournament and felt much the worse for it. Jamie's still insisting on walking everywhere, even when he's not feeling well. He'll just decide that he wants to go look at something (he loves how many mirrors there are in the hotel bathroom, and is learning about light switches), and then heaven help us if we don't hold him up so he can totter hither and yon.

2004-07-04 24:00 (John) We got as far as finding out where the nearest walk-in clinic we could drive to was, since as of lunchtime Kristen still had swollen neck glands and no voice, and Jamie hadn't eaten in two days. At the end of the tournament day though, they both showed up smiling, apparently over the hump of this terrible virus. Jamie's hoovered back a few jars of baby food, and Kristen is back to herself. I'm hoping I'll feel better after a night not punctuated by hysterical baby cries, and up to directing the last four rounds of the tournament in the morning.

2004-07-05 23:30 (John) Well, my hopes for a quiet night didn't come through, but the tournament is over, and we're all still alive. Jamie is okay, but I can tell he wants to go home. Kristen lost her voice again in the morning, but it was back after her afternoon nap. I crashed for several hours after the tournament, during which time Kristen took Jamie swimming in the hotel pool (which he apparently enjoyed immensely), out to get dinner (yay, asparagus for Jamie!) and bathed Jamie (he was fine until it was time to get out). We get up early tomorrow and drive to Rochester to take the ferry home.

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

Back to Vol. 0 No. 33, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 0 No. 35.