Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 78

2005-05-03 21:35 (Kristen) Jamie spent the night attached to me, and would only sleep if he was draped across me, with a breast in his mouth. He seemed disturbed by something, and I'm not sure if it isn't one of his new molars giving him trouble. Or, he could have been making up for lost time after not seeing much of me yesterday. I spent the morning resting, while Jamie played with Mio, and John took Mio and Jamie over to Browning for lunch. Ken took Jamie for a walk, and brought him back around 3:00. Jamie slept for about two and a bit hours in total, and was happy to see me when he woke up. He seemed a little out of sorts for the rest of the day, perhaps the teething problem again; he went outside with John, and nursed heavily whenever he saw me. He had fun pretending that he was a truck backing up, and is getting very good at saying "beep beep" when he does. His appetite is back with a vengeance, and I'm happy to see that he's got lots of energy again. Tomorrow, we'll all be one day better.

2005-05-04 24:23 (Kristen) Jamie slept in this morning until almost 9:30, and really wasn't very ready for his day. He just wanted to sit in the morning and watch TV: he didn't even want to go out with Mio and play, which is something that you usually can't stop him from doing with a stick. Mio said that he just clung to her, and didn't want to run around. He came in and nursed, and almost fell asleep, but I kept him up for lunch. He snacked on cucumber, Japanese pickles, and goldfish, but decided that my tomato soup looked best. After the 'honey' incident, he knows without a doubt that whatever I have is the best-tasting thing available, and he Must Have Some. He didn't like it at first, but reconsidered after realizing that it was just another form of tomato, one of Nature's perfect foods.

Jamie and I walked Mio down to Broadview and Danforth, and then went to John's parents' place to pick up the little stroller so that John could take Jamie to the university. Jamie fell asleep just before we got there, however, and so I just walked him home and worked until he woke up, around 3:00. He was not in much better a mood when he woke up, but I decided to get some outdoor time in by taking him into the back garden and teaching him a little about the garden. I told him that these (pointing to the irises) were good plants and we wanted them, but these (pointing to grass and bellflower) were weeds, and we wanted them out of the garden. So, we pull them up and say "Bye-bye, weeds!" I said this in a very bright, happy tone, and he thought this so delightful that he parrotted back, almost perfectly, "Bye-bye, weeds! Actually, he even got the 'w' sound right, while letting the 'ds' sound at the end slide off, but it was the clearest English that I've ever heard him say. That, and it was a new sentence construction for him: usually it's noun then other word (usually "glee"--"ummama glee", "bubu glee"). This time it was other word then noun, and he was so pleased with himself that he's been saying it on cue all day. That 'we' sound is hard, and often comes out as "bwee," but he is nailing it. It is the (need I say it?) cutest damn thing.

After that, things went somewhat downhill. He 'helped' me in the garden with a trowel of his own (must teach him to not step on good plants!), but was greatly displeased when I told him that he wasn't allowed near the rose bushes, as they were 'ow ow ow.' I had to pick him up and take him inside, and a nurse put everyone back to rights, but it's getting hard to distract him from his goals, and when I do, he is starting to have larger and larger fits about it. Eighteen months isn't far away, and I've read that it can be an... interesting...time. Tonight, at the Scrabble club, there were some children in the community centre with a bag of beach-like toys (buckets, shovels, and the like), all of which Jamie covets intensely. He saw those toys (John later told me that he'd spent a good part of an hour making sure that Jamie didn't see them for exactly this reason), and when I told him that he couldn't play with them because they weren't ours (and the family were packing up to leave anyway), I was Mom Non Grata. I was soundly yelled at, and once again, we ended up nursing together in a corner. Is this just the age? Is it teeth? Where's my good-natured little baby?

Actually, he was back pretty quickly. We played a bit more (he was utterly wired, as he was quite tired), and he was loud and wriggly. He also laughed a lot. Finally, he fell asleep in the car and has been sleeping more or less well (waking up twice) since we got home. John is now not feeling well, and I think that Jamie will be sleeping slung across my chest again. I had better get my own rest tonight!

2005-05-05 22:46 (Kristen) Jamie was, of course, awake early this morning, and nursing away. I convinced him to fall back asleep, and in the end he slept until nine thirty, or so. He was cheerful enough when he woke up, and happy to see Mio, but still wanted to spend most of his morning watching tv. He wasn't that interested in being outside, even though it was a lovely day. He didn't have a big breakfast, or a big lunch for that matter, and when I came into the dining room at Browning after running a quick errand, he and Mio were making up after she made him pick food up off the floor that he'd thrown. I think that he's starting to throw food with more of a purpose, as he knows that he'll get out of his highchair if he throws it: picking it up is just the price he pays. That isn't to say that he doesn't fight me on how intent I am that he picks it up. I think the trick to ending this particular trend is to put him back in the highchair, so that he knows that throwing food to get down will just put him back up again, and so isn't worth it. Who knows what twist he will put into that.

He slept for about an hour and a half, and was awake just as Ken reached the back door with him. I took him out, and fed him prompty: this avoided any blood-sugar-low meltdowns. He ate a large lunch, with chicken, aa slice of olive bread with hummus, and a lot of cheese. He loved the cheese, especially when I cubed it. He likes yoghurt too, and has had no negative reactions that I've marked to dairy products. However, I'll keep an eye on him yet, as he snarfed a *lot* of cheese today. He was happy after the meal, and I convinced him to go outside rather than stay inside with the television. As we went out with his tricycle, Sam, Ben, Luke, and their parents were walking down the sidewalk. I saw them from a ways away, and waved hi. Jamie turned, saw them, waved excitedly, and ran a few houses down the block before asking me to pick him up and carry him the rest of the way to them. We all played various versions of hockey outside Paul and Betsey's house, and talked while the kids ran about together. It was a lovely day. Jamie and I later went to collect some rocks from a neighbour's reno project for our rock garden out front, and he enjoyed 'helping' me push and pull the dolley with the rocks on it.

John is sick today, which is fine as it is his turn. He is feeling rather crummy, and spent the day in bed. We went to Browning this evening for chili and Jamie enjoyed playing a little computer game or two and exploring the basement. He grabbed both Gary and Tom when they became available, as he knows they are both fun, and played more with Gary when we got home so that I could have a shower and get Jamie's bath ready. Jamie brought Gary up when he was ready, which was just when the bath was all set for him, and we had a quick bath. Jamie is asleep now on the floor beside the bed, where I'm slowly trying to get him used to sleeping alone for longer and longer stretches.

2005-05-06 22:47 (Kristen) John wasn't feeling well again today, and spent most of it resting. Jamie played with Mio in the morning, dragging her over to Tom and Michelle's at the first opportunity. Jamie had his walk with Ken, and woke up in time to come home. He had something to eat, and then went outside with me for a bit to get him away from the tv. He tried to ride his tricycle over the grass with little success, but enjoyed helping me and John rid the back garden of some of its extensive weed infestation. He had his own little pot to put weeds into, and would help throw them onto the compost pile we have in one corner of the yard for yard waste. He still is vague on good plants vs weeds, but had a good time. Later, I took Jamie for a walk to the corner store to get ginger ale for John. He had a good time walking around, and we chased each other around telephone poles and fire hydrants. He likes to say 'hi' (quite clearly) to people he meets, and waves to them. He gets a good number of 'hi's back. He also ate a good many 'b's (raspberries) today, and we further discussed the merits of not throwing food, and the virtues of picking it up afterwards.

2005-05-07 22:39 (Kristen) Jamie slept on his own beside our bed until 4:00 AM, when I brought him into bed with us. He woke up again around 8:00, and cheerily nursed, sweet as can be, until we got up around 9:00-ish. He's getting better at sleeping on his own, and I'm hoping that he'll get even better as we keep doing this.

He fell asleep on the way to the Market, which distressed me somewhat at I saw my only free time for the day evaporate while I shopped. I got the shopping done while John (who still isn't feeling well) stayed in the car with a sleeping boy. Jamie woke up while I was in Loblaws, and managed to completely deconstruct a bran muffin while waiting. He eats some of it, and reduces the rest to crumbs, but has a good time. When we got home, I put the groceries away and cleaned up a bit while Jamie, Gary, Ayami, and John went to see the end of the Jackman School Fair. I met up with Jamie and John afterwards, and took a still tired Jamie with me in search of coffee.

It was a glorious day, and we saw John's parents when we dropped off some groceries for them (John's mother has not been well, either). My cousin Jeff and his girlfriend Heike were leaving when we got there, and we all walked to the Danforth together. I got my coffee, and thought that we should check to see if Claire Orchard was home, along with her son, Oscar. Oscar is three and a half, and Jamie likes playing with him. Luckily enough they were both home, and Claire and I spent a pleasant two hours watching Jamie and Oscar play in the bright sunshine. (Earlier, a store clerk had commented on my daughter's wonderful tan...perhaps it *is* time to cut his hair again...) Jamie was very confident riding a little pedal trike, ran around chasing Oscar (and being chased), and the two boys sat and played with trucks and construction equipment. It was good for the two to play together, because Jamie usually plays with boys much older than he is. Playing with Oscar made both of them learn to negotiate and share, which ended up quite well for everyone.

We left finally, after a good visit, to go home and make dinner. It was a comfort food night, with beans on toast with eggs for me and Jamie (John's stomach still being a little off, he had soup). We went back outside for a while to do a little this and that, and Jamie was most reluctant to come back inside. A visit to Gary's apartment made the idea palatable, and soon it was time for a bath and a trip to dreamland.

While we were outside, Jamie impressed me and John with his ability to point out the 'b's in the words Buick and LeSabre on our neighbour Frank's car. We had a good time as Jamie pointed to letters and numbers in Frank's licence plate and John and I chorused its name. This was very funny to him. He's also good at pointing out 'o's, and will spontaneously do so in ads and other places. He's imitating our speech with greater and greater success, and his words are getting clearer and clearer. At Claire and Oscar's, he was offered crackers and he clearly parrotted the word 'cracker' back to us (OK, it sounded more like 'kack', but we all knew what he was saying). He is starting to make general categories of his own: 'b' is the word he uses to describe small fruit like grapes and raspberries. 'Na' is the word he uses for larger fruit, like apples and bananas (and in fact is a short form of banana, as b is a short form of raspberry, originally). In fact, I'm starting to lose count of how many words he knows, which is amazing in and of itself.

2005-05-08 24:09 (Kristen) This is my second Mother's Day, and I spent it in exactly the way that I wanted: with my little family around me, enjoying each other's company. John still wasn't feeling well, so he slept in until 10:00. Jamie and I had been up for two hours by then, and I think that Jamie would be a much earlier riser than he is if he didn't nurse so much in the morning. Early morning nursings look like they'll be the last to go because I just can't handle early mornings. Anyway.

John came and fed Jamie a little more, and then took him over to out neighbour Karen's while I had a quick nap. I met up with him, and saw that Jamie was playing with Karen's daughter Alexandria, and with Sam and Ben. They all had a good time playing with bubbles, water, and slides, and Karen fed Jamie some lunch. We took Jamie for a walk, and he fell asleep quite quickly in the beautiful spring sunshine. John and I had a walk and coffee while Jamie slept, and met up with John's mom. We had lunch at Mocha Mocha, went to the park, and let Jamie play in the sandbox there, quite happily, for an hour. Then we walked John's mom home, and went home ourselves.

We drove up to Ken and Tami's house for Mother's Day dinner/Michelle's birthday party a little later in the day. Jamie had a great time running around with the entire Sagara clan, and even managed to eat a bit despite the fascinating new toys and surroundings. He was wildly tired on the way home, and failed to sleep in the car. We took him inside, and put him straight to bed, without a bath. He's sleeping fitfully, and I think that his teeth are bothering him again. He has one more molar to come through, and I'll be so very glad when it has made its appearance. I think that it will be much easier from then on to try and get Jamie to sleep through the night by himself.

2005-05-09 22:33 (Kristen) Jamie woke up well this morning, and ate relatively well for breakfast. He spent the morning playing with Mio, who reported that Jamie once again was not interested in walking when he was outside with her. I'm wondering if his feet hurt, and if his shoes are too small. Tomorrow is supposed to be another lovely day, and I'm thinking of putting him into his sandals before he goes out instead. If he runs around in them, which definitely do fit him, then we have our culprit.

Lunch and afternoon snack were punctuated by lifting Jamie out of his highchair to pick up the food that he threw out off his tray and onto the floor, and putting him back. He's still throwing it, but is learning that no one is going to tolerate it when he does. He's supposed to be at a stage where he needs to test everything in an effort to establish boundaries, and I can see myself being pretty tired at the end of it. He's sanguine, though: he throws the food, he picks up the food, he's back in his chair and that's that. More or less, most of the time.

Gary and Ayami left this evening one the first leg of their trip to Japan. Gary will be gone for two weeks, and Ayami will be gone for a month. I think that Jamie is going to miss them intensely. We've taken photos of the three of them together, and will remind Jamie that they have gone on a plane and will come back in two weeks/a month. In the meantime, they spent a good part of the day together, trying to get as much quality time as possible. John had dental surgery again today, and so Mio came over again at 5:00 to help look after Jamie while I worked on a rush project, and while John and I made dinner. She and Taka came for dinner, and it was very nice to have them over again.

Jamie figured out how to turn the shower on while he was in the bath tonight when John had some water running. He was deeply unhappy when he got his head wet, and John held and comforted him until he calmed down. It warmed my heart to see Jamie clinging so to his dad for comfort, and to see John providing it so well.

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

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