Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 64

2005-01-25 23:03 (Kristen) I forgot two other signs that he can do: he will wave "bye bye," and has learned how to blow kisses (I'm fond of that one). He is chattering away, although he is pretty much stuck on the vowels. He does, however, yell "Da!" which can mean either John or Daniel, depending upon context. His "glee" for "please" is killer cute.

He got up around 9:30 (I have to learn to get up before him), and did his thing before heading over to Daniel's. We detoured over to Betsy and Paul's, because they have no water (we were alerted to the possibility of a burst pipe at their place by the presence of someone digging outside their house). We dropped off a box of water for essentials like hand washing, and visited with Betsy and three-week-old Luke. I took Luke for a moment while Betsy went to do something plumbing related, and was shocked at how light Luke was (all of 8 or 9 pounds): babies weigh Nothing! When did this happen? The look on Jamie's face, however, when he saw me holding Luke was pretty funny, however. It was a shocked, scandalized look: here was His Mummy holding another baby! What?! When I gave Luke back, Jamie (who had been in John's lap) came over and demanded (and received) a nurse, claiming his territory again. It was the first time that I've ever seen him possessive because of another child.

He slept well this afternoon during and after his walk with Ken, and spent a quiet afternoon playing with his stuff and watching Tubbies. He has started showing a great interest in cleaning (I don't know where this is coming from, since I'm not a huge house cleaner). He likes to wipe down the floor and his highchair# tray (OK, he sees me do that enough), and today found a Swiffer mop that he adores. He pushed it all over our house, and found one at Tom and Michelle's too when we went over for dinner. He was hilarious, and so so pleased with himself. We're encouraging him as much as we can, and hope that he finds cleaning fun in a few years.

2005-01-26 23:22 (Kristen) Jamie was playing with the Swiffer again, and I decided to put an actual Swiffer cloth onto it (he's been playing with the broom part with no cloth on it). He was, to my surprise, offended at the addition, and insisted with great indignance, that I remove it, and even went so far at to try and remove it himself. I took him away soon after that (after, of course, removing the offending cloth), and gave him lunch. I put the cloth back on while he wasn't looking, however, and he didn't notice it while he played happily with it again.

He wasn't all that hungry today, although he did like the eggplant curry that I gave him. He also likes goldfish crackers (the cheesy kind). He nursed a lot instead, so I'll try different things to tempt him with tomorrow. It was a good day, with lots of play and books, and he did well at the Scrabble club tonight. He fell asleep in the car, and I managed, with difficulty, to get him asleep in bed. Next time, I plan to change him into his pajamas before we leave the community centre.

(John) A whole bunch of parts of his brain have been newly wired up this week, and I'm not sure yet what they all do. He is even more assertive than he used to be about our sticking to his Plan, is carefully reexamining familiar territory (like the Scrabble club) looking for things he missed the first dozen times, and is learning how to wave big sticks (like Swiffers at home or pool cues at the club).

2005-01-27 22:47 (Kristen) Jamie was up a little earlier than usual, and in his usual cheerful mood. He was interested in investigating all sorts of things before breakfast, but breakfast itself was not all that interesting for him, despite my attempts to make new, interesting treats for him. He did experiment with walking backwards again, which he enjoys doing while I make "truck backing up" beeps. He also played with his Swiffer a bit, although I think that the initial thrill has faded. He wasn't keen on having me do anything that was not directly Jamie related: if I picked up my knitting, he sat in my lap. If I tried to read, he'd shove my book out of the way. If I tried to eat, he was in the middle of it (OK, that's not all that new). I was pretty tired this morning, however, so we ended up just sitting on the couch, him in my lap, and me dozing while he watched Tubbies. Groan.

We went to run some errands at the Manulife Centre, and Jamie fell asleep in the car on the way there, which was good. We did some of our errands, and then I ran into Gary, who was on his lunch break. We chatted for a few minutes, and then Jamie popped open his eyes: drat. Wide awake. Gary played with Jamie for a bit before he had to go back, but Jamie had only been asleep for an hour. Sigh. We did the rest of our errands, and headed back home. Jamie ran about the house, playing, while John made dinner and our neighbour Alexandria came over with her mom, Karen, to discuss a school project that Alexandria is doing on medieval Japan. Jamie loved the chicken stroganoff that John made for dinner (complete with rotini, asparagus and cranberry sauce, yum), and went over to play with Ross and Daniel while John talked to Michelle. Apparently, Jamie would only go into the basement to play if Ross went with him. They came back home, and we put Jamie to bed early: 9:30, and he was asleep. I am wondering what time he will wake up tomorrow...

(John) Jamie's been especially interested in having conversations today, of a sort. We spent quite a while pretending to hiccup at each other, which both of us thought was hysterically funny.

2005-01-28 23:17 (Kristen) Well, it wasn't much of a surprise, but Jamie woke up about an hour earlier than usual. The surprise was that he fell asleep and had a morning nap for the first time since the summer. He had woken up around 8:30 or so (my eyes were shut at the time), and seemed a little punky. I put him in the stroller around 10:30, and we headed out to do some errands on the Danforth. He was asleep around five minutes later, and stayed asleep for about an hour. I had made arrangements to meet my friend Hadley at the Second Cup, and Jamie was asleep for the first fifteen minutes or so before waking up sweetly. He played with me and Hadley (he even let Hadley hold him!), sat in my lap, ate his snacks, and was wonderfully behaved. We headed over to Browning, where he had a little lunch (hummus again, and lots of canteloupe, etc.). I headed out to do some work at the library, but heard that he slept for two hours for Ken before going to Timothy's with John, Ross, and Daniel.

(John) We sat at Timothy's (cafe) sipping hot chocolate and eating pastries until Jamie needed to run around, at which point Daniel ran back and forth the length of the restaurant with Jamie a few dozen times until Daniel got tired, which amused me to no end, because of all my memories of doing the same thing with Daniel ten years ago. Ross kept me company at our table, working his way through a Rice Krispie square with his quiet deliberation, occasionally commenting on trains, or Star Wars video games.

(Kristen) We had dinner at Tom and Michelle's tonight, since we didn't get together last night. Jamie ate a good deal, and played with Tom and the kids, but seemed to crash out around 8:00. He came and sat with me for an hour, alternatvely nursing and sitting beside me, snuggled up. We played the upside down on Mom's lap game, and I got him to laugh hysterically by kissing him under the chin (I love that). He wasn't himself, though, and his nose was running a little (clear) fluid by bathtime. I really hope that he doesn't have a cold, and that it's just more teething. Pray pray pray that sleep will take care of the problem.

2005-01-29 23:53 (Kristen) We went off as a family to the St. Lawrence Market, leaving a little late in the morning. We did an abbreviated version of our usual grocery shopping, but fit in time to talk with the Indian Food Lady and Wei at the green grocer's. Wei gave Jamie a banana, which he was very pleased about and ate with many "mmm"s. He fell asleep in the car on the way home around 2:00, and stayed asleep through a transfer from car seat to stroller. We finished the rest of our errands in our neighbourhood, pushing Jamie all over the Danforth. We stopped in Timothy's for a rest on the way home, where Jamie woke up slowly after being asleep for two and a half hours. He enjoyed a bit of banana bread before we headed back (hearing more than one "what a cute baby!" from patrons, who are discerning connoisseurs of babies).

Once home, I fed Jamie a good amount of curry, and he watched some Tubbies after a nurse. He finished watching the tape with Gary, who was happy to hang out with our boy while I ran an errand and cleaned up the kitchen. Then it was over to Browning for dinner, and some play time with Ross and Daniel. John reports that Jamie spent a good deal of time crawling onto the couch downstairs, and then getting off to try again. This has been an obsession for him lately: to being able to climb on and off of furniture (beds, couches, highchair...). Then it was time to go to bed, a little later than usual, which will likely translate into a sleepin for all of us.

He's turned into a bit of a clown lately, and loves to make us laugh. He makes faces, sticks out his tongue, and mugs a huge grin for us. It's actually pretty funny. He also is getting pretty good with a spoon, which he has been working hard at for a few weeks. Tom noticed tonight how good he was getting at it, which is good news for Jamie that his work is paying off.

2005-01-30 22:56 (Kristen) After a busy morning and a very short afternoon nap (only an hour!), we all went over to visit Ben, Sam, Luke, and their parents Betsy and Paul as a much-needed respite from packing for our trip. Jamie had a great time playing with Sam and Ben, chasing them around the house, while John and I took turns making sure that Jamie wasn't going up stairs or otherwise doing something that he shouldn't. Jamie was much more copacetic about my holding one-month-old Luke, especially since he was sitting in his dad's lap, eating coffee cake. It's so strange to hold Luke, and imagine that Jamie wasn't much bigger than that just a year ago. Jamie was never that small. No, no, no...

After snacking, we all went outside so that the big boys could play in the snow. Jamie wasn't all that interested in being in the snow, but enjoyed watching Sam and Ben, and playing a little with Alexandria when she came outside. He dragged John off at one point to play the "crosswalk game," but came back before everyone headed in for dinner at their respective houses. (John: he actually walked almost all the way there without looking back; it was a good thing I was tiptoeing along behind him.) John and I were somewhat stressed in out attempt to finish packing tonight so that we aren't too overwhelmed tomorrow (the day before our departure), and so Rika, Daniel, and Gary all pitched in and helped look after our boy. (John: and we are actually packed now, save for bath toys and trip food.) Jamie was doing pretty well for a boy who had only slept for an hour and had gotten up earlier than usual (after going to bed later than usual, too!). I don't get it: he didn't wake up in the Second Cup, or in a very noisy and crowded Big Carrot (the theory is that everyone was out today, enjoying the break in the cold), but woke up going over a bumpy patch on Jackman, near home, that usually puts him to sleep. It is a mystery.

(John) At this point many of you will be scratching your heads after looking at the POTD, asking yourselves "Who's Ida?" That's Ida Bulat, the graduate coordinator at the math department, who somehow found time while riding herd over scores of graduate students to knit this lovely hat. She'd mentioned she was working on it the other day, which gave me time to warn her about Jamie's immense "Chew head". I told her "if it looks way too big, it'll be just right", and it is!

2005-01-31 17:15 (Kristen) We're reporting early today, as we're hoping to go to bed early tonight for our early departure tomorrow morning. I'm not sure how the trip will go: Jamie only slept for 40 minutes today (ack!), and this new sleepless trend may make the plane flight that much more challenging.

(John) I know no fear. I have an iBook full of Elmo and Teletubbies flash animation and Teletubbies DVDs. I just wouldn't want to be sitting too close to us for four hours.

(Kristen) He was up around 9:00, but hasn't been that much interested in food today. He even pitched a piece of banana loaf almost untasted! After the usual morning routine, we headed over to Browning for lunch. I had planned to go out with Jamie, Betsy, and Luke for a walk, but ended up sending Jamie with Ken and walking with John, Betsy, and Luke for a short bit until John went to his parents' place to send a fax. It was a beautiful day for a walk, and Betsy, Luke, and I ended up at Timothy's for a drink. I was surprised to receive a call from Ken at 2:14, saying that Jamie was up and had only slept for 40 minutes. He arrived with Jamie at Timothy's shortly afterwards, and Jamie had a huge grin on his face. We took Betsy and Luke home, and met with John on the Danforth. We went home ,to the bank, and then to Tom and Michelle's to play with Ross and Daniel. John reports that Jamie can now stack 5 Megablox by himself. When we arrived, we found a huge bag of clothes from Michelle's sister Kelly's friend Tula, of which her son, Cole, had grown out of. They're really nice clothes, and we're really happy.

Jamie is kinetic, somewhat tired, but not interested in napping. He is nursing lots, and finally got half an apple and some tofu into himself. I'm not sure what the problem is, but suspect teeth (the usual suspects). Tomorrow we wing to Mexico, and I hope that Jamie loves running around with no snowsuit on as much as I am going to.

(John) Wish us luck. We'll try to report in again tomorrow night, but for the next three weeks we'll be keeping the blog up-to-date on the laptop and updating the web site whenever we can arrange the Internet connection.

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

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