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Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 72

2005-03-22 22:45 (John) Jamie's about the same as he was yesterday. Coughing infrequently but thickly, nose running a fair amount, a little tired and clumsy but generally in fine spirits. Kristen seems fine as long as she takes cold medication, if a bit tired (and possibly clumsy but in fine spirits). I can feel my immune system ramping up, as it told me I needed to spend every possible moment (of which there were few) lying down. Thank goodness for laptops.

Michelle says that the most gleeful moment in Jamie's day was when he arrived for lunch, went running up to and onto her living couch, seized the remote control and grinned at the TV. They have a new TV, so he wasn't sure how to use the remote, but I showed him where the power button was and Tom was surprised later on in the day to find Jamie turning the TV off and on.

He's eating okay if you make him, but I think with his nose stuffed he's funding food a lot less interesting than usual. Salty things are fine though, and he ate a fair amount of salmon roe with rice for dinner, along with bits of salmon and veggies.

At bedtime he was a little manic. While Kristen was bathing, he climbed up on his bathroom step, walked its length, stepped down and walked around it about twenty times, and he'd still be doing it now if we hadn't dragged him away by force. From what I've seen, this is normal for sick (and possibly even healthy) toddlers.

2005-03-23 22:02 (Kristen) Jamie and I were both sick again today, with stuffed-up heads, and coughs. Jamie was awake at 8:00, which is late for him lately but welcome, and we had a little breakfast before Mio arrived at 9:00. Jamie was OK at first, but after a diaper change at 10:00, he was absolutely beside himself. He hates being changed right now because he has trouble breathing on his back, but his meltdown said "tired boy." I put him down for a nap, and he slept for close to two hours, much to my surprise. Afterwards, he was happy and chipper: he would flip back and forth between happy and miserable all day, much like me.

He slept for about half an hour in the afternoon, when John and Mio took him for a walk while I slept. They came back with hot and sour soup for me, to help counteract the ravages of my evil head cold, which made me very happy. Mio left around 5:15, after keeping Jamie happy for a good part of the day, and John went to the Scrabble club. Jamie and I watched some Totoro, played a little, and snuggled a lot. He was very tired near the end, and decided that it was a good time to test me on just about everything. He gets really silly ideas when he's that tired, like the notion that it's a good idea to stand on his rocker. He went to sleep around 9:00, a tired little boy, and I hope hope hope that he sleeps in tomorrow.

(John) Kristen was too tired to mention that today was her birthday. We'll be celebrating tomorrow night, by which point I'm hoping everyone will be feeling a little bit better.

2005-03-24 22:27 (Kristen) Remember I wished that Jamie would wake up later than usual? Someone out there (like my son) has a sick sense of humour. He was up at 6:10 this morning. That's right: oh six hundred and ten minutes. (What does the 'O' stand for? Oh my God, it's early.) I tried to get him to go back to sleep, but to now avail: instead, he tried to get John to get up with bright, chirpy "Da! Da!"s, accompanied by enthusiastic pats/whacks. So, we got up and watched (you guessed it...) Totoro. He wasn't interested in breakfast, and while he played well with Mio, he crashed out again at 10:30 for two hours. I am trying to decide what (if anything) to do about this new shift in his napping/sleeping habits, as it's throwing my whole day out of whack.

He woke up in time for us to have something to eat at Browning, where he managed to eat enough food to keep me from worrying that he was going to waste away from lack of nourishment. I took him for a walk after that, and he fell asleep on the walk for about 45 minutes (3:00 or so). Then he played with John outside while John did yard work, and came in and played with me until it was time to got to Tom and Michelle's.

He enjoyed being there, and particularly enjoyed seeing Tom, as he knew that Tom would take him to play downstairs. When he wore out Tom, he dragged Gary downstairs. He was starting to run a small fever by the end of the night, and his cough is still strong. His nose is still stuffed (mine is starting to clear up, thanks to saline rinses (ugh)), too. We took him home and gave him a bath; he was in bed by 10:00, and so tired that he fell asleep without nursing. In fact, he fell asleep while I was putting his pajamas on. Poor mite.

2005-03-25 21:50 (Kristen) Jamie woke up at 8:00 this morning. I was so pleased! He played well with Mio, giving her a big smile when she arrived. He didn't appreciate my putting a hat and mitts on him when he went out to play, but boys with colds don't get to go out without them, no matter how much they protest. He ate relatively well today, somewhat better than yesterday, but he still has some trouble breathing through his nose, and produced a remarkable amount of mucus for such a little nose.

He slept for an hour and twenty minutes this afternoon, and was a little clumsy and manic for all that. I spent some quality time with him from 3 until 5:30, when John took him outside for 45 minutes. Jamie wailed like a banshee when John brought him in, desolate at being inside despite a pair of very cold little hands (which make nursing a whole new experience, let me tell you). For the rest of the night he was quite clingy, wanting a parent with him at all times for play and book reading. He built a five-block tower for the first time, thought that was OK, and has showed no more interest in building today.

(John) He did have his hands in his mitts for almost the entire walk, but it was a long walk down to the lookout point and back, stopping every time we saw a squirrel, cat, dog, child, car, plane or puddle.

(Kristen) Today's big news is that Jamie went to sleep for the second night in a row without nursing. Let me be clear that he is far from weaning himself: with his cold, he has been glued to me like the proverbial limpet. However, this could be the next big step towards Jamie sleeping in his own bed, and his own room (wow...). We bought a stuffed lion for him in Mexico, which I christened Leon (natch). This was the lion that he grabbed off the shelf and kissed on the nose, so I had to buy it for him. We've been keeping Leon around in bed for the last month or so, trying to see if Jamie would show any interest in bonding with him, and using him as a comfort toy when he sleeps. Tonight, I was playing with Leon while getting Jamie ready for bed after his bath, waggling his head and having him pounce playfully on Jamie. Jamie grabbed him, pressed his face hard into Leon's, and didn't remove his face from Leon's for the next five minutes while he stretched out on the bed, twined his arms around Leon's neck, and fell asleep while I sat behind him, amazed. We'll see how the rest of the night goes, as he nurses heavily in the morning as he wakes up, but I felt superfluous and elated all at the same time. After sixteen and a half months of being "It" at bedtime, the end may be in sight. A part of me is a little lost but most of me is glad to see my little boy start to grow up.

2005-03-26 23:45 (Kristen) Jamie woke up around 8:00, which wasn't so bad. I should have gone to sleep a little earlier than I did, though. Very cheerful, but his cough is worse. The doctor on call says that it's a viral infection, and there's nothing that we can do except wait it out, but we're not enjoying it. John took Jamie to the St. Lawrence Market today, and I had a long, two-hour nap. That was nice. John says that the women at the market say that I'm very lucky (to have a husband who takes the baby grocery shopping), and I am. Jamie slept for about 45 minutes, early in the trip, and was picky about what he'd eat for the rest of it.

We played for a bit, and then I took Jamie for a walk in his stroller when he started looking tired again. John joined us, and we walked around the Danforth for a few hours. Jamie stirred a couple of times, but settled back down again. In the end, he slept for three hours (maybe a bit more), and didn't wake up until a little after 7:00. We worry that he'll get up extra early tomorrow as a result...shudder. We headed over to Browning for a late dinner and Easter egg hunt strategy session (we must be the only people who plan and execute competetive egg hunting this way), and Jamie had fun playing with Gary, Tom, and Ayami. We came home later than usual, because Jamie was still in a good mood but tiring, and he was finally in bed by 11:15. I almost got him to sleep with Leon and no nursing, but moved at the wrong time. So, he had a short nurse before he was asleep. I'll keep that lesson in mind for tomorrow.

2005-03-27 21:00 (John) I got up at 9:00, but I'm pretty sure Jamie had been up for a while. I think he crawled over me at least once, and I did hear him playing with one of the toys I brought upstairs last week to keep him busy when he wakes up early. Mio and her boyfriend Takayuki came over to observe our Easter festivities, and they looked after Jamie while we got dressed and packed our chocolate gear.

We were about to dash over to Daniel's house when we discovered an egg hunt well in progress outside. There amid snowdrifts that are still a few feet deep, our neighbours Alexandria, Ben, Sam and Luke (and their parents) were busily hiding and searching for eggs. I passed the camera to Justin (who was visiting and sharing Easter with us for the first time in our thirty-year friendship) and started explaining things to Jamie.

Jamie didn't really need any help, except with what to do when you already have an egg in both hands and spot a third one. After a group photo, we headed over to Daniel's house for the competitive portion of the day's events.

Longtime readers of the blog may recall last year's Egg Hunt. This year's results are at the bottom of this entry. (Question marks indicate flavours that I'd like to record for posterity, but need to sample more of.) Congratulations to Kristen for successfully defending her title! In addition to the usual large quantity of Leonidas and Laura Secord chocolates, we hid ten plastic eggs for Jamie to find. The plastic ones had little birds, Schleich animal figures and toy cars, but of course Jamie thought the plastic eggs were much more interesting than their contents. It's worthy of note that for the first time, both Daniel and Ross managed to keep track of all of the eggs they hid (and give the adults hints when we ran into trouble), and that the single eggs that Takayuki and I lost track of represent the lowest loss ever.

Then we took Jamie down to the Danforth for a walk to get him to nap, which took a little longer than usual because it turns out that this is Greek Independence Day (Danforth closed due to ensuing parade) as well as Easter. We were lucky to get a table at the Second Cup, where we found that Jamie likes Key lime tarts (with chocolate crusts) as much as Justin does.

We eventually made it home and all collapsed into naps. Justin and I finished working on a description of the Toronto subway system colour scheme before Justin went home to his mom's for Easter dinner.

As I was getting our own dinner ready, we had our first real "Calvin" moment. I followed Jamie around the kitchen as he dug a juice pitcher out from the plastics cupboard, opened the fridge, reached for the soy sauce, and was about to start pouring soy sauce into the juice pitcher when I stopped him. Where does he get these ideas?

When I started to write this, we had just finished dinner and Jamie ate better than he had in a few days, feasting on Huachinango Tikinchik, okra, avocado and rice. He still has a horrible cough, but I'm glad his appetite is good.

And now he's finished his bath and is sound asleep, having fallen asleep for the third time in four nights with Leon the stuffed lion instead of nursing with Kristen. It's Jamie's own idea, and we're delighted.

2005-03-28 21:46 (Kristen) Jamie slept in until 9:00 or so today, and played about until 9:15. That was surprising, and would have been great. It was problematic, I am sorry to say, as Mio was due to arrive around 9:00. Fortunately, Gary let her in and she was waiting for us in the living room as we came tearing down the stairs. Jamie ate a good breakfast for the first time in a couple of weeks, and showed the best, healthiest appetite that he has in the same period all day. He played with Mio outside for an hour, and had fun playing at Daniel and Ross's. He went for a walk with Ken, and slept for an hour and a half. We went to see the doctor, who says that Jamie's got a nasty cough/cold, but there's nothing to do about it. We're not so worried, as he does seem to be much better today. I'm on antibiotics again, however, to see if I can kick whatever is hanging around in me out.

(John) Jamie got very excited in Dr. Morris' office when he noticed his seascape paintings. He kept shouting "Bo! Bo!" and pointing at the boats. I foresee our spending a good deal of the summer at the Island.

(Kristen) Jamie and I went grocery shopping after we saw the doctor with John, and had fun playing "echo" with each other. He laughed when I stopped the stroller to kiss his neck or cheeks. We played at home when we returned while John made dinner, with more laughing and fun. I took photos of Jamie's feet, bare as a result of Jamie deciding for himself that he was tired of wearing socks. Jamie made the sign for 'cat,' and was very proud of himself. He has been refusing to make the sign for 'nurse' lately, and I was wondering what was going on. He made the sign tonight before bed, however, and so the sign may be brought back into use. He played with John after dinner, which included John crawling about on all fours while Jamie climbed on and off his back.

After a long day of play, he had a bath with John and headed to bed. He was all ready to fall asleep in the bathroom before his bath, as he put his head on a folded-up towel and drew his legs up like a little frog, pretending to sleep. He almost went to sleep by himself with Leon again, but was thrown off by getting dressed. I think that I will start to dress him in the bathroom, rather than in the bedroom, and see if this makes a difference. Whenever he's been thrown off, it's been because he has settled down right away, and then was moved while a diaper or sleeper was put on him. He is so sweet when he puts himself down. He was a very loving, fun-to-be-with boy today. Tomorrow, I go to see if my various ailments and being on antibiotics will get my jury duty deferred to some other, more healthy time.

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

Back to Vol. 0 No. 71, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 0 No. 73.