Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 42

2004-08-24 24:15 (Kristen) It was not one but two teeth that were giving our boy difficulties. I had thought that I'd seen the top left just breaking through the gum yesterday, but today I saw a good, wide lesion where it has broken through and the right one is not very far behind it. These teeth have been much easier on Jamie than the eye tooth was, and hopefully the worst is behind us for now. I think that he's really going to enjoy his new-found biting powers.

The other big event today was that Jamie managed to stand solo for about four seconds at least three times. The first time it happened, Jamie was standing in the front hallway, watching John go outside. He was holding onto thefront door, and it swung out of his grip. Suddenly, he was in the middle of the floor, with nothing to hang on to, miles from a wall or door, and his father was walking away. I made a move to run over to him, but he stood there by himself, yelling, until I got there. John describes his tone of voice as "pissed." He had no idea that he was standing: he was concentrating on other, more irritating, matters at hand. He stood at least twice more over at Michelle and Tom's when I set him up to see how long he'd stand without assistance. In a good mood, he'll stand for four seconds before he'll fall while trying to look around or move somewhere. Once, he didn't fall but walked a few steps towards me to fall into my arms. I was pretty surprised, but don't know if that will get repeated soon. If that's how he does in a good mood, I think that'd he'd still be standing if I hadn't gone to him in the front hallway.

He's getting more independent. He can walk (or more properly cruise) around a person sitting on the floor, and will circle my legs if I'm standing and he wants to be on the floor. He is also good at the imperious 'arm lift,' where he will, in a group of intelligent adults, lift a hand in the air and wait for a passing adult to hold it so that he can stand and walk around the house. I should point out that he does this with other adults: with me, he just yells until I get it. He also decided that he was going to feed himself tonight at Browning, and his high chair tray (thank God for the high chair) was covered in rice, salmon, spinach (for the first time), banana, and watermelon by the time he was finally done. He doesn't use a spoon (I'm going to get some more baby-utile spoons) and just grabs a handful of whatever he wants. It's an interesting development, and I've bought a bib with sleeves just in time. I was picking rice off his clothes for ten minutes.

2004-08-25 25:01 (Kristen) It was a pretty normal Wednesday for us. Jamie and I slept well last night, and were up around 9:30. He ate two breakfasts, one with me and one with John, and the new bib with sleeves works quite well. He didn't nap for very long today, and didn't nap at all after 2:30, which was somewhat challenging. We had gone up to Idelle Weinstock's for the Scrabble club annual meeting, and even the car had not induced our boy to close his eyes for a little while. By 9:00, he still wouldn't sleep and I had to take him out into the warm, humid darkness to get him to even consider sleeping. He fought valiantly, but was finally asleep on my lap by 10:00. He slept again in the car, and went to bed reasonably well given the upheaval in his routine.

His walking skills are getting very very good. He is trying out stairs, and must have been watching someone because he has the right idea. Unfortunately for him, his technique would be better for someone with legs much longer than his, and he has to revert to two feet on a step before going to the next one. This, of course, while his mother is holding onto his hands for dear life. Baby gates, baby gates, baby gates...

2004-08-26 24:27 (Kristen) Jamie is getting very fast as he cruises around the kitchen, looking for trouble and adventure. Fridge magnets aren't as interesting as what is inside the kitchen cupboards, and so today John threw Jamie a pot and a wooden spoon as a means of keeping him busy and not in the cupboards. He merrily banged away on the pot with the wooden spoon, getting the idea and the hang of it with distressing accuracy.

Jamie continues to grow, and is consuming an enormous amount of food. Today, he had his usual two breakfasts: one with me, and one with John. Jamie had cereal and fruit with me, and rice and natto* (a Japanese feremented soybean dish, which is beloved by residents of Tokyo and no one else) with John. Then he had lunch a few hours later at Browning, a nap, and a few bowls of soup and soba noodles with his Tai Tai. Finally, he had a bowl of brown rice noodles and salmon, along with a few pieces of pineapple for the end of his day. Michelle notes that he is almost never in a crabby mood unless he's hungry. She seems to be right except when he's tired. Mr. Fight the Sleepy Power would not nap today again after 3:00, which meant that he was a hysterically tired boy by the time he went to sleep at 10:00.

2004-08-27 24:35 (Kristen) Jamie is a very vocal boy, and chatters a great deal. He happily narrates his life, and is always willing to have a conversation. Sometimes he sings to himself, quietly, and those are some of the sounds that I love the most. He also says "uh-oh" a lot. At first, I thought that it was a sound of regret, but I now know (thank you, Teletubbies) that it's just a sound that kids make and doesn't mean regret. For example, he gleefully says "uh-oh" when he drops things. There's no regret there at all, since a convenient adult will pick them up for him almost instantly, and just in time for the next drop

He went for a number of walks today, with me and Ken, with me and John, and with me, Ross, Tom, and John on the way to the Dairy Queen. John was worried that Jamie would object in the DQ because everyone would be eating something that he wasn't (no dairy yet), but I had a trick up my sleeve. Jamie loves some cookies that I bought (teething cookies, all natural and organic, sweetened with fruit juice, not sugar) for him, and was happy to chomp away on one that I had brought for him while we ate sundaes. The look on his face when I produced the cookie was pretty rewarding.

2004-08-28 24:35 (Kristen) Jamie has a new bath book that John picked up for him about a week ago that we've started reading together. The book has pictures of animals, vehicles, and other items of interest (flowers, a house), and I make up sounds to go with each picture as we read. The funny one is the cow, for which I make a 'nerrr' sound (studies at the National Research Council of Canada have determined that cows say 'nerrr' and not 'mooo'). When I make the sound for the cow, Jamie copies me with a low growly sound that is meant to be a 'nerr.' He does it consistently, and it's pretty funny. He also laughs when I make a 'sniff sniff' sound for the flower. He thinks that it's funny when I sniff him for any reason, so that's probably where the amusement factor lies.

It was a hot day, so I took him back to the wading pool at Withrow Park. He was much more interested in going into the pool this time, and eventually went in up to his waist. He got a little nervous then, and was taken out for a diaper change and nurse. Before then, he saw a little boy around 13 months old go by in a red wagon. He was taken enough that he left the pool to go up to the boy in his wagon to check it out, and make a new friend.

(John) We went to Nami for a family dinner, as Ted and his family were in town. Jamie had miso soup, rice, avocado, cucumbers and eda-mame, alternating with walks around the block to play in and around Courthouse Square. After we got home, we went for a walk in the drizzle, so that Jamie could wave at buses on Broadview, and go and say hi to the guy at the corner store. Not sure yet why he likes the corner store so much.

2004-08-29 24:05 (Kristen) Jamie didn't sleep particularly well last night, and neither did I. It's possible that I disturbed him, as I don't find the bed comfortable and have been dreaming quite vividly, but we were both up before dawn this morning, and it took a little work to get him back to sleep again. When we did get up, he was in a 'do-it-myself' mood, and refused his cereal with apple sauce in favour of the peach that was supposed to come after the cereal. He ate the peach himself (and it was a peach of a peach), suffered some cereal, and then decided that he was going to feed himself with the spoon. About as much as you would expect made it into his mouth, but the new bib with long sleeves was definitely a good investment.

Ted, Alice and I decided to go for dim sum this morning, since it isn't often that we have enough people together to make dim sum a good proposition. In order to get the maximum amount of food to sample, it's best to have a lot of people ordering in your group and then sharing. Otherwise, you're full of bao and har gao almost right away, and have no room for chive dumplings, rice noodles with shrimp, or other dim sum delicacies. Jamie and I walked through the pouring rain down to Gerrard and Broadview (about 20 minutes) to meet up with John's parents and Ted's family (John unfortunately stayed at home because he still wasn't feeling well). Jamie enjoyed his first dim sum, devouring a turnip cake, chicken rice, and noodles.

Jamie had not slept very long on our walk down to Gerrard, but made up for it by sleeping for almost three hours afterwards. He was in a sunny mood at his Tai Tai's for dinner, laughing, playing with blocks, and eating a big meal of vegetables and rice from the Silk Road. He finished off with yet another peach (his third of the day), and was finally stuffed. He enjoyed the food greatly, and to this point I have been able to trust Jamie not to eat more than he can comfortably hold. I may have to revise this trust, however, as Jamie threw up in bed tonight as he was nursing, and a complete bed linen change was required. He was fine, and fell asleep relatively soon afterwards. He missed himself: it was the bed and Mom that were the casualties of Peach. Jamie seems to have few regrets.

2004-08-30 22:14 (Kristen) Jamie slept in until 9:30 this morning, and then decided that he wouldn't sleep much for the rest of the day. We went shopping at Yonge and Bloor for a fibre mattress for the overly hard futon in Jamie's room, met John at the Second Cup, played with Kelly, Saatchi (8 years old), Ross, and Daniel, saw some of our neighbours at a going-away party for the daughter of our neighbour across the street (she's going to Peru to work for the UN: how cool!), and played while John, Lisa Kessler, and Lisa Deift planned the Mike Wise Memorial Scrabble tournament for the beginning of October. It was the usual full day.

Jamie was unusually clingy today, and didn't want to be held by anyone else than me or John. He goes through phases, and I'm never sure what is going to cause one. He is getting into the idea that other things make their own noises (cats, dogs, cows) and that he can imitate sounds. Tonight, he was sitting in his exersaucer and imitating the electronic sounds of the animals on the saucer. He does a good horse, cow, and cat. We are still working, somewhat haphazardly, at teaching him signs. He knows 'up' still, and is getting very good at knowing when to wave. I'm trying to teach him 'eat,' 'drink,' and 'book.' The important ones.

I should also add that Jamie can now crawl. He crawls like I did, with what has been described as a 'military crawl,' with his belly on the ground, pushing with his toes, and his arms wheeling one over the other. He still prefers other modes of locomotion, but will accept this one with more grace now that he can actually go somewhere. He's remarkably fast, given how little he has done up until now.

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

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