Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 71

2005-03-15 22:45 (John) Jamie's pretty much back to normal, on this his last day of antibiotics. Kristen's still so-so with her flu, and my back pain is under control with medication and rest. Jamie was up at 8:00 this morning, and spent a couple of hours with me watching Totoro and then having a large breakfast. In the afternoon, we took Rebecca and Anna to the Canadian Museum of Nature, which was surprisingly crowded given that more than half of it is closed for renovation. Jamie was enthralled by the dioramas of Canadian birds, and repeatedly made the baby sign for "bird". He also liked just running around and climbing on things. When we get home, I think I have to start taking him to the Royal Ontario Museum.

After an hour's nap while taking Laraine to work, Jamie managed to stay awake until dinnertime, when he slept for another hour or so. He's sleeping soundly now, and I hope I soon will be too.

2005-03-16 23:30 (John) We enjoyed a quiet day in Orleans today, and are settling into a routine. Jamie is off his drugs and feeling fine, Kristen is getting slowly better, I'm still doing okay apart from my back. Anna, Becky, Jamie and I took Laraine to work in the morning, and Jamie slept from the moment that we hit the highway to the moment that we reentered the garage, about an hour.

On the way to the highway, Jamie and Anna were taking turns shouting "Me [Mei, from Totoro]!" and "Anna!". Jamie has noticed Becky's braces, tried touching them and then checked to see if he had any himself. He has also been gently poking Owen to "bug" him, and vice versa.

In the afternoon, Kristen borrowed a Zooper Buddy stroller from the Engelbrechts and took the kids over to her sister Jennifer's house, while I spent the afternoon at Laraine's working. I should have headed over with them though, as I found out after dinner that she has free wireless Internet access (courtesy of an unwitting neighbour).

After dinner, Jamie, Anna, Becky and I went back to pick Laraine up from work in Kanata, and Jamie had a nap of equal duration to the earlier one. Kristen managed to get him to fall back asleep in bed without nursing though, and he's spent the rest of the evening asleep. I predict an early wake-up tomorrow.

2005-03-17 23:30 (John) Jamie slept for a solid 11 hours last night. The only problem with this was that he went to sleep at 19:30. Kristen and I took turns in the morning entertaining or feeding him and sleeping. Then Jamie slept for his usual 45-60 minutes in the car ride to Grammie's office. He's really been enjoying car rides lately: I suspect it's a combination of the ABBA CDs, the boppy young cousins sharing the back seat, and the mesmerizing effect of high-speed highway driving.

We made lunch for Jamie's cousins Becky, Anna and Owen, who have spent the whole week camped out at Grammie Laraine's with us, then took them on a long walk via the local playground eventually to their house. In the evening, I ferried everyone downtown for Badger's 39th birthday party in Chinatown, where Jamie ate his fill, favouring protein dishes.

He fell asleep for good on the way home around 22:00, so I'm hoping we get to sleep in a bit later tomorrow morning.

2005-03-18 22:46 (Kristen) Sleep in? Hah! Jamie was working very hard on a tooth last night, and I got to see what an Ottawa sunrise looks like as he nursed off and on all morning. We thought that the tooth in question had finally popped through, but it was a false alarm: a white spot is definitely visible, but no actual enamel. Poor little lamb.

We took Jamie over to visit with Mrs. E, my mom's longtime friend, and her daughters Carrie and Kim. Carrie and Kim have their own kids now (Noah, who is two, and Alex, who is six), and it is a source of great amusement for us all to get together with our kids running about as we drink tea/coffee together . There is a continuity of generations that is uncommon in our age of peripatetic living: particularly since all of us met when living on a military base, and by rights should be scattered to the four winds more thoroughly than sitting all together in Mrs E's kitchen. Jamie loved meeting Bonnie the Cat and Chester the Wonder Dog (whose bark was startling to Jamie as it's a bit loud, but who still was boundlessly fascinating), and played happily with Noah's toys. He particularly liked a toy shopping cart, which he ran in circles though the kitchen, dining room, living room, and hallway circuit.

Jamie was quite tired after all that exploring and running around, and fell asleep pretty quickly for his Grammie when she and Anna took him for his naptime walk. In fact, it was hard to get him away from his Grammie, as we walked to Jennifer's place, and then Grammie kept going! It was something that she was looking forward to, and all the cousins ended up taking turns pushing Jamie's stroller by the end of the visit.

We had lunch at Zat's, and then had to head out on the road to the train station. We made it there with fifteen minutes to spare, roared through the station with a boy who had fallen asleep in the ten minutes it had taken us to get to the train station, and were the last people on before the train pulled out. Jamie, of course, woke up just as I got him into his seat (my good airplane karma doesn't apply to trains, apparently). He was tired but good for the whole trip, sitting on my lap for the most part when he wasn't walking up and down the aisle with his dad, eating many many grapes and bits of bagel, and some sushi that his dad bought as well, and watching Totoro when life was getting a little too much. The train was 25 minutes late getting into the station, and our boy had had enough by then. Gary picked us up at the station, and Jamie was asleep in the car within minutes. He is sleeping in bed now, after a diaper change and a clothing change done while he slept. Maybe my karma isn't shot completely to heck after all...

2005-03-19 21:53 (Kristen) Jamie was awake before 7:00 AM this morning, much to my utter horror. He had a need for a diaper change, and that was that: he was up. He was a little crabby, however, and I decided to try and put him down for a nap around 9:45. Sure enough, he fell asleep, and so did I, until around 12:30. We both needed it.

John took Jamie to the market, and reports that Jamie was wide awake and cheerful the entire time. They came home and Jamie and I went for a walk while John put the groceries away. He came and picked us up on Jackman on his way to Chinatown, and I took Jamie for a walk around Kensington Market while John saw Dr. Ling. He fell asleep somewhere on Augusta, and woke up when John and I were eating at The Swatow, a nearby Chinese (Fukienese) restaurant. He tried some of the fish balls and noodles, and ate a bit of dumpling too, but enjoyed the soup broth the most. We picked up Michelle at the new BakkaPhoenix location, which Jamie enjoyed exploring, and then ate dinner with Tom, Michelle, Daniel, and Ross. We saw Ken, Tami, and Gary too, and so Jamie has seen most of his favourite people now that we're back. He was tired through and through by the time we got him home, and is now asleep.

He's fighting a cold, and has a bit of a cough. I've dosed him with Children's Tylenol for colds, and hope that he'll get enough sleep tonight to kick whatever it is.

(John) As Kristen said, Jamie was a delight at the market. We drove down together chanting silly sounds at each other, then as soon as we parked Jamie dragged me off to a donut shop that I'd never been in and made me buy him a muffin. I'm baffled as to how he recognized the place as a source of food. I could only pry the (raisin bran) muffin out of his crumby hands by trading it for a good-sized chunk of turkey kielbasa, which was eventually swapped for rugalach*, then pizza. When we got home, he was still cheery and helped me sweep away the quickly dwindling bits of ice and snow that remain on our pavement.

2005-03-20 23:00 (John) Jamie managed to get halfway through the night on cold medication before alternately hacking and nursing his way to dawn. I got up with him at around 8:00 to feed him breakfast. I didn't notice it at the time, but Kristen thinks that ninth tooth (on his lower left) has finally broken through. His throat seemed sore though, so I heated up some chicken noodle soup, which he enjoyed, especially when I let him feed himself. Thank heavens for waterproof bibs.

I also tried feeding him cherry tomatoes, which turned out to be too acid for him. After chewing one thoroughly, he handed it back to me, insisting that I try it myself. I pretended to, then palmed it, as Jamie's eagle eyes remained riveted on the hand concealing the tomato. He's a sharp kid. I think he thinks his dad's not too clever.

In the afternoon, after much nursing and Totoro, I took Jamie (along with godbrothers Daniel and Ross) to the Toronto Model Railway Association's annual meeting. It was a scaled down meeting (so to speak) this year, as it was put together at the last minute in an alternate venue after the convention centre tripled their rates. Jamie enjoyed being in a place where he could run around (at least until he got tired), Ross was mesmerized by the trains, and Daniel was just happy to get out of the house.

Jamie went to bed on time at 21:30, with some Tylenol cold medication, and has been sleeping not too badly, with some coughing.

2005-03-21 22:39 (Kristen) Jamie was awake around 7:30, and we were all fed and ready to go when it was time to go to his 9:30 doctor's appointment with Dr. Coombs. She's referring us to an ear, nose, and throat specialist for Jamie's salivary gland, just because it's odd and it needs to be checked out. We met Mio on our way out of the doctor's office, and headed home.

(John) I think Kristen was going to finish this, but Jamie woke up and now they're both asleep. Which is going to make this a bit tricky to finish, as I spent much of the afternoon out running errands, and the evening running the Scrabble With The Stars celebrity Scrabble tournament and fundraiser. I did see Jamie for about a half hour at the end of the afternoon, when he delightedly glommed onto me when I came home to change, and took me out to sweep slush and shovel water off the sidewalk, then visit Ben and Sam (who also have colds).

Dr. Coombs said that Jamie's current cold is nothing to worry about, just one of the hundred or so he should have by age 5. He's tolerating having his nose wiped better than a lot of kids his age, and he's pretty much taking everything in stride.

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

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