Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 55

2004-11-23 24:30 (John) Jamie continued to be happy and energetic today, as he continues to recover from his cold and just enjoy being home again. You'd think we'd been away for a week. He slept in until ten, woke up happy, had breakfast and then went to Dr. Kennedy's for his 12-month checkup. He's 23 lbs. 13 oz., 77 cm tall. Dr. Kennedy says he could be putting on more weight than he is, and suggested we increase the amount of fat and protein in his diet. We'll try feeding him the chicken and fish first and the grapes and apples later. She said not to worry about it too much though, as it could just be a bit of weight loss from the cold.

Lunch at Daniel's (we brought chicken curry, as Tami was off looking after Ken following his glaucoma operation) was followed by a long walk with mom, during which he slept for two or three hours. When he woke up, he played with Ayami for an hour and then went out for a walk with Dad.

Dad doesn't have much choice about itinerary anymore. Jamie decided that we would interrupt Ben's dinner and Sam's toilet training for awhile (neither minded), then play with the traffic lights on Broadview (a cyclist seemed to mind), and walk back to Dr. Kennedy's clinic to play with the automatic doors (no one was there to mind). I then got him to go to Pearls by galloping and bouncing, which makes him giggle. He seemed tired at around 20:00, so we rushed him home to see if we could get him to bed early. No luck. He spent half an hour watching Teletubbies with me (and for some reason stopping every now and then to kiss my socks). Then finally it was bathtime.

Getting ready for the bath, Jamie has noticed that I tend to throw clothes around the bathroom to sort clean from dirty, and decided to help, or at least participate in the process. After the bath, he napped for an hour or so, then woke up with a plaintive cry while Kristen was showering. I ran to the bedroom, thinking that he had fallen out of bed, and found him grinning at how he fooled me! He's back asleep peacefully now though, and with any luck, I'll be asleep shortly too.

2004-11-24 23:38 (Kristen) Jamie slept in again today after a very restless night. I think that he nursed the entire night through...I'm tired. Jamie was a little owly today, and perhaps not feeling entirely well. He was less happy playing by himself than usual, and needed a good deal of Mummy and Daddy time. John, in fact, was the flavour of the day, and Jamie followed John around as much as he could.

(John) He seemed perfectly happy to me today, but perhaps that was because when he was with me he was close to the centre of his universe. :)

(Kristen) It being Wednesday, John took Jamie into the university in the afternoon while I worked. Jamie was asleep by the time they were at the end of the driveway, and slept for about two hours. He woke up in Yorkville, and John ran him up to Nobuko's atelier for a little runaround before heading back onto the subway. Nobuko's sewing students were happy to make a fuss over him, telling him what a smart, attractive boy he was. They also told John what a good husband he was taking Jamie out of the house!

(John) At Nokoh, Nobuko's atelier, where we were waiting for the blowing snow and sleet to die down, Jamie enjoyed a digestive cookie that Nobuko offered, and sat politely in my lap basking in the attention for a few minutes before running off to point out all the light switches and child hazards. When he sees one of the latter, typically an electrical outlet, he points at, grunts "eh" and waves his hand at it.

(Kristen) I played with Jamie for a bit after they got home, and watched some more Teletubbies with him. He likes to sit in my lap and watch the show now, and is capable of sitting for over fifteen minutes to watch it. I'm not sure if this is disturbing or not: is it a sign that his brain has been taken over, or just further indications that he is capable of being highly focussed? It keeps me thinking about TV, and how much is enough for a child his age. Still, he plays with books and stuffed animals and other toys too, so I shouldn't worry too much.

(John) We had dinner at my parents', and my mom treated Jamie to some broiled eel, which he enjoyed. Haven't yet found a fish he doesn't like.

(Kristen) We went to the Scrabble club as usual, and he had a good time running around the main area of the community centre, laughing away. I really wonder where we should go in the winter for him to do that sort of thing: I'll be looking around for community centres and playgroups in the area, and see if I can find something suitable. He fell asleep with a little difficulty tonight, which surprised me given the amount of running around he did. I think that I'll try to get him up earlier tomorrow morning and see if that has an effect.

(John) At the community centre, he's got handicapped door buttons down cold but still likes to play with them. Vending machines are still cool. Today, I let him stand on a chair and play foozball* with me standing behind him. He was Very Excited. Then he stood on a chair and took all the billiard balls out of one pocket and put them in another.

2004-11-25 23:39 (Kristen) I set my alarm for 9:00 today, hoping that I'd be able to get the day going a little earlier than usual (and being conservative about it). No good: we both crawled out of bed around 10:30. Jamie had his first breakfast with John (natto*), since John had been up longer and was hungry, and then played with Ayami for a bit. He ate some chicken and avocado, and then headed out into the cold with his dad for his afternoon walk.

(John) Jamie knows how to turn off alarm clocks now, maybe that's what happened. :) We walked down to the Danforth, bought some groceries at the Big Carrot and a pair of snow boots at Corso (an early Christmas present from my Aunt Nobuko), and met Alison for coffee. Well, since Jamie was still awake, we met Alison at first for a bit of a walk in the freezing weather and light snow, eventually resorting to the "pretend we're going home" trick to lull him into sleep clutching a cookie. And it was hot chocolate, not coffee.

(Kristen) John and Jamie came back around 4:00, and I took Jamie back out again so that John could finish working. We went to the library, and I found a video (Hammy Hamster, would you believe?) and thought that I'd take it out for him. (Update: he's not all that interested, and maybe that's a good thing) The librarian suggested that Jamie get a card of his own, to sign out his own books (and pay smaller fines), and that just sounded fantastic. So, we did. Jamie now has his own library card, and that's really fine. We went up and looked around the childrens' section, had a nurse and a bit of a snack, and then went to pick up bagels and have the rest of our snack. We headed home, and hung out for a short time until John took Jamie out again for soba and eel at his parents' place.

(John) We were at my parents' house for an hour or so, during which time Jamie was a little too excited to eat more than a moderate amount, though he did seem hungry. On the last block on the way there, he chanted Japanese baby talk for food ("Umma! Umma!"), and if my parents didn't have a piano, lights, bathroom, kitchen, mirrors, stairs or a table to run circles around he would have been content to eat quietly.

(Kristen) We met up again at Tom and Michelle's, where he ate more chicken and devoured the apply insides of two+ pieces of apple betty. (John: And half a glass of my undiluted apple juice.) He really likes apples, in case that isn't clear. We finally headed home a little late, after a good play with Ross, Daniel, Tom, Gary, and Ayami. Oh...Michelle said that she was cuddling with Ross on the couch, and Jamie came over to them and pushed them apart. He then laid his head on Ross's lap, and gave him a hug or kiss, I don't remember which. He is so free and spontaneous with his hugs and kisses: it makes a mother melt. He also likes to sit in my lap to read a bath book, or to watch Teletubbies. I can do that for hours too.

(John) I twisted my ankle falling down the last few steps on our back porch, as I was going out for coffee, and I didn't think too much of it at the time, as the combination of cold weather and running shoes effectively kept the joint iced. It was really starting to ache toward the end of the night though, and when Jamie found me sitting frustrated on the kitchen floor trying to figure out a way to safely get back up on my feet again, he toddled over and gave me a big kiss, which made all the pain go right away.

2004-11-26 22:10 (Kristen) I was awake around 9:00, not particularly happily, but necessarily. Jamie had spent a good deal of the night across my stomach but on his back, which was pretty funny to look at. Even if it was 5:15 AM. He stayed asleep after I got up, and woke up gently beside John a half-hour later. My friend Lori dropped by for breakfast, and Jamie was in an excellent if somewhat chatty mood. He very much liked the raspberry coconut muffin that she brought, and happily ate most of mine.

We were to meet John's sister Pamela, John's mom and his dad at a Japanese restaurant downtown for lunch. Jamie enjoyed the car ride down, and also meeting his aunt Pamela for the first time. He happily devoured some California rolls, avocado rolls, some of his dad's oyako-don (chicken and egg on rice), and a bit of my fish. He also enjoyed talking with a little boy who was in the restaurant with his parents and who had Elmo shoulder strap pads on his baby carrier. Jamie was very tired by the end of the meal, however, and fell asleep almost instantly once he was in his stroller and outside in the bracing air. John and Jamie went on to wander around Queen Street and elsewhere, while I went home and tried to work with a belly full of lovely Japanese food.

(John) We walked from Ema-Tei along Queen Street to Zubas and Milne, to Aboveground Art Supplies, Yung Sing Pastries, up Henry and then King's College Road and bpNichol (among others) to UTS, where we dropped off Rebecca's application discovering that UTS is the most stroller-unfriendly building I have yet been to. With Jamie still asleep, I walked to Bloor-Yonge station and then took the subway home, stopping briefly at Browning to ask Tami to look after Jamie while I ran across the alley to get my cellphone charger. Jamie of course woke up as soon as I returned, so I cancelled my plans to go find Daniel, and spent the rest of the day at Browning.

In addition to clearly and insistently saying "Umma!" when he's hungry, Jamie has been experimenting with his phonemes lately. We babbled at each other while doing the Fisher-Price ABCs today, and he seemed to like the letter S (and hissing) the most.

(Kristen) Eventually, I joined John and Jamie at Browning, while Jamie ran about happily playing with Ross, Daniel, and the ever present train tracks. John had a bit of a rest while I played with Jamie, and then Tom played with Jamie, and then invited us to stay for dinner (which was very kind of him!). Jamie, John, and I stayed until close to 9, came home, and had a bath. Jamie, unusually, had a large pee in the bathtub once I put him in with John, much to his consternation. It was a greatly abbreviated bath, and Jamie fell asleep relatively quickly soon afterwards to the sounds of Moby's CD, Play, which I used to play for him when he was much younger.

2004-11-27 22:50 (Kristen) Jamie and I slept in again today, while John was the alpha male and did the groceries. He seemed a little out of sorts again today, and I'm starting to strongly suspect that he's working on his first year molars. More news as it becomes available.

He ate a bit of breakfast, and then wanted to watch Teletubbies. He walked up to the TV, slapped the screen, and made his "want" noises. Sure enough, he was very happy to see them on the screen, and sat in my lap again while I ate breakfast and he reacquainted himself with Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, La-La and Po. He has a remarkable amount of concentration when he's watching, and can sit still for over fifteen minutes while watching. He'll wander around, still watching, for even longer. He is starting to get familiar with parts of the video, and will imitate songs or little bits that he hears. He also will run up to the screen and try to interact with them: at one point, La-La was waving out into the "audience," and Jamie seemed a little confused when she didn't respond directly to him and wandered off in search of other Teletubbies to hug.

John came home, Jamie ate some chicken and avocado (and a few raspberries, bought by his adoring father), and we headed out for the sad task of attending a memorial service for Tom McFeat, the husband of John's godmother, who died herself two or three years ago. It was a little too close to Jamie's naptime, however, and John removed himself and Jamie from the service after the first eulogy. Jamie would have fallen asleep faster, John said, if there hadn't been so many fire engines going up and down Eglinton Avenue. He stayed asleep during the reception, and we had a nice conversation about the virtues of his Z-Street stroller with another couple.

He woke up on the subway, and was full of beans when we got home. John was going to have a nap, so Jamie and I went for a walk up and down the block. He enjoyed walking by himself, and we had some talks about not running onto the road, which he seemed to understand. We followed a squirrel around, talked with our neighbour, Frank, and played with Gary and Ayami as they headed out for groceries. We went back in, and I tried to feed Jamie a bit of food. He then went out with his dad to his parents' place, and I napped a little. When he came home, he played with Gary and Ayami for an hour, and then headed up to a bath and bed.

I was thinking that Jamie is going through his own version of 'separation anxiety' and 'making strange' right now. He's happy to see new people, but not interested in being held by them; he is more aware of when John and I aren't there, and will call out for us. If we call back, he's usually fine. He's not overtly anxious, and doesn't cry or fuss if we aren't there, but he's keeping closer tabs on us than he used to. He will, conversely, grab anyone's pant leg if it is on the path to where he wants to go, which he didn't do a few months ago (it had to be one of "his" pant legs, belonging to one of his people). I don't know if he'll more severe forms of separation anxiety as he gets older, but I'm pretty impressed with him now.

(John) Before we went to my parents' place, during Kristen's nap, we walked without the stroller as far ast the end of Chester Hill Road, to see look out across the Don Valley. It took us a while to get there, as Jamie was entranced by those few houses that have put their Christmas lights up early. When we got to the lookout point, he was delighted to practise today's word, "booboo", Japanese onomatopoeia for "car". Later on, as we were preparing for the bath, I watched him pushing a stackable cup around as though it were a car, or maybe judging by its course and meeping* sounds, a ufo#.

2004-11-28 23:15 (John) Jamie was off his schedule today, but managed to get everything done in the end. Slept in a bit, went to Schilling's Cafe with Peter Kotanen and Leslie Ambedian, was too tired to finish eating his favourite# strudel despite not eating much earlier, fell asleep on the way home but only napped for an hour. Went out for a walk with Mom while Dad napped, then played with Dad for a while until Ayami and Gary came home to play, still refusing food. Fell asleep on the way to Pearls, slept for two hours or so, then finally seemed to remember he'd forgotten to eat all day and tried to make up for it. Doesn't seem to be digesting his food all that well, which could explain why he didn't want to add to it. Not sure what to do about it now, and think what with the late nap and dinner we'll be up a while with him pondering it.

2004-11-29 16:49 (Kristen) Jamie stayed up until past 12:30 last night, much to our general exhaustion. He was happy, chipper, and even (dare we say) a little hyper, watching Teletubbies and roaming all over. He finally fell asleep between us after we shut the lights off and made realistic sleeping noises ourselves.

He woke up around 10:00 this morning, and seemed to be feeling better, until I tried to put him into his high chair. No go: he straightened out, stiff as a board, and refused to sit in the highchair, instead demanding to be carried and go all over the first floor. He asked to watch Teletubbies again, which I didn't think was a great idea before breakfast, and was not happy when I said no. A check revealed that his mood was likely connected to a surprise need for a diaper change, and we tried again to sit in the high chair, with similar results. He was not himself, and even Gary and Ayami (who came upstairs and took him for an hour) commented that he was not entirely his sunny self. Gary said that he was much clingier than usual, and that he wasn't concentrating on anything, but just running about making sure that things were where they were supposed to be.

He didn't eat until 12:00, when his father came downstairs and shared some natto, but he was still not in a good mood. We went to Browning, and he was looking very tired, but he perked up and was in a more cheerful mood as he ran about playing with his favourite toys. I stuffed him into his snowsuit around 1:30, and he fell asleep very quickly. As I write, he is still sleeping in the stroller as John is running errands, more than three hours later. Poor lamb.

(John) He was quite hungry, and it took me a few minutes to calm him down enough to eat, but when I did, he ate enough for two meals in one sitting.

(Kristen) He is fascinated with the Teletubbies, which has me a little concerned. His ability to focus on the show is surprising, I think, for a little guy, and he tries to interact with the characters on-screen. He tried to play peekaboo with them last night, and seemed a little surprised that they weren't reacting to him. He talks and points whenever a favourite comes onscreen (Dipsy and LaLa, in particular), and will try to pat the screen once in a while. I'm trying to keep doses under 15 minutes at a time, and to give him a variety of less passive things to do, which he does, happily. The host of things to worry about with a firstborn never grows smaller, does it?

2004-11-29 20:56 (Kristen) Jamie slept for more than three hours this afternoon, and is a much much happier little boy. He ate like a horse for dinner, consuming mixed vegetables, most of a samosa, some potato pancakes, two chicken drumsticks and ten grapes. There may have been more, but I wasn't looking. John very kindly fed Jamie, cooked dinner and did the dishes. Woo hoo! Jamie was all snuggled up to me tonight, watching Totoro, his little head on my chest. These are the moments that I want to save.

(John) It wasn't too surprising how much he ate, given that it was one of only two meals he ate today! After several days of food finickiness, I though I would make Jamie a meal he couldn't refuse. Everything was designed to be both easily manipulable with small hands, and yummy. Hence the drumsticks off the roast chicken, a package of frozen peas, corn, carrots and green beans sauteed in butter, salt and garlic, the samosa, the grapes, and potato pancakes (made from scratch, following the Joy of Cooking recipe, because I couldn't find my old Reibekuchen recipe). Daniel and Ross were a great help this afternoon, with Ross looking after sleeping Jamie while we waited for Daniel, and Daniel amusing Jamie while we went grocery shopping and while Jamie ate, and also helping out grating potatoes and onions. I should also mention again how great Gary and Ayami are being looking after Jamie while Ken is off sick.

As illustrated in one of today's photos, Jamie has his own box of Kleenex. This is because once a day, he has to push all the tissues through the handle in the coffee table. Michelle says she used to do this herself, but doesn't remember why. My mom tells me that I used to stuff her books full of Kleenex bookmarks, presumably on the grounds that if one Kleenex bookmark in a book was a good thing, then hundreds were so much better.

Jamie's definitely getting more opinionated and wilful. It's like pulling teeth to brush his teeth these days, though I suspect this is because he's got dental pain from new teeth coming in. And when he wants you to do something, you'd better hop to it, or cover your ears. It's going to be a noisy few months, I think.

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

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