Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 23

2006-03-14 22:14 (Kristen) I think that Jamie missed Gary while we were away. He was knocking on Gary's door at 8:30, and was just ecstatic when Gary showed up at 10:30. He grabbed his hand and dragged him over to me, exclaiming "Gary's awake now!" (well, in Jaime-ese). He was glued to Gary for most of the day, and was wailing to break the hardest of hearts when Gary left him to his bath tonight.

He had a rough night last night, going to bed late and waking up at 4:50, crying and asking for apple juice. We gave him water, but that wasn't good enough, and it took about half an hour to get him back to sleep. He was up again at 8:20, and I was an utter zombie for the entire day. He ate a fair amount for breakfast, not much for lunch, and some for dinner. He had his afternoon nap in the car while John and I went around doing some errands, and slept for about an hour and a half.

I honestly couldn't tell you much else about Jamie's day, other than he was delighted to see Becky arrive tonight around 7:40. He alternated between dragging her around and dragging Gary around. I'll see how he is tomorrow, but having Becky here might help if he's missing his cousins and the Ottawa crowd. Mind you, Jamie's knack is for being happy where he is, and I'm sure that he'll be better tomorrow.

2006-03-15 23:33 (Kristen) Jamie woke up well this morning, and was happier than usual to get changed and go downstairs when I was ready, rather than when he was ready. Becky came downstairs soon afterwards and had breakfast with us. Jamie didn't eat much, but was happy to sample little bits of a lot of things. He was happy to see John when he came down for breakfast, and may have eaten a little more then. We had a playdate set up for this morning at 10:30 over at Junko's house. Ayami and Junko had set it up so that Jamie could have fun playing with some other kids who speak Japanese. It went very well; one little girl, Mio-chan, goes to Hakubune as well, and they knew each other from there. Mio-chan's mom, Ayako, was there, and Mio-chan's older brother, Ryu-kun. Junko's younger daughter Rena was there, but her older daugher, Maya, was in bed with an earache. Jamie had a great time exploring and having fun, and eating the copious number of snacks that were out. John and I have discussed that we now are behind on two reciprocal playdates: with Junko, and with Burhan and his mom. Guess I'll have to clean the house!

I had to leave early for a doctor's appointment, and John, Becky, and Jamie found me at 1:00. We walked to Mocha Mocha for lunch, and Jamie was relatively uninterested in food but happy to sit with us, talk with us, and be affectionate with us. John took him for his nap, and he slept for two hours before waking up and demanding to be taken to Treasure Island. We went for a little bit, and then raced home to get ready for Scrabble. We ate some lovely chicken salad sandwiches that John made for the car trip up, and Jamie had a good time at the club running about and playing with John and then with me. He was full of conversation about a large blue mummy "kaiju" (monster) and a small red baby "kaiju." He did have two "accidents," which was surprising but not unexpected. He did fabulously yesterday and this morning at using the potty instead of peeing in his pants while not at home, but I think that he was just too excited by being at the community centre to remember to find the bathroom in time. We'll try again tomorrow, and talk with the teachers at Hakubune about where we are with Jamie's training, and if they're willing to help us with it at this stage. He's really doing well for a little guy; it's a slow process.

2006-03-16 20:30 (John) Jamie woke up a little cranky but was eventually happy to go to Hakobune, and after checking to make sure all the toys were still there he waved me a cheery goodbye. I am told he behaved well, and think he was only happy to leave at lunch because he was quite hungry after a light breakfast. We're trying to get him more into the habit of eating past the point where he's taken the edge off his hunger, but he's a toddler, so that's tricky, and he ends up being hungry an hour later. I'd switch to his grazing style myself, but most days eating regular meals seems to fit better with our schedule.

We got home a little bit early, so Jamie and Rebecca played outside and covered the driveway in sidewalk chalk until it was time for his walk. He didn't fall asleep until 2:00 again, and only slept until 3:30, so I'm hoping he'll fall asleep early tonight. Kristen and I certainly could. Kristen took him to Treasure Island Toys when he woke up, then brought him home and made spinach spaghetti and salad for dinner, after which Jamie, Rebecca, Gary and Ayami ran around the house trying to burn off remaining steam.

2006-03-17 23:45 (John) We woke up at reasonable hours today, and got to Hakobune not too late. Jamie spent the whole morning (including the car trip there and back) in underwear, not a diaper, for the first time and without incident. We're so proud. He had no trouble saying goodbye to me when I dropped him off, but was quite happy to see me. Apparently they went down to the church gym to play with balls and jump-rope instead of doing crafts at the end of the morning, and Jamie said he had fun doing so. After our usual lunch of Nupur's curry, we drove home to meet Ken for a nice long nap in the stroller: two hours and forty-five minutes, the first time he'd napped for so long since he got back from Ottawa. I think he's settling back into the old routine.

Jamie woke up very mellowly from the nap, allowed himself to be persuaded to go to Treasure Island Toys, and played most with the trains. We had dinner at Browning, with Jamie dragging Tom and Rebecca down to the playroom before dinner and choosing Gary and Kristen as his playmates for after, while the rest of us all played another round of Ticket To Ride.

Jamie has learned the pronoun "my" today. He has delighted so far in referring to "my shoes" and "my tummy", as though they were the most important exemplars in the world, which they are.

2006-03-18 20:55 (John) Jamie, Rebecca and I went to the St. Lawrence Market today. Jamie gobbled up one of Nupur's samosas in record time, followed it up with the usual chunk of kielbasa, then played for a little while at the Early Years Centre, mostly gluing together faces out of bits of construction paper and craft kibble. He enjoyed his lollipop from Wei, and a slice of pizza from St. Lawrence Pizza. He wasn't looking at all sleepy though, despite the approach of nap time, and I grew concerned.

On our way back to the car, Jamie stepped in a huge pile of dog poo, that was in his defence hard to spot amid all the mud he was walking through. It took me ten minutes to get his shoes, socks and cuffs clean enough for him to get back in the car, using water, diaper wipes and hand sanitizer, then another ten minutes at Loblaws in the bathroom to finish cleaning everything. Yuck.

He eventually did fall asleep while we were waiting for Becky to pick up some art supplies at Aboveground, and slept while we went home to get Kristen and then back out again to Indigo. After almost three hours, he woke up when we returned home. He chatted with my mom on the phone for a while, to their mutual delight, ate a good amount of polenta for dinner, watched Lilo & Stitch with Becky, and will likely go to bed latish tonight.

2006-03-19 21:36 (Kristen) Jamie spent the morning playing with Rebecca and Gary, and showing off his blossoming toilet-training skills. He's getting very good at it, but continues to be more successful in the mornings than in the evenings. Not much more successful, however: this evening, he asked to use the potty while in a diaper, and while I think some of it ended up in the diaper, enought ended up in the toilet to qualify it as a success. Yay, Jamie!

We decided to all go to the bus station with Becky to drop her off. It meant Jamie would be napping a little later than usual, as we were leaving at 1:30, but we didn't worry too much. We dropped Becky off, and were on our way to do errands by 2:30. Jamie was still awake. We drove for fifteen minutes to Home Depot, and Jamie stayed with me in the car while John ran a few quick errands. No sleep for Jamie. We went to Loblaws, and John and Jamie drove around while I picked up groceries. No sleep for Jamie, but there are demands for a cookie. It was getting close to 4:00 when we headed home, and no sleep for Jamie. In retrospect, his teeth may be bothering him (drool, crabbiness, disturbed sleep are all big clues), and he may have been dressed too warmly for the car (I thought it was much colder than it was) to sleep comfortably.

Be that as it may, Jamie was three hours plus past his nap. I got the stroller when we got home, and we put a raggedly tired child into it. He screamed for about five to ten minutes ("Jamie walk! Mummy dakko*!"), before his yells turned into whimpers, and he was asleep at 4:20. I waited for a few minutes before tilting the seat back, as his head was at an odd angle. Bad move. The seat went back too quickly, and he was awake and yelling again at full volume--enough so that another mother, walking quickly the other way with her own crying child, smiled at me and said "It's that time of day." Yep. I managed to get him asleep then awake then asleep again for real by 4:40 or so. Then I gratefully slumped into the Second Cup and rested for a bit, watching my blissfully unconscious baby.

We were expected at Ken and Tami's for a rare Sunday night dinner by 6:00, and I called John at 5:30 to say that Jamie had only been asleep for half an hour to forty minutes. He said to come home, and we agreed that we could try to get Jamie into the car and hope that the magic car of sleep might have its mojo working again. No need: Jamie (unusually) woke up on the walk home, and was pacified only by a lollipop once we got him into the car (also unusual, but hey: we were tired too!). He was happy to get to Ken and Tami's, and to talk on the phone with my mom. He played with Gary, Tom, Ken, Ross, and John, and with all the Lego that Ken and Tami have accumulated through the years. He came home without too much trouble, and even brushed and flossed his teeth without too much fuss. He's bathing with John now, and I should watch Jamie scrub John's back.

Jamie has been very affectionate today, showering me with hugs and kisses, and asking if I am "happy." He knows that hugs and kisses make me happy, so he asks me to be sad so that he can make me happy with a big hug and kiss. Sigh. The nice part of being a mom.

2006-03-20 20:33 (Kristen) I wasn't feeling all that fabulous today; my lower back seems to be giving me some trouble. I am forbidden to lift Jamie anymore, which may be somewhat tricky, but it seems that I have no choice. Jamie has been mellow, by and large, but we're still having some trouble with him learning how to deal with frustration. He is teething, we're convinced, and that makes it harder for him to transition from one activity to another. I am constantly reminded of how much I hate teething.

On the other hand, he is very cuddly still when he isn't being bothered by teeth, and his fantasy life is getting to be a great deal of fun. For example, this morning he told me that I was a mummy lion and he was a baby lion; there are a mom and a baby monster (kaiju*) that wander around the house, and he recently told someone that he was a squirrel so that he could climb a particularly interesting-looking tree. He likes to pretend to be other creatures, and you never know what you're going to find. It was very hard, the other day, not to laugh as we were walking down the street (Jamie in stroller), and he was having his mittens talk to each other. "Yes?" "No." "Yes. No." And so on. He hasn't been watching as much television as usual, today notwithstanding (my low energy levels), which may have something to do with it, or not.

I was going through Jamie's clothes again, looking for spring items and thinking forward to summer, and what might fit him then. He's growing out of so much, but not ready to get into size threes quite yet (I have to roll the cuffs up quite a bit).Still, it's somewhat of a tradition now, to do this every season.

(John) There's a stomach bug going around at Browning and I didn't want Kristen to catch it, so she stayed home while Jamie, Ayami, Gary and I got the weekly salmon dinner ready. Jamie was a little more rambunctious than usual, which I put down to his having watched Pirates of the Caribbean with Kristen in the afternoon. He hit Daniel twice, and it took a while (and help from Gary) to get him to apologize. But after he apologized, he was on his good behaviour. Daniel commented that Jamie's language skills are growing by leaps and bounds after Jamie exclaimed "Oh no, Jamie hit the floor!"

He didn't get hungry until about 20:30, but was ravenous for salmon at that point. I thought he'd be back on a normal schedule now, especially after a reasonably normal 14:00-16:30 nap, assisted by half a dose of Tylenol for his teething. I guess not.

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

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