Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 19

2006-02-14 22:19 (Kristen) Jamie slept in until just a little after 9:00, which was great given that he slept for only 40 minutes for his nap yesterday, and then went to bed at close to 11:00 PM. He really needed the sleep. He was in a lovely mood today, as a result, and had fun playing with Mio before it was time to go to Browning for lunch.

He ate well and had fun playing with Ross, but wasn't really ready to go on his walk with Ken when it was time. John got him into the stroller, and cut off any stroller fights with the mitten joke: where Jamie pretends to get pinched by the mittens as John zips them on, and laughs uproariously. He slept for a little over two hours, and then demanded to go to Treasure Island where he charmed one of the staff completely by taking her hand and showing her all his favourite trains. He walked back to the Second Cup with me, pushing the stroller the whole way, and was happy to have John carry him back home.

It being Valentine's Day, John and I asked Mio to babysit Jamie while we went out for dinner and a movie (the first time in about a year we've gone out on our own like that!). Jamie ate a big dinner, and asked to be put into his pajamas not long before we got home at 9:30. He ate a popsicle after being told it was time for bed (Papa has a spine of jello) to delay the inevitable, and is bathing with John now. I'll go and collect him in a moment and pop him into bed.

2006-02-15 22:34 (Kristen) Jamie spent his usual morning with Mio while John and I ran around doing our errands. Mio kindly took Jamie out for his afternoon nap while John worked on getting ready for the Scrabble club's 31st anniversary, and I had lunch with my friend Suzanne. I came back in time to see Jamie still sleeping for John at the Second Cup, and to take him to Treasure Island when he did wake up. I bought Jamie a book on trains that he really really likes (it has shinkansen, ICEs, and other arcane train terminology, which Jamie loves).

We headed up to the Scrabble club around 6:00, and Jamie had fun running around and eating the ice cream cake that the club had to celebrate. He also grabbed a jujube or two, and ate some Indian food for dinner. The couple of chocolate raisins that he ate had some staying power, because he stayed awake on the subway ride home (John had to stay later than usual), and is still going strong downstairs, playing with Gary and Ayami. I, on the other hand, feel like a train wreck, and so we're both going to bed now.

2006-02-16 20:19 (Kristen) Jamie slept in this morning, which isn't surprising, given how late he went to bed last night. He finally woke up around 9:00, and I dressed him in record time. The spanner in the works was that he decided that Papa AND Mummy were going to come with him, and since his little lip was quivering, and I didn't want a repeat of two hours of crying for John, I suited up in record time myself. We got him to Hakobune, where we stayed for about fifteen minutes as Jamie showed me some of the toys that he likes. We told him that we were going to go, and his eyes filled, and his lip quivered again with true misery (it seemed to my guilty maternal soul). Emi-sensei grabbed him when she realized that we were going, and started to read him Thomas books. He wasn't crying as we ran out the door, and we didn't hear him crying as we left the building either.

We went and got some work done before we came back, and found to our great pleasure that Jamie did not cry this time, and had a good morning. He didn't join in the song circle, but he didn't get unnerved by it, either. He ate some of the breakfast he missed at snack time, and wasn't interested in leaving when John and I came to pick him up (although he was happy to see us). We had lunch sitting with the other children (all girls, with perfect manners), while Jamie couldn't decide if he wanted to eat lying across my lap, sitting in his chair, or draped halfway across the table. His Japanese table manners were very good, however, and he said "itadakimasu" and "gochisousama" very well and at the proper times. In fact, he said "itadakimasu" every time he took a bite or drank his juice, which was just cute to the ninth degree.

Then it was time to go home, and for him to have his nap with Ken. Jamie ended up sleeping for three (3!) hours, and woke up deciding that he wanted to see Ken again. John took him to Browning, and Jamie said "Hi, Ken," and that was that. He played with Ross, and with Daniel, and then it was time to go home for dinner. We watched a new Thomas video, and I'll be bathing Jamie tonight once I finish writing the blog tonight. Early to bed, and hopefully he'll wake up in time to get to day care on time tomorrow. I'll be packed, just in case I'm suddenly going too.

2006-02-17 20:00 (John) Jamie slept in again this morning despite an earlier night last night, but was in a good mood and didn't mind going to Hakobune with me at all. I spent a little time playing with him there, and while he was not happy when I left, neither was he crying, thanks to Mrs. Sasaki's quick intervention with a Thomas the Tank Engine book. When I returned a few hours later to pick him up, he was not ready to leave, but I eventually coaxed him out with one of Nupur's samosas.

On the streetcar ride up to Spadina Station, Jamie chattered away at the Japanese women sitting behind us with their one-year-old babies, narrating our progress. "Densha go-go. Densha hayai. Densha go-in tonneru. Tonneru kurai. Densha go-round. Spadina eki."

On the subway it was the usual routine. Ask to be picked up so that he can see the train pulling into the station. Run into the train and sit in the front seat. Identify tunnel grade, point out switches, tunnels, stations and of course everything that you can see from the Bloor Viaduct.

Jamie slept for three hours, thanks to being dressed warmly for the cold weather (-5°C or 23°F but with 80 km/h or 50 mph gusts of wind) and woke up crying for a lollipop. I somehow consoled him with a Dufflet chocolate brownie and some Dufflet carrot cake, much of which ended up on Kristen's face after a kissing frenzy.

We played with the trains for a little while at Treasure Island Toys, then went to Browning for dinner, and will be heading home shortly to go to bed.

2006-02-18 20:28 (John) I read Jamie the Japanese children's book "Otousan no ehon" (The Picture Book of Dads) by 高畠純 (Jun Takabatake) last night. It's a series of four-page stories about goofy animal dads. My favourite# one is the lion dad who bawls out his cub for scribbling a picture of his mom on his wall, then when the cub goes away on the last page, the dad corrects the picture to look more like him. I bought the book for Jamie before he was born, and looked very much forward to reading it with him. He thought about half of them were funny, and when he thinks something is funny he will say so "FUN-ny!" I think tonight we'll read the sequel.

(Kristen) Jamie woke up at 7:30 this morning after a restless night. He didn't fall asleep easily last night, possibly because he'd had a long afternoon nap, and kept waking up talking. He finally woke up by saying "pizza market?" and that was that. John got up soon after us, and they were on the road by a little after 10:00.

(John) Jamie was subdued on the way to the market, and willingly rode in the stroller on the brief walk from our parking space as the windchill was a brisk -21°C (-6°F). We picked up our usual samosas from Nupur, eggs, sausages and veggies elsewhere, then went to the Early Years Centre for an hour's play. Jamie was especially fond of a new play tunnel that they'd set up, and I think we may have to make a trip to IKEA to pick one up. We also met a three-year-old boy named Thomas who is even more of a Thomas the Tank Engine freak than Jamie is, which we would have guessed even if he hadn't dropped Percy's coal tender out of his pocket in the tunnel, what with his conversation being very Thomas-centred.

Jamie stayed awake through a whole lollipop from Wei, which he enjoyed in alternation with a chocolate chip cookie from Stonemill and olives from a St. Lawrence Ice Cream and Pizza pizza. Yum. I eventually got him to fall asleep in the stroller at Loblaws, and he stayed asleep until I woke him up almost three hours later to take him home.

Jamie spent a quiet evening at home, visiting for a while with Gary and Ayami. The only snag was when he had an unexpected and messy poo on the living room hardwood floor. Jamie's making great progress with the toilet training though, and I'm learning all about disinfecting things, so it's a win-win situation.

We got a call from Burhan's godmother Janice this afternoon, and have scheduled Jamie's first ever playdate for after nap time tomorrow. I am busily googling playdate etiquette.

2006-02-19 19:49 (Kristen) It has been an eventful day for Jamie. We got up at 8:00 in time to have John drive us to swimming lessons (the air temperature was -14°C when we left, so the drive was very appreciated, even though Jamie insisted that we could walk). I've been working on getting Jamie comfortable enough with his swimming instructor that he'll allow Jonathan to carry him through an entire lesson, and it worked this time. Jamie blew bubbles, pushed off the side, kicked and kicked, passed a ball back and forth, and held onto a floating mat while he kicked. I was very very proud of him, and while he wasn't ready to get out, he was willing to consider it since there was play group after swimming.

Jamie had a great time at play group, although he didn't engage much with any of the other children. John came to pick us up, after Jamie's pants got a little wet in a "not quite fast enough to the bathroom" try at wearing big boy underwear at playgroup# this morning and Mom didn't have an extra pair. Jamie loved playing with John for the first time at playgroup#, and showed him around the stations that he liked the most. We all went home, had lunch (Jamie was ravenous), and then John and Jamie went out for a walk and a nap.

We had a playdate with Burhan and his mom at 4:00, and John called at 3:50 to say that he was racing home from a nap/walk with a conscious but not entirely happy Jamie. We bundled him into the car with the lure of the brownies that we were bringing for a snack/playdate gift, and raced over to be only 5 minutes late. Jamie and Burhan picked up more or less where they left off, and spent a very happy two hours playing together. They shared books, dragged trucks around, drank juice together, rode on wheeled toys, hugged, and kissed. It was the sweetest thing to see them play together. Burhan has only a few words of English, and Jamie didn't care, and neither did Burhan. They shared, and there was much boisterousness with no crying or misunderstandings. Both Burhan's mom, Selma, and his godmother Janice agreed with us that we had never seen our children get along so well with another child. We decided to leave around 6:00, as the children were getting tired and a little hyperactive, and that it was better to leave before there were tears. We hope that we can set up another playdate next week, and we'll host. Burhan likes trains, apparently, so I see that he will like our house.

We came home and tried to get some dinner into Jamie, but he was still pretty wound up. Fortunately for me and John, Mio and Taka came down to work off some of that energy, and get a little food into him while John and I got some other work done (and had a chance to rest). John and Jamie are quietly playing with trains as I write, and I'm looking forward to getting some sleep tonight. Mio won't be working this week, as she has a lot of work to do before they leave next week, so it will be time to start adjusting to their departure. We sure will miss them.

2006-02-20 21:00 (John) Jamie woke up this morning asking for a lollipop, but Kristen tickled him out of the craving, then took him downstairs for breakfast. We all spent the morning downstairs as Mio will be spending her remaining week in Canada getting ready for her return home to Japan, and not looking after Jamie in the mornings as has been our custom. Jamie seemed less disturbed by the change in routine that we were, and fell asleep right away on his nap walk with Ken.

Jamie asked for carrot cake when he woke up a few hours later with me at the Second Cup, and proceeded to eat all the icing off quite a large slice. We talked about 救急車 (ambulances) and what they're for, and then Jamie stretched out on the windowsill. He claimed that he was seriously injured by the hardness of the surface, and asked for to be taken to 病院 (hospital, which he mispronounces ぼういん) by ambulance, but settled for my making a nest for him out of stroller blankets.

We went to the Big Carrot on the way home, where I picked up a bottle of milk while Jamie found a bag of his raisins and added a box of strawberries as an impulse purchase. (Kristen: John told me that Jamie said, upon picking up the strawberries, "Jamie pay." He understands that you have to "pay" to get stuff, but hasn't grasped that "paying" means that you have to give someone money.)

We met Ayami on the way home and she played with us at the Jackman School playground in the increasingly cold afternoon. We also saw Junko twice, as she went to take one of her kids to karate class and bring the other home from ballet, which gives some indication of how long we were out.

It was barbecue night at Browning tonight, and Tom spent an hour looking after him for us afterward. He tells us that Jamie spent much of the time entertaining Tom with stories of a disaster-prone cow, who kept having to take ambulances to the hospital after car accidents, plane crashes, and volcanic eruptions.

Kristen adds that Jamie has gotten much better in the last few days with using the right language with the right person, at least when he knows how to say things in both languages.

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

Back to Vol. 1 No. 18, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 1 No. 20.