Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 95

2005-08-30 23:50 (Kristen) Jamie woke up around 10 AM this morning, after sleeping fairly well. He woke up twice, the first time because of a (I think) nightmare. He cried out "no," and then when I asked him (reminded of a young Ross's nightmare in which he said audibly "bye bye choo choo, bye bye") about the densha*, he cried out "denshaaa! denshaaa!" in his fugue state. I calmed him by laying him across my chest, and talking with him about trains and all of us together safely on a subway ride. He calmed and went back to sleep, and woke up once more this way. Later in the night, he woke and sucked back most of his bottle of water, which proves the theory that he's just very thirsty at that point in the night. Finally, around 6:00 AM or so, it was quite light outside, and I told him (after he hesitated) that it was all right for him to nurse as it was morning. He did nurse a bit after that, which relieved some pressure for me, and then slept until 10.

Jamie was so sleepy, in fact, that John brought him downstairs at 10 and deposited him on the couch in the hope that it would awaken him but to no avail. He finally woke up a few minutes later when the front doorbell rang. Then he played with Mio in the morning, and went for a walk with me around 12:30as we went in search of a park. He was less interested in playing than he was in eating the samosa I'd given him for lunch, and proceeded to devour the samosa, a peach half, most of a banana, and some cheese curds that I bought at the Big Carrot. I got a coffee at the Second Cup, but that was when Jamie decided that he was going to be Very Tired Toddler. The staff, who know Jamie, were a little surprised to see him in this state (very unusual), and so the barista taking my order offered to put cream and sugar into my coffee for me, and then put a flavour shot in, gratis, for strength. That was a really nice thing for him to do, and a great reason to always go to the same place for your coffee! Jamie was asleep about five to ten minutes afterwards.

John took Jamie back to the Second Cup after I came home, and then over to Daniel and Ross's when Jamie woke up and decided that he wanted to see the two of them more than he wanted to go "whee! bang!" at the park. I came over to see that Ross had drawn train tracks in chalk all the way down the front walk, and Jamie was gleefully driving trucks down the tracks. This is one of thereasons why Ross and Jamie get along so well.

I came back around 6:15 to pick up John and Jamie, and we decided to go to Mocha Mocha for dinner as we didn't like any of the options waiting for us at home. Jamie ate a fair deal, demolished as much Orangina as he could get his hands on, and played across the street at the fountain. He made a friend with a little girl, who blew kisses back when she left. Then we all walked home, as Jamie exhibited stronger and stronger signs that despite the early hour, he was getting TIRED.

We got home, got John and Jamie into the bath, and Jamie and I read a book after his bath before he got to watch a little Totoro with John while I was in the shower. He is, John says, more interested in Totoro than usual, and is starting to read familiar hiragana in the subtitles. Yay Jamie! He also was in an owly mood when we were trying to floss and brush his teeth, and at one point used "thank you" in an odd, preemptory way as he yelled at John to give him something, and then said "thank you" in a dismissive tone. We're not quite sure what's up with that, other than we have successfully ingrained "Thank you" into our boy, even when he doesn't quite mean it. For the second night in a row, he fell asleep with me and John, resting his head on my chest and his feet on John, as we listened to music, and did so faster than he did last night. I did give him a little painkiller again tonight, as he was drooling again, and wonder how much it is helping. The most important part is the ritual, I imagine, and I hope that this one holds.

(John) What Jamie did was he grabbed the dental floss that I was trying to keep him from cutting a third long piece of, then looked me defiantly in the eye and said "THANK you!" Good use of intonation and language.

2005-08-31 22:45 (Kristen) It was a rougher night last night, but it's hard to put my finger on why other than we kept waking up for a variety of known and unknown reasons. I had a doctor's appointment this morning at 9:30, so at the last minute John, Jamie, Mio and I all tumbled out the door together to head downtown to the doctor's. He enjoyed the subway rides, but was somewhat tired all day. He ate pretty well, snacking throughout the day, and fell asleep for his afternoon nap at an unusually early 1:40 this afternoon (it's been closer to 3 lately).

He is getting better at letting us floss and brush his teeth, but only barely. We do it twice a day now, and I hope that all the work will pay off. As I need to provide a good example, my teeth are doing very well, I think. After Jamie woke up, I met him and John at the park, where Jamie was happy to play until close to six o'clock. John says, and I agree, that he was somewhat apprehensive of any other kids, and it was probably fatigue talking.

Dinner was at John's parents' place, it being Wednesday, and Jamie had a good time running about, reading books with me, and playing blocks and puzzle with me and Sai. We walked home together, John, Jamie, and I, and talked about the sky and other topics, and got ready for bed. The bedtime routine is working, but Jamie's fatigue meant that he was a little less reasonable than he has been over the last few nights about not nursing. I ducked out, and John says that Jamie lay back on the pillows and listened to music for five minutes or so before crawling over to him, putting his head on John's chest, and fell asleep. It sounded absolutely lovely.

(John) At my mom's, Jamie was eating a piece of nori when he pointed at it and said "Dark?". I nodded, and he said "Nenne [sleep]?", which I think was a kind of joke. Nori is dark, like night is dark, but eating nori doesn't mean it's bedtime.

2005-09-01 24:39 (Kristen) Jamie was up at the ungodly hour of 7:30 (remember, this boy usually wakes up around 9:00), and so were we. John tried to pacify him by playing Totoro on the computer for him, but instead Jamie kept up a chirpy running commentary on his favourite parts of the film. At least, I think that was what he was doing. My head may have been under a pillow.

He only woke up once last night, around 5:00 AM, and I was completely disorented when he did, not having slept that long in once stretch for a long time. It took John to get Jamie back to sleep, as Jamie really wanted to nurse, while I had to duck out for a fictitious "bathroom break", as John put it to Jamie. He was asleep when I came back, fortunately. If I don't come back after a reasonable interval, Jamie will get agitated until I appear.

The food of the day? Cheese. Lots of it. Mozzerella and cheddar (medium) were the cheeses of the day. After waking up early, he had some breakfast and came out with me, John, and Mio for a follow-up appointment at the doctor's. Then it was back to Browning for lunch with Tami and Ken, who are back from BC. Jamie ate all his french toast, but started falling asleep at the end of his meal. He almost fell asleep with a fork in his mouth! I told him that we were going to have a diaper change and then he would go for his walk with Ken, and he was a little perkier. However, once I picked him up from the change table and walked through the kitchen to the hallway, he was asleep on my shoulder. !!! I deposited him gently in the stroller, he didn't stir, and he and Ken went off for their walk.

Jamie has been very daddy-centric lately, and I think it is because Daddy is the new provider of comfort now that I don't nurse him to sleep at night. I have been replaced... However, Ross pushes John out of the top spot whenver he's around. Jamie follows Ross around, and tried to play with whatever he is playing with, and do whatever Ross does. Ross asked, with a note of exasperation in his voice, why Jamie did that. We explained that Jamie was very interested in what Ross did, just like Ross was in everything that Daniel did wehn Ross was Jamie's age. Ross failed to remember this, and remains somewhat bemused.

Funny/poignant thing tonight: Jamie understands that people are elsewhere, but doesn't understand time well. I told him that we were going to get Papa earlier today after we did a few things, and he immediately started to run around. looking for John, and calling out for him. Tonight, I told him that he could watch his Thomas the Tank Engine (in Japanese) DVD with Mio tomorrow, and he immediately started to call out for Mio, and look for her.

2005-09-02 23:59 (Kristen) Jamie is a very polite boy. He is getting to be a star with saying "thank you" without prompting whenever we give him something. I'm so proud: one thing that I can point to without fear of contradiction and say "We did this right!" Ah, motherhood.

I didn't see much of Jamie today, as I was out at meetings and running around doing errands for a good part of the day. I did see him at lunch, where he ate not much but enjoyed the company a great deal: Mio, Taka, Ayami, Ken, Tami, Ross, and Daniel were all there, in addition to me and John. He fell asleep pretty quickly when Ken took him for his walk, and slept for over two hours before waking up, John said, in a somewhat crabby mood. He was, it should be said, pretty tired all day, and just wanted to sit and watch Totoro. Ever have one of those days when your train tracks won't stay in place, the trains won't go through their tunnels, and your parents keep trying to get you to eat? Yeah, Jamie knows those.

So, yeah, the weaning continues. Jamie slept very roughly last night, which coincidentally was the first night in a few that we hadn't given him Tempra--connection? We'll find out tonight. While I was out this afternoon, John took Jamie to the park where I met them when I got home. We all went back to the house, and I fell asleep on the couch while Jamie watched Totoro from between my knees. An all right situation, really. Then we had dinner, we played with crayons, and went to the Dairy Queen with Tom, Ross, and Daniel. Jamie hit us all up for coins to put into the charity coin bin, which has all sorts of wheels and things that go "whirr" when you put a coin in. He didn't believe me when I said that I was out of pennies, and tried to check my pockets. My trusting son. He cheerfully snarfed as much ice cream as he could from whoever he could snarf it from, and I found out that his chirpy request for "money!" sounds a lot like "mummy!" However, they are not the same.

Then it was home, and to bed. He was asleep before 11, which is an improvement, and was willing to joke about nursing again, although I could tell that part of him was looking for the weakness in my armour that could be turned into a free night nurse. He fell asleep on his back, his head on my stomach, and holding my hand. If he isn't nursing, at least he's getting a great deal of attention from me and from John, which is a good thing.

2005-09-03 20:30 (John) We're all really tired, as the night weaning is still in progress and every time Jamie wakes up in the middle of the night, it takes us all a few minutes to talk him into taking a bottle and settling back down again. Several times a night.

We took Jamie to get a pair of size 7 sneakers for the fall in the morning, then Jamie and I went to meet my dad at the St. Lawrence Market somewhat later than usual. Nupur had just sold her last chicken samosa, but looked so crestfallen that the friend she'd sold it to gave it back to her. Wei gave Jamie a free banana, and let me wash half a pint of blueberries for him to eat in his stroller. Along with the snack that Kristen had packed, the lunch that Tai-Tai had sent along, and the turkey kielbasa we picked up along the way, he was pretty stuffed by the end of the shopping, but burned most of it off chasing pigeons outside the market.

At Loblaws, Ho-Ho pushed him backwards in the shopping cart as usual, chasing after me wherever I went (what fun), and thanks to all the exercise and excitement Jamie was able to fall asleep on the car ride home. He woke up only an hour later though, and freaked out with exhaustion. It took me half an hour to calm him down, by which point we'd run into Daniel, Ross and Tom, also out for some back-to-school shoe shopping, and we decompressed with them at the Second Cup. Then it was back home for dinner and some more coccooning on the couch wih Mei and Totoro. We're going to try getting him ready for bed now, to see if an early night helps us all.

2005-09-04 23:03 (Kristen) Jamie's first words to me this morning were "Mio? Mio?" as he wondered if she was coming today. He took the news that it was Sunday, and she wasn't, with good grace, but I was feeling chopped liverish.

It was a quiet morning indoors, as we tried to figure out what we wanted to do with a rare family day off. Jamie had slept well last night, from about 10:30 to 6:30 with only one wake-up (around 1:00 or so), which required only a gentle nudge back into a recumbent position. What may have made a difference was first the Tempra, but also that I slept on the mattress beside the bed and not him. Yes, the bed is more comfortable than the mattress, but he may have felt less crowded (both Jamie and John sprawl) or less disturbed by my moving about. We're trying it again tonight, to see if it was a fluke.

We finally moved out close to one in the afternoon, when Jamie decided that he was NOT happy about the stroller AT ALL. Complete meltdown followed, and we dealt with that by application of cheese, sembeh, and a side trip to the park. He was just very hungry, which was a surprise to me as he had stuffed himself with cereal, blueberries, peaches, tamago no gohan, and cream cheese and a cracker (lots of cream cheese: the cracker is just the medium) not an hour or two previously. After going "whee" and playing in the sandbox, it was time to go. He fell asleep this time, around 2:00 or 2:30, and John and I took the opportunity to eat lunch ourselves and play some cribbage at the Second Cup.

I was glad that I'd dressed Jamie in long pants today because it was quite cool in the shade. We took him home after our game, and he slept until close to 5:00. He woke up well, and played with chalk until it was time to go to John's parents' place for dinner. Oh: and he also demolished a peach and a half, asking with a mouth full of peach at the end of the first one "more peach please". John says it was pretty funny as he just inhaled the first one. At dinner, he amazed us all with demolishing his dinner without a fuss (except when he ran out of a desired item), and used his fork with more dexterity than I've ever seen him use. He was practically neat, and even drank from a cup without a lid without spilling. What a guy! He also started using some three word phrases, like "[food item] all gone" and "more [food item] please." Wow.

He is starting to get better with tooth flossing and tooth brushing, but it's still a real struggle. I read him a page of a book then flossed or brushed a little: this seemed to work as a compromise. He was still a little wound up when it was time for bed, but was pretty tired. We had a chat about "no nurse", and a few half-hearted tries to change my mind, but he fell asleep again with his head on my stomach, and is fast asleep beside his dad.

2005-09-05 23:57 (Kristen) Jamie woke up a fair bit last night (five times, John says, tiredly) and the current theory is that he didn't get enough exercise yesterday. So, we tried to do something about that today.

Despite that last statement, Jamie didn't wake up until 9:30, after going back to sleep somewhere in the hours previous after a daylight nurse. I brought him downstairs to sleep on the couch under Mio's watchful eye, and we finally niggled him awake around 9:30. They had fun, and played in the park for about an hour. Then Jamie ate a very vigorous lunch (shift from chair to chair, sit on lap, off of lap, run across kitchen, come back...) followed by a walk around 1:10. He took about half an hour to fall asleep, but slept for close to three hours when he did. When he woke up, John took him to the park to play and to wait for me to arrive with food and reinforcements. I only brought one peach with me, which may have been an error: he made very short work of the peach in question, prefacing each bite with "peach? peach?" I don't worry about peaches going bad in this house at all.

I brought some sand toys with me when I met up with John and Jamie, and Jamie was quite good about sharing them with a few other children with my gentle encouragement. I explained that we were doing everything together, and the only moment of concern (on Jamie's part) was when a little girl had his ball. Then she gave it back, and Jamie said "thank you." Perfect. John tells me that Jamie was trying to plant rocks in the sandbox. He was taking the tiniest rocks and pushing them into the sand with a "zzzt! zzzt!" sound like the one he used when planting nasturtiums and peas in our garden. John says also that he seemed disappointed when his "seeds" didn't sprout up immediately with a pop, just like in My Neighbour Totoro.

Jamie also has started to be less interested in posing for the Paparazzi, amd will often reply to photo requests ("Cheese!") with "No-o!"

After playing at the park for over an hour and a half, it was time to go to Browning for dinner. Jamie had fun playing with Ross and Daniel, and roared all over the house with them after dinner playing the "Bye! game. He had a good deal of energy to burn off since he ate a very large dinner of salmon, okra, spinach, rice, corn, zucchini and eggplant. At the table, Daniel was deeply amused at Jamie's very credible attempt to mimic him and say "antidisestablishmentarianism". We finally got home after nine, and had a long argument with Jamie about whether or not he was going to rinse his mouth with water before flossing. Finally, twenty minutes later, it was figured out that Jamie was fine with the rinsing: he had just wanted to fill his cup up by himself, thank you. Arrrrgggh.

He is asleep now, and I am trying to get John to sleep in the other room tonight so that he can get a good night's sleep for the first time in a week. Wish me luck.

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

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