Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 38

2004-07-27 23:25 Jamie had a really rough day today. His nose and drool were running like dripping faucets, and he was a little warm, which either means he has a cold or (much more likely) he's working on more teeth. Kristen says his upper left cuspid (UNS code H) has broken through and he's likely working on his upper left incisors (F, G) and maybe the corresponding teeth on the right (C, D, E). Whatever the case, he was clearly in a lot of discomfort today. With Alexandria's help (on her first practice babysitting day), we could distract him for fifteen minutes at a time before his tooth would start to bug him and he'd just burst out crying; then a few minutes with the cool soother from the fridge, or a bite of some cold fruit from the fridge would calm him down again.

When he's like this, he's of course a little less coordinated than usual, so he kept falling down - more cause for crying. He even managed to slide off the futon and land on his nose on the hardwood floor (I think it was a fairly gentle impact, but he was outraged). Whenever he was really upset, he would insist on (of all people) his dad taking him, apparently because his dad knew all the fun ways to take his mind off the pain; whereas all Mom was good for was nursing, and that didn't help enough. Poor boy. If he's still dribbling like this tomorrow, we'll have to take him to the doctor on Thursday to talk about what to do on the flight to New Orleans Friday.

2004-07-28 23:00 (John) We were wrong, it's a cold. Jamie was up all night again, and so of course was Kristen. I'm exhausted, probably because I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the cold virus, but I think I managed to sleep a reasonable amount, thanks to Kristen having the forethought to sleep with Jamie in his room.

We went to see Dr. Kennedy in the morning. She said that things look a little dull from negative pressure in his left ear, not quite red yet. She suggested Triaminic decongestant drops, no horizontal nursing, Tylenol if he's in pain or running a fever, and gave us a prescription for amoxicillin (which we filled right away) in case he gets worse while we're in New Orleans.

I would be more concerned about this after our experience in Albany, except that Laraine and Jennifer will be with us, and I suspect that Jamie may recover from his cold faster in the warm, humid air of New Orleans. Dr. Kennedy certainly said that her office is still full of typical spring diseases (stomach flu, colds, sore throat) that ought to go away if we ever get a week or two of summer here.

Alexandria came over for an hour in the afternoon to help look after Jamie while Kristen got her proofreading sent off to UTP, and managed to get Jamie to fall asleep by taking him for a stroll in the middle of a downpour. He loved the rain and fell right asleep; she was soaked to the bone!

Kristen was wiped out by the end of the day, so Kelly and Tom helped look after Jamie for an hour while Kristen slept and I continued to work on preparations for the NSC web coverage. As I write this, Jamie has had some Tylenol and some Triaminic, and is sleeping propped up in a U-shaped pillow, relatively soundly. The weather is supposed to be warmer tomorrow, so I'm hoping he'll be feeling better. Oh, and he definitely does have his upper left cuspid!

2004-07-29 21:45 (John) Briefly: Kristen has a mild fever and a very sore throat, Jamie probably would if we didn't have him on Tylenol (and decongestants), I actually feel better for having gotten up at 6:30 in the morning for ninety minutes of root canal. Jamie's been hysterically tired all day, but still easily distractable back into his usual sweet amusable self. Alexandria helped out in the morning, while Kristen was still trying to make me say "Foggy Bottom" (West Wing root canal reference). Ken took him out for a long walk in the afternoon and got him to sleep for an hour and fifteen minutes. Then he fell asleep again while eating a piece of watermelon at dinner. Poor guy. I'll be up for a few hours yet packing and getting ready for New Orleans. Gary, Ayami and Momoko will be minding house, and I'll be on-line# more than I usually am at home this trip.

2004-07-30 22:00 (John) We got up at 7:00 (I had 4 hours' sleep, Jamie and Kristen had maybe seven), and we were all a little tired as we took an airport limo to catch our flight to New Orleans. U.S. Customs and Immigration was very busy, and Jamie lasted almost all the way through the long long line, but started to bawl his eyes out when we ran out of chicken curry. In retrospect, we should have let him do this sooner, as it got us bumped to the start of the line.

As it turned out, we were on the same flight as four other Scrabblers, Lisa Kessler, Lynda Wise, Fern Lindzon and Joel Wapnick. The flight went as well as I thought it would, with Jamie doped up on decongestants and Tylenol. He had three loud crying fits, each associated with either waking up or falling asleep. I was glad the cabin of the CRJ-200 was so noisy.

Our cab drove us through a thunderstorm to get us to the hotel, so it had cooled off to merely hellishly hot and humid by the time we arrived. We unpacked completely, tried letting Jamie play in the room and discovered that we couldn't do any of the things that he liked to do at the Albany Marriott, because he's big enough to lift himself up along and over things, and bring things crashing down on his face (ouch).

K took Jamie out for a walk in the afternoon so that I could get some rest. I spent most of the time figuring out that we needed to (aargh) change hotel rooms to get a functioning Internet connection, and arranging this.

Dinner was at Samurai Sushi on Decatur, with Sherrie Saint John and Gregg Foster. Jamie ate miso shiru (with a lovely asari* base), lots of avocado, some julienned stir-fry carrot, and some chow mein noodles that the Chinese cook and wait staff brought for us when we asked for soba noodles. He also grabbed a huge wad of wasabi (I think he thought it was avocado), but managed to escape unscathed except for a burst of outrage.

2004-07-31 25:20 (John) Jamie's fine. Laraine and Jennifer have arrived. It's 1:20 in the morning and I've been working nonstop since 10:00 A.M. and still have a few hours to go.

2004-08-01 25:30 (John) Well, I got very little sleep last night, but the day (or at least the afternoon haven't been as hectic, and somehow working an eighteen-hour shift is easier when I know I'll have six hours to sleep after it, and when those 18 hours have been punctuated by visits from Jamie. Jamie spent most of the day with Laraine and Jennifer, but asked to see me every two hours or so (and was exceptionally glad to see me), and spent meal breaks with Kristen. He must be feeling better, because he is not walking but running all over the place, holding on by either one or both hands to the poor adult with the sore back. His favourite course at the tournament is to run back and forth half the width of the tournament hall, between a Scrabble rug and the Scrabble "big board". In the hotel rooms, he likes to run circuits between the two rooms, banging on things (especially the sliding mirror doors on the closets, which he kissed) along the way. He ate better today, thanks in great part to a lot of yummy fruit that Lisa bought for us at the Whole Food Market.

2004-08-02 25:30 (John) Jamie looked like he was feeling much better this morning, and after an early breakfast of cereal and cherries, went out for a walk with Laraine and Jennifer. He fell asleep and lasted three hours out of contact with his parents before melting down. I fed him more cherries to calm him down (they were good black cherries) until Kristen had her lunch break.

In the afternoon, Pat Larash covered for Kristen for her last game of game recording so that she could spend a few hours with Jamie before we left him again in the care of Laraine and Jennifer to have dinner with my bosses John and Jane Williams. We were nervous about Jamie, so we just had dinner at the hotel cafe, which was not bad at all, and there was enough food left over for at least two breakfasts.

Jamie's running speed continues to improve, and he has the layout of the hotel memorized. He also knows a lot more words than you might think, and for instance will run to the big board if you say big board, run to the nearest window if you say bus, run to the elevator if you say back to the room or rubber duckie, etc.

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

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