Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 38

2006-06-27 08:30 (John) We measured Jamie's height after a few days of his bonking his head into things more than usual; he is 37.5 in. (95 cm) and weighs 32 lbs. (14.5 kg). That's around 65th percentile for each. Jamie then dragged me downstairs to confirm that the Brio turntable we got him yesterday wasn't a dream, and told me "Jamie loves the turntable.".

2006-06-27 21:19 (Kristen) Humph. Jamie, to this date, has only said that he loves ME ("I love you too, Mummmy" is very high on my list of all-time favourite things). I've been trying to teach him the difference between "needing" and "wanting." "Jamie *needs* a cookie," for example, could be more accurately expressed as "Jamie *wants* a cookie," but he's resisting, based on the strength of the desire, I expect.

It was raining this morning, so we stayed inside and played. He watched two Thomas episodes (we're negotiating how many episodes, now), and had a bit of breakfast. It was very humid but not actually hot (still uncomfortable, however), and it was hard to get him to other things. We did play with Suzanna, a little granddaughter of our neighbours Rob and Janet for an hour and a half, and Jamie did well parallel playing with her. Then it was time to go over to Browning, where Jamie ingested most of his sandwich and three slices of watermelon. He slept for a surprising three hours this afternoon, and was snuggly and kept close to me for a few hours afterwards. John needed to go out over the dinner hour and came back around 8:30, after being the family representative at our neighbour Alexandria's sixth-grade graduation ceremony. John says that it was not an air-conditioned auditorium, so perhaps it was for the best that I didn't go!

Jamie and I played with trains, but had to come in earlier in the evening at one point, as he tripped and hurt his toe. He, with tears still on his face, asked to watch Sponge Bob Squarepants. I agreed, and then, quick as a flash, he said "five episodes?" with a grin on his face. It's hard to say no to such chutzpah, so he watched television until dinner (the agreed-upon five episodes). Tomorrow is a Hakobune day, and I'm appreciating those as low television days. I did manage to get Jamie to do some folding with the Kumon booklet that I bought for him, but failed with the alphabet/spelling game. John did get a little Japanese language reading lesson in earlier in the day, which was good. He's got an amazing brain; I have many "bad mother" moments that I'm letting it go to waste. We all manifest our anxieties in one way or another, I suppose: I manifest mine by buying little workbooks for him to do, and stressing when I don't get much done with him. Bah.

2006-06-28 21:47 (Kristen) Jamie woke up at 6:00 this morning, and I managed to keep him in bed until 6:50 before finally giving up. He was very crabby, crying at anything that deviated even slightly from his desires, which changed from moment to moment. I managed to get some apple into him, and he started to settle down. Over the next half hour to forty-five minutes, he ate a large breakfast (and had a large poo). I think that he didn't eat enough for dinner last night, woke up hungry, and had low blood sugar. He was still tired, though. We made it to Hakobune by 9:20, after walking with Chaerim and John to the last day of school when her usual walking companions were unexpectedly unavailable. Jamie was obviously tired, but still directable, and we used his school bag as a coupling to keep him on course when walking to the daycare from the streetcar stop. We went in, Jamie signed in, and then he was playing with Mrs. Sasaki, and saying "goodbye." I think it was the fastest that I have ever dropped him off there.

It was the same when I went to pick him up: the assistant (whose name I don't know) called Jamie to say that I was there, and he came running to me with open arms. He was cheerful but utterly wild, like a little subatomic particle. The assistant handed me Jamie's bag, and we were out of there with a "Sayonara" for Mrs. Sasaki. I maanged to get some food into him, but the trip home was trying, as he insisted on climbing everything, his legs periodically didn't work (slip! slide! the splits!) on purpose, and he kept running off and not responding when I called him back. He was in his stroller, walking with John, by 1:15; by 1:20 he was asleep. He stayed asleep for three and a half hours, and I finally woke him up because I was afraid that he wouldn't sleep tonight. He was full of manic energy again, after a post-nap cuddle, and we went over to John's parents' house by green wagon.

We got him to eat all his soba by using nori as a carrot (one bite of soba, one bite of nori), and left early because Jamie was still a little wild. We came home, blew bubbles, and Jamie ran about a little until he saw Gary and Ayami going over to Tom and Michelle's for dinner. He refused to let Gary go, and so we ended up tagging along. Jamie had fun eating a second dinner, while I watched our friend Mark Edelson go for his third night as Jeopardy! champion (Mark lost in Final Jeopardy, but we're very proud of him! Yay, Mark!). Jamie stayed and played for a while, and then we came home. He's with Gary and Ayami now, and I'm about to plop him into the bath. I don't have any fears at this point about his ability to fall asleep. Nope, not a one.

2006-06-29 21:41 (Kristen) Jamie woke up around 7:30, and we managed to get up and moving without too much sturm and drang. He ate some yoghurt and fruit, and mooched cereal from his dad. We did some Kumon paper folding practice and played with the results before he directed some train traffic. He's really going through an intense train phase again, and liked playing with his trains while we got everything ready for the trip to Hakobune.

(John) When we got him outside, we still had to contend with a long list of predeparture activities he had prepared. We had to play with the wagon, and then he started insisting "Dring!" I was sleepy, so I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say. I confirmed that it wasn't "Drink!", then asked him to say it in Japanese, but he couldn't remember. Finally, he sighed and patiently said "Please Jamie dig in the dirt", waited while I went to fetch my bucket of garden tools and offered him the little trowel, then he triumphantly pointed at the ball of twine and said "(St)dring!" I'm sure glad one of us has a brain to use early in the morning.

Then Jamie wanted to see if any of the peas he planted a few months ago were ripe. We've been harvesting a few each day for several days now. Jamie points at each pod and asks if it's ready, I pick the ones that are and he eats the peas raw, straight from the pod. Some days we walk over to Daniel's yard and supplement the peas with black raspberries; today Jamie wanted to eat some green onions, so that's what he munched on all the way to day-care.

(Kristen) John says that he was good at Hakobune, and that we'll be able to start having him stay for lunch on Fridays in July. Jamie has really wanted to stay for lunch for a while, so I hope that he'll be happy.

Jamie and John arrived at Browning about 12:30, and the skies were looking quite ominous. Both John and Ken decided that the storm was moving west to east, and was going to miss us (I thought it was going northwest to southeast, but deferred to people who had been outside more recently). The skies started to thunder, surprising Jamie so much that he jumped into my arms, but I laughed and acted like it was something exciting. We talked about how thunder comes before lightning unless the lightning is very close and other fine points of thunder lore, and got Jamie ready for his walk just as the raindrops started to come down. It poured, but Ken has his heavy-duty rain cape on, and Jamie was covered by the rain shield on the stroller, so they weathered out the storms nicely. Jamie was awake by the time they arrived at the Second Cup, so John fed him some butter tart, and brought him home again.

Or at least tried to: Jamie redirected John to Ross and Daniel's house, to play with trains some more. I went there to meet them, and we all sat about playing with trains, reading, or watching television with Ross and Daniel. Jamie was getting tired and hungry after 5, and tried to push a chair out from the dining table while still on it. Sure enough, before we could catch him, he pushed the chair back and over. He was very scared, and John and I checked him over rapidly, but there were no actual marks on him. I think that the chair hit the wall behind it, and this slowed his descent enough to save him from actual harm. Whew. He's more careful now. Soon after, we chased each other to John's parents' house, where Jamie bolted down two platefuls of fried rice and vegetables, some lichee, a little chocolate brownie, and some nori. He was very hungry. He was also acting tired, so we brought him home soon after.

He was starting to become quite quiet, and laid his head in my lap and just rested while I talked with my mom on the phone. He even said that he was tired, which is a large admission for a two-year-old. I brought him upstairs, knowing that Gary and Ayami were just coming in, so that I could get him to bed without disturbing them. However, they had a little present for Jamie: some Monsterblox, which are compatible with his Megablok set. Jamie, of course, loved it and didn't thank Gary or Ayami, or say goodnight, because he didn't want them to go when it was time to get into the bath. He changed his mind as soon as they left, however, and so we phoned them so that he could say "thank you" and "goodnight" properly.

I forgot to mention that Jamie slept all last night in his underwear;no diapers. He's doing it again tonight. He hasn't had a wet diaper in the morning in longer than I can remember, so wish us luck! He's about 99% trained now, and hasn't had an accident of any sort in at least four days. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

John and I were talking about baby names tonight, and as a joke, John said that if it was a girl, we could name her Phoenix if she's born while John is in Phoenix in early August. Of course, this is now written in stone. Baby: if you are a girl, and don't want to be named Phoenix, do not get yourself born before the 12th of August!

2006-06-30 21:14 (Kristen) John took Jamie to Hakobune this morning by subway, and Jamie was a little hard to get out of the house. He kept wanting to do other things, like watch Thomas on tv, or play with trains (he still really loves the turntable that we got for him). We managed, however, and he seems to have had his usual good day. John reports, however, that Jamie's friend Christian came up behind him when John came to pick Jamie up, and grabbed the back of Jamie's shirt to get his attention. Jamie then executed what John described as a "side sacrifice throw" (yoko sutemi waza) where he stepped to one side, backhanded the front of Christian's shirt, placed his own foot behind Christian's feet, then quickly dropped to the ground executing a good breakfall with his free hand and remaining in full control of Christian's takedown all the way to the mat, er, floor. Christian was somewhat surprised, as was John, as he says the move was a little unorthodox but downright pretty. We're thinking again about enrolling Jamie in martial arts classes a little earlier than we had anticipated, and John is talking about playing judo with Jamie as long as John's knee holds out. Maybe we'll get Uncle Badger to give Jamie some pointers the next time he's in Toronto.

Jamie was very tired by the time he got to Browning, came in for a pee, and then went out with Ken. He slept for an hour and a half, waking up early when Ken had to go into a Shopper's Drug Mart; Ken theorizes that it was the sudden change in temperature that did it. Jamie's first waking words were "Second Cup?" so Ken brought him there to meet John. I came down to meet John and Jamie on their way to Treasure Island, and took over while John went home for an appointment. Jamie had a good time playing there, and I took him over to Browning after an hour or so of playing there. He wants to make the longest train that he can, and has some trouble sharing when other children come along and want a train to play with themseelves. He's not bad, however, for a two and a half year old. We went straight to Browning, despite Jamie's request to play at the playground, as I was in dire need of a bathroom.

He snacked on cheese and sembei* (he made John stop on the way to the toy store to buy some cheese), and had some juice. He played with trains, and romped on me for a bit before Ross and Daniel came home from swimming, and before Gary came over. He monopolized Gary and Ayami for a while, watched TV with Ross and Daniel, and played more with trains. He wasn't hungry; he just ate lots and lots of vegetables with a slice of garlic bread and a little more cheese --no chili at all. John says that he was quite constipated, which is unusual, and that perhaps it wasn't a bad idea to skip the meat anyway. They're still over there as I type, and I expect them home soon. Tomorrow, the market.

2006-07-01 23:18 (Kristen) Jamie woke up around 8:30, I think, which is a surprisingly civilized time for him to do so. We went downstairs, played with trains, and had some breakfast before it was time for him and John to go out to the Market. I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, but he was quite silly before they even set off. I walked with John and Jamie to his parents' house to get the car, and Jamie was just all over the place, chasing one or two parents, examining rocks, and harder to herd than usual. I saw them all off around 11:30, and headed to the Second Cup for some air-conditioned work time.

Jamie and John came home around 2:00, and Jamie asked to play with trains "a little bit" before going out for his walk. A pee and some trains later, it was close to 2:30 before I got him outside with much Counting and Looks of Doom. He fell asleep pretty quickly once we got going, and slept for almost exactly two hours. John had been out taking his mother home and going to see Dr. Ling, so he went home to recover from the ordeal (John: or at least calm down to the point where I could view Dr. Ling' assessment of "probably operable" as positive; it seems like every medical visit these days leads to a recommendation of surgery, or at least a "procedure") around the time Jamie woke up. So, silly me, forgetting it was Canada Day, I took Jamie to Treasure Island only to find that it was closed. Sigh. Jamie was a little disappointed, but convinced since he saw it with his own eyes that we weren't getting in. We went home and played in the backyard for a while, mainly with Jamie digging in the dirt and me weeding. Jamie is quite helpful in getting rid of weeds. He fell while playing with Alexandria's little red wagon, however, and banged up his right knee. John and I brought him in, applied ice (which he dislikes) and Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs (which don't quite make up for it) in equal parts, and John made dinner while I stayed with Jamie.

Jamie was pretty hungry by this time (it was after 7:30), and ate two and a half bowls of fried rice with vegetables and chicken. John and I were starting to look at each other in concern, wondering if we should stop him in case he exploded or something. Then John suggested that we go to the Dairy Queen, since the passing thunderstorms were likely to have put a damper on any fireworks we knew of. We got Daniel, Gary, and Ayami to come with us, and Jamie happily ate part of my sundae, John's ice cream cone, Daniel's burger and onion rings, Gary's banana split, and a great deal of Daniel's grape slushie. Again, we're wondering where he put it all. He requested that he be carried all the way back, and we decided on the way to go to Jackman School to see if any fireworks were going off, as we could hear fireworks and the rain seemed to have backed off. There were two people setting off fireworks at the school, but we ran into Junko and her family, including her visiting parents from Japan. Jamie ran about and got even more exhausted, and we brought him home sometime after ten.

I put Jamie to bed without a bath tonight, because he was so tired and it was getting late, but I was worried that he might pee in the night because he drank so much in the evening (although he did pee before bed). I suggested to him that he wear a diaper, but he insisted on wearing underwear. I said that he could if he slept in the bed beside us (a deep Pack and Play), but that he would have to wear a diaper if he slept in bed with us. He agreed to sleep in the Pack and Play, but unsurprisingly backed out of his half of the agreement after his story. I compromised by sitting beside him and holding his hand as he fell asleep, rather than lying down beside him like I always do. Perhaps this is a smaller step, but a step nonetheless, towards getting him to fall asleep outside our bed. He's a pretty stubborn guy, but he's getting moved into the Pack and Play later tonight.

2006-07-02 22:35 (Kristen) I moved Jamie into the Pack and Play last night, he woke up a little later and moved back into bed, and I moved him back again. At some point in the night, he climbed back into bed with me and John by himself, and I woke up with him sleeping between us. Then he started his early morning wriggle, and soon ended up on my head. I don't enjoy this particularly much, so we got up. It was around 8:45, and John was already up and working. Jamie wanted to go downstairs before I was ready, so John took him down and fed him breakfast while I did laundry and cleaned the kitchen. John went outside to work on the garden, and Jamie and I soon followed.

It was only 11:00, but it was hot and humid. Jamie visited John in the garden and ate a good number of peas from his pea plants in the shade of the enormous forsythia. Then we tried to get a little bike practice in, but it was just too hot. We spent some time in the shade of the driveway between our house and our neighbours', but soon gave up and came in to play more trains.

After a bit of lunch, Jamie went out with John for his walk. It was pretty hot still, but Jamie fell asleep eventually. He slept for two hours, but as John says, it was like he should have slept for another half hour. He woke up cranky, and eventually ordered John to Treasure Island after ingesting half a rice krispie square. I met them there, and walked back with them via the Big Carrot. Then Jamie and I went to Browning and played with trains. I managed to keep him from watching television by building more and more complicated track configurations and reading a book on numbers with him. Finally, Ross came into the room and turned on Teletoon, and I was relegated to the scrap heap in time to help make dinner. Jamie didn't eat a great deal of dinner either, although he consented to ingest what I put right in front of his lips--the "I'll eat it if it falls into my mouth" diet. He spent his time bouncing around like a bucky ball, tackling whoever he could, crawling under the table and attacking feet, and finally dragging Tom, Daniel, and Ross downstairs to play in the basement.

I left late to go home and have a shower before John and Jamie came home. John says that Jamie happily ate the strawberry ice cream that John made earlier in the evening, but insisted on having his apple pie with "white" (vanilla) ice cream, like Ross, who doesn't eat strawberry ice cream as the strawberries defile the purity of the ice cream, in his opinion. John says that Jamie received his ice cream and pie, and then left the table to do other things, saying that he was full. John surmises that Jamie was just making sure that he received his due, so that no one will think to leave him out of dessert next week, when he may not be full.

Jamie told me today that his tummy was growing and growing, because he had a baby in it. He also "gave" the baby a pair of little yellow slippers that Ken and Tami had picked up for it by putting the slippers on my stomach. He still says "hello" to the baby, and gives my stomach hugs. He's very interested in what's going on, in his own way, but is having trouble accepting the idea that I'm not as fast as he wants me to be, and that my lap is getting smaller and smaller. In fact, I have been told by two people in the last two days that I look very pregnant. It wasn't the outfit that i was wearing, because I've been wearing that ensemble for a few months now: I looked at myself in the mirror when we got home, and the baby is really shoving out front. I don't look pregnant at all from the back. Even my pregnancy shorts aren't fitting well in the front. A little less than two more months to go.

2006-07-03 23:04 (Kristen) We crawled out of bed around 8:45, which was nice. We spent most of the morning indoors watching Thomas in Japanese and playing with trains, when we weren't reading books or having breakfast. Jamie wasn't that hungry, which wasn't all that surprising, given the heat (31°C!). He decided to have some energy around 12:30, however, and Ayami later told me that they could hear him tearing around upstairs as he ran around through the kitchen, into the hall, then through the living and dining rooms and back into the kitchen.

John's mom came over at 1:10 to wish us happy anniversary (our seventh!) and to give us an anniversary gift. Jamie was very happy to see her, and to talk with my mom on the phone as we set off on the first part of our afternoon walk. John couldn't take him as he had to pick up our rental car for the Wasega Beach expedition, so I walked him around. He wasn't falling asleep, however, and I soon figured out it was because he had to pee. We found a bathroom, and he fell asleep about ten minutes afterwards. We parked ourselves at the Second Cup until John met up with us, and I headed home to get ready for dinner and a movie tonight with John for our anniversary. John brought Jamie home via Pulp, our local card store, where he was admired by the woman I had spoken with about being pregnant not 45 minutes earlier.

Jamie was still asleep by the time John reached Browning at 5, which was when Tom had agreed to start babysitting Jamie (thank you, Tom!). We decided to wake Jamie up rather than have him wake up and have us not be there (I hadn't explained to him that we wouldn't be there when he woke up, so felt some need to tell him before we went). Jamie woke up badly, however, and despite some sembei* and trains, had his first real cry in some time at our leaving (usually, it's "See you later, don't let the door hit you on the way out). John and I were traumatized, but Tom says that Jamie stopped crying about 15 seconds after we left.

Gary and Ayami went to Browning to help look after Jamie (prompted, perhaps, by our passing them on the street and wailing that we had left a traumatized Jamie behind us), and it sounds like everyone had a lovely evening. Gary brought over Chicken Little, and then everyone went to Jackman to play. Jamie ran around with Maia and Rayna, Junko's daughters, for a while, and had a great time. We ran into them on the way home, and ate some ice cream and apple pie at Browning with everyone before coming home.

It was a lovely evening for me and John, despite the trauma of leaving a crying Jamie behind, and Jamie seems to be just fine. He's about to get out of the bath now, and I think that he's going to fall asleep very quickly tonight.

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

Back to Vol. 0 No. 37, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 0 No. 39.