Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 5

2005-11-08 23:43 (Kristen) I had to run out to the library this morning to answer some urgent questions about a manuscript that I'm working on, and Jamie stayed home with Mio and John this morning. I met up with him and John at Broadview Station, around 3:00, since John had an errand to run at Mountain Equipment Co-op that needed my input. Jamie was still asleep, and stayed asleep until we were going down Broadview on the streetcar. He stayed mellow for most of the trip, and didn't start to demand to get out of the stroller until we got to the store. It helped that we had a krispie in hand for him to keep him occupied.

He had fun running around MEC, climbing on this and that, and was generally full of beans. We walked to Bay Street to do some other errands, and Jamie insisted that I carry him for most of the way. I've carried Jamie so much lately that my biceps hurt. He's been clingy, and mom-centred, but I'm enjoying it. I'm usually the Death of Fun as far as Jamie is concerned, so a little quiet, quality time with my boy is something that I don't take for granted. He may be fighting a cold, or he may be teething: it's hard to say, although John and I are both fighting something ourselves.

We ran around for a little while in one of the bank plazas, and then headed home on the streetcar again. Jamie insisted on riding at the back, where he can look out the windows at the traffic behind us. Then we went home, and Jamie played with Taka, Mio, and Gary, and then with Ayami when she came home. It was a nice, communal night, and Jamie went to sleep a little late--maybe sometime close to 11:00.I have to get up early tomorrow to go to the library again, so maybe this is how we will start the days until we leave. Early.

(John) Jamie seems more emotionally mature somehow this week, I'm having trouble describing exactly how. He's taking more time and deliberate effort to maintain his important relationships with his extended family. It could also be that he's figured out a few more pieces of the how the world works puzzle. I think it's only recently dawned on him how real the pain and suffering of those around him can be, and he's become even more solicitous and sympathetic as a result. He's still trying to figure out how, why and when people come in and out of his life (he'll often yell people's names, hoping that they'll answer, even though they're in another city), and seems to have decided for now to make the most of whomever he happens to be with.

2005-11-09 22:50 (John) As I write this at the Scrabble club, Jamie has been asleep for a little over two hours. I'm not sure why, and I considered waking him up, except for the mostly selfish reason that if he ends up sleeping through the night and getting up early, we'll have gotten through most of our jet lag several days early.

He woke up early, as Kristen had to go back to the library to do some research, and his nap was half an hour late, as it took me quite a bit longer than I had anticipated to book some European train tickets. But he slept for more than two hours in the afternoon, and ate well at dinner time, and doesn't seem like he's fighting a cold or anything. It's strange.

He continues to work hard and show marked improvement in his elocution. He will try parroting sentences of six or seven syllables, often getting quite close. He's also shaking some of his earlier habits, like saying "dakku" for "dakko" (pick me up).

My dad commented that Jamie has gotten very precise at stacking blocks, and it's true. He will make elaborate buildings and train tracks, with everything arranged Just So. I should be taking pictures of them, I think.

(Kristen) It rained and rained today, in huge, sheeting torrents. It rained so hard at times that Jamie agreed to let us put the rain shield over him while he was in the stroller (he normally hates it, and will put up with getting a little wet). I missed most of it, but got rained on with John and Jamie when we tried to leave the Second Cup. It was raining so hard that we had to take refuge, and my pants were soaked to the knees in less than a minute. Jamie waited until the rain started to taper off, then clamoured for the rain shield to come off, as the balance had shifted from too wet to better than the rain shield.

Jamie was a champion at peeing today. He had some missteps in the morning, but was fabulous this evening. Tami Sagara had given us a portable potty seat that folds into four and fits into a diaper bag a few months ago, and I decided to try it out with Jamie tonight at John's parents' place. I showed it to him, explained its purpose, and sat him on the toilet seat (knowing that he was due). In less than a minute, he tried to pee and success! He was very pleased with himself, as was I. He repeated the experiment, after he woke up at the community centre, in the public bathroom. No weirdness about different locations...hurray! And, to top it off, we didn't understand him tonight when he was getting into the bath and said "pee! pee!" (In our defence, it sounds a lot like 'please.') Since we didn't get it, he took matters into his own hands and grabbed a cup, and peed into it. Who needs parents? They're old and slow, anyways. Yay Jamie! This gives me fresh confidence in having him day trained very soon, despite our upcoming trip. With our handy seat, we can pee anywhere.

Tonight, in the car on the way home, Jamie sucked on a piece of clementine for almost ten minutes, no hands, and handed us a dessicated piece of orange back. We were reminded of Bunnicula, the vampire bunny rabbit who sucks the juice out of vegetables. Zombie oranges, coming soon.

2005-11-10 22:50 (Kristen) All my conversations are about pee. If I'm not talking with Jamie about pee, I'm explaining to those overhearing why we're talking about pee. "Do you have to pee, Jamie?" to which the reply is always "No pee." "Are your sure?" "No pee!" Often, not even five minutes later sometimes, I get him crying out, in frantic sorrow, "Pee!" over and over again. Then we run and try to make it in time, and sometimes we do. Sometimes we don't. We're batting about 50/50 right now, which is not bad for a little guy who is turning 2 tomorrow.

Today was errand/appointment day. We visited the dentist in the morning to get us all checked out and cleaned up now that we have supplementary health insurance. Then we ate lunch at Le Commensal, a nice vegetarian restaurant near the dentist's office, and Jamie ran around and didn't eat much as I think he was very tired. He did drink almost a whole can of some organic raspberry lemonade (which I'm also quite fond of, and can understand Jamie's affection for it). Then we ran to the bathroom at the parking garage for a pee break, and got into the car to visit the math department in its new digs on campus. Jamie fell asleep in his stroller in the three minutes it took us to go there, and slept for an hour while we talked to people and John saw his thesis advisor. we tried to get him into the car, still sleeping, but failed and he was awake for the duration. So we went to the St. Lawrence Market to get food for dinner tomorrow night, and Jamie happily had one of his onion, olive, and tomato pizzas. He and John share that one, and I stay far away from it.

Then we dropped the food off at home, and I was going to relax a little while Jamie played. However, Jamie found out quickly that neither Gary nor Mio were home, and was deeply upset by this. Having trouble keeping him happy, I just took him on the subway (his last free day! Tomorrow he starts paying a fare like everyone else. Tomorrow, he starts getting expensive.) while John drove to our hair appointment and went first. Jamie was calm sucking on oranges and sitting in his stroller, and was patient while I strolled through Indigo before heading over to our hair appointment. Jamie was disturbed by John's hair on the floor, and was much relieved when Carlos cleaned it up. Then it was my turn, and Jamie and John played while I had my hair cut. Finally, I was done and it was time now to go to Nami for John's mother's birthday dinner. Three birthdays in a row: my dad's yesterday, Sai's today, and Jamie's tomorrow. Very busy! Jamie enjoyed his o-chazuke*, and edamame*. His favourite part of the meal was the ice cream at the end, for his birthday. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, and is sawing little twigs beside me as I write.

2005-11-11 24:30 Jamie had an exciting birthday. Daniel was home from school for Remembrance Day, so we all had lunch together the way we used to before Daniel started commuting. After a regular nap, Jamie woke up and nibbled on the customary Rice Krispies square while I talked about rating systems with the visiting Mike Tuffiash. Then we went shopping for balloons (ooh!) and Jamie picked out a die-cast toy boat that he had to have (pleeeeease! boat!). He was concerned about tying a balloon to the porch steps, and stared at it a long time, thinking that it had been forgotten, rather than being put there for festivity.

From then until bedtime, it was one long stream of alternating food and play. Daniel and Ross were there, as were Ben and Sam. Tami made miso stew, which I burned on reheating. I made huachinango tikinchik, fried bananas, asparagus, sprouts and scallions. Kristen made Cajun red beans and rice. My mom brought gyoza. Justin made a surprise appearance from Montreal, and stayed long enough to eat a lot of food (no surprise). All Jamie favourites#.

The piece de resistance however was the ice cream cake we bought, decorated to resemble a construction site, complete with toy backhoe, dump truck and crane. Jamie was torn between playing with the toys and eating ice cream, and managed for a while to do both without disaster.

He opened only one of his many presents, the Thomas the Tank Engine 60th anniversary set (with golden track, special-edition Thomas, and station), and we'll let him open the rest slowly so as not to completely overwhelm him.

Happy Birthday, my son.

2005-11-12 23:20 (John) After a brief stop at the St. Lawrence Market to pick up samosas, Jamie, Ross, Gary and I went to George's Trains for their Play Day with Thomas. Jamie found the spectacle of thirty members of his demographic (and their parents) a little daunting at first, but then settled well into playing with whatever bits of track or rolling stock weren't in the clutches of some other young boy. Both he and Ross seemed to more intensely enjoy running around in the playground across the street afterward, in Jamie's case being pursued by the aforementioned samosas.

In the afternoon, Mio took Jamie out for his nap/walk, then kept an eye on him on our porch. I took him down to the Danforth for some last-minute errands around 15:30, and we ended up at Treasure Island, where he was one of only two or three young boys stationed at the wooden train sets, which was much more his style. He expressed his approval as we entered the store by yelling "Thomas! Yes!" and punching a triumphant fist upward.

In the evening, we went to Babur for early birthday dinner for my dad, along with my mom and my aunts. Jamie ate his fill, then dragged me out onto Queen Street to chase streetcars, which were easy hunting. Nobuko and Tomoko gave Jamie a board book about colours, and a warm pair of winter boots for his birthday.

(Kristen) Jamie has a small baby doll (plastic limbs and head, clothbody) that I bought for him at a garage sale (at his insistence) this summer. He was carrying his baby around carefully during his party last night, and Ross was mightily interested in it too. So they have more in common than trains, which is surprising and pleasing at once. That said, I am so glad that he now has small, track versions of Annie and Clarabelle (Thomas's coaches); he took them to the restaurant tonight, and spent at least half an hour playing with them with and without the track that we drew in his book of construction paper/ drawing paper. We'll be taking them to Europe, it is clear.

2005-11-13 21:25 (Kristen) I am often asked how we can live so many people in one house: Gary and Ayami in the basement, Mio and Taka upstairs, and us. I answer that you give up some things in order to get others. Yes, you give up some privacy, but that pales (for us) in the face of the generous and unstinting help that we get from our housemates on days like this.

John and I spent most of the day furiously working at trying to finish our respective projects and loose ends before leaving tomorrow morning, bright and early. Jamie spent his day being cared for by his friends, and also by his grandmother, who arrived from Ottawa in the early afternoon, in time to take a sleeping Jamie to the Second Cup for his "krispie," and to the park, with Gary for company. We are immeasurably grateful to everyone; if it wasn't for them, things either wouldn't get done, or wouldn't be done with anything resembling grace or wakefulness.

John has been explaining to Jamie what is going to happen over the next few days. Jamie's response to everything was a quick, chirpy "okay!" He's looking forward to the plane, and is ready for anything. Bring it on, is his attitude. The only statement that he responded to differently was when John told him that Grammie was arriving on the train that afternoon. "Yes!" was his response, which gratified his grammie to no end.

We opened the rest of Jamie's gifts, and he was delighted to receive more Boynton books from Browning, a diesel train and a "stone" bridge for his Thomas set from Grammie, a little remote-controlled car from his Auntie Millie, a beautiful hoodie from Trifina, and a pop-up book of construction vehicles from Ron and Susi Tiekert. Thank you all!

We're almost packed now, and Jamie is watching television with Gary and Ayami. Wish us luck with the rest, and we'll write to you next from glorious London.

2005-11-14 23:30 (John) We're safely here in our bed and breakfast. More to follow.

2005-11-14 24:45 (John) Kristen and I woke up at 5:45, Jamie unexpectedly at 6:00. We managed to get Tom's car loaded on time at 6:30 with help from Gary, Ayami and Mio. Jamie was quite excited on the way to the airport, and managed to sustain his level of excitement most of the day.

We met up with Kristen's mom, Laraine, as we were getting out of our cars, checked in, went through the express line at security (thanks to Jamie) and preboarded the plane (again, yay, Jamie!).

Jamie fell asleep for about an hour soon after the 9:00 takeoff, which helped make up for his early morning. When he woke up, he asked for Gary. We told him Gary was back at home, then said "Okay!", meaning that he would allow us to take him home to play with Gary, and seemed mildly disappointed when this didn't happen.

We kept him distracted for the rest of the trip with toy trains, food, running up and down the aisles (not too much), playing in the bathrooms (767s have nice big mirrors, excellent for distracting kids when their diapers need changing), playing with the individual lighting controls, listening to inflight music, and watching Pingu on our DVD player.

When we landed, Jamie again whisked us to the front of the immigration line, played delightedly at the luggage carousels (his favourite part of airports), and was enthusiastic about riding the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station.

There he started to fade, to no one's surprise, as he had managed to last until about 5:00 P.M. ET (10:00 UTC) without his usual afternoon nap. He asked for an apple pastry from the station, took a few bites out of it, then fell asleep in the back of a black cab on the way to our bed and breakfast, the excellent Dawson House Hotel.

Jamie stayed asleep from the cab to our room, and through a visit from Albert Hahn, and is sleeping quietly as I type this.

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

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