Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 77

2005-04-26 23:00 (John) Jamie continues to work on teeth and words. A dog walked past the house as we were playing ball hockey, we told Jamie "Say 'hi' to the doggie" and were rewarded with Jamie's first "Hi!". While we were changing his diaper, he called his feet "awo" (for Japanese baby talk "an'yo") for the first time. Among non-lingual firsts, he discovered at the dinner table at Pearls tonight that if you stick your fingers in both ears, you can't hear anything. Then he wanted us all to do it, to see if anything else weird would happen, which it didn't unless you count the sight of five people with their fingers in their ears weird. I guess it is weird, in a quiet sort of way.

Jamie and Mio went out for their morning constitutional, and I thought nothing of the fact that I didn't hear from either of them for a while. Then I got a call from Tami about lunch, and she told me that Mio and Jamie were at Browning, and not to look for them when it was time to come over. It seems that Jamie rode his little trike around the block, and stopped at Tom and Michelle's. Mio was telling him that they couldn't go in yet, and Jamie was quite insistent that they *could*, and they were on the porch at Browning engaged in negotiation when a salesman came to the door. The door opened, and Jamie was in, pleased as anything with himself. They played for a bit until John and I got there too. Jamie seems to consider Tom and Michelle's to be his second house, and didn't understand why Mio didn't understand this. Sigh.

2005-04-27 22:42 (Kristen) Jamie wasn't interested in breakfast the way that he usually is, which should have been a tip off. He wasn't all that interested in lunch either, but consented to eat some. He was delighted to see Mio today, and is growing more fond of her all the time. I am both happy and nervous about this, as I worry about what happens when she eventually goes back to Japan, but I'm just obrrowing trouble at this point. Jamie fell just before lunch and managed to scrape up his chin on nothing... we found nothing on the floor to explain the red, bleeding line on his chin and below his lip, although I now suspect a popped nail in the hardwood floor somewhere. That was pretty painful for him.

He went out with John to the university in the afternoon, and slept for his dad from 2 until 4:25. We played together until dinner, when we all walked over to John's parents' place for dinner. Again, Jamie was not intereste d in dinner much, and only wanted to eat tomatoes. We packed ourselves into the car, and were almost at the Scrabble club when John, hearing a sound, cried out "He's throwing up!" He pulled into a side street, and I was out of the car and into the back seat just about that fast. Jamie was indeed throwing up all of his dinner, and we got him out of the car and onto the grass, stripping his clothes off and wrapping a blanket around him while checking to see if there were any obvious reasons why he was being sick. He didn't throw up any more, but was pretty upset (John thinks that it was the mess, more than the act, that was upsetting him). We put him into his sleeper, and took him the rest of the way to the club after a short nurse. He was chattering away, and seemed happy but glad that I was there. We went in briefly so that John could do the\pairings and announcements before we went back home. Jamie seemed all right, if a little tired and was happy to stay in my arms. We went home very soon after we arrived, and Jamie was fine again on the way home. We don't know why he threw up: did he choke himself on his juice straw, get carsick, or have a bug? We've eliminated the first two, as he's never been carsick before, and he threw up a little too much for it to be a gag reflex gone wrong. He also has some difficulty down below, so to speak, so it seems a bug. He's asleep now, mostly right again, and we'll see if he's better tomorrow.

John and I are somewhat unnerved, but doing all right as well.

2005-04-28 11:30 (John) Jamie slept okay, but has been running an intermittent mild fever, and is unhappy. We're feeding him easy to digest things (weak miso soup, rice soaked in it, a little umeboshi) along with things that he has cravings for in small quantities (raspberries, toddler biscuits), and playing it by ear. At Kristen's insistence, I'm going out to lunch as originally planned with my parents and my sister Pamela, and will bring something back for Kristen.

2005-04-28 20:45 Jamie's intermittent mild fever continues, along with diarrhea and a somewhat reduced appetite, but he's in fairly good spirits. Kristen stayed home with him while I went out to lunch with my sister and got my haircut, then the three of us played in the living room for awhile until Kristen's nap time, when I took Jamie out for a walk and ended up at Daniel's for dinner.

(Kristen) Jamie was in good spirits, but didn't want to be put down and so spent most of the day in my arms, cuddling, nursing, or sleeping. It reminded me of when he was an infant, and we spent most of the day that way. I decided to go with the flow, realizing that he's not going to spend the day in my arms for any reason for much longer... he's getting very big. At one point, he was asleep on the couch and Mio, Ayami, and I were clustered around him, watching him closely as we chatted quietly about this and that. It's an image that I like very much.

2005-04-29 22:21 (Kristen) Jamie slept well last night, and woke up without a fever this morning. He still isn't eating as robustly as usual, and is still troubled by lower digestive tract difficulties, but is well on the mend. I'm grateful, as it is such a sad thing to have a sick toddler.

He played with Mio in the morning, and went for a walk with Ken in the afternoon after lunch. He slept for an hour and a half, then woke up early when Ken stopped for a moment to rest. He was in a good mood, and the weather was nice, so we went for a walk again. I went with him out to Coxwell and Danforth, a forty-five minute walk, to the library (the one at Pape being closed for renovations) to pick up a hold that was sent there. I was pretty tired, and not looking forward to the walk back, and decided we'd go on the subway. He really liked that, as I explained to him what the trains were, and what they were doing. He was very chatty, asking about this and that on the train. We picked up John at the Second Cup, who took Jamie to the Friday gardening group at Jackman School while i went home and worked/relaxed.

The exercise wore Jamie out, and the two of them came home for dinner. Jamie exercised his linguistic prowess by deciding that raspberries (his favourite fruit) were 'berry,' and enjoyed asking for them by name. He is enjoying newfound autonomy as an almost-eighteen-month-old child, and answers all questions with a 'no' and a vigourous shake of the head. He also has been telling us when he needs a diaper change by patting his hip, which is thrilling for me. Perhaps it is an indicator that the pre-toilet training is starting to kick in. Anyway, he likes having his diaper changed right away, and who can blame him? He seemed to enjoy his bath tonight very much, despite being blitheringly tired, and fell asleep very quickly when in bed.

2005-04-30 17:10 (John) Jamie has had bad diarrhea since last night and intermittent low-grade fever since last night, and I am concerned. He was feeling well enough to come to the St. Lawrence Market with Mio and Taka, who were a great help in keeping him happy and entertained while we shopped. Jamie fell asleep for only fifteen minutes during the shopping, and didn't fall back asleep again until around 15:30, after some of my mom's kudzu-yu and some gleeful running around with Gary and Ayami.

"Gleeful", in that it began with him pounding on their door, then clapping and bouncing with delight when they answered.

As I write this, Jamie is sleeping fitfully beside me, and I'm working on web sites thanks to the wonders of wireless laptop technology.

2005-04-30 23:45 (John) Jamie woke up around 18:00 after a nice long nap, but in a lot of pain from gas, with a distended abdomen. He was increasingly distraught for half an hour, until he finally managed to let out an impressively deep belch. That gave him a little bit of an appetite, so he nursed a bit and had some pureed apple (I bought a few jars of baby food for the first time in several months this morning) and crackers.

Sometime after 20:00 the gastrocolic reflex set in with a vengeance, and Jamie managed to spread a substance resembling ma po tofu (or possibly a slightly congealed egg drop soup) from his toes to his armpits. I cleaned and disinfected the floor, Kristen stripped and cleaned the boy, and we both declared it bathtime.

After a nice long bath, Jamie fell asleep without too much difficulty, and is again sleeping beside me as I type. I'm a little worried. His feet are cold, and his feet are always hot little coals. He's been sick for three days now.

2005-05-01 11:45 (John) Jamie looks about the same this morning as he did yesterday. He's clingy, and doesn't have much of an appetite. After a small quantity of apple sauce, miso shiru with rice and umeboshi, and a larger portion of breast milk, he fell asleep late in the morning. No bowel movements yet since the horrible one last night.

2005-05-01 23:15 (Kristen) I'm grateful yet again that I haven't weaned Jamie yet. If he wasn't nursing, I'd be much more worried. His lips are not parched, and he has been attached to me almost constantly all day, so he's getting nutrition. Tonight, he finally had a bit of an appetite, and a very wet diaper that tells me that he's absorbing and processing water again. No bowel movements at all today, so I'm cautiously optimistic that he's starting to mend. He was full of beans after dinner, and a much happier, more lively boy. In fact, he didn't go to sleep until 10:30 PM, after almost an hour of convincing. Sigh.

Tonight, I was talking with John about Jamie's appetite. I trust Jamie to tell me when he's not able to eat, and when he is: he doesn't gorge himself on food past the point of capacity, and he won't eat if he doesn't feel right. This does not mean that he doesn't have strong opinions about what he should be eating: he'd eat raspberries all day long every day if he could. So, not strong in the meal planning department, but very strong in the self-awareness division.

He is a very affectionate boy: he was kissing me tonight on the cheek with his lips giving a little "smack" sound. Puddle of mother. He will also lay on my chest and lay his head on my chest, and give me hugs by putting his little arms around my neck. He's getting so big! I see expressions on his face that are not infant-like: they indicate that there is a great deal going on behind those big brown eyes. He has such strong ideas, and desires, and references, but is very accommodating and understanding. If we explain something to him, he'll listen and expect things to go that way. He constantly amazes me.

Oh...and he now has all his eyeteeth, and three of four first-year molars. I am wondering if part of his expressions of pain over the last few days was that wretched eyetooth: he was chewing on his fingers, and heaven knows that we haven't been looking for teeth lately. Anyway, it's here, huzzah.

(John) I've added a slide show of my series of Kristen and the Forsythia photos to my flickr.com gallery.

2005-05-02 11:00 (John) Jamie had a soft but nonliquid bowel movement this morning, some yogurt and bananas for breakfast, and is a little bit clingy but otherwise feeling much better. Kristen is sick in bed, apparently with what Jamie has/had. I'm glad we have Mio to help us today, or I'd be more worried about filing my taxes on time than I already am.

2005-05-02 15:00

Jamie was a little weirded out by Kristen being out of commission and the fact that I'd spread tax receipts all over the spare bed, and took a lot of convincing to go to Daniel's house to play with Mio. I caught up with him for lunch, and fed him some chicken rice with leftover snapper, and at his request some olives and bagels. He went to school with Gary, Ayami, Mio, Ken, Daniel and Ross, then out for a walk with Ken, and was still asleep just now when Ken came home to get ready to pick up Ross, so we asked Mio to take him back out and keep him asleep. Jamie cracked his eyes open just long enough to glare at me for disturbing his sleep talking to Ken.

2005-05-02 22:30 Mio looked after Jamie until dinner time, which was thankfully when I finally managed to finish filing our taxes. Mio's boyfriend Taka and Ayami helped with dinner, as Kristen felt worse and worse and finally had to go back home to bed after reproducing one of Jamie's early symptoms. Fortunately, that still left nine of us to keep Jamie entertained, and he was well-behaved for the rest of the evening. He ate reasonably well, with a preference for my barbecued salmon, but we'll keep a close eye on him over the next few days.

Kristen has asked me to expand on "well-behaved". Very well. Jamie played with Ayami and Gary and Mio and Taka until about 21:00 when I started making "time to go home" noises. Ross, as is his wont, pointed out that I had not played Step On It! (a classic Mac video game) with him yet, so we agreed that we would play just long enough for Jamie to have some apple crisp (he loves cooked apples in any form). Fifteen minutes later, I reraised the subject of departure with Jamie. Jamie was delighted to see me back downstairs and leapt into my arms, but started protesting à haute voix when my intention became clear. When he realised that his yelling was having little effect, he tried devious wheedling, switching to his cherubic face and asking "Ummamma, gleeee?" ("Food, please?"). I was torn, proud of my son for understanding that feeding a recently sick baby was likely to trump bathtime and bedtime, and I wanted to encourage him to keep trying to outthink his Dad, but it was quite late so I had to stay firm. I asked Mio to bring him a spoonful of apple crips, which he rejected with an indignant shake of his head and a baleful glare at his father.

On the walk across the alley back to our house, Gary and Ayami agreed to play with Jamie while I got his bath ready, and I tried to pass Jamie to them, but he wasn't done yelling with me yet, and wouldn't detach until Gary started to walk downstairs to his basement apartment full of toys. Then Jamie decided that I had been punished enough, and excused me. A little later, brushing his teeth and bathing him solo went fine, but he really didn't like getting out of the bath without Mom, and had at this point had enough of "do this, then you'll get to see Mom", and decided that as long as he wasn't seeing Mom, he might as well vocalise his displeasure. He was however delighted at the end of the day to see her again, and celebrated by spending the entire night lying across her stomach, attached to her breast.

As I said, well-behaved.

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

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