Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 43

2006-08-01 20:44 (Kristen) We really managed to tire Jamie out yesterday: he slept for twelve hours last night (let me repeat that: twelve [12] hours!). When he did wake up, it was a groggy and sleepy boy who opened his eyes, and declared himself to be still tired. Heh. We still had the rental car from yesterday, so John drove us to Hakobune (in air conditioned comfort, yet!). We were almost on time -- we were upstairs and in the room by 9:10! I left an extra drink box for Jamie, and a change of shirt in case the one he was wearing proved to be too hot. I went out and sat in an insufficently air conditioned Starbucks on campus and just across the street from Hakobune, but was driven out by the heat and sat for an hour sipping water in the Toronto Women's Bookstore (even closer to Hakobune) in their glorious air conditioning. I swore over fifteen years ago that I would never complain about the summer, as I dislike winter so much, but I'm sorry to say that I've broken that vow this summer. If I wanted heat and humidity like this, I'd go to New Orleans! I'd get on a plane! I'm Canadian: what is this? (end rant).

Jamie was pretty hot when I picked him up at Hakobune, and already showing signs of being quite tired. He didn't eat much of his lunch (the peach, a few raisins from his curry, a lot of juice), and we soon set out to find John at Yonge and Bloor for his afternoon walk/subway ride. When we reached Bloor, John wasn't there and so we watched a very good busker play the guitar along with a very sociable little girl not much older than Jamie. She even got Jamie to dance with her a little bit (by holding his hands and doing a "ring around the rosies" move), but he was a little too shy to dance more than a round. It was very sweet, though. John soon showed up to my relief, as it was Hot in the subway station, and the two of them were soon off to Finch Station. John said later that they rode up to Finch, down to Union, and back up to Yonge and Bloor without Jamie falling asleep. When I called at 3:00, he was with John playing with a Thomas train table at a store in Cumberland Terrace. I suggested that Jamie might be ready sleep then, as he often will hold out until 3:00 and then crash. However, it was the three trips to the bathroom that finally enabled Jamie to fall asleep at 3:45.

John took a sleeping Jamie to pick up my niece Rebecca, who is staying with us for the month of August as a helper with Jamie when John is in Phoenix, and all around during my last weeks of pregnancy. We're so happy to have her with us: she's thirteen, and a very responsible and helpful girl. Jamie woke up when they tried to bring him into the house, and just lay there, blinking, for the first few minutes (he'd only slept for an hour and twenty minutes). Then he saw Rebecca, and smiled, saying "Jamie is happy." Then he gave her a hug, started in on a samosa and a lollypop from Trifina, and finally got up when he heard Ayami's voice in the basement. He had Ayami, Gary, and Becky building track and playing with him before dinner, and then ate a reasonable dinner of soba. John, Becky, and Jamie are out at the playground now, in the balmy 32 C weather (it's almost 9! What the heck? This heat is not a good thing!) and are due back at any minute. I should go, and get ready for their imminent return.

2006-08-02 24:27 (Kristen) Jamie slept well last night, and was up around 8:20 or so (I think). We had a nice breakfast with Becky, who then went with John and Jamie to Hakobune by bus/train/streetcar. John says that Jamie was quite overheated and wound up when they arrived but otherwise in good spirits. He hadn't really finished his lunch, and was not unusual in this on this particular day, but John managed to get more food into him on the subway. Unlike most of the church, the daycare area is air conditioned, but it felt like it was quite humid in there, John said, and if you weren't close to one of the air conditioners, then you could fell quite hot. Jamie was a little contrary and not really ready to go, but Kai-kun and Christian-kun were leaving at the same time, and they helped lead Jamie out (as did Rebecca). For most of the trip back to the subway, Rebecca was the engine and Jamie was her coal car. The stroller was the freight car, and John was the caboose. Jamie was mildly disturbed on the streetcar ride that the fare box was jammed (he likes to empty them) and that the driver said that he didn't need to deposit his fare or try to clear the box.

John and Jamie went out to Kennedy Station and back, dropping Rebecca off at Broadview to come home to see me. Jamie and John had a lively conversation all the way there with a train-crazy eight-year-old boy, all about subways. When they waited for the next train back west, Jamie was disturbed that they couldn't get into the back car as there had been a "sanitation incident" that closed the car off. He couldn't sit at the very front, either, because the driver had blocked that seat off. Grrr. On the trip up to Finch Station, the driver (who said that he got many boys "of all ages") answered all of Jamie's questions, and let Jamie honk the horn of the train. Nirvana. Needless to say, Jamie didn't fall asleep until after they started their trip back from Finch. John then did his last minute trip shopping, bought a guava-flavoured bubble tea, and headed back home. Jamie woke up very sweetly and gently, and didn't actually speak until they got to the front door of our house.

Once inside, he was happy to see Rebecca, me, and our friends Pat and Adam, who are visiting us again this week. He called up Gary, in what we term "roll-call," making sure that all his people were present and accounted for. He played with Gary for a while, then we went to have dinner with John's parents. John and Adam went to Scrabble, while Rebecca, Pat, and I stayed home with Jamie. He was happy, but quite tired, and I managed to have him in bed by 10:00, with lights out at 10:30. He was a pretty tired little guy. The heat is supposed to break tomorrow, and we can't wait.

2006-08-03 21:14 (Kristen) I've noticed that everything is funny to Jamie, unless it happens to him. So, if he runs into me and I frown, he looks at me and says "That's funny!" If he burps, and doesn't say "excuse me," that's "funny." He spends a good amount of time declaring things funny, except when I tickle him, which is "not funny, Mummy." Etcetera. I do take some solace in the fact that he does really find so much funny in the universe. It will hold him in good stead later in life. Right now, John is using an application called "Photo Booth" on his new computer, which uses the built-in iSight to warp moving images of people in a funhouse kind of way. So, Gary, John, Jamie, and Ayami are laughing their faces off right now as they warp their images in a variety of amusing and disturbing ways. Gary had to leave the room for a moment, he was laughing so hard. Jamie finds this a riot, and is currently making faces for the camera, and falling off the couch, laughing, and slapping his knees in imitation of Gary.

This is a nice contrast to the rest of the day, where Jamie was alternately sleepy and crabby. He woke up all right, but was very sluggish and prone to changing his mind at the last minute about what he was going to do. For example, he told me that he needed to pee, then spent all his time in the bathroom reading or doing anything but what he said he'd come for. He finally told me that his teeth hurt (when he was refusing to eat his honey toast), and we negotiated two little freezies for half an English muffin. John thought that he hadn't slept well last night (John: you can see in the photos how swollen his cheek is), which I hadn't noticed, since Jamie usually sleeps restlessly when he's having a bad night. Certainly, it seemed necessary to dose him with a little Tylenol before he went to Hakobune, and that seemed to improve things somewhat. We told Sensei that he was drugged and sleepy, and he seemed all right but subdued when we left him. When we arrived to pick him up, he was in no hurry to leave, and even refused a balloon when offered to him. Not a good sign. Jamie never refuses balloons, and didn't play with the other little boys who were running around with theirs. Doubly a bad sign. We (John, Rebecca, and I) took him downstairs to eat, and he didn't eat much: a bite of peach, a little curry, and his samosa by the time we reached Browning. He did spend some quality time in the library with John before we went home, however.

At Browning, we ate some lunch and Jamie drank some banana milkshake in between playing with trains. After a pee break, Rebecca and I set off with Jamie to try and walk him to sleep. As we headed down Arundel to the Danforth, Jamie was chattering and fussing with his sembei*, and I was starting to despair that he was going to fall asleep despite a dose of Motrin. However, the skies decided to help us and it started to rain: the sound of the rain put him to sleep in less than two minutes, and he stayed asleep for three hours. Rebecca went to the bookstore, I went to the Second Cup, and Rebecca came to join me after a bit. After an hour and a half there, we picked up some groceries at the Big Carrot, and came home. Rebecca watched Jamie from the porch while I did some work, and then Pat did when she came home. I finally woke Jamie up at the three hour mark, as I didn't want him up at midnight. He was pretty grouchy, but after a long cuddle he decided he'd play with Alexandria, Iain, and Becky after all. He ruled the roost for a bit until dinner, ate, and then went with Becky over to Alexandria's for about half an hour, where he played with the cat and coloured with the girls. It was a little bit of effort to get him to come home (he wanted to play with Lily some more), but now we're here and John has left to get into the shower. Jamie is starting to display fatigue symptoms again, and I'll have him in bed in the next half hour or so. We're reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit right now, and I hope that he'll have a better night tonight than last night.

On the baby front, the midwife is happy with the way that the baby is progressing, and our obstetrician is too. We did a VBAC consult today, but the in-depth consult will come in two weeks, as we decide what should happen if the baby is too big or late. I am growing larger than a house now, and am exceedingly glad that the heat wave is over (for now).

2006-08-04 22:19 (Kristen) Jamie didn't sleep all that well last night, and today's investigations show that the tooth is finally starting to break through on the other side (only one side of the molar had so far made an appearance). Thank goodness for that: we weren't making much progress for the longest time (or at least it seemed that way). We had dosed him with Advil, but he didn't fall asleep until 11:30 (I fell asleep before he did), and woke up at 7:45 or so. At least that's when he started to crawl over my head to get my attention. We went downstairs to have breakfast, and Rebecca joined us as Jamie was eating his yoghurt and frozen blueberries. He ate honey toast after that, followed by some mango and eventually some cereal with John. He played with Rebecca and the trains for a while, until I suggested that he go out to the park with Rebecca. They went with Alexandria, and met up with Gary at some point along the way. Rebecca called me on the cell phone that we have set up for the month for her, and asked if they could go to the Second Cup with Jamie and Gary. I said yes, and Rebecca says that he enjoyed licking the icing off the cookie she bought for him, and trying to drink her and Gary's Italian sodas at the same time. They came back to Browning for lunch, but Rebecca said later that Jamie had had a meltdown on the way. He insisted that everyone wait at the stop sign for it to turn green, but it never did (in Jamie World, the stop signs do usually turn green). As they were going to be late, they hurried him on, which precipitated the meltdown. Gary ended up carrying him the rest of the way.

This was indicative of his fatigue levels, which were high. He ate a little, but not a lot, at lunch, and Ken says that he fell asleep almost instantly on his walk. He was asleep, then, for almost two hours when Ken arrived at the Second Cup around 3:00. Jamie woke up as soon as they entered, but dozed for a little before deciding that he was going to stay awake. He drank my water, and asked to go to Treasure Island. We stayed for about an hour and a half as he checked out the new Thomas table, along with two other new play tables set up, and did his usual thing. I did find out that Treasure Island will no longer be carrying Brio trains, and can't order new ones, as Brio is going through some sort of restructuring after a buy-out by another company. As Jamie has not stopped talking about the Brio ICE lately, this means that we need to find a place (fast!) that still sells Brio, and might have an ICE lying about. Another project.

We came home, and Tom West and Peter Kotanen (with son Simon) came over to help me move furniture around upstairs. Gary and Ayami helped too, while Rebecca and John helped to keep Jamie and baby Simon happy. Before we started moving things around, Simon was sitting on John's lap and eyeing Jamie's apple hungrily (Simon is eight months old). I gave him some apple in a mesh bag with handle that I bought for Jamie when he was starting out on solid foods (you can chew the bag and get juice and bits, but nothing large enough to choke on), which he enjoyed greatly when he got the idea. Jamie was watching Simon closely, and giving him instructions on how to use the mesh bag (directing it to Simon's mouth, e.g.). When Simon had chewed the juice out of the apple and started waving it about, Jamie very firmly told him "no," and said "yes" more encouragingly when Simon put the bag back into his mouth. John and I figure that the new baby will not lack any direction in life, and that Jamie's career as a control freak is about to hit a whole new level. Jamie spent the rest of the time observing the furniture being moved, and "helping out" in his own way. Simon started to cry at one point, so John took him out to Broadview to watch the buses. This made Simon coo with pleasure. We will have to find out, if this is a girl, whether or not the Broadview buses have the same effect on girls as they do on all the boys of our acquaintance.

Then it was time to finish cleaning up, Peter and Simon went home, John, Gary, Ayami, and Jamie went to Browning for dinner, and Rebecca and I followed along a little later. Jamie ate his chili well, but was acting very tired again. I wasn't feeling that great, as I was having rather strong Braxton-Hicks contractions almost constantly, and needed to rest a bit. Rebecca was very helpful, as John had to go home to work on the USSO (the Scrabble Open. Registration started today, and John has been in Phoenix, AZ in a virtual fashion since last night, and will be there physically starting Monday for a few days. Gary and Ayami returned from playing tennis, ate quickly, and helped me get Jamie home. John bathed with Jamie, and I put him to bed, where he set a land speed record for falling asleep (less than three minutes). Much much better than last night!

2006-08-05 23:34 (Kristen) Jamie slept in until almost 8:30, and was content to hang out in bed with me and John until almost 9:00. John was working hard in virtual Phoenix from soon after that, and Jamie had breakfast with me and Rebecca. I decided that it would be a good idea to get to the market sooner than later, so I packed everyone up and we were out the door by 10:30. We arrived at the market a few minutes after 11:00, which wasn't ideal, but I was willing to live with it. We did Jamie's usual rounds, and he was happy to be there and to see people. Rebecca stayed with him at the Early Years Centre while I did a little extra looking about, and then we collected him to go to the South Building. Jamie decorated a construction paper bear with Rebecca, and had lots of fun making friends and serving up plastic pizza. It took a little convincing to get him out of there. Then he wanted to run around the fountain a little, which seemed a good idea.

In the South building, we saw John's aunt (and Jamie's aunt too) Tomoko, who bought Jamie a very nice little red steam engine. Jamie also enjoyed listening to an excellent violin player while I went into the bulk store. Rebecca and I had sushi for lunch, and Jamie had pesto and mushroom pizza, as they were sold out of his favourite olive, onion, and feta pizza. He coped. We met up with John's parents, who kindly took our groceries back to our house, while Rebecca and I took Jamie onto the subway for his nap. He fell asleep at almost exactly 3:00, when we started to go south from Finch Station. He slept for an hour and a half, and woke up at the Second Cup, where Rebecca and I had gone to rest. We picked up a few remaining groceries at the Big Carrot and headed home via Tai Tai's, as we had something to drop off to her. Jamie was in a moderately good mood, and enjoyed playing with Rebecca and sidewalk chalk on the driveway for an hour. Then Jamie came in to wash the chalk off his hands, and grabbed Gary and Ayami for a bit while I made dinner.

Jamie ate a moderate amount of dinner, although not as much as I would have liked, and so I fed him some apple and peach later in the evening. He and Rebecca watched a little television while Rebecca wrote a letter and I cleaned up. John had joined us briefly for dinner, but had to go back to work almost immediately. Ah, tournaments. When Rebecca had finished writing her letter she wanted to post it, and so we three walked to the post office box. Jamie had said that he was tired on the way there, and that he was ready for bed, and I wasn't that surprised. When we got back home, however, we got a phone call asking us to come to Browning for some birthday cake for Tami. We all raced over, and had a great time, not coming back home until close to 10:30. Jamie was very tired then, and we got him into the bath as soon as we could. He didn't fall asleep until after his bedtime story ("The Tale of Peter Rabbit," in English and Japanese [translation provided by John]). When he did fall asleep, it took less than five minutes and I'm shocked that it took that long.

2006-08-06 21:37 (Kristen) Jamie slept in today, and didn't get up until after 9:00. I liked that. He was easily bored today, which I didn't like so much, and we both seem to have picked up some sort of virus: Jamie is coughing, and I'm sniffling. Ick. Not the sort of thing you want in the summer, let alone a few weeks before number 2 child shows up. Becky took Jamie to the park for an hour and a half, which let me crash out and try to get some rest. Yay Becky!

Jamie didn't eat much for lunch other than freezies, although John got him to eat a bit of naan and I got him to eat an apple in the stroller. I took him out a little later than usual (2:00) because I thought that the extra hour might make up for the fact that he got up late (although that should have been offset by the trip to the park). No dice. Becky and I walked him for an hour, and he just didn't fall asleep. Grrr. Curses. I gave up, being a hot, tired, and a little cranky, and we managed to make it through the rest of the afternoon without too much television (but don't ask me how, because I don't remember much). John's mom and dad brought over dinner for us and the virtually in Phoenix John, and Jamie ate a good deal of salmon.

Jamie and Becky and I went to the park for an hour after dinner, and Jamie had a great time playing with Becky (I sat down on the steps and read a little, not caring to go down the slide in my dress or in my pregnant state). We came home and started to get ready for the bath when Auntie Millie dropped by spontaenously with her friend Ray. We had a lovely chat, and plans were made for Becky to spend time with Auntie at some point soon, before it was time to get Jamie up to the bath with his dad. Jamie has missed John greatly over the last three days, as John has been spending most of his time working, and has been sticking to his papa like glue. He knows that John is going away, and may be trying to spend as much time as he can with John for that reason alone. He's going to miss John a lot, but the homecoming is going to be lovely.

2006-08-07 24:01 (Kristen) Jamie slept like a little log, except when his cough bothered him. By 9:00, he was still asleep, and so I woke him up so that he could say goodbye to John, who was leavign at 9:30. Jamie came down, very very warm (although it was hot in the room last night), and shared a little cereal with John. He wasn't sure if he wasn't going to throw up, however, and downed a good deal of liquid. A good thing, as it brought his core temperature down. I should note that I was very proud of him today, as he had a big glass of water last night before going to bed, and he woke me up at 6:30 this morning to pee. No accidents! Yay, Jamie! John explained to him again that he was going away, and Jamie exclaimed again "oh no!" However, he was very good and gave his papa a big hug and kiss goodbye. He's talked a bit about John, but is otherwise coping well with the many distractions we're putting in his way.

We spent a quiet morning indoors, Jamie, Rebecca, and I, and Jamie knocked on Gary and Ayami's door around lunchtime. He zipped downstairs, while I made quesadillas but he ended up eating more of Gary's lunch than what I made for him (possibly because Gary's food was in front of him first). I debated about what to do for his afternoon nap, and decided to take him on the subway, as the sun was punishing even though the temperature was just under 30 C. It turned out to be the right choice, as our walking (rather than our subway) stroller has a hole in the right back tire, and is no good for going anywhere. Fortunately, Ken Sagara will bring his expertise over tomorrow, and look at it for me. Lack of Big Stroller puts a major kaibosh (sp?) on comfortable neighbourhood walks. I love that stroller. Becky and I took Jamie on the subway, and he fell asleep around 3:15. We went back to the Second Cup, and left a little before 5:00. Jamie woke up as we left, but was a little drowsy and dopey from the sleep, I thought.

We ran into Chaerim and her family on the way home, so I let Jamie stay with them and Becky while I went inside to start getting ready for dinner. A half hour later, Becky came running to the door to say that Jamie was lying down on the walkway in the back yard, refusing to move, and saying that he was sick. He was a little hot, but he's been clammy more than hot lately. We gave him some apple juice and some Korean tea (family recipe) that Chaerim's mom uses whenever the kids are sick. He perked up, but really wasn't himself for a while. The kids tried to cheer him up by writing "I Love Jamie" in chalk all over the sidewalk, which I certainly enjoyed seeing. I managed to get him home, and finally into the house when Gary and Ayami came home. I finished making dinner, and Jamie ate somewhat well. He disappeared downstairs until it was time for Gary and Ayami to go and play tennis, when I distracted him from his death grip on Ayami by talking about his new Kumon colouring exercise book. Then he had to do about five of those exercises, followed by about twenty pages each of mazes and "tracing" exercises, including some very complicated mazes that shocked me that he could do. He's soooo good at mazes: I know that they're supposed to be "easy", but he just rips through them like they're nothing. He just sees the solution. It means that I can concentrate on having him hold his pencil properly (he needs to use more pressure, for example), but he impresses the hell out of me. It's such a pleasure, and he never wants to stop. I have to stop him when he gets tired: he'll start running into the lines, or get sloppy, and I'll make him redo it. Then he says "sorry," and does it perfectly. What a guy!

it's a lot cooler tonight, and I have the house opened up so that he can sleep better. He's dosed up on Tylenol cold medication, and fell asleep quite easily around 10:15. We miss our papa, but we're marking the days off on the calendar until he returns.

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

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