Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 70

2005-03-08 16:26 (Kristen) Jamie slept the sleep of the blessed last night, only waking up once or twice to nurse. I slept very deeply myself, enough that I felt very odd when I got up. Mio arrived at 9:30, and Jamie was not happy to be left with her for the first little while: he also didn't eat much for breakfast. Mio won him over, however, and the two of them played happily together until lunch.

He was thrilled to see Ross and Daniel, and ate a huge lunch of cantelope, tofu, and hot dog. He saw me eating one, and would not be happy until he was eating one too. The fun part was watching him run around with his Swiffer, saying "nai nai!" for any bit of food that he found on the ground. Michelle says that "nai nai" is what we say when he isn't supposed to drop food on the floor; he, however, takes it to mean that food shouldn't be on the floor, rather than that he shouldn't throw it there.

Gary was quite traumatized by Jamie's fall last night, and called during lunch to see if he was all right. I assured him that he was, but he asked if his mother had said anything about the mark. I said that she hadn't; he then asked to talk with his mother. I turned to Michelle and remarked that Gary was doing a good job of taking John's place as Gary quizzed Tami as to whether I was right that Jamie's eye was, indeed, OK. I may not be the most anal person in my household...At least I know that Gary really loves my son!

2005-03-08 23:58 (Kristen) Sue and Paula came over tonight, and we had pizza and ice cream for dinner. Jamie was grazing rather than having a sit-down meal this evening, and enjoyed eating bits of pepperoni and green pepper from my piece. He was insistent about having a taste of my cherry sundae, and about doing so with his own spoon, on his own. I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of cherry sauce on our Scrabble rug, and said "no." Sue suggested that he eat some from a wide bowl, and he did so quite cleanly. Then he insisted again on having a bit of mine from my bowl, and after one small taste was satisfied, and went on his way. The important part, for him, was that he used his spoon himself.

I put Jamie down for bed around 9:00, as he was acting quite tired. I brought him up and put him into his pajamas, and lay down to nurse him to sleep. He was quite energetic for a few minutes, crawling over me and wriggling in a way that I know means that he's about to crash, and then lay his head on my shoulder as I stroked his back. Before I knew it, he was asleep. I think that is the second time that he's done this this month, and I hope that it means that soon other people will be able to put him to sleep other than me. It's a remarkable thing, though, since it is still so rare for him to go to sleep without nursing.

2005-03-09 22:01 (Kristen) Jamie is having some attacks of diarrhea because of the antibiotic, and was feeling a little clingy again today. My cough got worse, and I ended up calling in the Jamie Fan Club to help out. Mio was here for most of the day, and then Gary came up and helped after she went home. Tom and Michelle fed us, and played with Jamie while I rested, and finally Gary and Ayami are watching him again while I type this. I hope that a good night's sleep will make everything better again, and John being home will lift both our spirits.

We're still watching Totoro on high rotation, and I think that I could write a dissertation on the use of flowers as a method of showing the passage of time. My Japanese is improving, too! Jamie is still enjoying using Swiffers and hockey sticks, and we're having a bit of a discussion about keeping his stick on the ice. I've fed Jamie some natto and yoghurt to replenish his natural flora, and he's much better at the end of this day. I'm just waiting for John to come home, so that I can take a "welcome home" photo of a happy boy, and his happy dad.

2005-03-09 24:30 (John) Jamie gave me a standing ovation when he came home. He looked at me, broke out into a broad grin, and clapped his hands delightedly. He also made me feel wanted by making up for missed baths, taking a bath with me that felt twice as long as usual.

I'm a little concerned because his skin looks a little blotchy, as mine often gets when I'm on antibiotics. I'm dithering about taking him to the doctor tomorrow. On the bright side, Dr. kennedy says that the package warning notwithstanding, it's perfectly safe for Kristen to take a dextromethorphan-based cough syrup while nursing, because Jamie is big enough to absorb a little without it depressing his respiratory function.

2005-03-10 10:45 (John) Kristen is sick in bed, resting up for our trip to Ottawa tomorrow. Jamie's skin is still a bit blotchy, but his appetite is fine, and he's happily running around playing with Mio right now. More to follow.

2005-03-10 11:31 (Kristen) Both Jamie and I ended up sleeping away a good part of the day, as we both took three hour naps. John says that we probably slept even better than usual because they were two three-hour naps apart from each other! We took Jamie to see Dr. Morris because John was concerned about Jamie's blotchiness, and got him to see me at the same time for my cough. So, Jamie and I are now both on antibiotics. Dinner was at Browning, where Jamie was very tired and hard to keep happy. We think that he must be teething, or something in his mouth (the stone?) is hurting him, because the Tempra seemed to cut back on the yelling quite a bit. However, he was still so tired that he fell asleep in the stroller on the way home. We let him rest there while we packed, and have just recently moved him into bed.

Part of Jamie's very crabby mood might be because John was away for two days, and he missed his dad. It explains his extreme clinginess, and his desire to have either me or John near at all times. He'll have lots of mom and dad time in Ottawa, which will be nice for him.

(John) I was pretty wiped out from my trip to the States, but managed to get mostly ready for our trip, with Mio's help in the morning and Jamie's long nap from 11:30 to nearly 3:00. I'm a little concerned about our trip to Ottawa tomorrow, but figure that since we're not even leaving the province, at worst we can just cut the trip short and run to the doctor.

I'm inclined to believe that Jamie's problem is that he's working with great difficulty on some molars, that this is causing him pain and aggravating his salivary duct problem; an alternative hypothesis would be that the blockage in his salivary gland has suddenly gotten worse and infected, which is why we're keeping him on the antibiotics. He's eating okay, thank goodness, but he's sleeping a lot more than usual, and really not very happy when he's awake.

2005-03-11 18:30 (John) Mio came over to help us get ready to go, and everyone took turns feeding Jamie breakfast while finishing packing and getting the house ready for our departure. Jamie's still clearly in discomfort, and is limpet-like in his clinginess as a result; Kristen is feeling somewhat better than yesterday but still has a long way to go before her chest is clear; I'm somewhat more tired than yesterday but otherwise fine.

Tami drove us down to Union Station, and Jamie managed to stay asleep from the car ride all the way to when we boarded the train, then stayed awake as we plied him with grapes, other snacks, walks and Totoro DVDs for a long four hours. The train was full for March Break, with a lot of other children, including one little girl named Maia who was watching Totoro on her Apple laptop.

Laraine met us at the VIA station in Ottawa and drove us to her house, where we'll be staying for the next week. Jamie fell asleep again in her car, and as I write this has been asleep for about an hour.

A few weeks ago, Kristen wrote that Jamie was adopting a policy of ahimsa, offering nonviolent resistance to our plans by staging sit-ins. He's progressed recently to lie-ins, where when he decides he doesn't want to do what we want, he lies down fully prone. I believe that soon he will learn to flail his feet, then to pound his fists on the ground.

2005-03-11 22:00 (John) Jamie eventually woke up around 19:30, and predictably refused much food until he had spent an hour exploring the house and then playing with his cousins. He had a lot of fun doing the latter, showing off the hammy side to his personality that is the obverse to his drama queen. Kristen is trying to put him down for the night now, and I suspect she won't have too much trouble.

2005-03-12 22:30 (John) Jamie is more or less okay, on day six of a ten day course of cephalexin. He's napping more than usual, and does still seem to be in some discomfort, but he's doing better than yesterday. Kristen's cough is productive, and she's past that overwhelming sense of fatigue that accompanies the beginning of a viral illness.

We all woke up early and had breakfast with Jamie's cousins Rebecca, Anna and Owen, and watched Totoro until Grammie Laraine and Auntie Millie woke up. Then Anna, Jamie and I took Laraine to work so that we could keep her car, and Jamie fell asleep on the way and woke up just as we returned, napping for just about exactly an hour. I took Owen home to spend the rest of the afternoon with his dad, then we took the girls to see The Pacifier (good fight choreography, and generally the best possible job starting from a lame premise) while Kristen took Jamie around Place d'Orleans mall.

After a quick visit to the mall ourselves (shoes for Anna, groceries for Jamie, a toothbrush for Kristen), we drove to the Ottawa Curling Club (est. 1851) for Laraine's surprise birthday party. Her boyfriend Rod had done an excellent job in inviting all the right people, and the venue was ideal: familiar to many of the guests, and plenty of room for kids to run around.

Jamie particularly enjoyed the wide availability of curling brooms, which he delighted in pushing around the club, pausing only to refuel at the buffet or to go and take a look at a ceiling fan. After about two and a half hours of this, Jamie just lay down on the ground with a tired, blissed out look on his face and cooperated quietly as I stuffed him into a snowsuit and into the car. He woke up again when we got home, but fell back asleep without trouble after a bath with his dad.

2005-03-13 22:00 (Kristen) Jamie was up around 8:00 this morning, and feeling much much better than yesterday. His appetite was great, and he was disarmingly, delightfully social. He then went out with me, John, and Grammie when we took her to work on the way to meeting his cousins at Cosmic Adventures, a truly enormous indoor playground facility that is like a Habitrail for the 0-14 set. Jamie fell asleep, which didn't surprise us, on the way to drop off Mom, and so he stayed in the car with John while I went in to meet Badger, Jeanette, their sons Cameron and Nathan, and Rebecca, Anna, and Owen, who had stayed over with them last night. When Jamie woke up, he happily dragged John through the little person sections of Cosmic Adventures while the others ran through tubes and over barriers, while three levels up in the air. Eventually I accompanied Jamie through the little version of this structure, and convinced him that sliding down the slide into the ball pit with me was a fun idea. He enjoyed putting the balls back into the ball pit more than the ball pit itself, but that's fine. One little girl there was enamoured with him, and kept giving him two blue balls from the pit to hold. She only spoke French, but it was sweet to see them communicate.

Eventually it was time to go home, and Auntie Millie met us so that we had enough car room to truck a tired crew home. Jamie and I met Jennifer at her place and walked with her back to Mom's (No One Shovels The Sidewalk In Suburbia. Not Good.), and Jamie fell asleep for an hour and a half. Then we all hung out en famille, had lasagne for dinner, and said 'goodnight' to Jason, Jennifer, and Owen as they headed home. The girls are sleeping here, as is Auntie Millie, and Jamie finally wound down enough to sleep at 10:30.

As I said, he was in a dramatically better mood today, willing to play with his cousins, and facing the world with his usual willingness to roll with whatever is offered to him. It was great to hear him laugh again, and I am hoping that this means that he has finally turned a corner, and is feeling more like himself again.

(John) Jamie's favourite# activities at Cosmic Adventures were two. There was the aforementioned "putting the escaped balls back in their proper place", but also "playing peekaboo with the shutters in a playhouse" (see photos).

2005-03-14 22:45 (John) Jamie was feeling much better again today, Kristen somewhat worse (Jamie had the energy to get up early) and I was in more back pain than an Advil could help me with thanks to yesterday's cosmic adventure. After breakfast (as many raspberries as he could cadge, along with whatever other food we could squeeze in between), we all headed down to Place d'Orleans (mall) on various missions.

Jamie slept through much of the shopping expedition, by the end of which Anna and Kristen had new jeans and Laraine had a new cellphone# (a birthday present from Kristen, Jamie and me). He woke up in time to finish my club sandwich and fries, which as I expected he took apart and ate in "tomato, fries, chicken, lettuce, bacon, bread" order.

He's become quite familiar with Grammie's house the past few days. He likes to play with her measuring cups, which wander back and forth between her cupboard and the hearth. There's a candle by the hearth which he likes to remove from its candlestick and then oh-so-carefully replace. There's a set of Chinese checkers pieces in the den that he's not supposed to play with, but seems to be able to retrieve from wherever they keep getting hidden. The only trouble we've had is that he picks up the heating register covers, I think because it disturbs him that they're not firmly attached, and brings them to me for me to do something.

Dinner was the Chinese buffet at Ruby King's, a family birthday tradition. Jamie fed himself and the carpet, and enjoyed melon, chicken fried rice, stir-fried vegetables, tomatoes and some sort of sweetened chicken before dragging me around the restaurant to police the carpet everywhere but under his highchair# of the minutest bits of litter that offended his eye.

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

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