Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 52

2004-11-02 22:20 Our tenant Rika sent me a few more Hallowe'en photos: an excellent one of Amy and two more good ones of Jamie ready to go out with Amy and me. I may have to get Kristen back into her Valkyrie costume though, as we don't have any photos that do it justice. More actual blog to follow shortly.

2004-11-02 24:00 (John) It was one of those grey, rainy days where the low pressure and damp gets into everyone's bones and drives them all nuts. Except for Jamie, who was as usual happy as a clam. Breakfast, more breakfast, a brief interlude playing with crayons for the first time (he likes taking them out of the box, and holding them, but isn't clear on the drawing idea), over to Michelle's for lunch with Tami, a long walk in the drizzle with Ken, snacks, curry, a short walk with Amy and me to Pearls, the usual salmon dinner at Michelle's, and home for an early night at least for him.

I wish we could get through a day without his banging his head on something I counted three forehead bangings# apparently severe enough to leave bruising, and he's bruised the lip he cut again, all in falls. Maybe it's time to bring out the bubble wrap.

I had to cook much of dinner carrying Jamie on my hip, as he was (1) tired of falling over and whacking his head, and (2) fascinated with the whole cooking process. I'm told that (2) is a natural extension of his interest in food. I wonder if his interest in dishwashers is a similar extension, or if it's just the way the racks slide in and out of the machine.

His pronunciation of "Da'el" for Daniel is getting clearer, and he continues to insist on calling me "Dada" (despite the fact I always call myself "papa" in Japanese). Some days I wonder how quickly the rest of language will come to him: he has no problem conveying the ideas of "I'm hungry", "I'm done eating" and "Please change my diaper", so I'm not sure what will make him bother with the rest. I look forward to finding out.

2004-11-03 24:44 (Kristen) The alarm went off at 9 AM, and Jamie was still sleeping. He woke up soon after, and we all bundled ourselves together to go out into the cool air. John had errands to run at the university (and some computer shopping to do), while I had to go to UTP and talk with Barb about a copyediting project that I'm working on. John and Jamie came with me into the office, where he created the usual stir. I said to Barb that I brought Jamie in because I hadn't brought him in the previous time, and was afraid of the reactions that I would get. She agreed, and said that if I had not brought him the third time, that I would have been denied entry. (John: I took Jamie to Grand and Toy to buy some mailing supplies, mailed a parcel, and bought two pairs of jeans that fit my new post-illness weight.)

I met up with John and Jamie afterwards, and they headed off to the university. (John: Jamie fell asleep as soon as we hit the street, and stayed asleep at Sid Smith thanks to the air-conditioned computer lab, but woke up to the lure of the ceiling fan at CSC.) They came home around 2:30, and we fed Jamie. He's getting rather independent in his feeding style: he can demolish a samosa like a velociraptor. He gets very annoyed with me if I try to feed him his yoghurt, rather than letting him eat it himself. John won't let him do this, because he can't face the carnage and the clean-up afterwards. (John: I do face the carnage and the clean-up, but do not often have the time to feed Jamie foods with so low an absorption rate.)

We went to the club tonight, and he had a great time running around the community centre, investigating every vending machine for moving parts. He walked, laughed, and showed off his remarkable walking skills to the club at large. (John: he also insisted on playing the "Dada!" "Jamie!" antiphony game for a while, which amused nearby tables.) One player commented that he is really very comfortable with people, and that it was probably because he sees so many each week. He certainly does, and while being prone to some shyness, he is a very social little being. Are we raising an extrovert? What an idea!

2004-11-04 24:30 (John) The forecast is for several days of cool rainy weather, which has those of us who take Jamie out for walks a little glum. Jamie doesn't mind too much, even when he fogs up the inside of the stroller's rain cover. He just naps a little bit more. I'm thinking if this does keep up though that our walks may take us onto the subway and off to a few malls.

He slept in until about 11, had a quick bite of breakfast and played with Ayami before heading to Daniel's for lunch. Then a long walk in the rain with Ken, snack with Mom and a couple of hours playing at Daniel's house under their supervision. We went over to my mom's house to say goodbye to Amy and Alissa, who go home tomorrow morning, then back to Daniel's house until bedtime.

I bought him a Little Bear bath book today, as one of us is getting a little bored of our limited bath repertoire. He was mildly interested in it, and I look forward to telling and retelling the story of how the little polar bear went swimming with the puffin in weeks to come.

As I write this, Jamie's having trouble sleeping, with a taut belly and in quite clear discomfort from gas, for the first time in several months. We're not quite sure why (guilty parent consciences have all sorts of theories), but will restrict his diet a little over the next few days until he's back to normal. I actually had him over my knees on a pillow to play the baby bongos on his back, which I hadn't had to do since he was four or five months old and didn't know how to burp. I got him to fall asleep that way, then picked up the pillow and used it to transfer him to the bed.

2004-11-05 24:38 (Kristen) Jamie was feeling better today, and we're all glad that he is. He got up with me, and played with his dad, had breakfast, and played with Ayami. After a big bowl of natto*, he went to Daniel's house, and then for a walk with Ken. Ken and Tami have been taking care of him in the afternoons so that John and I can get our various jobs done. We are Very Grateful.

John decided to take Jamie, along with Daniel and Ross, to Schilling's, a very nice German bakery/cafe/conditorei* on the Danforth as part of an errand run (John: and as a reward to all for "helping" rake the front lawn). Jamie saw his favourite apple strudel there, and insisted on eating one. A whole one. Well, John got the pastry, and Jamie ate all the apples. He does love apples.

He fell asleep on the way back from Schilling's (no big surprise: he will often be torpid after a large feed), and slept right through dinner at John's parents' house. He woke up on the way to Geoff Gibson's house, and ate dinner there. He enjoyed playing with the pinball machine, and ran around the apartment chasing the cat and flicking lights on and off. He was very tired, despite his nap, and was more than ready to come home.

2004-11-06 24:14 (Kristen) Another busy day for Jamie. He slept in this morning, after a late night last night. He had a little breakfast, some natto* with John, and headed out for a day of grocery shopping with Tai-Tai, John, and our tenant, Rika. Tai-Tai taught him to blow kisses, and now he kisses his palm at you if you blow him one. It is heart-stoppingly cute.

They came home around 4:00, and I took Jamie for a walk while John had a rest. He stopped to talk with a cat and a dog, and we ran into our friends Jonathan, Peter, and Laura. We watched some squirrels fight over a peanut butter container, and he cried when one stole it from the other. Coincidence? I don't know.

He didn't stop grazing food all day. Pears, apples, spinach-cheese croissants; all fell before the ravening baby. We went to the house of Ray and Karen Francis, two Club #3 members, for Ray's surprise birthday party. Jamie continued to hoover up party food, and had a good time playing with the Francis kids' toys. He crawled under the food table at one point, prompting John to go after him, and surprising Karen as they emerged. It isn't really a party until someone is under the table.

On the drive home, which took about half an hour, Jamie was restless and somewhat fussy. We turned on the radio, as that sometimes helps, and it did for a little while. However, The Police, Steppenwolf, and the Beatles weren't doing it for him. It wasn't until a song by Stevie Ray Vaughn came on the radio that he stopped in his tracks, and started to hit his hands on his thighs in time to the music, happy as could be. Our baby has an affinity for the blues.

(John) I do not know why Jamie was so ravenous today. Maybe his sinuses have cleared and he's able to taste his food again, though it's not as though he was on a diet this past week. Maybe it's another growth spurt. When I picked up a spinach cheese "croissant" at the Stonemill Bakery today, Jamie patiently waited for me to pay for it, then started screaming bloody murder when it went straight into the shopping bag without samples. I took out the croissant, gave half to Rika, and tore a bite-size piece off for Jamie to try, as he'd never had them before. Jamie impatiently batted away the bite and on his backswing snatched the big piece out of my hand. Half an hour later, he was fully carbo-loaded, covered in croissant filling, and sawing twigs. Rika was kind enough to push him in his stroller all the way to Loblaws, to keep him from waking up in the transfer to the car the way he did last week.

At Loblaws, it finally dawned on him that the store was a food store. His eyes glazed over as he gleefully ran down the aisles trying to pull anything remotely edible or colourful off the shelves.

2004-11-07 25:14 (Kristen) We woke up earlier than usual to go for brunch at Alison and Kurt's house. Alison and Kurt have very kindly handed us down a highchair#, which we have taken to John's parents' house. (John: Jamie now has three highchairs#, including the one at Michelle's house and the one at our house.) (Kristen: This means that we can feed Jamie with much more freedom than his booster chair allowed. It was so liberating, that I felt almost giddy.) (John: Careful inspection of today's photos will in fact reveal that Kristen felt liberated in part because she was not the one feeding Jamie tonight.) At Alison's, Jamie enjoyed sampling pancakes until he realized that cooked blueberries disintegrate when you try to pick them up, and sometimes the blueberries can be much hotter than the surrounding pancake. He very much enjoyed the sippy cup that Alison lent him, and running about the house with a little push-car stroller of Toni's (Alison and Kurt's younger daughter).

Because of the brunch, we were much later than usual in sending Jamie out for his afternoon walk/nap. As I was working on the CHR proofs, John was the lucky victim. Jamie slept for two hours with John, before John got cold and they came in. He then slept for another hour while I worked in the dining room nearby, and I think would have slept longer if the back door hadn't been opened. Once awake, we went to John's parents' place for dinner (with the fabulous new highchair#). Jamie really enjoyed the squid that John was feeding to him (John: briefly boiled, dressed with olive oil, herbs, tangerine juice and lemon juice, then sliced extra thin as fast as I could), and also stuffing his face full of soba noodles.

When we came home, he played with Gary and Ayami until it was time for his bath. He was happy and cheerful, and played "Marco Polo" with me for the first time (Maa! Jamie! Maa! Jamie!). I put him to bed around 10:30, but he was awake again by 11:00. He didn't go back to sleep until 12:30, much to my extreme distress, but he was happy as a lark. My lark is still asleep, and while I don't know what kept him up so late (very unusual), I hope that it doesn't happen again!

(John) I finally figured out what Jamie wanted from atop my bedside bookcase: it was the collection of stuffed penguins. He grabbed the biggest one (which Kristen had given me for my birthday while pregnant with Jamie) and started kissing it and laughing hilariously.

2004-11-08 18:45 (John) Ken's off sick today with flu-like symptoms, and Kristen had an editorial deadline to meet, so we were pretty busy. Jamie would not eat first breakfast, and was skittish about second breakfast until I figured out that he was hungry but just wasn't willing to suffer being fed. He then demolished a dozen green grapes, a shredded, roast chicken breast, an eighth of an avocado, and as much natto* and rice as I could slip into his mouth in between his own bites of food.

I took Jamie out after lunch to try to put him to sleep, and while he was tired and full, I think the change in routine (me instead of Ken) was keeping him awake. We went to Timothy's cafe and ran into two very crabby staff, who said that Jamie was not allowed to run back and forth between his stroller and the pastry case, and wasn't allowed to rattle one of their window posters. I guess it's back to the Second Cup for us now, which sadly means a lower grade of hot chocolate, poorer pastry selection, but better coffee that I can't drink. I had noticed that Timothy's always seemed to be full of nursing moms, but hadn't realized until now that the reason you don't see toddlers and older kids there is that the staff don't like them. I'm still surprised, as child-unfriendly stores on the Danforth are extremely rare and usually short-lived.

Jamie did fall asleep on the way back home, as usual because he'd decided that he was no longer in danger of missing anything interesting. And he then slept for a couple of hours, which let his parents get some work done. Right now, Kristen has taken Jamie and Daniel out shopping on the Danforth, for groceries and for party supplies.

2004-11-08 22:45 (John) Dinner was a little late, and for another change in routine, Jamie decided that feeding himself with his fingers was so this morning, and all the cool kids in this house were using chopsticks. So he insinuated himself into my lap as I was eating soba*, and started guiding the chopsticks into his mouth instead of mine. If you keep the chopsticks pressed together, this works not too badly, and he was able to eat his fill. Then we spent an hour or so wandering the house and visiting Gary and Ayami, laying more neural pathways before calling an early night and actually getting him into the tub before 21:30.

He was asleep before 22:00, and caused a little incident half an hour later when he apparently rolled out of bed (and onto a sheepskin on top of a mattress on the floor, prepared for this eventuality). This didn't really wake him up all the way, but he did start fussing, and it took Kristen almost an hour to get him back to sleep. So it looks like an early night for all of us, which is a good thing with all the birthday parties coming up.

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

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