Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 80

2005-05-17 22:45 (Kristen) Jamie had a rough night again, waking up this morning in a fugue state where he was hard to wake up, but crying and kicking in his half-sleep. He was OK after a diaper change, and the rest of the day was wonderful. He played with Mio, with much use of chalk, and walked with me a way (again, with Mio) when I went to the Big Carrot for lunch supplies. He turned back because of a need for a diaper change, and I saw his little face crumple and heard him start to protest when I went the opposite direction that he was. He's been having some separation anxiety, as I think I've mentioned, and I decided that we were going to spend some happy quality time together the rest of the day.

When I came back from shopping, John and Mio were feeding Jamie already. He finished his lunch, but when he saw us all eating, he came back for a second sitting. Then it was time for his afternoon walk, and I took him for a long walk around the neighbourhood, visiting the library and getting some coffee for me. He stirred a few times, making me wonder, but stayed asleep for a bit over two hours. He finally woke up when I met Michelle with Ross and Ross's friend Vassily and Vassily's mom outside the school. Ross and Vassily were pleased to see Jamie, and didn't really notice that he wasn't awake until he woke up. Jamie was happy to see both boys, and so everyone was happy.

We went home, and played with sidewalk chalk for a bit. He remembered all his letters from yesterday, and John says that he's been teaching him to recognize the letter 'i'. Soon we'll have him recognizing all the letter s in 'Jamie.' He went for a walk with his dad, and we did some weeding, and then had dinner. We read a book together, romped, and played. I'm hugging and touching him as much as I can, and praising him very loudly. He always blossoms visibly when we do, and it's hard not to: he's a clever boy. So clever, in fact, that he now knows that he can not only climb up on a kitchen chair by himself, but that he can push the chair to different places, and reach things that were always out of reach before. How exciting! He was pretty happy about that. John and I are hiding our heads and groaning, while being pleased with his development.

2005-05-18 23:02 (Kristen) Jamie was up at 7:00 this morning after I went to sleep a bit before 2:00 AM. Groan. We finally got up at 8:00 when his diaper needed a change, and had breakfast pretty much done when Mio arrived at 9:00. I have to get Jamie to eat before Mio arrives, because he's so happy to see her and play that he doesn't want to eat anymore.

It was a quiet, average morning until we took Jamie to his ultrasound appointment at East York General this afternoon. His cheek has swollen up again, so it was the perfect time for pictures. Jamie had fallen asleep in the car on the way over, and so stayed asleep through the first ultrasound, thanks to an understanding technician who let Jamie stay in his stroller while she did the procedure. She warned us, though, that the doctor in the ultrasound lab would want to do the ultrasound again, and that she'd want Jamie to take off his shirt and move him to a guerney/bed. John asked if we could bring Jamie back after he was awake, being halfway at that point through his nap. They were very good, and said yes, so we went and grabbed a snack. Jamie woke up on our way back to the lab, and was much more vocal about the ultrasound this time around, but still a good boy about it. We'll hear about the results when we see Dr. Chiodo again in a week and a half.

Then it was back home to play outside in the warm sunshine, as the day decided to be beautiful for a change. Jamie cleaned up some 'bweeds,' played with brooms, and wrestled with his mom. Snack was had, more book reading and playing, and then it was off to the Scrabble club for a hard night of running around. We took Leon with us, since Jamie was going to fall asleep in the car on the way home, and Jamie demanded to hold him when we were going into the community centre. He ran around with Leon intermittently, and had fun playing on a castle/slide apparatus,'helping' Leon go down the slide. If I didn't catch Leon, that was a no-no. He made friends with the staff, and otherwise had a good time. He was asleep in the car before we even got out of the park tonight.

It was funny being at East York General with Jamie again; it was the first time we'd been back since he was born. John said that it felt funny going back with Jamie: like we were getting him fixed up under warrantee. I was flooded with memories of Jamie's birth and early days, and pointed out to Jamie the places where we were eighteen months ago when he was born there. The feelings and memories are still very strong.

2005-05-19 22:19 (Kristen) I have finished up most of a big project, and the next one hasn't shown up yet, so when Mio called up and told me that she was sick, and Ken told me that he wasn't able to walk Jamie because of an optometrist's appointment, I wasn't up the creek as I would be normally. Instead, Jamie and I got to spend the day together, and had a great time.

He was up early again this morning (7:00, kept in bed until close to 9:00), and we managed to keep him happy while I got dressed and had my own breakfast as well. We went for a walk down to the Big Carrot for some errands, and came back in time to meet our friend Jane, who was sharing our high-speed Internet for the afternoon. Lunch was at Browning, and I took Jamie for his afternoon walk from there. He fell asleep in Another Story bookshop while I was buying Ross presents for his seventh birthday today, and stayed asleep until a little after three. Surprisingly, he didn't want to see me right away: John had been watching him, and Jamie decided that he wanted to do things with John for half an hour before he came inside to nurse.

We played with balls, studied more of the alphabet, watched a little tv, and played with Jane a little. She impressed Jamie with her ability to keep a cup or bucket spinning around and around. In the evening, we had dinner with the Browningites in honour of Ross's birthday, and Jamie had a great time running around and around through the dining room, kitchen, hallway, and living room. He would shut the door into the living room each time he went through, leaving Daniel to open the door for him on the next pass.

Jamie likes the path of passive resistance. When he doesn't want to go somewhere, his way to protest is to go limp, and fall to the floor/ground. He doesn't yell; he grins, in fact; but understands the notion. I call it the Gandhi Manouevre. He also likes to sit on the pile of clothes in the corner of the bathroom when we're getting him ready for the shower, and recline. He'll put the clothes there so that he'll have a more comfortable place to sit. I was telling John that he's so much fun now--I don't know if it's because I feel that I can teach him more now, or because his mind is so obviously soaking up everything that he sees, but I want to see how much he can learn. How far can we go? As long as he's having fun, why not kick out the jams? He is one of my very favourite people to be with.

I forgot to mention: He brought me my flute today in its case, asking me to play it. I've been fooling around with playing the theme from My Neighbour Totoro on it to make him smile. I also hauled out my acoustic guitar, and he liked strumming the strings while I made the chords. I remember doing that with my father when I was a kid, and I remember how much I liked playing music together that way. It was great to be able to do that with my own child.

2005-05-19 24:40 (John) Jamie has woken up three times since he went to bed around 22:30; I think he's gassy, which is not unusual. What is unusual is that I've managed to talk him back to sleep each time by telling him bedtime stories and stroking his back, which delights Kristen more than anyone. The stories are about the end of his day, about going to Daniel's house for Ross' birthday, about the cake, then putting his shoes on because it was time to go home, and then his coat, then Daddy and Mommy putting on their shoes and coat, and seeing a very foggy moon outside, and some raccoons, and saying goodbye to the moon and going inside (Tadaima!) and going upstairs and taking off clothes and taking a bath with Daddy, then coming to bed and lying down and falling slowly asleep, which I think I will myself if I continue this story much longer.

2005-05-20 23:27 (Kristen) Jamie woke up early again today, but I kept him in bed until 8:30. He was happy and glad to see Mio, who was feeling better but not 100%. I didn't see much of Jamie until after his nap in the afternoon, because I went out to see someone about a freelancing job and didn't get back until after Jamie had gone for his walk with Ken. He woke up around 4:00, and we played with my guitar and flute, had a snack, and went to the local nursery for plants with John and Sai. Jamie liked splashing in the puddles left by the watering cans, and became bored when he wasn't allowed to. We walked home together while John, his mom, and the plants went home in the car. We played with Sam and Ben and Alexandria, and then played in the dirt with a toy bulldozer.

Gary came back from Japan today, and we met him on the way out the door to go to John's parents' house. Jamie was thrilled to see him, and made Gary take him inside to his apartment and play Elmo games on the computer. Gary walked us to John's parents' place, which was good because I think that our odds of getting Jamie away from Gary easily were very small. We ate eel and mango, and Jamie cried out "mango mango!" repeatedly. Actually, he said "bango" and "gango," but it was clear what he meant. Then we all came home, he had a bath with me, and then went to bed sweetly.

2005-05-21 22:26 (Kristen) Jamie woke up at what is becoming his usual 7:00 after a very good night. He didn't get into bed with us until after 3:00, and hardly woke up at all before then. That's a big change, as he was waking up more than every two hours for a while. I credit John's work in calming him back to sleep with the change, along with a teething respite.

After a breakfast that featured upended yoghurt, we got ready to go to the opening of the first Apple store in Canada up at the Yorkdale mall. Gary came with us, after not sleeping very much last night because he's still on Japanese time. The Apple store had a huge, slow-moving lineup snaking around outside, and so we gave it a pass. We dropped Gary off at a CD store, and headed to the St. Lawrence Market. John had a wicked migraine, so I went along rather than do my usual solo Saturday thing. It was a good thing, as Jamie was very active and full of beans the whole time. While John shopped, we ran around, watched musicians, ate a bit of this and that, and chatted with the vendors. It was almost 2:00 by the time we finished and had a snack, and he was still going strong. We went to the park on King Street across from the north building, and Jamie enjoyed watching the birds take baths in the fountain. He met another boy named Thompson who was also brown-eyed with curly blond hair, but was a few months older. We set off to the Eaton Centre in the stroller from there, letting John do the Loblaws shopping solo and get a rest in the car while he waited for us to finish shopping. Jamie took about ten minutes to fall asleep, maybe fifteen, and was out like a light while I bought clothes for him on sale at Gymboree and The Gap. He now has shorts, a pair of pants that unzip into shorts, a onesie, and a pair of jean short overalls. Yay baby bonus cheque! And it was all on sale, so I feel virtuous. I bought some pretty, girly clothes for me at The Gap with my birthday money from my mom, and Jamie woke up in the dressing room while I was trying it on, like he always does. I don't know what it is about those dressing rooms, but it's remarkable--just like the bank machine kiosk at Broadview and Danforth. He always wakes up in there too.

We went out and found John and came home, stopping off to see John's mom for a moment and drop off her groceries. Jamie had a great time when we got home using his sidewalk chalk to mark everything in sight, including his dad's knee. We then let John rest while we went out to buy a birthday present for our neighbour Ben, who is turning 6. Jamie was very good while I bought Ben some books, and then as a treat I bought him some apple juice, a cheeseburger, and some fries at McDonald's, and took him to watch the streetcars at Broadview station. He ate the cheese in the burger, had some juice and fries, and cried out "densha! densha!" (Japanese for 'streetcar') everytime he saw a streetcar. The few minutes when a streetcar was not obvious, he was asking me "densha? densha?" as to when the next one would show up. Even buses were becoming 'densha,' although I was correcting him on that. We went home, played outside some more (Jamie helped John mow the lawn with the big push mower), and had dinner. Jamie was very hyperactive, indicative of a very tired boy. He was so tired, in fact, that he fell asleep in my arms as we waited for John to come into the bathroom for his bath. He had jumped up on my lap, clung to me tightly around the neck, and I rocked him to sleep. I then lay down in his bed with him on top of me, and slowly transferred him onto the bed and by himself. Magical. John is calming him down right now after he's awoken, having been asleep for almost two hours. I hope that I don't jinx it, but it sounds like he's being successful again. Yay Dad.

2005-05-22 22:55 (Kristen) It being Sunday and the Victoria Day weekend and all, we decided to spend the day gardening. This is the weekend when officially the last frost has hit, and it's safe to put your plants out. This varies from location to loction (Canada being really big), but a good rule of thumb around here. Ith as been unusually cool this May, but we decided to risk it anyway.

Jamie was up around 9:30, having slept almost twelve hours. He had breakfast, and watched a little tv before heading outside with me and John. He helped us to get rid of weeds, which took up a good amount of time, and kept himself busy. At one point, he was seated in my lap playing while I picked weeds out of the garden. After a while, he was hungry again and demanded 'gango! gango!' from his dad. As we had none in the house, John took him to Tai Tai's for mango and a little soba. They came back around 2:00, and Jamie was still wide awake. He had almost fallen asleep before they returned, but wasn't quite there yet. He perked up when he saw me in the garden, and so I volunteered to take him for a walk while John, who wasn't feeling all that great, took a nap. I took him to the Second Cup where we fed bits of scone to the sparrows. When a friendly dog with a taste for scone came and ate some, Jamie protested with "oh nahuow! oh nahouw!' (it's hard to convey the way that Jamie drags out that 'o' sound when he says it). The food was definitely, in his mind, for the birds.

We headed out soon after, and he stayed awake until around or after 3:00 (didn't check the clock). He slept until 5:30, when he woke up quite chipper, and after grabbing my spinach-cheese croissant, dragged me off to watch buses on Broadview. He then directed me around the intersection at Browning and Chester Hill Road, first across Broadview, then across Chester Hill and back again. We discussed the red hand and the man, and he would hold up his hand with a straight arm to indicate 'stop.' We walked along Browning when that paled, and ran into some people we know through neighbours who were getting rid of some toys. Jamie was fascinated with a baby doll, and picked it up and carried it around (correctly, I may add, with one arm under the bum and the other across the back, holding it to his chest with the face over his shoulder). He also held it upside down and bounced its head on the sidewalk, but I think that was because he was getting the hang of it, or because he likes to be bounced upside down himself (minus the head banging on the sidewalk). He told me when the baby needed its diaper changed, and took time out from his walk home to fill the baby's hands with pebbles and stones, which he also likes. Very very sweet.

Dinner was at John's parents' place, and Jamie was very good there. I gave him a bath today to get the yoghurt out of his hair, and decided to experiment with putting him to bed by rocking him first. I didn't succeed in getting him to fall asleep without nursing, but I did get him significantly calmed down, and if he had been more tired, I think that I would have had him asleep without nursing him. I think that I'll continue this routine rather than automatically putting him down to nurse. We'll see what comes of it.

2005-05-23 24:00 (John) Mio came over to help this morning, despite it being Victoria Day. We were glad, as I'm on the fourth day of a migraine and Kristen had some things she wanted to do in the morning, including some more of the traditional Victoria Day gardening. At one point, when I was changing Jamie's diaper, Jamie noticed Kristen down below in the garden and started blowing kisses at her to try to get her attention.

Lunch was at Michelle's house, then Ken took Jamie out for part of his walk and Kristen took the rest so that I could spend the afternoon working wireless at the Second Cup. When I came home, we all (Kristen, Jamie, Mio, Taka, Gary and I) went over to Michelle's house for our usual Monday May dinner (salmon, scallops and fiddleheads, grilled zucchini and corn, okra, spinach, parsley, rice, and Tom added chicken katsu) before setting out looking for fireworks.

Jamie first heard some fireworks a block into our expedition, on Jackman Avenue. He delightedly clapped his hands. Then he caught a glimpse of one going up over Jackman School and shouted "whee!", so I told him that it was called a "hanabi". In Japanese, that parses as "flower-fire", but to Jamie it meant "flower-berry", which given that a "bi" is just about the yummiest thing that he can imagine makes "hanabi" an apt word in anyone's lexicon.

We stopped briefly to look at the crowd of several dozen people with convenience-store fireworks and a relaxed attitude toward safety, then continued on. Jamie pointed at the sky and asked hopefully, "bi?" I told him "We're going to the park. There will be more hanabi there." I was delighted that he understood, and he switched to pointing the way to the park, while occasionally calling out "bi!" or applauding whenever he saw or heard one in the distance.

We stayed at Withrow park lighting sparklers for Daniel, Ross and Elspeth (who joined us with her dad Andy) for about an hour, until Jamie started to get a bit tired and hence a bit scared. Jamie managed to stay awake all the way home, but fell asleep again getting ready for the bath, rocking back and forth in Kristen's arms.

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

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