Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 57

2004-12-07 24:02 (Kristen) Jamie has been very affectionate over the last few days, as he has discovered how to give me and John kisses. He leans over, and will sometimes grab our faces, and close his eyes to give us a gentle kiss on the lips. It is utterly heart-melting, and utterly unpredictable. John and I speculate that since he doesn't get much affection, he's trying to fill the void himself. Or something like that.

We had our usual morning routine of Teletubbies and a little food, and headed over to Browning for lunch. Tami was watching Jamie as I was getting ready to go, when I heard a thump and a huge yell from the stairwell. Sure enough, he had run away from Tami, turned right at the stairs, and kept going. He usually waits for an adult, but it was an unfamiliar turn, and he was very tired at the time. Tami didn't see it happen, but Jamie fell about five or six steps to the landing. He wasn't hurt (thank goodness: he landed on his back, so he must have somersaulted) but he was scared and mad. John arrived to get us a few minutes later, and Jamie signed to him and made accompanying noises (Aaaaah!) to show John what happened. This is the first time that I recall him retelling in a conscious, deliberate way, what happened to him. Then he got up and tried to go down the rest of the stairs in his usual madcap fashion. Sigh.

We went to the Eaton Centre this afternoon to do some shopping, and Jamie slept for a little bit. When he woke up, we took him to the fountain in the centre to rest before we headed home. He loves the fountain, but loved going up and down the elevator, and up and down the escalator, the most.

He played with Ayami and Gary for an hour or so before dinner, and then we had the usual Tuesday night feast at Browning. Jamie ate a fair amount of food, but he drank a lot more apple juice. He fell asleep in the car on the way to the Jane Siberry concert tonight after dinner, but John failed his saving throw and he woke up when John moved him from his car seat to his stroller. He liked the concert, and sang a little, but liked the pay-phone and the mirror on the stairs very much too. He kissed me and John, smiled at the other concertgoers (it was Hugh's Room, which is a restaurant/theatre venue), and we danced together when Jane sang "Something About Trains." Eventually, Jamie had enough, and we left before the encore, but were still really glad that we were able to go. He's asleep now, sweet and quiet.

2004-12-08 24:58 (Kristen) We woke up late today, and tried to make it to the library before John took Jamie out for the afternoon, but failed. I broke down today, and after a solid week or two of Teletubbies before breakfast and a tired, low- blood sugar boy refusing to eat in his highchair#, I fed him while he watched Teletubbies. He ate like a horse, naturally.

(John) To be fair, Kristen and Jamie failed to make it to the library because they visited Alexandria three doors down the street to say goodbye to her cat, Grace, who is terminally ill. They stayed on for lunch and a protracted feline farewell.

(Kristen) I didn't see much of him today, since I have a deadline to meet on Friday, and I'm working like a mad thing. John took Jamie to the university, along with John's dad, on some errands, and to his parents' place while I worked.

(John) Jamie fell asleep at the bank, and slept through our visits to Robarts Library and the departments of Anthropology and Mathematics. It was fun showing off my dad and my son, and vice versa, and wondering what the odds might be if you picked three people in the math department hallway that they might have the same name. Jamie woke up as we left Sid Smith, and happily munched on baby sushi that my mom had given us, followed by some soba when we eventually got back to my parents' house.

(Kristen) They came home, Jamie watched some more Teletubbies after playing with the fire engine and the blocks, and had a nurse. We all went to John's parents' place again for a quick meal before John headed up to the Scrabble club and I got back to my manuscript. Jamie went over to play with Daniel and Ross for a couple of hours while I worked, and then Rika helped me to bathe him when he came home.

Jamie prefers to eat what we're eating, and has a keen sense of what he is entitled to. If there is a bigger piece, he gets it. He can judge to within a millimetre which is the bigger piece. He can be fooled, however, as I found at dinner. He wanted the bigger piece of cranberry sauce (he rediscovered cranberries, which elicited cries of "umma! umma!" as soon as the spoon left his mouth to get more), and I touched it with the spoonful from the smaller piece, which satisfied him.

2004-12-09 24:20 (John) Kristen's just about finished with a major deadline, so I think this entry's up to me. Jamie and Kristen got up ahead of me, because I was up until 2:30 A.M. dealing with server-related issues (it's the best time to tinker with the e-commerce engine) and I'm fighting a cold. I caught up wth them on the Danforth around 1:30 P.M., where I took charge of a sleeping Jamie and took him by subway down to the bus depot to find his cousin Rebecca.

Rebecca's in town to write the UTS entrance exam on Saturday. We're keeping our fingers crossed for her, for several reasons, not least of which is that if she's accepted she'll have to do a reverse Harry Potter and live with her evil aunt and uncle during the school year.

Jamie woke up on the way home, had an afternoon meal with Rebecca, then played until he started to get tired again in the late afternoon. I took both of them on a long walk on the Danforth, which (surprisingly) didn't put Jamie to sleep but did (what with stops at Timothy's for a slice of banana loaf and my mom's for turkey, cranberry sauce and apple strudel) end up stuffing a good deal of food into him. We then went to Browning to repeat the eat-and-run-around-until-very-tired cycle, at which point Rebecca helped Jamie get ready for bed.

2004-12-10 23:13 (Kristen) We woke up late this morning after a restless night: I am sure that he is either having nightmares, or his teeth are bothering him. It's hard to tell which. I spent much of the morning working on the manuscript I had to turn in today, while Rebecca and Ayami played with Jamie. We took a break to eat lunch with Daniel and Ross, and then went back home after Jamie fell asleep in the stroller in about two second flat.

Jamie slept like an angel in the pantry while I finished sending off a manuscript to UTP, and continued to sleep while I took Rebecca to Timothy's for a hot chocolate after a math session with John. We had a good time reading newspapers and chatting over our hot chocolate and lattes, and Jamie continued to sleep until when we left. He lasted until we got home, then ran off to watch Teletubbies for a while. I was too tired to keep him distracted by other things. We fed him a big lunch, in the highchair#, and he went back to Teletubbies. He did also very much enjoy playing with his fire truck, and we got some books and shape sorting time in as well, so it wasn't all TV all day. I went looking for the DVD remote control so that Rebecca could watch a DVD, and couldn't find it. Eventually, after much searching, I found it in Jamie's stuffed animal bin. John postulates that Jamie was using it to call forth images of stuffed animals in a hamper full of real stuffed animals. I am still puzzled. I can't find anything anymore, and we have a MIA list for all the items that we can't find in case someone else discovers them. Come to our house for the scavenger hunt of a lifetime!

After dinner, and more studying, John decided that it was time to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream. We lassoed Gary too, and we headed out in the dark and the wet. Jamie was very excited by the lights and sounds, and made "oooh" sounds all the way there. He loves the Dairy Queen, which must have been designed with kids in mind. There are ceiling fans (much "oooh"ing), good things to eat, and big windows close to the street so that he can watch the cars go by. He ended up eating about a third of Gary's ice cream sandwich (combined with the three rugguleh that he ate earlier in the evening, it's a wonder that he didn't bounce off the walls), much to our general amusement. The funniest part of the night was when I was holding Jamie, with Rebecca and Gary on opposite sides of us. Gary made a comment while Jamie was putting his face close to Rebecca that Jamie recognizes evil when he sees it. Quick as a flash, Jamie turned to him and stuck out his tongue. The timing was perfect, and we laughed very hard. Gary carried Jamie home, and he said "ooh!" and bobbed his happy pigeon bob all the way home.

2004-12-11 23:25 (John) I took Rebecca to UTS to write the entrance exam this morning, which brought back all sorts of weird memories (the stunned look on the faces of the students, learning to square dance in the gym where the exam took place) and added some new ones (the utterly black sense of humour among the parents waiting to pick up their kids, all of whom knew that 80% of them would be rejected - "Oh, here comes a kid who survived well enough to walk out of the school on his own two legs. Let's go in and identify the rest of the bodies now!"). While she was writing the exam, I went to the St. Lawrence Market and Loblaws, and Kristen got Jamie up and went to the library.

Rebecca seems guardedly optimistic about how she did. All of us then went to do a bit of Christmas shopping. I dropped everyone off on Bayview do go book-shopping in Leaside, then went to get baby photos printed at Future Shop. Thanks to clever timing on our part, Jamie stayed asleep for the whole trip.

Dinner was Linguine with Mussels, thanks to it having been Customer Appreciation Day (two free pounds of mussels with every purchase) at Mike's Fish Market. Yum. Jamie liked the noodles, and the snapper and green beans that I did as a side dish, and had a tiny nibble of a mussel. Becky was initially dubious about mussels, but ended up having a heaping plate.

Jamie is getting quite well conditioned to audio cues. The microwave beep brings him to the kitchen shouting "Umma!", and when I get up out of bed from a nap, he somehow hears my footsteps and starts shouting for me.

He's also really working on his words. During one of the several screenings of Teletubbies tapes today, I noticed he was trying to say "butterfly" (which came out something like "bubble") and a few other words. He really loves the Teletubbies, and likes to leave them on even when he's doing other things around the house, possibly because he draws comfort from knowing that they're around.

2004-12-12 22:41 (Kristen) Jamie woke up very late this morning: around 10:30, in fact. I took this to mean that he would be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for a while. We went out for dim sum with my aunt, my cousins Jeff and Scott, and Rebecca, and Jamie was thrilled with the place. He wouldn't sit still, however, and most of the meal was spent ordering food as it went by and grabbing Jamie as he attempted to make a break for it into the busy aisle traffic. He did enjoy a bit of chicken rice, and some steamed bun, but he wasn't that interested in food. Sure enough, he was just really tired, and he fell asleep on the street car ride home in about three heartbeats.

(John) After dropping Jamie and Kristen off at the restaurant, I headed over to my parents' house to help them get ready for their annual snowbird expedition. I'm not surprised that Jamie couldn't calm down in a strange environment full of food going every which way. Jamie says "baboo" now for the Japanese baby talk "booboo" = "car", and understands that it applies to toy cars, our car, and other cars. He also says something like "bah-ee" for "Becky", and was calling for her when Becky rode in Millie's car to the restaurant. Becky has been very helpful in looking after Jamie, and he very much enjoys playing with her and in her care.

(Kristen) He slept until around 3:30, when I was over at Betsy Harney's for her baby shower (two doors over). I came home, and we played for a while with Rebecca while John ordered Indian food from Babur for his parents' traditional 'night before departure' meal. We all went over for a lovely meal, which included a mango lassi# for Jamie, and some apple strudel. Jamie was very helpful, sitting on a suitcase for his Tai Tai, and opening and closing the lid for her.

They will be gone for about four months, and John is worried that Jamie will suffer, since he sees them at least five times a week. Hisae gave Jamie his favourite car from his collection of toys, as a memento. I think that Jamie will miss them, but will remember them when he sees them again in six weeks down in Mexico. I also think that he'll be mad at them for a few minutes, thinking in effect "where the hell have you been?", and all will be well. John and I will miss all the help that his parents have been over the last few months, however.

(John) I will be very surprised if he doesn't greet my mom in Mexico with a request for food: "Umma!".

(Kristen) Jamie very clearly identified the car today as a "bu-bu," a Japanese baby word for car. He also enjoyed a last, rousing chorus of "Gin gin, gira gira" with his grandparents as we left, tonight.

2004-12-13 22:41 (Kristen) I forgot to mention that yesterday, Jamie didn't want to wear his hood while walking from the car to the dim sum restaurant. Becky, to show him that hoods were OK, put on hers. Jamie then calmly reached over, and pulled her hood down. So much for that. Jamie and Becky have been getting along very well, and he will let her carry him around now (a privilege, as far as he is concerned). They play silly games together, like sticking tongues out, and copying each other's sounds. He's going to miss her when she leaves tomorrow, since he's getting quite used to having her around.

He even shares the TV with her, so it's been lots of Fruits Basket (a Japanese animated series), and very little Teletubbies. And that's OK. We played with blocks and the fire engine today, and read a few books. He's funny in that it takes him a while to warm up to a book, but will be very absorbed by it when he finally does. Goodnight Moon is about to reach critical mass, I think, as is Silly Sally. We went for a quick lunch at Browning, before taking Becky and John to see National Treasure around 1:00. Jamie and I wandered around, Christmas shopping and browsing, until they got out of the movie, and then we did some shopping together. We headed home, fed Jamie, and did home things until it was time to leave for the annual Oshawa Scrabble Club Christmas Party.

Jamie and Becky liked the buffet at Mandarin (where the party was held) very much, and Jamie devoured many ears of baby corn, steamed garlic broccoli, regular corn, cherry tomatoes, and apple desserts. Jamie particularly, however, liked the fountain at the entrance, with the little carp, and the Christmas decorations hung over the pot lights, which made a lovely, sparkly effect when spun by a long-suffering parent. He impressed the staff by showing off how he can open the handicapped doors by pushing the button. By the time we left, he was pretty tired but very loud and chatty in the car until he fell asleep in the warm and the dark.

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

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