Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 12

2005-12-27 24:00 (Kristen) Jamie went to bed late last night, after much merriment with his cousins. He woke up around 8:30 this morning, and was eager to get downstairs and play with his new toys and his cousins.

We all piled into the car to go down to the mall, and were mall rats for the morning. We spend time at the train table at Mrs. Tiggy Winkle's (the local toy store), and watched Jamie's cousins shop for clothes and toys. Jamie got some books and some bath letters, which John has been looking for for months. Then we had some food at the food court, and Jamie was ready for sleep. He was not going to sleep in his stroller in the mall, however, and so we all piled into the car to take the kids and Jennifer home.

Jamie didn't sleep on the way to drop the kids off (naturally), but did fall asleep on the way back to get me and Jennifer. We successfully translated him into bed at my mom's, where he slept for two and a half hours. John stayed with him, and I had a nap too. Jamie kept having nightmares about dangerous cars ("buubuu abunai!") every time a car drove past the house, but John held his hand and he calmed down. He's having lots of nightmares lately, but he is of the age. It's sad, though, to see him upset.

He woke up in time for his cousins, aunt, and uncle to arrive for dinner. Dinner was polenta, tomato sauce, and sausages, but Jamie seemed to prefer blueberries and cheesecake. He went to bed way too late, well past the threading stage and well into the throwing trains stage. Tomorrow we'll try again.

(John) Jamie said "sorry" a few times today when he bumped into people or (I think, in typical British/Canadian fashion) when they bumped into him. We're delighted. He also asked for more presents to be opened this evening, stopping when he got to a Nemo jigsaw puzzle from Craig Rowland, which occupied him intermittently and repeatedly for the rest of the evening.

2005-12-28 23:00 (John) We took Jamie's cousins to the mall again today, this time going to the St-Laurent Centre. Learning from our experiences yesterday, we kept closer to Jamie's natural daily rhythms. We left the house late in the morning after some quiet and not so quiet play, spent about an hour at the Toys R Us, had lunch in the food court and then popped him in the stroller in time for him to take a proper nap.

The Toys R Us was okay, but they claimed that the reason that they had no trains set up on the Thomas the Tank Engine display table was that they had been sold to desperate pre-Christmas shoppers. Possible, I suppose, but they did have plenty of Boxing Week (rolling) stock, and Jamie was somewhat placated when I bought him the Diesel 10 that he asked for, even though it was an evil diesel.

Kristen ordered a burger and fries in the food court, I had yakisoba and a California roll. Jamie nibbled on Kristen's food until mine arrived, when he quickly scooted over into my lap.

Jamie opened another Craig Rowland present (the Elmo jigsaw puzzle) and enjoyed working on it while we were getting dinner ready and while I went to the station to pick up Justin (visiting us tonight on his way back home to Montreal). Dinner was lasagna, garlic bread, crudites and ice cream; and he ate well of each. Between courses, we played a rousing round of "Atta!", Jamie's combination of hide-and-seek and tag, with Anna and Owen.

2005-12-29 25:00 (Kristen) We got up around 8:10 this morning, in preparation for an exciting day at Cosmic Adventures, a large, indoor playground, with Rebecca, Owen, Jen, and our friends Badger, Jeanette, Cameron, and Nathan. First, Jamie had to eat two popsicles, however, and play with Noah, the son of our friend Carrie Engelbrecht, and the grandson of Mrs. E. Carrie and Mrs. E had brought a book for Jamie (all about a Big Tractor), which Jamie appreciated.

Jamie also appreciated the efforts that John and Justin made to scrape the thick layer of ice off the car. ("Ice! Ice!") before heading out to Cosmic. He wasn't too sure about it at first, but soon was running all up and down the play structures like a seasoned pro. He dragged first me and then John in alternation, and also dragged Rebecca around. He enjoyed the long tube slides, although the regular slides were just as acceptable. We played there for two hours before we took him in the car for his nap (inclement weather made it less attractive to go for a regular walk). He fell asleep pretty quickly, and stayed asleep for two hours while Justin, John, and I walked through a nearby Chapters bookstore. Jamie woke up when I rustled a bag near him that contained a gingerbread loaf, and that was that.

Jeanette, Badger, and family had invited us out for Chinese food downtown for dinner, and we thought this was a great idea. Because of the lack of space in the car, Jamie and I took the bus with the Badger family, which he enjoyed. Dinner was fun, but Jamie really liked the hot dried squid that Becky had bought at the grocery store across the street. He ended up eating heroic quantities of squid, much to everyone's great amusement. We went to the Badger family's house nearby to wait for Mom, who was going to meet us and help ferry people back to Orleans, and Jamie enjoyed playing with Cameron and Nathan's dinosaur collection and new wooden Tonka train. The funny highlight of the evening was when Jamie grabbed Badger, who was sitting in a chair by the coffee table, by the hand and made him stand up. Badger was delighted, wondering what Jamie wanted. It turned out that Jamie wanted his chair, and merrily went on playing on it while everyone laughed and laughed.

He didn't fall asleep on the way home, like we thought he might, and he didn't fall asleep in the bath, although he almost did. He did enjoy a rousing game of "nenne" with Becky, where Becky was told to "nenne," and then Jamie pounced on her on the bed when she pretended to sleep. It was a game that could have gone on for hours, if we hadn't intervened, and brought him to bed for real.

2005-12-30 23:23 (Kristen) We all woke up with morning with colds, and I felt even worse than that, as I had a bug that made me quite ill mid-morning. We debated briefly not going home today, but kept to schedule as I was feeling sufficiently better, and we just have So Much To Do in preparation for Japanese New Year. Jamie happily played with Becky, who was a huge help as we packed and got ready to go. Then we all went out--Dahls, Mom, and us--for our usual last meal before leaving. Jamie ate almost all of his grilled cheese sandwich, and was glassy-eyed as we got ready to go.

We took Anna back with us to Toronto, and she's going to stay with us for a little bit (it's her turn). She sat in the back and kept Jamie company while we drove in a very packed car back to Toronto. We stopped to play with Ian, Amy, and the hamsters, and also with Ian's new trebuchet. Our friends Adam and Pat dropped by, and Alice fed us dinner before we headed back out into the night on our way home. We had told Jamie that he would see Gary, Ayami, Mio, and Taka when he got home, but Mio and Taka were asleep, and Gary and Ayami weren't home. Jamie was very upset to find Gary was out, and burst into tears. We quickly called around and found him at Michelle's house, and he came running back to see Jamie, who was all smiles and laughs when he saw Gary come in. I guess that Jamie really missed him... They're playing around now, while John fills the tub for Jamie's bath. I hope that tomorrow will be better, and that we'll all have ditched these colds (or the worst parts thereof) by Sunday.

2005-12-31 23:35 (John) Our new year's plans have changed several times in the last few days, most recently because we all still have colds. Kristen and Jamie had to stay home from the market, so I took Anna. Nupur at Raani foods had had a run on Jamie's chicken samosas, but had very thoughtfully set aside a little bag for him just in case.

Kristen took Jamie out for his nap and walk, and he slept for almost three hours, mostly at the Second Cup rather than in the snowstorm outside. We went over to my parents' house for Japanese New Year's "toshi-koshi-soba" dinner with my parents, my brother and his family, then stopped in briefly at Michelle's house on the way home to wish them a happy New Year's Eve.

At that point, my brother and I had to go rescue my aunt Nobuko, who had hurt her ankle and needed to be fireman's-carried out of her apartment and driven to Toronto General, so Kristen and Anna took Jamie home and put him to bed with help from our tenants. [Addendum: I meant to say "two-hand-seat-carried", not "fireman's-carried".]

2006-01-01 22:43 (Kristen) Jamie was up at 8:00 this morning, much to my great displeasure. He really wasn't that ready to be up, but forged on. He ended up playing with Gary and Mio for most of the morning, while I tried to sleep on the couch and ditch my cold. Jamie was having none of it, however, and seemed disturbed by my sleeping in the middle of the day. He kept waking me up to play in the other room, or rest on me and watch television; I preferred the second, but mostly got the first. We didn't get on all that well together this morning.

At noon, we started getting ready to go to John's parents' place for o-sechi* ryori*, or Japanese New Year's food. Because John's aunt had broken her ankle last night, John and Ted went to get her and her sister Tomoko, and I stayed behind to feed Jamie. He was pretty owly#, and I wasn't that patient, so it wasn't a good mix. Jamie just wasn't interested in eating, and would spit any food that he didn't want down his shirt and onto his chair, or wherever he was sitting, which drove me nuts. Finally, John got back and took Jamie for his afternoon walk, and I had my own lunch (which helped). I was to spell off John at 2:30, and he and Anna were going to go and make salad for o-sechi* in Hamilton with Gary's relatives.

Jamie had other plans, and woke up at 2:30 instead. (John: his sinuses are bothering him, and he isn't comfortable enough to sleep as long as usual.) We walked around a bit, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to sleep. We came home instead, and Jamie zoomed off in search of Mio. That was the state of affairs until 4:00, when the salad was done and it was time to go to Hamilton. Jamie sat with Mio and Taka in the back, and had a great time looking for trains on the drive there, and eating edamame*. Once there, he ran around and played while adults took turns playing with him and eating dinner. Ross and Michelle were not present, as Ross (it turns out) has the chickenpox#. We're all looking at Jamie, and figure that Jamie was exposed for a few hours at most when Ross was not at his peak of communicability. At least, we hope not. We have our fingers crossed that Jamie doesn't get it. We'll know in two weeks.

While we were in Hamilton, which was a big gathering of Tami Sagara's side of the family, two of her relatives brought their dog. The dog, Miko, is a black Javanese, built low to the ground and very well behaved. Jamie loved the dog and was excellent with her, extending his hand for her to sniff, moving quietly, and not too quickly. He then got on his hands and knees and gave the dog "kisses" on the nose, and I wish that I had a photograph of the two of them nose to nose. Miko finally had enough and went upstairs and Jamie followed. At one point, Jamie was under a chair and Miko was under the table, and Jamie was calling out "Mikan (he seems to think that the dog's name is Orange in Japanese), Jamie kiss you please." It was so incredibly cute.

Finally it was time to go home, all of us tired but full and happy. Jamie fell asleep in the car on the way home, and is sleeping now. I hope to be doing the same very soon.

2006-01-02 22:59 (Kristen) Jamie slept for almost eleven hours last night, and woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 8:00 on the dot. I went down with him, and we got through a slightly unusual day.

Mio played with Jamie, as usual, but we had my friend Heather and her daughter Rissa come and play with us for a few hours this morning, and our Scrabble friend Craig came over to play a few rounds of Super Scrabble and regular Scrabble with John. Jamie enjoyed playing with Rissa, and Anna did too. Then Anna was whisked away to toboggan with Daniel and Tom, and we got Jamie to eat lunch (after an almost non-existent breakfast) by offering him the little sweet crunchy fish from yesterday's o-seichi*, and then tempting him with other items. I fed Jamie and Anna some macaroni and cheese (Anna's request), and then Anna played with Gary while Jamie went out for his nap with John and Craig.

They came back a few hours later, with a happy Jamie who was wanting to see his mom. I was still not feeling well with my cold, and so we spent the rest of the day in a mellow fashion, playing with trains, watching Thomas on television (with a break to watch March of the Penguins), and colouring. Jamie is getting much better with his control of crayons, and has moved beyond drawing straight lines to trying to draw things he knows about. He draws trains and track, but he threw me today when he said "Mummy guck." I made a few wrong guesses and he went in some dudgeon to find his dad before I realized that he was telling me that he had drawn a picture of a mummy DUCK. Oops. Anyway, we think that the picture on the site today is that picture. But I'm glad that he's reached the stage where he wants to make his own pictures, as well as have us draw things for him. I think that I'm going to be continually surprised with what he ends up drawing.

Sometimes, when he is quite tired, Jamie will deliberately do all the things that he knows that he isn't supposed to. John and I are debating where he got that...from me, or him.

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

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