Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 98

2005-09-20 21:20 (John) Kristen has a cold today and has spent much of the day asleep. Mio looked after Jamie as usual in the morning, and when they came home from the playground, Jamie yelled cheerily for Papa and cereal.

In the afternoon, I had to run errands related to the upcoming Toronto Scrabble Tournament, and so I packed the family into the car, where they slept peacefully for their afternoon nap. When Kristen woke up, she had coffee with Leslie at the Second Cup, then Daniel came over to play with Jamie a little, and Alison came over to dig up some mint for her garden.

Kristen went back to sleep then, and I fed Jamie leftover snapper, veggies and rice before taking him out to Dairy Queen for ice cream. He has a favourite table and a favourite chair, but apparently Mommy usually sits in his favourite chair (the one with the best view of passing buses and trucks). He asked me to confirm that Mommy wouldn't be joining us before scooting over into her seat.

Kristen is up now, has kept down some homemade chicken soup, and we'll all be going to bed early tonight as Jamie has his appointment with the dentist first thing in the morning tomorrow.

(Kristen) I changed Jamie in preparation for his bath, and he is still able to put his feet into his mouth. I asked him if he was eating his feet, and he said "oishi*" (Jp.='good'). Then he told me that his feet were fish. He had a good time playing with me and John after we told him repeatedly that he had watched enough "Po" (Teletubbies), colouring with his crayons. I remember that John asked me to pick up a cherry Italian soda for Daniel when they came to get us, and to make it a large. Daniel had asked for a large because he knew that he was going to be sharing at least a third of it with Jamie, and he was right.

2005-09-21 22:57 (Kristen) Amazingly, Jamie didn't wake up at all this morning until my alarm went off at 7:15, letting me have a decent night's sleep in I don't know how long. Woo hoo! The alarm went off at 7:15 because we had an 8:30 appointment with the dentist about Jamie's tooth. The appointment went well: Jamie will have what will likely be a pulpectomy (a baby root canal) on October 6, and will be put under for it. The dentist specializes in children, so it shouldn't be too bad. He and his staff were very good with Jamie during the consultation. I walked away with the notion that Jamie's oddly placed cavity may be the result of a defect in the formation of the tooth, complicated by the fact that his teeth overlap slightly at that point, making the area harder to clean. I'm feeling less "bad mom" now...

Mio came over around 11, and we got home fifteen minutes before she arrived. Jamie and Mio played outside while I napped, and then she took Jamie for his walk. She got him outside by promising to take him to Dairy Queen for ice cream, but Jamie fell asleep on the way...poor guy! John and I were joking that Jamie must think that we're messing with him all the time: we promise to take him on the subway and he often falls asleep before we get to the station and doesn't wake until we get back!

Jamie watched tv for a bit, ate dinner with John at his parents' house (contagious me stayed behind), and then watched a bit more tv. I decided that he'd had enough, and told him no more tv. He was not happy about this, and Gary ended up coming upstairs to play with Jamie and me after Jamie started crying that he wasn't allowed to watch more tv. That kept him happy until 8:40, when Ross, Daniel, and Tom came by to go to Dairy Queen (attempt #2). He gleefully ate everyone's ice cream, and was just hysterically tired (but happily so) by the time we reached home. Then it was time for a bath, and bed.

John was later than usual coming home from the Scrabble Club (where I didn't go to spread my germs, although a lot of Scrabblers were reportedly sniffling tonight), and I had to convince Jamie that Papa was coming home: he really didn't want to fall asleep without John. I finally convinced him, after a dose of Tempra for his mouth and a phone call to John, who talked to Jamie to tell him that he was coming home. He finally seemed to accept this, and stopped getting up at every sound to see if it was John coming home. He'll be happy to wake up beside John tomorrow.

2005-09-22 34:12 (Kristen) My cold is slowly getting better, and John has been getting ready for three days of Scrabble tournament, while Jamie has been teething. He's been good, and Mio was here all day to help out, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

He was pretty tired, and slept in (while nursing) until almost 9:30. When he woke up, we played for a few minutes until he heard the front door open and he knew that Mio was here. He played outside for about an hour with her, watched a little tv, and played with his trains. Then it was off to lunch at Browning, a walk with Ken, and a shorter nap than usual, likely because he got more sleep last night than is usual lately.

I napped for an hour between 6 and 7 while John and Jamie hung out together, and then we all trooped back to Browning for dinner. Jamie had a lovely time in the basement, playing with a marble set that has a saucer that you drop a marble into, and the marble makes smaller and smaller circles as it gets ready to drop out the bottom. Jamie liked this very much, and was interested in it for over fifteen minutes. Then it was dinner (he was tempted upstairs with the promise of cheese), and some rousing rounds of "bye bye!" chasing before we headed home. He was blitheringly tired by 9:30 and only wanted to do the things that were dangerous or unacceptable to Mom. He had a good bath, and fell asleep quickly. So did I, and so we have a later-than-usual blog.

2005-09-23 24:01 (Kristen) John left early today to run a Scrabble tournament, and so Jamie and I were up early too. He watched Lilo and Stitch intermittently between doing other activities like colour and play with trains, and then was sent outside as his daily quota of television had been reached. He had fun for an hour and a half with Mio, and then came back in in time to go to Browning for lunch.

He was pretty tired by then, as he ate, left the table, played with trains, and then got back to eaat some more while Ken took Ross to school. I gave him some more watermelon (the main food item at today's meal), and turned around for a moment. I looked back to see him asleep in his chair, watermelon mostly eaten and the rind in his lap. I laughed and laughed as I gently picked him up out of the chair and deposited him into his stroller just as Ken arrived back. I went to the Second Cup to work, and met Ken and Jamie there at three. Jamie woke up quite unexpectedly soon after, and a hurried jog outside didn't put him back to sleep. So, we ended up at Treasure Island and at the Thomas the Tank Engine and Brio tables. Jamie had a good hour playing there, and we had fun identifying the trains (he likes Toby and James) and talking with the other kids. I also took the opportunity to go through the Thomas catalogue and think of possible birthday presents for him (it's only a month and a half away...).

On the way home, we bought a raincoat for our upcoming trip to London, and some cheese and milk. Jamie demanded some cheese right away (he is on a havarti kick), and then an apple at the Big Carrot. Like I can say no to an apple. Then we had to stop off at the playground to go "whee! bang!" and play tag for an hour. That was a good deal of fun. Around five, we got a call from Ken and Tami, who were leaving, to have us come over and babysit Ross and Daniel until Michelle and Tom got home, as both had to work late. I had made the offer at lunch, and Jamie was very happy to see Daniel and Ross together. We played for a while, then went to Tai Tai's to pick up some dinner (gyoza, grouper, and some veggies) for Jamie after Tom got back. As I still have a bit of a cold, we didn't stay but did get to say 'Hi' to Ted, Alice, Amy, and Ian, who are visiting for the weekend. Back to Browning we went, shared more dinner with them, and it was time to go home. Jamie was hysterically tired, but in a happy, "let's climb *everything*!" kind of way. John, as I complained about this, suggested that I call my mom and make her laugh (I was a champion climber when I was a kid). That's what I like about John: he's soooo sympathetic. Not.

It took Jamie a shorter time than usual to fall asleep, and we're all trekking up to the tournament tomorrow to help out with registration and other things. My cell phone alarm makes the sound of a crowing rooster, and so we'll be up at cockcrow tomorrow (or 6:45 for the rest of you...ugh).

2005-09-24 23:15 (Kristen) Tonight, I was reading Goodnight Moon again to Jamie: it's one of his favourite books, and one of the first books that I started reading to him. He points out that the fire in the fireplace is like the one at Jane's cabin, and he thinks that the old lady who says "hush" is very funny. He is enjoying the book before bed routine enough that when I tried to lie down with him tonight without a book, he reminded me very nicely about his book.

We were up at 6:45 this morning, and Jamie was up too. Mio came by to help us with Jamie aruond 7:10, and went with us to the tournament site to look after Jamie and let him stay near us (and us near him). Have I said this recently? Mio is So Fabulous. Kayako left this morning for Vancouver, and so Mio and Taka will be moving into her room sometime in the coming week. They say that they are excited, and Taka is thinking of things to teach Jamie. I suggested basketball (which Taka and Mio are good at), but maybe Jamie will have to be a little bigger: as in, be able to pick up a basketball, let alone do anything other than kick it! I'm sure that they'll think of something good and fun for him.

Jamie and Mio ran around the community centre, which Jamie enjoyed because he hasn't been there for a couple of weeks and there were playgrounds that needed playing in. I ran about with John doing set up and registration and all sorts of things until 11:00, when it was time to go. John took a few minutes to play with Jamie on the swings before we went, and Jamie enjoyed the subway ride back home. Mio went home (I hope to rest and sleep!), and I fed Jamie some lunch. I took him upstairs for a diaper change before his nap, and he was so tired that he fell asleep on the change table! I finished the change, got him into the stroller, and he slept for two hours straight.

At the end of that two hours, as I was leaving the Second Cup (not in it, unusually) he woke up with a start and was clearly not ready to be awake. I let him hold my hand and almost got him to fall asleep again by talking softly with him, but his head kept lolling, and he wouldn't let me do anything to stabilize it. In the end, I took him to the park and held him, singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" over and over again until he was calm for minutes at a time. (Aside: Jamie loves "Twinkle Twinkle". He likes the hand gestures we do with it, and initiated a round yesterday by making the sign for "star" and saying a very close approximation of "twinkle twinkle". It's the first time that he's done that. He also does a little, seated version of the "gopher dance" (think the opening scene to caddyshack with the little groundhog doing the twist) while sitting to television and movie theme songs, which is also very cute). He didn't want to play in the playground, and was still very unhappy about being awake despite our best efforts, and so watched a very noisy city truck digging something for a while before we went to the bookstore for ten minutes and walked back home. We played with Thomas and the new MegaBloks that John picked up for him, and he then banged on Gary's door.

We had been planning to go for dinner with John's family, but my lingering cold and the possibility that Jamie may be fighting it too combined with three older family members with lowered immune systems made us decide not to go. Jamie would have been very happy to spend time with his cousins, but it would have been hard on him. Instead, I went back to the tournament for a few hours while Gary babysat. When John and I came home together at 9:30, Jamie was in a fabulous, hysterically tired mood. We chased him around the kitchen and tickled him for the joy of hearing his bubbly laugh, and he climbed all over us. Apparently Gary got him to eat an enormous dinner, and they spent the evening watching Pingu, Totoro, and Lilo and Stitch. It was a treat. He was not happy about going to bed, however, but stopped complaining eventually and got into the routine. He fell asleep pretty much instantly, and is sleeping like a lamb. A very busy Jamie day.

I forgot to mention: Mio said, and John and I confirm, that Jamie is not starting to use three word sentences, and I also note that Jamie will not use adjectives to describe objects. Today, when we were watching the city trucks, there were two: a blue one and a yellow one. We had watched the yellow one earlier, and when we were coming back from the bookstore, I offered to let him watch the blue one. No, he said. Don't you want to watch the truck? I asked, and he said "yellow truck." So, there you go. I can't remember if he said "yellow truck" in English or Japanese; I suspect Japanese; but it was still a declaration of desire, preference, and a perfectly good use of an adjective. What a kid! Soon it will be "Mom, I want the *blue* [insert name of trendy item here]. NOone had the *yellow* one! Geez, Mom!" But for now, it's the yellow truck and I get to hold and kiss him as much as I want. Heh.

2005-09-25 30:01 (Kristen) Jamie loves using crayons and other writing implements, and is pretty good at identifying his colours (although he'll do it more readily now in Japanese than English). His favourite thing to draw is train tracks, so that he can pretend that a train is going along the track. He also makes other people draw tracks, but enjoys watching them draw trains, train stations, and other sights along the train tracks too.

We were up at 9, while John took off again for the Scrabble tourney at an early hour. We watched Lilo and Stitch, played with trains, coloured, and had some breakfast (toast, yoghurt, and fruit) while we waited to go to Word on the Street with Alice, Amy, and Ian. Jamie was looking forward very much to the subway ride with Amy, who also enjoys the subway, and was very happy when we did. We got out at Bloor and Bay, did some shopping at Gap Kids since they had a 60 percent off sale, and finally ended up at WOTS around one thirty. We saw our friend Ruth Ohi do a presentation to kids on being a children's book illustrator (Ruth has illustrated over 40 children's books, and is now writing them herself as well as illustrating. Wow!) and do a reading from some of her books. Ruth is very very good at this. Then we got her to sign copies of her books for us. It was great to see her in her professional environment.

I should say that Jamie fell asleep just as we reached WOTS, and didn't wake up until 3, when we all had just about finished walking to the dumpling restaurant where we were to meet Ted and John's parents for lunch. Jamie really liked the dumplings, and the noodles, and stuffed himself completely. We went home on the streetcar with Alice, Amy, and Ian, and Jamie was happy to sit beside Amy. He was delighted to see John when we got home, and played with him, Sam, and Ben outside for a while before going over to John's parents again with John for some salad. I stayed home and rested until they got back, and then Jamie read books with me and chased Ayami and Gary around the house. He went to bed late, but fell asleep almost instantly.

2005-09-26 21:30 (John) Jamie likes to eat strong-tasting foods straight. Umeboshi*, freshly grated ginger, salt, freshly ground pepper, raw onions, black olives, give him a bowlful and stand back. The only category of foods that I've seen him generally dislike are leafy vegetables, I think because he doesn't know what to do when they stick to things inside his mouth. He'll chew on them for the flavour, and then politely spit out a cud.

Over the last few days his language skills have taken another leap. We saw a squirrel today, and he yelled to me "Risu*!" and then almost parenthetically "Mommy 'squirrel'."

(Kristen) He does the same thing with me: he exclaimed "red!" in English and then parenthetically said "Papa 'aka*[red]." He's starting to understand that some people say things one way and other people another. It's a good way to keep his little mind open early. He is also starting to construct three word sentences, and has a 50% success rate with three-syllable words. He is getting better at expressing preference if given choices, and will cheerfully chirp his desires ("apple!") if there's something that he wants.

After Jamie woke up this afternoon, I took him to the park after John brought him home to get his sneakers...Jamie didn't want to run around in his rain boots as it has stopped raining. Earlier, he had soaked his socks and pants by stomping in every puddle he could with great glee, but he obviously felt that boots were only for rain and not for shine. We chased each other around the playground in a rousing version of "bye bye!", went down the slides, and Jamie played in the dirt, using his fingers to dig up dirt and move it about. I was surprised by this since he's often quite fastidious about keeping his hands clean, but he seemed to think that if he hadn't any shovels, then his hands would have to do. He also wiped his hands off on his shirt and on me periodically. The after-school daycare crowd were in the park, and there were balls everywhere as they played. Jamie got his hands on one, and we had fun tossing it up the slide and watching it roll down, and playing a simple version of "catch," where I tossed the ball a short way to him and helped him to catch it, and he threw/passed it back to me. We're working on it. He was also amused by my tossing the ball high into the air and catching it for him.

Dinner was at Browning, but I missed most of it as I went to play Trivia. When I came home, Jamie was bathed and diapered, and waiting none too patiently for me to read him a book. We read two before I took my own shower and we put him to sleep. Tonight, Daniel was trying to get Jamie to say "I love you." Jamie was smiling, but not saying it. I sat in front of him, and said "I love you!" Jamie said "Love you," and threw his arms around my neck with a big smile. I think that this is going to be one of my absolute favourite things.

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

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