Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 92

2005-08-09 23:41 (Kristen) Jamie is definitely teething again; I was so enjoying the not-teething time that I have received this news with feelings of deep dismay, which I am sure is nothing like the degree to which Jamie feels it. He is drooling like a faucet, and sleeping badly. It is possible that the restless and unhappy sleep pattern of the last month has been due to his being very uncomfortable. Some Tempra last night helped provide everyone with some much needed rest, and we'll see if he needs more tonight. Molars suck.

It was another hot, bright day. Jamie started off by watching the road resurfacing truck on our street, and dragged Mio out to watch them. Then it was breakfast, and some fun with chalk. He ate a lot of cheese at lunch, and made that the centrepiece of his meal. He ate very well, which is probably because he was out chasing trucks.

After his nap, we stayed indoors and had some quiet time out of the sun. Around 5:30, however, it was time to go to our neighbours' (Karen, David, and Alexandria) house for dinner. along with our friends the Harney-Martins. Jamie had fun playing with Sam, Ben, and Alexandria, and was fascinated by Luke.The funny thing was that Luke was in the exersaucer that Paul and Betsey had lent to us when Jamie was small, and Jamie was on the ground looking up at Luke's legs in the saucer. He was also sniffing the cloth seat, which mystified me at first, but then I thought that he was sniffing it to see if it was his (familiar or not familiar smell). He went down the slide in Alexandria's yard many times, rode around in the wagon (pulled by a very accomodating Alexandria), played with Sam and Ben, and ate some lovely food. Jamie knows the word for "cake" and when told that there was cake for dessert, knew where to go and what to do.

He was in bed and asleep before 10 tonight, which is an indicator of how tired he was. I am going to be going there myself, right now.

(John) Jamie was not sniffing the seat, he was intrigued with how Luke's chubby baby feet were dangling from it. He found the sight of the happily bouncing but apparently disembodied legs both amusing and disturbing.

2005-08-10 22:58 (Kristen) Jamie went to bed earlier than usual last night, and was up a little earlier than usual too: about 8:00. We had a little breakfast, he played with Mio, and it was a nice, typical morning.

John took Jamie for a short walk to get him to fall asleep this afternoon, while it was brutally hot. I singed my shoulder by weeding for only fifteen minutes or so; when John came back with Jamie, I sat in the shade with him in the slight breeze that usually wafts down our driveway between the houses. It was so hot, however, that I still felt like I was being scorched even in the shade. Around 2:30, it started to threaten rain, and the wind started to come up. I moved Jamie onto the porch, and sure enough the heavens opened up and a really spectacular storm winged through. Jamie woke up after about an hour and a half of nap, and I resigned myself to him being awake as he was chatting but mellow as he watched the rain. I sang "Rain Rain Go Away," and "It's Raining, It's Pouring" to him to keep him calm while I got my things together to go inside with him. After doing this, I looked over and saw that he was asleep again. Not only was he asleep, he stayed asleep for another two hours! Almost three and a half hours of nap: that's a record of some sort.

We were going to ask Mio to take Jamie on the subway this afternoon, but Jamie was only awake, really, for the last half hour of her stay. Instead, we took Jamie to his grandparents' for dinner, and then I took him on the subway because he was Full Of Beans.

We got on at Broadview, and rode the subway to its western terminus and back. Jamie was very excited: he got a transfer for the both of us (that's his job), and we waited where we could get on the at the front of the train. A young man moved so that we could sit at the very front and Jamie could press his face against the glass and see where the train was going. He knows how to say "train," "tunnel," "track,""tree," and "outside!" After I told him that the doors make a "ding-ding-ding" (descending tones) sound, he imitated that sound all night. He pretended that the transfer was a densha as he pushed it around the cracks between the seats. He also, at points of great excitement, pumped one arm like he was pulling a whistle chain, and made "clack clack" noises, sounding remarkably like Daniel's train-crazy brother, Ross.

At the end of the trip, we got out at Chester Station in order to go to the park, but found it was raining. Instead, we went to Book City and browsed (I showed him a few train books that I think that we'll be picking up). When the rain stopped, we walked home, but ran into Gary and Ayami. Jamie was delighted to see them both, and ran us all up and down the Danforth and up Jackman as the sun set, and he could see the beautiful new moon in the sky. He soon acquired spaghetti legs, and was carried the rest of the way home. Gary and Ayami went to their apartment, and Jamie and I read Freight Train and Where's The Gorilla? a few times (he's good at finding the gorilla). He played well, had a bath, met our tenant Kayako's parents and sister (who gave him a toy shinkansen* [bullet train]), which he will love when he unwraps it tomorrow. Then he went to bed sweetly and all tired out. It was a lovely day to be with Jamie.

2005-08-11 21:45 (John) The weather was a little cooler today, but still quite warm. Mio looked after Jamie in the morning as usual, and Tami made us lunch at Browning. Then instead of the usual Ken at the handlebar of the stroller, Daniel's visiting aunt Kelly took Jamie out for a fast walk on her rollerblades. Jamie had no trouble falling asleep, but woke up after only 90 minutes, and was a little out of sorts. Kristen fed him his afternoon meal and I met up with them at the schoolyard, where Jamie tried to join a daycare group lined up in the kindergarten playground. When I eventually tore him away to run some errands on the Danforth, I was alarmed when he began to spit up, something he very seldom does. I suspect it's just the amount of postnasal drip his teething is causing, and not actually a stomach bug, but we're keeping him away from my mom for the time being, taking it easy and spoiling him a bit.

2005-08-12 22:20 (John) After yesterday's tired, quiet day and a good long sleep, Jamie was raring to go today. Mio looked after him as usual in the morning, then I met Kristen, Jamie and Mio in front of Browning as I was on the way home from the doctor (I'm okay to go to Reno next week, and have emergency medication in case) and the supermarket. Jamie ate okay (insisting on dipping his bananas in ketchup), but was too excited and wired to focus properly on playing with trains, which is unusual for him. He was also blowing small quantities of green snot out his nose, so he's not over whatever has been bugging him lately. It took him an hour to calm down enough on his walk with Ken to fall asleep, but he woke up right on schedule at 15:00, so he only slept for an hour.

Daniel and I had been working on our math at the Second Cup and took Jamie from Ken, intending to spend a few hours playing in the schoolyard. A downpour cancelled those plans, but Jamie excitedly pointed out "Rain! Rain!" The storm drain in the playground was blocked, and when the rain let up there was a pond several yards across and a foot deep. Daniel and I manoeuvred seven large stumps to make a series of stepping stones across the pond, and we all had fun jumping back and forth along them.

It got unbearably hot and humid after the rain (maybe only 27°C but slightly over 100% relative humidity), so we retreated to Daniel's house and central air-conditioning. We quietly played trains until it was nap time for me, at which point Kristen took Jamie down to Chinatown by streetcar ("Densha!") for bubble tea.

We ate dinner a little late, and Jamie was ravenously hungry, eating a dozen cherry tomatoes, at least half a block of tofu, and a roll and a half of cucumber, scallion and shirasu* sushi I made him.

After the bath, Jamie insisted that he was Mommy's "backpack!" and gleefully rode piggyback to bed, yelling "Backpack! Backpack!" before drifting fairly quickly off to sleep.

2005-08-13 24:56 (Kristen) Jamie and I woke up around 9:00, and got up to rustle some breakfast. Jamie was not in the mood to eat again today, and so we didn't really push the issue as we weren't sure if his stomach was unhappy again. Hard to say, but Jamie was not his usual shiny self in the morning. John had decided not to go to the market today, and his parents went in our stead; rather than running around the market, Jamie spent a quiet morning indoors playing with trains and his kitchen, and watching Saturday morning tv. I swear that I would be happy if I never saw another episode of The Berenstain Bears again. Ever. Also: The Big Comfy Couch's theme music is an earworm: it stays in your brain for HOURS until you find something like Celtic jigs to clear your mind.

By one o'clock, Jamie was yelling at his toys, and it was time for a walk. He was desolate that we weren't able to stay and look at the streetcars for longer than a few minutes, but cheered up a little as I did our errands. He was still awake on our way home, and was asleep at 1:55. As we had to leave for the wedding of our neighbours Michelle and Thomas at 2:00, this left us with five minutes to get dressed and going. We made it on time, and Jamie slept through the service until the congregation applauded the new bride and groom. We quickly dressed him in his wedding finery in the vestibule, and he had fun running around the church garden while everyone congregated. He sat in a tree in the middle of the garden, which is a perfect example of a climbing tree for kids: a low bough was just about chest level to me, and Jamie loved sitting there and watching the other kids climb high above him. He also loved the Citroen that the bride arrived in, and kept trying the doors in the hope that they would suddenly, magically, unlock and he could sit in the driver's seat and pretend to drive away.

We came home, John had a nap, and we rested until we were ready to go to Andy and Christine's for their annual bar-b-que. Jamie was quite delighted to ride on the subway there (when learning where we were going, he threw his arms into the air and shouted "densha! with great glee), and was in a good mood. When we got there, he had fun running all over the place and watching the other kids. Meghan, the three-year-old daughter of Jeff and Gail Kesner, loved watching over Jamie and making sure that he was OK. I think that she enjoyed having someone to look after for a change, since she's usually the youngest. We left late, and came home with Justin. Jamie went to sleep after 11, and is just waking up now. Must run.

2005-08-14 20:20 (John) We spent a quiet morning home with Justin, playing trains and watching Treehouse. After lunch, Jamie and I rode all the way out to Kennedy station to see Justin off, and to lull Jamie to sleep on the subway. He started to look drowsy around Bathurst, so I pretended to be falling asleep too, and whenever he looked at me I let my eyelids droop shut. He fell asleep at Dundas West, so we rode out to the end of the line and back again on the same car, and then I went and sat at the Second Cup and edited my thesis for a couple of hours while Jamie continued somewhat improabably to sleep. At one point, he woke all the way up, but when I pretended to sleep (I was pretty tired, a cup of green tea notwithstanding) he obligingly settled back down again. He must still have a bit of that sinus bug, though his nose seems mostly dry.

He eventually woke up after what turned out to be a three hour and twenty minute nap at my mom's house, accepted a drink of water, some watermelon and lychees before cheerily saying "Bye-bye, Tai-Tai!" and heading off to the playground with me to meet Mom. There, we had our first clear sign that he is thinking about the nature of bilingualism. He took turns saying "Daddy" or "Mommy" and having us say the same thing in Japanese or English. "青。" "Green." "青。" "Blue." Etc.

Kelly cooked dinner for us at Browning, and played the piano for us afterward. Jamie joined in for a duet, and I was impressed with how his piano playing skills have improved. He will now quite deliberately pick out a (somewhat random) tune with one finger, no longer pounding with his fist, or striving for excessive volume.

2005-08-15 24:25 (Kristen) I think that Jamie got all his sleeping done yesterday, as he was Very Wide Awake Boy today. John took him to the grocery store around noon, and came back to report that not only did Jamie Not Fall Asleep on the trip, he was hungry, and ate not only his packed lunch but half of John's. A walk to the Second Cup also failed to lull him to sleep, and finally I came down to walk him while John had a well-deserved rest. He finally fell asleep, in spite of himself, around 3:05.

He woke up around 4:30, and we all rendevoused at the local playground. Jamie was happy going up and down slides (whee! bang!) and chasing me about. John had a rest, and came back to give me my cellphone#. Jamie was delighted to have the attention of both his parents, and dragged John off to sit in the little wooden houses, which he usually does to me. We then went to Browning, where Jamie played with trains and on the computer with me, going to look for Thomas the Tank Engine games and so on.

Somehow it was close to 11 when we got Jamie into bed, for no good reason, but that was OK because he was bright, cheerful, happy, and Wide Awake Jamie. Finally, he was asleep at 11:20. John says that he is stirring now, but I think that he's gone back to sleep. We've made sure that he is all dry (hair included) before we put him into bed, so we can find out if his hair is wet, he's drooling, or just too hot: the large damp spot under his head for the last few nights has been puzzling.

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

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