Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 67

2005-02-15 18:45 (John) Kristen and Leslie went to 7:00 A.M. yoga class while Jamie and I had breakfast and got ready to go on our morning outing. Peter wanted to go back to the Jardin Botanico (botanical garden) in search of spider monkeys, and as the pictures vaguely show, he was not disappointed. Jamie slept through much of the 2 km walk through the jungle, along paths fragrant with monkey do (which for the record smells like curried horse), but did wake up in time to see a nuclear monkey family of a Daddy monkey, a Mommy monkey and a Baby monkey.

I went for a swim to cool off, then worked for the rest of the morning while Kristen and Jamie spent quiet time at home. When I got home, Jamie was too hot to eat, and we took turns trying to tempt him with various food to no avail. Then Tai-Tai came home from shopping in Cancun and tried feeding him the same food outside on the porch, and he inhaled a plate of eggs and refried beans, possibly because it was cooler outside but more likely because it was Tai-Tai feeding him.

He slipped and fell in a puddle of water while running around on the porch, and was initially outraged (especially because he got wet) but then quickly amused as Kristen and I recited the Teletubbies "Mind the puddle" sketch. He repeatedly pretended to "accidentally" dip his foot in the puddle, saying "awwwww" for "ewwwww".

Then we all went to the beach. Jamie, Peter, Leslie and I were in the van, establishing a forward camp near the palapa pier so that Peter and Leslie could work on their snorkelling skills in the shallow but teeming waters there. (Peter saw a barracuda, a large school of needlefish, and lots of other smaller fish.) Jamie ate sand-covered watermelon but was tired, and demonstrated newly discovered rappelling skills when I tried to put him down on the bare sand. (He grabbed my shorts by the waist, then climbed horizontally up my legs.)

Kristen and my parents swam down to the pier and frolicked in the surf, eventually convincing Jamie to ask me to put him down long enough for one wave to touch his foot. Very Brave Boy. Tomorrow we may set up camp closer to the foreshore.

We're off to dinner with Peter and Leslie tonight, and I now pass the keyboard to Kristen.

(Kristen) Jamie fell asleep in the botanical gardens around 9:15, and that was it for napping today. We tried feeding him, walking him, nursing him, and running him around, but all to no avail. He was a little clumsy by late afternoon, when I took him for one more walk around. He finally fell asleep, and has been so for about an hour now. Whew. When we went to see the monkeys, we discussed whether or not Jamie would want to run away and join them, and Peter suggested that they might steal him to make him King of the Monkeys. He certainly has the "cling" reflex that the baby monkey had: a few times today, he clung tenaciously to our fur.

2005-02-16 19:30 (John) We all slept like logs last night, and woke up not particularly well rested. I'm not sure why. I was concerned in Jamie's case that it might be the number of insect bites that he has, but Beatriz reassured (?) us that some of the more serious looking ones are sandflies and they should clear up in a day. Sigh. I guess we won't be setting up camp near the palapa pier anymore.

Beatriz (my parents' tenant) took us back to Mercado 28 for the afternoon to go shopping for some Mexican blankets to take home. Having her shop on our behalf saves us at least half the price, which we happily spent on another lavish Japanese lunch at K's cafe. Jamie had the first natto* and rice since we left Toronto, and also cadged tofu and zaru* soba*. The rest of us also had more boquinete* sashimi, chuutoro*, chirashi* and other non-sushi items.

When we came home, we went to (a clean part of) the beach to decompress, and Jamie happily sat on the beach alternately nursing and moving sand from point A to point B. He's delighted too to wave us off to sea when we went off snorkelling, and to greet us when we came back, but didn't yet feel like joining us. He was however fascinated with a sunrise tellin (shell) that we found and brought back for him, especially the way it opened and closed. And opened and closed. And opened and closed.

I think we're going to take it easy tomorrow.

2005-02-17 18:00 (John) Today was our sixth engagement anniversary, and Jamie behaved quite well to help us celebrate. Kristen went to Jean's yoga class in the morning while we had breakfast, prepared for our day and saw Peter and Leslie off on their three-day trip to Kalakmul. We took Kristen to breakfast at Mama's Bakery, where Jamie enjoyed playing with Diane's dog while munching on sticky buns.

Jamie fell asleep in the hammock lying on top of Kristen, transferred to the stroller for the walk home, waking up in the process but falling right back asleep and staying asleep long enough for us to make and eat lunch and play a game of Scrabble. (Kristen won on the strength of the nine-letter bingo BE-STROWED.)

When he woke up, he astonished us both by clearly enunciating "Mommy", instead of his usual imperious "Ma!". On the subject of language and communication, Jamie has been using much metonymy recently. For some days now, he hands me my shoes to say he wants to go for a walk. Today he pointed at knives and said "Ummamma!" to say that he wanted chopped fruit, and brought me the beach bag to say he wanted to go the beach. When he's understood, he is gleeful, and it's a welcome break from the game of "Aaaah!" and Twenty Questions that we still often play.

My parents looked after Jamie on the beach so that Kristen and I could swim together for a change. We saw a school of nine squid showing off how pretty they look in the turtle grass (green with yellow spots), and Kristen saw a spotted eagle ray breach the water. My dad reported that Jamie says "Ohh" for the oh-cean, b-oh-ts, and p-oh-ppo (birds), but "Ehh" for the moon (probably from "denki" (light)). Jamie was grubbing in the sand with his hands as though he'd been playing in the sand all his life, and even put up with his first ocean dunking this year, though he uttered a pro forma howl of anger, mostly at having been taken away from the fishing boat that held his interest.

When we returned to the Pagoda, we let Jamie run around without a diaper (we'll do that at the beach tomorrow, I think - the diaper serves no useful purpose there), and he obligingly saved us two diapers by having one of each of his usual repertoire on my parents' portico.

Dinner with my parents tonight at our place, followed by cards (Lexico and Wizard) with my aunt and uncle.

2005-02-18 17:45 (John) The weather at this time of year depends on which direction the wind is blowing. A north wind (un norte*) brings moderate daytime temperatures, cool nights that make you reach for your blanket, and rain (varying from a light sprinkling like we had today to a torrent that will leave streets in Cancun submerged under a metre of water); a south wind brings blisteringly hot afternoons and nights when you realize what the ceiling fan is for.

We all slept in again, in Jamie's case almost two hours past sunrise. I took Jamie down to the beach briefly to verify the wind direction that my other senses had already told me, we had breakfast and then walked to my parents' house. In the afternoon, we took advantage of the merely hot weather to walk to the zocalo* to pick up groceries, roast fish and chicken, and confirm that the ATM is still out of cash (it has been since Sunday). I went out for a swim with my parents to cool off, while Kristen took Jamie home for a nap.

When Jamie woke up, Kristen went for a swim while Jamie and I played on the beach. After her swim, Kristen took Jamie in for a dip in the shallows, where he was vocal with his displeasure. Dinner at my parents' house tonight, then a visit next door where a mariachi band is supposed to perform for Gaston and Louise Begin and their family, then home for an early night.

2005-02-19 19:45 (John) The coolish (okay, not scorchingly hot) weather continued with the north wind today, so we went to Cancun to buy produce to take home to Toronto, so that we can extend our holiday by eating Yucatecan for a week after we get back. We picked up some underwater photos that we'd had developed, and I'll try scanning or photographing them later and posting them here. Jamie was okay on the way there, had fun running around at the Soriana supermarket, and was hot, exhausted and vocal on the way home. After a brief nap, we went to the beach to wind down the day, and as I write this Kristen, Jamie, Peter and Leslie are having dinner at home and I've stopped in at my parents' house on the way home from a massage appointment to update the web site.

Kristen and I can't believe how much Jamie has matured in the three weeks that he's been here. Not only is he taller, heavier, and tanned, but he moves so much more confidently, understands the world better (having seen more of it) and can express himself more clearly, and we can actually have conversations of a sort. When he's upset (as he was in the car), I can talk with him about his happy place (sitting on the beach) and as we converse back and forth it's fun sharing the visualization. "Jamie, do you see the boat there? And the bird flying over the boat?" "Ohhh..." And useful, too.

Off to catch up to Kristen and Jamie.

2005-02-20 08:43 (Kristen) Three weeks have passed either very quickly or very slowly, depending upon your point of view. So much has happened that the first days here seem murky in my memory, but it doesn't feel like we've been here for three weeks. Now we're starting to pack up for our trip back, and I think that three weeks is just about enough: we've missing people at home, and while we'll miss the sun and sand as well, we're ready.

More things that Jamie does now that he didn't before include a few new signs: he does "dog," and "yummy" too now. The "yummy/oishi*" sign he picked up right away a few days ago, and he will do it now for food that he particularly likes: he says "mmm" and rubs his chest. Peter, Leslie, John, and I will refer to him as King of the Monkeys whenever he climbs up on the couch or has one arm and leg on the couch and the other on the coffee table before I can catch him. He is turning into quite the daredevil climber (sigh). He isn't showing as much interest in the Teletubbies right now, and prefers to do things like go for walks and to the beach, which is just fine by me (although, I do miss the Tubbie breaks...)

2005-02-20 08:43 (John) A large number of today's images are digital photographs of prints developed from film shot using my mom's underwater camera, munged somewhat with PhotoShop.

2005-02-20 18:24 (John) We spent a quiet day in town sticking to routine in preparation for our return home the day after tomorrow. Much of our bags are already packed, with just what we need for the rest of our stay (which is admittedly a lot) still out. We went to the Cafe d'Amancia for a bagel (they were out of their excellent croissants, which was the nadir of the day as far as I was concerned), Jamie fell asleep on the way, we bought roast chicken on the way home, Kristen worked, I napped, and Jamie woke up at around 3:00 P.M.

When he woke up he wouldn't do anything except nurse unenthusiastically until I eventually figured out that he was overheated (despite sleeping directly under the ceiling fan for two hours), and I ran him around outside in the breeze to cool off. Then he calmed down, perked up, ate some refried beans I had just cooked, and was willing to go out to the beach.

We spent a couple of hours at the beach, swimming in turns (Jamie's still not really keen on the idea, but we immerse him anyway), and it's fun watching Jamie sitting on the beach. He absentmindedly digs at the sand while staring out to sea with a totally blissed out look on his face. Every now and then, he'll point out a boat, or a bird or the moon to us. Mostly, he just sits in his happy place.

I'm looking forward to measuring him when we get home. He seems to have grown an enormous amount, and I'm a little concerned about things like whether his snowsuit and winter boots will still fit. His feet are enormous now!

He's been practising saying "Mommy" today, because Kristen likes it so. He only does it well when he's not thinking about it; when he does work at it, it mostly comes out "Nanny", "Nonny" or "Ninny".

Dinner with my parents, then I hope early to bed.

(Kristen) After almost three weeks of trying, Jamie has finally figured out how to get water out of the Dolphin water pump that we use to get water out of the large, multi-litre bottles of purified water that we use for drinking water. He was fascinated with the spout at first, and progressed to holding bottles and cans underneath it, either expecting water to emerge or pretending that it was. He figured out that we press down on the top of the pump to get water out, and is now tall enough, and strong enough, to do it. I would have applauded, but I was too busy stopping him before a flood occurred.

Connected to this, tangentially, is the item that Jamie now collapses when physically carried away from the object of his desire. John says that this is in the spirit of ahimsa, Gandhi's policy of passive resistance, as he lets his legs go limp and sits down in an effort to stay close to his goal for another try as soon as we stop watching him. He's getting definite ideas, and while I am able to get him to desist from most things, he cannot resist pushing items off one particular shelf in Hisae's kitchen. He still grins at me when I tell him not to, sure that I couldn't possibly mean it. It's fortunate that there is nothing breakable on it, but I haven't figured out the appeal yet.

2005-02-21 20:00 (Kristen) Jamie fell asleep quite early last night, and was up by 7:00 this morning. It was an unusual schedule today, as we did some of our usual things in a different order. We played around the house while Leslie and Peter got ready to go home, and said goodbye around 10:45. Jamie fell asleep, not entirely surprisingly, as he was a little rangy, on the way over to John's parents' place and slept for an hour. [John: usually by 10:45 we would already have visited my parents and had a second breakfast.] He ended up playing with Hisae and Mary, who works for Laureano and Beatriz, for close to half an hour with the broom and dustpan, as he insisted on "cleaning up" with them. A few days ago, he handed Mary a nearby broom, as he knows that she cleans with it, and loves to watch people sweep (if he's not doing it himself).

After that we were all pretty hot, and decided to head down to the beach early. We usually head down around 4:00, when the sun isn't so strong, but the sky was clear and the water a crystaline blue, and there was a lot of sand to play with. We set up a beach umbrella that had been bought a few years ago for John's brother Ted and his family, and managed to keep it up solidly in the wind coming off the water. That provided shade for the two and a half hours that we spent on the beach this afternoon. First, we played with sand, building a Mayan-style pyramid and digging with various implements. Then Jamie was covered in sand, and we took him into the water for a rinse. (He's been a naked Beach Baby for the last few days, and he's enjoying it. Often he runs about wearing a diaper and nothing else, and I think that clothes are going to be a major adjustment when we get back.) There was much Bad Baby Language when we did this ("DamnDamnDamnDamnDamn...!"), but he seemed to forget about it once he was on land and dry. It helped that John's mom came down with food, and we had a quick picnic. Then I went for a swim with Hisae, and when we came back, Jamie was covered in sand and ready for another dip. There was more Bad Baby Language, and if he hadn't gotten splashed in the face with a bit of water, I think that he would have calmed down enough to enjoy himself. Then it was back onshore, and time to pack up and go back to La Pagoda.

He was pretty tired when we returned, and there was some hope that he might have a nap. I wrapped him up in a towel to finish drying him off, and he fell in the two seconds that I took my hands off him, bruising his cheekbone. I felt pretty badly, and he calmed down after a good nurse, before we headed out for a walk. He didn't fall asleep, which didn't surprise me, but he was happy and quiet as we walked around the village. We ran into Luna and her mom Catherine, and into Andor and his mom (whose name I didn't get...standard Mom behaviour), and had a good "mom" chat while Jamie and Andor wandered around each other. John came to pick us up on the way to dinner, and Jamie had fun running around Los Pelicanos in a somewhat hyper state. He consumed many french fries with ketchup (dip is good) [John: he also dipped his tostadas in ketchup - not bad!], and a lot of limonada (while sitting in a high chair! I was so thrilled--I miss them), and then fell asleep. He is still sleeping, but will likely awaken in a little while, when we will give him a bath (more Bad Baby Language to come), and put him to bed in preparation for a long day tomorrow, when we fly away from sand and water towards home.

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

Back to Vol. 0 No. 66, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 0 No. 68.