Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 16

2006-01-24 23:15 (John) We woke up this morning at 6:45. A little late to catch the sunrise, but there's always tomorrow. That means that Jamie slept for almost twelve hours, and he was quite the cheerful (but hungry) boy in the morning. His first words for the day were "nani sore [what's that]?", uttered upon hearing one of the ubiquitous local grackles calling. He had some juice and a banana before we headed out on a brief walk around the "block", stepping down to the beach and walking along the (in parts almost nonexistent) foreshore and then back along the main road. Jamie showed no fear of the sand this time, and was instead intrigued by the possibility of drawing on it with a large nut or seed that my mom had found for him on the beach.

We went to Mama's Bakery for breakfast, where Jamie added an entire sticky bun (about 1.5 x 4 x 4 inches), some juice, some scrambled eggs and toast with jam to his tummy. I went out for a quick snorkel with my parents, and saw more than the usual number of fish but in very turbulent conditions from a thunderstorm last night. Barracuda, spadefish, trumpetfish*, balloonfish* and more run-of-the-mill reef denizens. When I got back, Jamie was ready to go for a swim, and splashed and practised basic toddler swimming skills with Kristen and me until he was not quite blue in the lips. He especially liked "making a train", where I was an engine pulling a float, and he was the caboose hanging on to the back of it.

My mom and I went shopping for groceries and supplies in the afternoon, to Costco and Soriana. As I left, Jamie had just fallen asleep at the lunch table at the hotel, thanks to all that fresh air, good food and exercise. Laraine took him out for a two hour nap and walk around town while Kristen took a nap, and when they came back, they played in the hotel, went to the zocalo (coming soon to OWL2, for all you Scrabble fans) and walked along the beach.

I returned in time to eat a bite with a very tired Jamie, who went to bed around 21:00 with very little struggle. I then watched Laureano's Hurricane Wilma slides for an hour or so with my parents, and am still numb from the scenes of devastation. The hotel pool was not destroyed, but turned into an aboveground pool; the retaining wall around the patio was rubble. The hotel's new (north) wing lost all its windows; the old wing lost about a third of its windows. About a third of the Playasol complex nextdoor was destroyed. We had a storm surge of 30 cm at our garage, and our incredibly heavy garage door was knocked in and washed down the street. The side door to the garage was also blown out. We lost a bunch of roof tiles, but more seriously the roof drains on the flat, walled roof on the main house plugged up, so water rushing in through the cinder-block walls caused a lot of structural damage until Laureano donned his dive mask to go out and dive into the metre of water on top of the house in the middle of the hurricane to unplug the drains. With one or two exceptions, all the plants in the garden are gone. All the structural damage has since been repaired, but it will be a few years before the garden is back to its former glory. That's all I can think of for now, but I'll see if I can copy some of Laureano's photos tomorrow.

2006-01-25 16:00 (John) Jamie slept for nine hours last night, from about 21:00 to about 6:00. Kristen took him out to look for grackles, and found instead that the calm morning air was unusually full of mosquitos. Jamie was bit once on the calf, and I've started him on hydrocortisone and fusidic* acid (topically) as advised by one of our family doctors. By nap time seven hours later, he had a large red weal about 7 cm in diameter, with an inner welt about 2 cm across, but was being very good about not picking it.

In the morning, Laraine and I took Jamie to the beach (while Kristennapped), where we found that it was too windy for our parasol (when I leaned it into the north wind, it was almost perpendicular to the sun). We got Jamie used to his new yellow PFD (after some initial resistance), and splashed a bit in the shallows before moving again to the hotel pool. There Jamie demonstrated his basic toddler swimming skills again, flutter-kicking from one of us to the other. He also spent a long time just sitting in the pool on the steps with Grammie, carefully fishing debris out of the pool and throwing it away.

For lunch, we ate leftovers in our hotel room, with Jamie running around naked, gleefully burning off energy in between return trips to the little toddler buffet we set up for him. We were especially proud of him for having managed to alert us in time when he was about to pee, then later poo, saving us two diapers today. I last saw him as he set off for his afternoon walk to the zocalo with Mom and Grammie, and am just about to go off and look for them again after a swim through el aquario.

2006-01-25 19:00 (John) Jamie came back from a 2.5-hour walk and nap quite refreshed, and we went right back out to the zocalo to buy fish at what used to be the fisherman's pier (see photo). Jamie was equally interested in the fish themselves and in the pelicans (and terns and frigatebirds*) that were waiting to scoop up leftovers. He also persuaded us that he's entitled to one free ice cream with each visit to the zocalo, which he enjoyed on the way back home to some quiet time with his family and toys in the hotel room. Sometimes family and toys together: for quite a while I had to imitate "Diesel 10" by picking Jamie up in my massive claws and dumping him on a scrap heap. He also managed another poo into the toilet, for which praise was duly lavished.

We're about to have dinner (three boquinetes* from the day's catch), and I'm writing this early so that we can all go to bed soon. Kristen and I have wicked colds and are having trouble staying awake.

2006-01-26 20:00 (Kristen) There was a terrific storm last night that disturbed all of us. The wind howled, and the rain poured down, and at one point the rain was whipped up so badly that everything looked white, like it was snowing. Jamie woke up at 6:10 or so, crying out "picture! picture!" I still have no idea what the problem was, as questioning didn't get any comprehensible answers.

He wanted to go out and see the birds, which is his preferred way to start the day. He loves the pelicans in particular, and loves to watch them dive into the shallows and eat fish. He pretends to be a pelican, and I got him to eat a good bit of his lunch today by asking the Jamie Pelican to eat his fish. For the sake of accurate biological notation, Jamie Pelicans are omnivores, and will eat guacamole and broccoli as well as fish. We came back from our very windy walk on the beach and had some fruit with John's mom, and breakfast at Mama's Bakery with my mom. Jamie likes the dog, Chica, there. Then we came back and went into the pool, which was nice and cold like a northern lake because it was overcast, and full of cold rainwater. Jamie had a great time playing with me, John, and my mom, and did a lot of kicking in the water.

Lunch was at the hotel restaurant, and Jamie ate like a pelican and played with our waiter, Ruben, who was very indulgent. He fell asleep at 1:30 or so, and we came back to the room, and left him in front of the open patio door where it was nice and cool. Then my mom and I fell asleep and woke up at 4:10 or so; Jamie was still asleep. In the end, he slept for about three and a half hours, and only woke up because I woke him up, fearing that he would sleep for another four hours! He was pretty mellow, and happy to go to the zocalo* with me and my mom to have some ice cream.

When we got to the ice cream place, Jamie asked for his usual chocolate, and insisted that I buy the lime sorbet that I had the last time we were there. He then proceeded to eat my sorbet, saying "no Mummy chocolate," and would mix the two flavours together. We ended up splitting both cups of ice cream, and he was pretty happy with the whole arrangement. On the way back to the hotel, Jack and Sai drove by as they were returning with the takeout from Hola Asia that was going to be for dinner. Jamie got Sai out of the car, and proceeded to sit in her place. So, Sai and my mom walked the (short) rest of the way, and Jamie and I rode back in the car with Jack.

We had dinner with John's parents, and had a video conference with Mio and Taka. Jamie didn't understand that they weren't near by at first, but quickly figured out that it was like the regular phone and was happy to talk for a few minutes. He's going to bed soon now. I should add that Jamie spent the outing to Mama's Bakery in his big boy underwear, used the potty, and did not have an accident. Yay Jamie! We're having a little more difficulty with his more solid emissions, but still enjoying some level of success. A few more days of this, and running around "free," and we may well have a trained boy on our way back to Toronto.

2006-01-27 20:30 (Kristen) I was a little concerned last night that we were putting Jamie to bed a little early, given the length of his nap. Turns out I was right: he was up at 5:15 this morning, and I was up with him. We sat quietly watching the sky lighten for an hour, then he became more energetic and it was time to take him outside so others could sleep. We went for a walk on the beach and found John's mom, and talked with her for a bit. Then we went back and ran about, until Jamie decided that he wanted to see Tai Tai again. I told him that he could go see her (she was finishing her morning exercises on the beach) when Tai Tai was finished. No, he wanted to see her now. Knowing that he hates the feel of sand on his feet, I told him that he could see her if he walked across the sand himself. And so he did. I was amazed, but not surprised by his determination. He even walked back with her across the sand to the patio, which confirmed my feeling that he won't walk if he is with me or John, but will walk for other people.

We did morning things, including a visit to Chica the Dog at Mama's Bakery. Jamie was fascinated with her today, and spent a good deal of time lying on his stomach in front of her and petting her. He also fed her treats. By the time noon rolled around, he was pretty tired and fell asleep naked on the couch. I wasn't thrilled by his timing or his state, as he has fallen asleep before lunch, and let him sleep for 20 minutes before thinking that I would wake him, take him swimming to tire him out again, and then feed him lunch before taking him for a walk and a longer nap. This was the theory. In practice, he got up crabbily, calmed down, came down for his swim, ate lunch, looked tired, and then didn't sleep in the stroller. Not a bit. Mom and I walked him for an hour, then I went to rest while Mom took him to the zocalo* for ice cream (chocolate). They came back and met us around 4:00, with Jamie still wide awake. I took him upstairs, and checked his diaper; it is possible that he might have fallen asleep after the ice cream but with a loaded diaper, it just was not going to happen. So, a change and a visit to the beach was planned.

He enjoyed playing in the sand, and John made a Thomas the Tank Engine sand castle, with track for Jamie. (John: I was more excited about it then Jamie was, especially when it didn't "go-go-go".) Then Jamie decided to go with John to his parents' house across the way while I rested a bit. He seemed to have fun playing with Beatriz, although John can fill in what they actually did. (John: ran frenetically around the courtyard with a chicken drumstick in his hand, went inside to play with the cats, asked if he could talk to Mio and Taka but was okay when I said the computer wasn't set up, then spent the rest of the time playing with talking stuffed animals, which he thinks are the bee's knees.) He ate dinner while watching Totoro (his first "television" since we arrived), and was in bed and asleep, looking like he did when he was three months old, at 8:20. I am so hopeful that he'll sleep longer tomorrow than he did today!

2006-01-28 20:00 (Kristen) My prayers, for once, were answered, and Jamie slept a long, much needed sleep last night, finally waking around 7 AM. We managed to get a good night's sleep too, and we felt better than we have in a few days.

Jamie ate his usual breakfast, and went for a walk along the beach to the zocalo* with me, my mom, and John. Jamie knows that the zocalo* means ice cream, and so John and I surreptitiously checked if the ice cream store was open. It was not (it was only 9:00 AM), so Jamie had to make do with a strawberry drumstick-like cone. We got him home by making him walk a few feet in order to get his next taste of ice cream. John wonders what kind of drugs are put in ice cream to make small children so addicted to it. Once home, John went to do a load of laundry while Mom and I took Jamie to Mama's Bakery. Jamie and Chica had their usual good time together, and Jamie was happy to eat his pancake until he saw that my breakfast burrito had cheese on it. Then he sat on my lap and ate that, and whatever else he liked on my plate.

We took him swimming, and thought that he would like to go into the pool, as usual. Perhaps he thought it would be as cold as it has been for the last few days, because he said no pool. When I suggested that we go out into the ocean, he said "okay." So, we went out into the shallows, where the water comes to my waist if I sit. He was unsure but very brave in the face of the waves, which were whipped up by a strong wind blowing westerly. He even went "kick kick kick" from John to me, once. He let me hold him in the water and ride the waves a bit, and was entertained by my frolicking and splashing while John held him. We came in and rinsed off in the pool, but Jamie didn't enjoy that as much so we went upstairs for lunch. I made eggs with nopalitos, tomatoes, garlic, a small bit of onion, a tomatillo, and some Oaxacan cheese, which is like mozzarella but better. Jamie liked them, along with some avocado, and made it out to his nap with my mom around 2:50--much later than usual. He fell asleep at 3:00, and slept through a mariachi band playing at a nearby wedding, the noise of passing buses, and other noises before waking on the patio at the hotel restaurant as his mom and grandmother enjoyed watching the surf below.

He kept asking for a "fava," and it took a little while before we realized that he meant "shovel." We walked down to the beach in the twilight, and Jamie had fun playing in the sand until the stars came out. Mom and I sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to him, and he swayed back and forth in time to our singing. We came in for dinner, and are about to go to the zocalo* again for the ice cream Jamie was promised for dessert.

We said goodbye to Jamie's friend Hervey (sp?) from St. Paul, MN and his eleven-year-old son Tommy. We discovered that Jamie finds Donald Duck impressions hilariously funny. I believe this is because Jamie has inherited the goofball gene from Kristen's side of the family.

2006-01-29 17:50 (John) After dinner last night we went out to the zocalo to listen to a local band play Carlos Santana covers as part of a music festival, as we ate our lime sorbet, chocolate ice cream and rum-raisin ice cream. It was very civilised in a primitive sort of way.

After the late night, I got up at 6:25 to watch a beautiful sunrise, Jamie and Kristen followed at 7:00 to join me in breakfast and crayon sketching, and when Grammie woke up at 8:00 we got packed and (at Jamie's request) went down to the beach to play for two hours. It was nice and warm, and relatively calm for a change. I went snorkelling with my mom for part of that time, and when I got back we took Jamie for a brief dip in the ocean and then in the pool.

Jamie ate a second meal between breakfast and lunch, of empanadas de cazon* that Mary made for us, played some more with jigsaw puzzles, then an actual lunch (again at his request, grilled fish at the hotel restaurant) before going out for his afternoon walk with Grammie. Grammie says he spent his nap shopping for souvenirs and checking e-mail at an Internet cafe.

He's up now and we're getting ready to go out to dinner at Irori in Cancun with my aunt Jean and uncle Jack.

Jamie greets all Mexicans with a cheery "Hola!" I fear this may be because they are by some astounding coincidence all named Hola. I also take parental schadenfreude in asking him to say "limonada", because it comes out "limonamuhnuhmuhnuh...".

2006-01-30 18:30 (John) Kristen and Laraine were sick last night, probably due to something that they ate or drank. Jamie fell asleep around 20:30 on the car ride home and woke up bright and early at 6:00. Kristen and I had been sleeping fairly soundly since about 2:00, when the mild fever she had been running broke, and when her gastrointestinal symptoms subsided. I fed Jamie, took him out to look at the sunrise, and we played fairly quietly with trains and read books until about 8:00 when Kristen couldn't play dead any longer.

We spent three hours on the beach (under a parasol) in the morning, resting quietly while Jamie dug in the sand. Just like last year, he likes to sit on the beach (well, not on the sand, on a towel, and that's an important distinction) and fiddle with the sand, taking time every now and then to observe and listen to his surroundings: seabirds, backhoes, cranes, boats, planes, people, dogs.

When we headed out to the beach, we were only planning on being out for an hour, so we didn't put any sunscreen on our quickly darkening Jamie. After three hours of tropical sun (mostly indirect, perhaps half an hour direct) he is slightly red on his clavicle, but I think he'll be okay tomorrow.

Laraine spent the morning souvenir shopping in preparation for her return home tomorrow, and came back at 13:00 when Jamie was ready for his walk. I walked him a block north and back again, just long enough for him to fall asleep, then brought him back to the hotel restaurant and left him in Laraine's care for the next few hours. I understand they went and did more shopping and then went for (big surprise) ice cream.

During that time, Kristen napped and recovered, and I worked, rested and snorkelled. Today is the first day since we arrived when the wind was slightly southerly (possibly east-southeast), and the weather was accordingly hot and the current and waves moderate. We actually got Jamie willingly into the water, always holding onto one of us, but kicking his way around the shallows with glee.

Just like yesterday, we spent the last hour of daylight sitting on the beach again puttering in the sand and watching the world go by. Tossing pebbles too: "Ready... go!" We're eating at the pagoda tonight, and as I write this we're waiting for Mary to bring over her famed panuchos* yucatecos*.

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

Back to Vol. 1 No. 15, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 1 No. 17.