Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 54

2004-11-16 12:10 (John) He's definitely got a mild cold. He was tossing and turning all night trying to breathe comfortably, and managed to throw himself out of bed once too. He's in a good mood now though, unlike his crabby zombie parents. He visited me at my desk just now, and I showed him some of his recent photos. When we got to the group shot on the way home from Mezes on Sunday, I named everyone in the photo for him, and I think Jamie made his first pun. Jamie's cousin Amy chose the name Mimi for herself at an early age, and with two visits in two weeks, Jamie is familiar enough with her to recognize her name. When I pointed at her and said "Mimi" though, he smiled and grabbed my ear: "mimi" is the Japanese word for "ear". When we see Mimi in Kingston next week, I will have to point out "Mimi no mimi": Mimi's ears.

2004-11-16 23:10 We left Jamie in the care of Ken Sagara for the early part of the afternoon, while we went off to Queen Street West to visit the labour lawyer and spend a couple of carefree hours secure in the knowledge that our boy was in good hands. I stopped in at Active Surplus Annex and spent $2 each on a gizmo that plays Brahms' Lullaby, a pair of barber's scissors for when I'm brave enough to cut Jamie's hair, and a couple of keychain levels (one for Daniel, one for Jamie for later). I didn't find what I was looking for (an infrared filter for my digital camera), but that's okay.

Kristen picked up Jamie from Ken, while I went to get my flu shot, which I carefully decided to have in my left arm, what with my being right-handed. I forgot that my left arm is my Jamie-carrying arm, because I need my right hand for fine motor control tasks such as unlocking doors. Oh well. I made dinner at Tom and Michelle's house, and Jamie ate quite well (ikura*, soba*, salmon, chicken, zucchini, asparagus, rice) and even wiped his own face on a napkin (a new trick).

2004-11-17 21:17 (Kristen) Jamie's cold kept him up last night, and his snoring drove John out of the room entirely. Poor guys. He was pretty restless, and so I didn't get much sleep either, but Jamie had more chances to rectify that than I did. The joys of being a baby.

Despite the lack of sleep, it was a very successful communications day for Jamie. He asked for a drink this morning using sign language, which both surprised and thrilled me. He is very good at saying that he is done with his meal, although he is sometimes vague as to whether or not he is done with the whole meal, or just with what is in front of him right now. He had a good breakfast, and we headed out for a walk so that John could get some work done. Jamie fell asleep around 11:30, which wasn't too unusual, but he stayed asleep until 2:00, which was very unusual.

I was out on job business when he woke, and so he and John came to pick me up downtown. We were close to the Book City where Gary works, and so we all went in to say "hi." We also picked up Hippos Go Berserk and The Runaway Bunny for Jamie, since I love these two books and hope that Jamie will as well. He enjoyed it when I read them to him in the car. We picked up Indian food from Babur again for his paternal grandfather's birthday party (Jack is 81 today: Sai just turned 71, and my dad turned 61 last week. Busy busy Scorpios), and had dinner at John' parents'. Jamie devoured more mango lassi and enjoyed the Goan fish curry and mango chicken again, and added aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes) to his menu. He also devoured a good deal of apple strudel for dessert.

I had given Jamie some cold medicine before we went to his grandparents' house so that he would be able to breathe (and not dribble germs quite so much), and it really knocked him out. He fell asleep just before 7:00 PM as we went for a walk in the misty night to the library and back home. He slept all through, and is still asleep. I managed to get him out of the stroller and put him to bed, but he is still in his day clothes. I don't think that I'll disturb him, though. If he wants to sleep, I'll let him. Keep your fingers crossed that he's out for the night!

(John) Jamie slept for three hours, then took a bath and has as of 01:20 been up for about three hours. Oh, it's going to be a long night.

2004-11-18 22:36 (Kristen) Jamie finally fell asleep around 2 AM last night, much to his parents' relief. He started to be restless around 7 AM, which is what I expected, but I managed to keep him in bed until 9. I don't know what I'm going to do to keep in bed after he's weaned and the liquid bribe dries up.

He was off his food this morning, despite showing signs of active hunger: even chicken didn't keep his attention for very long. He was also very hyper... running about, getting into things, and in general behaving like he does when he's very tired and wants me to put him to bed. I took him over to Browning for lunch, and we managed to get some chicken rice and some (more) grapes into him before he went on his walk with Ken. He was very tired, though, and his eyes were shut before his stroller hit the bottom of the stairs.

(John) The problem was that we were all tired. Kristen let me sleep in until close to eleven (I was up playing with Jamie to tire him out until close to three), but was too tired to give Jamie the constant attention that he still needs when he's tired, so he was acting out.

(Kristen) He slept for around three hours and seemed better after that. We read books together, played with blocks, and had a generally good time. He was sweet and affectionate, and eventually ate half a samosa and some Goan fish curry. This held him over until we went to Browning, this time for dinner, and he ate more fish, soba, and some greens. He also drank a good deal of apple juice from the glass, spilling remarkably little as he did so. Today saw a real giant step in his ability to use a glass not quite on his own.

He ran around, played with Tom and Gary, and decided that he loved the dishwasher rack. He ran it back and forth, back and forth, until we tried to take him away from it. No luck: he was eventually lured away with talk of shoes (he can say 'shoes' in Japanese now), and whisked out the door for home. He remained quite kinetic, tossing clothes around and laughing when I said that he was making me crazy (those are his father's genes talking), but he fell asleep very quickly.

(John) Tomorrow we're off to Kingston for the annual Toronto-Montreal Scrabble match, but will be staying at a civilized hotel with wireless Internet access, so I imagine the web site will be updated at its usual time. Maybe even earlier.

2004-11-19 11:10 (Kristen) We woke up today at around 10:00, feeling better than we did yesterday. Jamie is still somewhat kinetic, and decided after breakfast that he needed to play with Ayami. Every day now, he bangs on their door at least once, asking to be brought downstairs and be played with. He is really really fond of them, and they (thank god) are that fond of him too. That's where they are right now while John and I get ready for Kingston. I shudder to think of how much we owe them when they eventually have kids of their own.

John often teases me that I don't actually listen to what he is saying, and just make up my own stories. I say that he mumbles, and it's hard to fill in the gaps. Today, I was following Jamie through the pantry, and told him as I moved dangerous and other materials out of his way that he was a little disaster monger (in the most loving, motherly fashion). John, in the kitchen, heard 'disasternaut,' which I think is much better. As he goes exploring through life, pulling books off shelves and pouring blocks on the floor, running up stairs without adult supervision in a single bound...

2004-11-19 21:45 (John) We left at 14:00 and made it to Kingston by 17:00, including a half hour stop to let Jamie run around the Trenton service centre checking all the vending machines for spare change. Jamie was good throughout the trip, and the only trouble now is that he is having so much fun, he's not going to sleep. We've tried pretending we're all going to bed, going to bed with or without me, and I just finished a lap around the inside of the hotel pushing Jamie in the stroller. Kristen's out now trying an outside lap. (And as of 23:15, she's succeeded, yay!)

2004-11-20 24:45 (John) The Ambassador Hotel's free wireless service is down for the weekend. Don't ask how I'm typing this. We'll upload Jamie's blog and POTD tomorrow night. Sorry for the delay.

2004-11-20 47:30 (Kristen) It was a very busy day today. Jamie's nose continued to run, and so he was doped up on cold medicine for most of the day. He woke up late, in part because the curtains in the hotel room kept the light out very well and we had no idea what the time was. Breakfast was at a restaurant called Ian's Restaurant, which is run by a South African man named Ian, with Alice and Amy. Jamie enjoyed much of John's omelette (Jarlsberg and smoked salmon) and his mango/guava juice milk shake.

After breakfast, John went to play Scrabble while Jamie and I went out for a play date with Ted and Amy at Playdium, an indoor playground. Jamie was getting close to his nap time, but he bravely went forward and played for an hour in the toddler section of the place. He particularly loved the stairs and slide combination, and went up the three little stairs and down the little slide all by himself at least ten times. He finally melted down around 2:00, and fell asleep in the car just before we got back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, I was unable to successfully translate Jamie into his stroller without waking him up, and so I took him up for a nurse and some lunch. He didn't want to fall asleep again, however, until I realized that he wanted to fall asleep in his stroller again. A brisk walk around the hotel in the pouring rain put him to sleep for ah hour and a bit.

Alice brought food by for dinner, along with Amy, as Ian was unwell and stayed home with Ted. Jamie liked the noodles, and the paneer from my saag paneer. He also ate all my peas, which I appreciated, since I hate peas, but was slightly grossed out by. John grabbed a little dinner with us before heading back to his Scrabble games, and Jamie and Amy played a little together while Alice and I talked.

Amy and Alice headed home, and Jamie had his bath with his dad. He fell asleep more easily than the night before, still doped up on cold medicine.

2004-11-21 23:45 (Kristen) Jamie slept in today until 11:00: I was checking him for signs of life every fifteen minutes or so. He really must not have been feeling well yesterday, as he was much perkier and happy this morning after he woke up. His sleeping in allowed me to pack up the room in preparation for departure back to Toronto, which was a surprising help. John had left early in the morning (around 4:45 AM) to go to Ted and Alice's, as the hotel's internet connection was down and he needed to work on the UK National Scrabble Championship (yes, John had a little too much to do this weekend!). Jamie slept for the both of them, I think. Alice came over and took us out for lunch with her family at a restaurant called Cora's, and Jamie enjoyed playing with the sugar and milk containers, as well as eating a good deal of potato, melon, and my apple-cheese crepe. He enjoyed running around the restaurant, and grabbing onto the pant legs of those who stood near him: he was very happy, and very social.

Alice dropped Jamie and me off at the house of my high-school friends, Mike and Alison, for a baby shower. Alison's baby is due in early December, and it was a fun, wonderful time. Jamie enjoyed all the present opening, and exploring a new house. Alison was given a large, soft stuffed dog that Jamie was particularly enchanted with, and that he gave large hugs and kisses to. I may have to find a version of this dog myself to give to him. He ate grapes, smiled and was sociable, and finally fell asleep in my arms while we waited for John to pick us up on the way out of town and home. It was great to see Mike and Alison, and to see how great (and how happy) Alison (and Mike) looks. I had a chance to talk with Alison about baby stuff for a good long time, which was an unexpected pleasure. It feels weird to be in the position of having something useful to say about babies! There was a two-month-old baby there as well, and there is a photo out there somewhere of me holding a sleeping Jamie, Mike's mom holding a two-month-old boy that was also at the shower, and Alison (with baby-boy-to-be), all in a row on the couch. It was a lovely time, and Jamie had a great time too.

Jamie fell asleep at the right time on the way home, and was only woken up by a phone call once we were in the city itself. He was pretty teary, however, until we got home and he saw Gary and Ayami in the driveway. He was absolutely thrilled to see them, and played with them while John and I unpacked the car. He seemed very glad to be home, and to be surrounded by his people, and by his stuff. He fell asleep again around 11:00, full of milk and sweet dreams.

2004-11-21 24:19 (Kristen) I forget to mention a couple of things, in my sleepy fugue state: first, I wore a My Neighbour Totoro tshirt today to Alison's baby shower, and Jamie was excited when I put it on. He pointed at the totoro, and 'oohed.' He definitely recognized it from the movie, which I put on occasionally for him as background watching. He's got a pretty good memory, which makes me think harder about the television that I watch when he's around. I'm particularly prone to watching TV in hotel rooms...MuchMoreMusic and Star!TV may not be such great ideas. Jamie also had his first french fries at McDonalds, which seemed interesting to him, although the peeled McNuggets were gobbled more eagerly. He most enjoyed pushing the McDonalds high chair all around the floor, however. We had pulled into a McDonalds on the highway so that we could feed me and Jamie, and so John could have a nap before getting back on the highway.

2004-11-22 24:28 (Kristen) Jamie was very happy to be home, and woke up in even higher spirits than usual. He told me very clearly that it was time for breakfast by clearly saying 'mama" (Japanese baby talk for food), and making the sign for eating. He had breakfast, played with Ayami, and then we headed over to Browning for lunch. Jamie ate most of a block of tofu and some applesauce, played with Daniel, and headed out with Ken and Daniel to school.

I stayed at home to work while Ken walked with Jamie, and then while John and Jamie played with Daniel after school. I came over to Browning for dinner to find them all still happily together. Jamie came running to me when I arrived, to give me a big hug. I really really enjoy that part of my day. Michelle said that Jamie was very very cute today, and was fun to be with. He's getting freer with his hugs and kisses, and gave John a kiss today on his nose before his bath. We had dinner, Jamie played with Rika and Ayami some more, and with Gary too. Everyone keeps an eye out for Jamie: even Ross, who is just six, will make sure that Jamie eats the right things and doesn't do anything that he shouldn't, like climb the stairs without adult supervision. Ross had a cinnamon bun today for dessert, and John had a little bite in Jamie's line of sight. When John was going to give Jamie some, Ross asked quite seriously if Jamie was allowed to have it, since he knows that I don't like giving Jamie sugar. It was lucky for Jamie that it was his father who had the bun and not me: my son had happy, sticky fingers that his dad got to clean and not me.

(John) I've added several pictures from Saturday's expedition to Playdium in Kingston, courtesy of my brother. Thanks, Ted! Jamie was very happy all day long, and spent today continuing to check that all of his favourite# light switches worked, and moving toys from room to get everything back in order.

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

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