Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 81

2005-05-24 19:38 (Kristen) I woke up before Jamie did today (well, he woke me up and then went back to sleep, and I stayed up) and so he woke up just after Mio arrived. The two of them played in the morning, and then Jamie went for his walk with Ken in the afternoon. My brain didn't start to function until this afternoon, when I had some coffee, but I fortunately wasn't needed until then.

Jamie woke up just as I got home from having coffee with a friend, and John took him over to the school to pick up Ross. Armed with a spinach-cheese croissant, I met up with them and took Jamie out grocery shopping while John went home to work and rest. Jamie was so good in the grocery store and elsewhere that I decided to reward him with half an hour at the park. He spent his time industriously moving sand from one place to another, and considered it well spent.

We stopped by to pick up some food from John's mom on the way home, and Jamie was very excited when he saw that some of the food was grapes. He was very good about using the sign for 'more,' and John's mom taught him the sign for 'want' or 'please.' It will require a little more work, but he is a quick study nowadays and I think he'll get the hang of it quickly if we insist. I made dinner (I warmed up the eggplant curry and rice, and made a simple salad)and Jamie helped by hauling out plastic mixing bowls from the cupboards. I showed him how to use them as drums while Kiss's "Rock and Roll All Night" was on the radio: it was time well spent.

After dinner, John helped me to give Jamie an early bath before he went out to a focus group. Jamie then, after the bath, went downstairs and played with Gary. Our friend Jane came over, and we played and talked with her a bit, and then visited Gary again after a diaper change. He's down there now, playing computer games (ABCs with Elmo) with Gary, and I'll collect him in a moment to rock him to sleep.

2005-05-24 21:09 I forgot to mention that John came up the stairs this morning, looking for baby socks--the type worn by newborns. Why? Because Jamie had noticed that his doll had no socks on, and that its (his? her? name?) feet were, therefore, cold. He was taking off his own socks to put on the doll when John and Mio asked me for socks for the doll. I send down socks, after digging through Jamie's old infant clothes, along with a tiny sleeper that was just doll size. Jamie changed the doll (or, rather, Mio did) two times before deciding that the doll should be in its day clothes, and not in its pajamas, and therefore it is still wearing its socks.

2005-05-25 22:57 (Kristen) We got to bed abominably late last night for good reasons, but it means that daylight was not as welcome as usual. Jamie started to stir at six AM and was up by 8:50, when Mio arrived. John noticed that Jamie migrated more than usual last night across the bed, and had ended up sleeping across his chest a few times. I laughed, since this usually happens to me, and asked John how it was. He said that it was quite nice, and I know what he means.

It was a beautiful day, much unlike yesterday, and Jamie had a good time playing outside. He came in smelling of the sun, which is a great smell on your child. We were going to sit down to eat lunch when a city worker came to the door, asking if we could move a vehicle outside our house. It turned out that they were here to plant a new city tree in front of our house, as our (formerly) current tree was injured by vandals last year. The old tree has been donated to the Jackman school garden, as we don't know how much longer it might live and even ten years would be nice at the school. We took a family photo with the new tree, and we can watch it and Jamie grow together.

We went for a walk in the afternoon so that Jamie could nap, and he slept for about two hours. He had a great time with chalk afterwards, and marked everything he saw. We went to John's parents place for dinner, and he drew all over his stroller on the way. We didn't go to the Scrabble club tonight because John's tooth is painful enough that he is taking pain killers, and he doesn't want to drive. So, we went home, played more with chalk, and watched Jamie get more and more tired. He was awfully hyper for a very tired boy (the two often go hand in hand), had a good bath with John, and took a while to fall asleep nursing. He was very restless last night (lots of drool too: final tooth?) but I hope that tonight is better.

2005-05-26 22:27 (Kristen) Jamie repeated his pattern of the last few days by waking up around sunrise and nursing/tossing about until we finally get up. I'm getting used to the fatigue, and am thinking that the last nurse of the day to go will be that first thing in the morning bribe that lets me sleep longer.

He was a little punky today, and not much interested in eating. He spent a good part of the morning watching tv until I kicked him and Mio outside, saying "it's too nice of a day for you to be inside watching tv. Get outside!" Then I self-combusted, realizing that I sounded just like my mother. They did go outside, I did get some work done, and we all met up again at Browning. Jamie enjoyed his first watermelon of the year, and was pretty good about using his new "more, please" sign. He went for his walk with Ken, slept for an hour and a half, and was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when he got home.

We spent time marking all available surfaces with chalk, and then came in for some food. Jane came over, and we spent some time with her before going back outside. Jamie played with his hockey stick and ball, and was pretty good at hitting the ball by the end. He's also getting a good overhand throw. We went to the Big Carrot with Jane, where he decided that he liked the Envirokidz animal cookies a lot. He can eat four of the little square munchies quite quickly, without the usual crumbs. Mind you, he can still put away fruit faster than anything else, so I'm not worried yet about cookies being Number one Food on the menu.

John had an emergency extraction of a broken tooth today, and was not particularly in good shape (it was painful, and I won't go into detail, although John is happy to share if you ask him). Jamie was good with his dad. He's actually a very sweet, sharing boy. Tonight, we were sharing some food and Jamie made a point of taking a piece, offering it to me, and then getting a piece for himself. I melted. Otherwise, he was his usual sunny, happy self today and it was a joy to be with him.

2005-05-27 22:10 (John) Jamie has been a great help, especially in the last few weeks. He picks up stray food from the kitchen floor and puts it in the trash. He makes sure that everyone remembers their shoes and coat. He makes sure that no one goes hungry, feeding them from his own plate if necessary. And today when Kristen was rubbing out the kinks in my neck (spasmed from referred dental pain), Jamie walked up behind and gave me his first back-rub. I was delighted!

Yesterday, he got the hang of the "choudai" (please give me) sign that we've been asking him to use when asking for something: palms upward, one on top of the other. Tonight he generalized it from food to asking for bath toys that were out of reach. Likewise, I noticed today that he has generalized his gochisousama (I'm full) sign to mean "I want to get up out of this seat", using it when he wanted to get out of his stroller, even though there was no food involved.

2005-05-28 22:45 (John) We were going to get up early this morning because of the full day we'd planned, but ended up staying up late again talking with our friend Jane, and slept in a bit. Mio, her boyfriend Taka, Jamie and I still made it to the market by 10:30 though, where we discovered that I had been awake enough to drive us there without incident, but not enough to remember to pack a stroller. It was a good thing there were three of us.

This happens once every few months, and Jamie was as usual quite happy with the situation. He ate more than usual to fuel his frenetic running around, and stayed awake until 1:30, when I was on the way home from Loblaws. Kristen transferred him to his stroller without waking him up, we spent 90 minutes unpacking, resting and repacking, then set out to join Ross and his friends and family at Centre Island for Ross' birthday party.

Jamie woke up at about the expected time, as we were boarding the first subway, so he got to see (and enthusiastically identify and enjoy) the subway, elevator, subway, elevator, elevator, streetcar, elevator and ferry boat that got us to our destination. He looked at the farm animals (and thought the cat was nice, and the goats were rather odd-looking dogs), got his bowl of apples and grapes eaten by a horse with a surprising reach, and was as happy as a child in an environment designed just for kids from about his age up to about Daniel's age.

Jamie rode with Mom on the little train that goes around Centreville, and with Tom on the antique car ride, and would probably still be there if it were up to him. We got him home by 19:30 though, fed him, got him to run off the very little energy he had left in Gary's apartment, and put him in the bath with me, whereupon he fell asleep.

To be precise, he sat in my lap in the tub, reached for one of his toys (Mr. Windup Fish), decided he was too tired to play, and fell back against my chest. I leaned back to make him comfy, started singing "Rubber Duckie" for the first of several dozen times, and he was asleep in short order.

This is how you put a child to bed when he has fallen asleep in your lap in the bath. Drain the tub. Lift yourself and the child up and slide a folded towel beneath the child. Lower the child onto the towel. Lift the child and slide a diaper between the child and the towel. Fasten the diaper. Lift the child and slide a one-piece sleeper between the child and the towel. Put the feet in the sleeper, and snap it up. Lean the child's head one way, pull up the sleeper on the other side, insert arm and snap up. Lean the child's head the other way, insert other arm, snap up. Finish snapping up front of sleeper. Lift up carefully (hand under knees and neck) and take to bed.

2005-05-29 22:44 (Kristen) Well, maybe not so lazy. We did our best to run Jamie's legs off, in an attempt to replicate his amazing sleeping of the day before. He woke up at 9:00, and we played until lunch, spending a little time with Sam, Ben, and Betsy first. They have a red wagon with bent front wheels that Sam and Ben were using and that they were about to get rid of. Jamie, of course, loved it and insisted on dragging it around or being dragged along in it. It is currently in our yard for future dragging.

After lunch, John took Jamie around for his walk while I had a nap. When I woke up, John had come back with Jamie from visiting Ayami's friend Junko, who lives nearby with her children. Junko gave Jamie some toys that her children were no longer using, including a fabulous Fisher-Price musical toy that plays classical tunes and lights up, with five different pieces that make their own individual sounds. When the songs are playing, if you take a piece away, then the song continues but without its individual sound. It's great to play with in the dark.

Jamie insisted on staying outside, despite the light rain, and we saw Ross and Tom when they came over to use our bicycle pump. Jamie and I followed them to the school, where we watched Ross ride his bike, and where Jamie alternately ran along and made Tom carry him along. We then went to the little kindergarten playground, where Jamie went up and down slides and made Tom carry him. We finally went home, found John, and went to his parents' place for dinner. Jamie brought his hollow leg, as he consumed vast quantities of fish and mango. He also tried fuki* for the first time, a Japanese vegetable that we grow as an ornamental plant in our front yard. It only gets harvested when it's young, so it is a once-a-year treat.

When we got home, he was having too much fun playing with John's shirt to get into the bath. He was obviously exhausted, but unwilling to slow down. Finally, he took his bath, relaxed, and fell asleep quickly when I got him into bed.

2005-05-30 23:24 (Kristen) We got up around 8:00, and were all ready when Mio arrived at 9:00. They watched a little TV and played outside with the red wagon before we headed out to the doctor's to get the results of Jamie's ultrasound. We took Mio with us, and that was very helpful when Jamie fell asleep in the car. We went in to the doctor's office, and wondered about the lack of patients and the lack of doctor: the secretary was in his office using the phone. Turns out that we were there a day early, and we'll be going back tomorrow. D'oh.

Jamie slept for an hour until we woke him up to go into Browning for lunch. He ate somewhat well, and then went for a nice long walk with Ken. He didn't sleep a wink, which didn't surprise me, but enjoyed his walk. He got out of the stroller right away when he got home, and decided that it was time to mark everything with pink chalk. This included my toenails and his fingernails, as well as my pants and shoes. We went for a wagon ride around the block, stopping off to say 'hi' to Ross and Ken, and back home again. I managed to get some food into him, then took him out again for a walk around 4:30. That did the trick, and he fell asleep around 5:00. I thought that he'd sleep for an hour or so, but he slept until 7:15, and would have kept sleeping if I hadn't woken him up. Big dinner, and then he monopolized Gary's time for most of the rest of the evening. Then it was home, a bath after saying 'hi' to Jane, and bed. He went to sleep around 11:10, which surprised me as I thought that we were all doomed and would have a boy bouncing off the walls at midnight. I'm happy and relieved, however. He had fun playing at sleeping before we went into the bathroom for his bath, and almost fell asleep with Leon until the phone rang. Arrrgh.

I've decided that Jamie should learn how to dance. He does a funky headbob when he's in the high chair and he hears a piece of music that he likes, but there hasn't been any sign of the 'toddler dance' yet. (You know what I mean: when they bend their knees and bob up and down. It's hilariously cute.) We were dancing in the kitchen tonight, and hoping that Jamie would start to do it too. It's one of life's joys to move joyously and unselfconsciously to a tune that you like. I hope that Jamie will learn to express himself that way as well.

He's getting older. He played quietly by himself in the living room while I finished dinner, which is relatively new. A funny incident today was when I was pulling him along in his wagon, and a neighbour who was passing by in her car stopped to say that Jamie looked absolutely adorable with his curls bouncing behind him as he went over bumps. She asked when I was going to cut them, and put in a request that I put it off as long as possible. We're thinking of trimming his hair for the hot weather, but leaving it long enough to curl. It adds such character to his face, and they are utterly sweet.

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

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