Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 13

2006-01-03 22:21 (Kristen) I decided that Jamie was watching a little too much television again, and made sure that he did other things. He drew pictures with Mio and read some books, and had some freezies. He was up at 8:00 again, despite the lateness of last evening, and I think that he's just going to be getting up at 8:00 for a while, for whatever reason. Mind you, his cold is finally abating, and his appetite is finally making a triumphant return. Maybe he'll start sleeping the proper number of hours at night again, too.

He went out with Anna and John on the subway (John: kneeling on the seat at the front of the station and enthusing "Wow!" as we arrived at each station) this afternoon, and fell asleep for 90 minutes. He woke up in line at Indigo, sufficiently irritated with waking up that he got John through the line faster. Woot! Then they came home, and played for the rest of the day with the household.

He liked grating daikon this evening for dinner, and when Anna came home from playing at our neighbour Alexandria's house, he ran up to her and hugged her about the knees before running back to his play. Our plans for an early night fell by the wayside, and now he's calling "Mummy! Kristen!" in a "duck season, rabbit season" style game with John from the bath. I must go, as I am summoned.

2006-01-04 23:22 (Kristen) Jamie woke up at 8:45 this morning, hallelujah. The cold must be breaking. I may be speaking too soon, however, as he was flushed this evening and his nose was running. He was also acting a little out of sorts, but I am hoping that it was just a tooth and not a new phase of his cold or (horrors) a new cold. Let's all keep our fingers crossed.

We're trying to get Jamie to watch a little less television, and so Jamie and Mio went out this morning, into the rain, to go splashing. Jamie wore his bright yellow splash suit, which makes him look much like a baby duck. It was very very cute. His rubber boots are a little large, however, and he and Mio came in after he managed to lose one. He is spending a good deal of time colouring, which has replaced puzzles as the number two activity after trains, and coloured a flower and another duck for me today. He's really starting to get the idea of representation.

He slept for two hours, and had fun running around the house after his nap. I did put in his new Christmas DVD, a PBS show called Classical Baby: The Dance Show. I was hoping that it would feature other children dancing and that would encourage him to do the same. It turns out to be animated shorts of people and animals dancing to classical pieces (I was interested to learn that Mambo Number 5 (not the Lou Bega version) and Gershwin are now classical). I tried to get Jamie to do some dancing, but he was very much "no." He didn't much like me or Ayami dancing either, but he loosened up on that. (John: but I'm still not allowed to dance: probably a good thing.) We watched that a bit in between colouring sessions, trains, a puzzle or two, and chasing each other around. Anna and Gary and Jamie and I chased each other around the house, much to Jamie's great, burbling, laughing delight, then Jamie, Gary, Ayami, and Anna all formed a train that sped around the house. I decided to put him to bed at 9:15, with no bath, because John was out at Scrabble, and he was tired. He was vociferous in his desire not to sleep, but I told him a Thomas the Tank Engine story in the dark, and he fell asleep in less than fifteen minutes: definitely a tired boy. We'll see what time he wakes up tomorrow.

2006-01-05 21:19 (Kristen) At one point last night, I found that Jamie was sleeping between me and John, but with his feet up against the headboard, and his head pointing down the bed. An improvement over the classic "H" position, but slightly odd to wake up to. I think that he would have slept later than 8:00 this morning, except that a backhoe and its friends decided to back up in front of our house. The one sound in the world that can wake Jamie up is the sound of a truck backing up (beeep beeeep beeep...). He woke up peacefully, slid out of bed, and said "Mummy down?" meaning "take me downstairs, please." We did, and he was distracted from the television for most of the morning by the phrase "What is the backhoe doing, Jamie?" Hah. Mio took him outside for a while, watching backhoes at first, then going to the playground. The temperature was +3 C, so it was a perfect day for it.They ran into Gary and Ayami on the way to work (Ayami, that is) and Gary came back to play with them until Jamie came home with them, tired, happy, and apple cheeked.

In the afternoon, John took Jamie, Anna, and our neighbour Alexandria off to the Bata Shoe Museum, which was a great hit. Jamie didn't fall asleep until 2:45, however. John's theory was that he was working on a bowel movement, as he fell asleep ten minutes after it was accomplished. Too much information? He slept for 90 minutes, waking up when they were going back onto the subway, which I am sure he thought was the best part. Then it was race around the house to see if you can collect all your people together in one room, which he managed a few times. I think that dinner made it into him somehow, and he was ravingly tired by 8:15. He's in the bath now, with John, and will be asleep long before 10, I hope hope hope.

2006-01-06 23:22 (Kristen) Jamie was up at 7:40 this morning, and I wasn't the happiest of mothers about it. It wasn't one of his happier awakening either (we're still, sometimes, having some discussions about whose body is whose in the morning), so we spent the first hour or so watching television, which snaps him out of it when nothing else will. Mio took over at 9:00, and they had a much more productive time of it, with crayons, puzzles, and the usual cast of trains.

John took Jamie out for his usual (lately) 90 minute nap, and I took the chance to have a 120 minute nap. Yay me. I was a much better, and happier mom when I woke up. Jamie, meanwhile, was roaring about with Gary, Anna, and Mio (sometimes), having a blast. We had chili for dinner from Browning (takeout...Ross ceases to be deemed communicable on Monday), and Anna introduced us to sour cream on our chili. Yum. Jamie enjoyed it, and the garlic bread, quite a bit, in between bites of his freezie. We need to buy more freezies.

In the evening, we went to Geoff and Derrick's house for Scrabble. Anna came along and played a game, and helped to look after Jamie the rest of the time. Jamie most enjoyed sitting on our laps drinking Orangina, and eating the chocolate tops off the chocolate-covered cookies. We made sure that Jamie was chocolate-free before he was allowed to run around Geoff and Derrick's nice, cream-upholstered apartment. We left later than usual, because Jamie was still having a good time, and just put him to bed. Tomorrow is the St. Lawrence Market for Anna, John, and Jamie, and a lot of housework for me.

2006-01-07 22:45 (John) Jamie and Mom ate breakfast, coloured, read books and watched TV until I woke up (we're all still sick, so we let each other sleep whenever possible). Mio and Taka said they wanted to take Anna to the market and the Eaton Centre, so we all set out together. We got as far as the front porch before being beset by children armed with snowballs: Ian and Kate who just arrived from Australia with their parents Scott and Clare. They're renting Ben, Sam and Luke's house while our neighbours spend most of the year in France.

When we regained snowless-ness, we drove to the market. Anna had lunch with Mio and Taka at Spring Rolls, Jamie ate his customary samosa. He narrated the walk to Nupur's stall: "Mamosa? Mamosa goko? Mamosa nai! Are? Mamosa! Mamosa atta!" After the samosa, he asked for his juice bottle and fell asleep in short order around 12:30, a good half hour ahead of schedule. I shopped quickly, gathering the usual compliments on the cuteness of my sleeping baby, then sat down to wait for him to wake up. He flopped in a particularly relaxed pose, which had passersby giggling and pointing (see photo).

When he woke up around 15:00, we went to the Loblaws, which was packed worse than New Year's Eve. Jamie had a lot of energy to burn, so he pushed and pulled the shopping cart for me until he got tired and had to be put back into it. We drove to Baldwin Street to pick up health supplements for my mom for her trip, with Jamie munching his way through about half a pint of blueberries along the way. Outside Baldwin Naturals, Jamie spent fifteen minutes running laps: down the ramp, along the sidewalk, up the steps, and back along the porch.

We then drove to my aunt Nobuko's apartment to deliver some groceries and see how her broken leg was doing. It being January 7th, we could not leave without being served nanakusagayu* (rice gruel with the traditional Seven Herbs Of Spring), which given that we're in Toronto and not the more temperate herb-picking clime in which the custom arose, meant that we substituted bonito flakes (katsuobushi*) and eel for the herbs. We also scored some narazuke*, which I hadn't had in quite a few years.

Jamie was somewhat reluctant to come home despite having been out for almost eight hours, but I eventually persuaded him that an elevator ride and blueberries in the car were worth leaving an apartment with two doting elderly Japanese women plying him with nonstop food and entertainment. More fool him.

Anna made dinner for us all tonight, and Jamie spent the rest of a quiet night in.

2006-01-08 21:04 (Kristen) I've wanted Jamie to take swimming lessons for about a year or so, and I finally got him enrolled in a one-on-one, fifteen-minute a week swim lesson program at one of our nearby community centres. We woke up at 8:10, after a fairly rough night for me (coughing), and got out the door at 9:15, which was 15 minutes later than I had wanted to leave. We made it there only five minutes late, but when your lesson is 15 minutes total, that's a lot. Jamie's teacher is a young man named Jonathan, who was very gentle and not pushy (I have residual trauma from solo swimming lessons when I was not much older than Jamie, so I'm looking), and Jamie was game to be in the pool, but not willing to have Jonathan hold him. He worried about a ball that was floating about, liked the flutter boards, and moved floaters along a rope (like a train, natch). He was not at all ready to get out, and protested very much about leaving, to the point where he tried to run out the changeroom and into the pool area (stymied by the door) more than once.

I told him that we were going to play with other kids, and that distracted him sort of. I registered him in a play group right after swimming, and the room was full, at some points, of about ten other children close to Jamie's age. Jamie didn't interact much with them except near the end, when one very gregarious toddler named Dmitri decided to play with him. Otherwise, Jamie entertained himself with the play doh table, making many monsters and other creatures, at the sand table, and with the little push cars that they had. He also liked the play house, but didn't go there much until the end. All in all, it seemed worth the effort getting there, and he didn't want to leave the play group room when it was all over, either. John met us at 12:00, and we fed Jamie lunch. He was exhausted, but didn't want to fall asleep either. He finally crashed out around 1:00.

Unfortunately, he woke up at the Second Cup a little over an hour later when I coughed, crying out "Oh no, Mummy! Oh no, Mummy!" in concern. We didn't get him back to sleep, and so I took him home after he ate some of John's carrot cake icing. I found Gary, Ayami, and Anna watching a movie, and Gary in some pain after going down the "suicide" toboggan hill with Anna. They put Ice Age on for Jamie, as Gary thought that Jamie would find Scrat (a rat-like squirrel creature) funny. And yes, he was so funny that we had to watch the Scrat short five times. After the movie, we horsed around and did our usual stuff until dinner, when John cooked and I lay on the couch like an exhausted lump. It's almost 9:30, Jamie has finished his freezie, and it's time the shower/bath now. Early to bed, so that we can rise early to take Anna to Oshawa so that she can meet her ride home. I think that Jamie will miss her.

Which reminds me: Jamie made me call his cousin Becky for him tonight, so that he could talk to her on the phone and make her say "Potter!" like Snape. He also calls her dad, Jason, Uncle "Dooit" because he makes that sound when he play-pokes kids. I'm glad that he's getting to know his cousins so well.

2006-01-09 23:16 (Kristen) We all woke up at 9:00 this morning, which was bad because we had to have Anna at the Oshawa GO station at 10:00. John took her by himself, as it would have taken far too long to get me and Jamie organized to go with. We told Jamie that Anna had to go to Grammie's house, and see her mommy and daddy. He seemed to understand this, but was very close to me and John for the rest of the day. It may be coincidence, or that he was missing her. He did ask for her one or two times.

Jamie and I had the morning together, as Mio was sick with our cold and spent the day in bed. Gary came up for a little bit, but went back down soon after to catch some more "zzzz"s. We did a puzzle, played with trains, talked and cuddled, and watched the local backhoe do its thing. Lunch was grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup, and Jamie enjoyed sitting on my lap and eating it. We went through a food magazine while we did, and looked for all he examples of cheese.

Ken took Jamie out for his afternoon walk for the first time in a little while, and met up with John at the Second Cup. Jamie slept for two hours, then had some of John's carrot cake before coming home. They stopped off at Alexandria's first, and Jamie got to hold the new kitten, Tulip. Tulip is about ten weeks old now, and very cute. Jamie was very gentle with her, drawing comment from Karen, Alexandria's mom. I'm proud to say that Jamie seems to have a natural way with animals, and is always gentle with them. Then they came home, and Jamie and I played some more before we went to Browning for dinner.

We had a little trouble keeping Jamie happy and at the table, in part because Mio, Taka, Gary, and Ayami were all absent from dinner. Jamie wantd to play with Ross and Daniel very badly (in part, I think, because he hadn't seen either of them since New Year's Eve), and cried when he finished his dinner before them, and they didn't come to play with him. Eventually we got to eat by having Jamie sit on our laps again, and then by putting on a Thomas the Tank Engine video. Daniel, after Ross's Thomas obsession, was going a little nuts, and introduced Jamie to Pokemon. Jamie enjoyed imitating the little sounds that the Pokemon make. Then it was home, and to bed. Jamie particularly likes the Sponge Bob Squarepants toothbrush that John bought for hiim recently, and talks a good deal about them rather than brushing his teeth. We're working on that.

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

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