Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 44

2006-08-08 23:02 (Kristen) Jamie woke up well, but was easily set off this morning. First it was because I got out of bed to take the bungee cord off the green bin (to defeat raccoons, as I just can't face picking compost up off the road) before the garbage truck got here, and I ended up having to carry him with me to the curb and back. He wasn't hungry at breakfast, and didn't finish his yoghurt and frozen blueberries for the first time ever. I kept some fruit to feed him in the car, which he did eat, but I'm not sure if it was because he was uncomfortable or what that breakfast didn't suit. Gary drove us to Hakobune, while Becky stayed behind to receive a courier shipment and to let Trifina, our cleaning lady, into the house. After dropping Jamie off, Gary drove me to the midwife clinic, and we then picked up Ayami and drove her to work. I got dropped off at the local Starbuck's near Hakobune, and Gary and Becky went CD shopping. They met Jamie and me at Hakobune around 12:20. In the meantime, I had gone to get Jamie, and the teaching assistant told me that he had been a good boy that morning. I asked Jamie if he had had fun and he said yes. I asked who he had played with, and he said "sensei," as usual, then when asked if he had played with any kids, said that he had played with Kai-kun and Hiro-kun. He seemed happy with that. His cough wasn't obvious this morning, and he seemed all right at lunch, with a bit of a cough then (the medicine I'd given him might have worn off a little by then).

Jamie ate a little curry before heading home, and drank about half of the bubble tea that I'd asked Becky to pick up for him (lichee). Gary says that he almost fell asleep in the car, and he did seem tired when I brought him in to have a pee before his walk. In the bathroom, afterwards, he had a meltdown and I pulled him into my lap while I sat on the edge of the bathtub to calm him down with a cuddle. He kept demanding the "nurse nurse," always a sign of discomfort or extreme fatigue, and finally settled down enough to fall asleep in my lap. He hasn't done this for ages, and certainly not in the afternoon! It turned out to be for the best, as Ken hadn't fixed the flat in the Zooper Buddy wheel yet (thank you, Ken, for fixing it!) and so I was at a loss as to what to do with Jamie for his afternoon walk, the Z-Street not being as comfortable to push around the neighbourhood for as long as the Buddy. I also was able to make polenta for Becky for lunch, which I wouldn't have been able to do if I had had to walk Jamie. I managed to transfer him to the bed, and he slept there for two hours on his own, and another hour with me in there with him (I got a nap! Wow!). He was a little crusty when he woke up, and was very demanding. I had to keep reminding him to say "please" whenever he started demanding that I do things; I don't much like being yelled at. He got better, but was still very set in what he wanted to do and wasn't taking "no" or "just a minute" for an answer.

We headed to Browning for dinner, and had a pleasant time with everyone. Gary and Ayami were going off to play tennis, and we headed out (Gary, Ayami, Becky, Jamie, and I) to the school park. Jamie wanted to watch Gary and Ayami play tennis, but got distracted by the "whees" when Ayami showed them to him. I took over, and Jamie had a lovely time climbing everything and sliding down things. He really is a monkey. He also had fun playing with a little boy named Edgar, who was 14 months old. He was initially fascinated by the fact that Edgar was nursing, and this stretched into attempts to play with Edgar when he was done. It was very cute; I'm starting to feel that Jamie is going to be an involved and interested party when the new baby comes. I knew that he would be, but seeing how good he is with smaller children is a lovely thing to see. I hope that he feels that way about his own baby sibling! Finally, we went back to find Gary and Ayami (and Becky, who was playing and then watching) because it was getting dark. We came home, and Ayami helped to brush Jamie's teeth and get him ready for the bath. It was a quick bath, and Jamie was in bed around10. We crossed off another day on the calendar, read Peter Rabbit, and he fell asleep relatively easily. I am a little concerned about his cough, and have a call into our family doctor in case it sounds worse tomorrow. Just in case.

The visit with our midwife went well, and it feels like the baby has dropped (which would explain the unusually strong Braxton Hicks contractions that I had on Friday night). Marlene, our backup midwife, said that the baby's head felt engaged, as she couldn't shift it. Gulp! Yikes! This is going to be soon (but not until Thursday evening at least, Little Phoenix!). Alert is going up to Defcon 2. Tomorrow, I have an ultrasound to check out the size of the baby, and to make sure that the baby is in a proper, not breech position (a 5% chance).

2006-08-09 24:00 (Kristen) Jamie woke up well and full of energy, wanting to play downstairs as much as possible. I managed to get him dressed, and fed, before we went to play with trains. He wasn't that hungry, but that's not unusual lately. He woke Becky up at 9:00, and was happy to have Gary drive us to Hakobune today. We got upstairs without too much incident, and I think that it was an active day today: he was certainly full of energy when we dropped him off! Gary, Ayami, Becky, and I headed downstairs, to get back in the car: I was going to have a nap before Gary drove us back down to Hakobune, Ayami was going to work, etc. However, the car battery was dead again, so we all stayed in the area. Ken and Tami came to exchange cars with Gary, who took Becky to a used book and a used CD store nearby while I worked in the local Starbuck's. I bought Gary and Becky some pizza from Cora's for lunch before we picked up Jamie. Becky saved some of hers, and Jamie had fun gnawing the toppings off on the way home (with a stop at a local corner store, as Jamie needed apple juice to wash it down with). It was a good thing that we had a full contingent to lure Jamie out of daycare, because he was not interested in coming home!

We stuffed Jamie into the stroller when we got home, and ran off to my ultrasound appointment at 2:30. The technician let Becky and Jamie in once che'd done her main work, and Jamie's eyes were big as he watched the baby on the screen. I don't know what he saw, but he seemed to understand when I told him that it was the little baby in Mummy's tummy. (Yes, we have two photos, which I'll ask John to post when he gets back from Phoenix. The baby is in the normal position, and looking to be born soon, I hope!). He was pretty tired, and fell asleep on the way back home. I came in, did a few things, then decided it was just a shade too hot to leave Jamie in the shade between the houses. So, Becky and I wandered down to the Second Cup, where Jamie woke up at the hour mark, disturbed by the screeches of a toddler a few feet from his head. Realizing that he was not going back to sleep, we took him to Treasure Island for an hour before going to John's parents' place for dinner.

Jamie was rather easily overset at this point, and unusually put up a great fuss at Treasure Island that he couldn't take one of the trains home. There was much counting to three, and Jamie was finally extracted with some crying. He settled down quickly outside after we had a talk and a cuddle, and finally ate the grapes he'd been distaining. We had to pass by the ice cream truck on the way back, however, and that precipitated another series of howls as I didn't buy him something (it was close to dinner, in my defence). We made it to Pearls, where Jamie and Becky ran around outside until dinner was ready. Jamie, to my delight, tucked into dinner like he was starving (and he porbably was, given that he didn't eat much lunch or breakfast) and even had seconds and thirds of chicken gyoza in tomato sauce with soba noodles. Tai Tai had made him peas, and he ate his spinach too. Yay, Jamie! I was so proud of him that I notified him that he had satisfied my requirements, and that I would take him out for ice cream at Dairy Queen (I had said that he could have an ice cream if he ate all his dinner when we passed by the ice cream truck). He was so delighted that he jumped up and down in his seat, crowing "ice cream! ice cream! ice cream!" It's hard to do anything but smile in pleasure at such a naked display of delight.

We called Tom to see if the Browningites wanted to come with us, and we met them at the Dairy Queen. Jamie cheerfully ate half of my medium cherry sundae (courtesy of John's mom), and ran back home with Daniel and Ross. He was so manic and wired that I ran the bathwater the instant we came in, and had him in bed by 10:00. He was still a little wired, but he fell asleep between 10:10 and 10:45, which was when I fell asleep. Up tomorrow at 8:00 to do this all over again. Gary is very kindly driving us to Hakobune while John's away, as no one wants me to give birth on the subway!

So, the technician thinks that the baby is about 7 lbs 11 oz right now, but volunteered that ultrasounds can be off by as much as a pound. Whew. I hope so: that is darn close to setting a record size for babies produced by women in my family. The baby is definitely much lower: the top of my belly slopes now, and there is unmistakable pressure where I haven't had any before now. I am finally starting to feel physically awkward, with aches in my left foot and my back, and all the rest of the traditional pregnant complaints. Lying on the ultrasound table, I felt like a turtle on its back, and couldn't get up without help! My sister went into labour with my nephew the instant my mom got off her plane to be with her, and part of me wonders if the baby is waiting for its papa to get his feet back on Canadian soil before making its appearance. I can't help but think that it's going to be soon, however. I hope that I'm not wrong!

I forgot to add: tonight, when we were crossing off today on Jamie's calendar, I pointed out that Papa was coming home tomorrow. Jamie was happy about that. I asked if he missed Papa, and he said "yes." Then he asked me if was sad because I missed Papa. I said that I did miss Papa, but that I wasn't sad (not wanting to make him worried or sad). Jamie then leaned over and gave me a big hug to make me "happy." What a great boy.

2006-08-10 21:15 (Kristen) Jamie slept in this morning, and so did I (a little), so we were a little late leaving the house today to go to Hakobune. Jamie ate his breakfast in the car (thanks to an attentive Becky), and seemed in good spirits when I dropped him off. Gary and Becky headed home, and I stayed around to work until it was time to get Jamie at 12:00. Jamie was crazy when I picked him up and Christian-kun was too, so it might have been something in their morning snack: it took ten minutes at least to get him out of the daycare, into his shoes, and down the staris to eat. He wanted to go to the library, but Gary and Becky has just come to pick us up at 12:30, so I told him we would do it tomorrow.

Once we got to Browning, Jamie ate some Greek salad and a good deal of Gary's French toast, before setting out with Ken at close to 1:30. He was very tired and therefore hard to direct, and Ken says that Jamie was asleep by 1:45. He slept for just under two hours, and then woke with the imperious demand that we go to the toy store. He's been in an imperious mood lately, whenever he feels strongly about something, and I've had to remind him of his manners a lot. He gets it, however, and always says 'please' and 'thank you' when prompted, at least. We played for a bit at the toy store, then headed back home on side streets, away from any possible ice cream truck sightings. Jamie and Becky played outside while I made dinner (leftovers, with fresh salad at least, chopped up fruit and ice cream). I had to bargain with Jamie to finish his dinner, but he ate most of it, and definitely did in his ice cream if not all of the fruit. John's mom dropped by to help by watering the garden, and Jamie was pleased to see her. We did some mazes and colouring, but he wasn't really in the mood: he is definitely tired again, maybe hot, and not as focussed as he was a few nights ago. He's watching Tarzan II downstairs (which I still can't stand) with Gary, Ayami, and Becky; the bath has been drawn; and I'm about to go downstairs and brush his teeth before bathing the boy. John just called; his plane landed saafely (YAY!) and he should be home in the next hour, in time to kiss his little son goodnight. And our second child won't have to worry about being called Phoenix Arizona or Phoenix Biltmore; or even Flight 509. Good baby!

2006-08-11 22:05 (Kristen) Jamie was delighted to see his papa last night when John came home, and the two of them spent a good deal of time laughing, tickling, and otherwise roughhousing until it was finally time to turn out the lights. Jamie woke up around 6:15 this morning, asking for bubble tea. I managed to get him settled again until 7:45, when his renewed demands for bubble tea started up again and he wouldn't accept the explanation that the bubble tea stores were closed. We staggered out of bed, and went downstairs. There, Jamie proceeded to have a fit over anything that did not fit precisely with his view of How Things Should Be (no water, not in this glass from that glass, no apple juice, yes apple juice: you get the story). It was not proving to be one of our better mornings. Gary heard Jamie crying over something, and came upstairs to help out. I left Jamie mostly in his hands for an hour while I got ready for us to go to Hakobune, and was very glad for it. It meant that Jamie inhis (I presume) teething state and me in my zombified, crabby mother state didn't kill each other, or sell the other to gypsies. Finally, Gary drove us to Hakobune while a tired Rebecca and a jet-lagged John had a chance to sleep in. Gary dropped us off, and Jamie was quite happy to run into the daycare with his friends and away from the Grumpy Mother. I went and worked for a few hours at the local coffee shop, and managed to get a reasonable amount of work done.

I went to pick Jamie up at 1:00, and found that Gary and Rebecca had arrived a few minutes before I did. To our surprise, we saw Jamie coming down the stairs, hand in hand with the young teaching assistant, on his way to the bathroom (he almost never goes to the bathroom while at daycare). I went upstairs to collect his stuff when Jamie went back upstairs as well, but he was really not ready to go. Instead, we put up with a Jamie that raced around outside the daycare, refusing to put his shoes on, and playing with his friends as they too were leaving. As two of the children were Kai-kun and Christian-kun, you can imagine that it took some effort to get Jamie to actually leave. Even Gary was having trouble getting Jamie to go, and we finally had to put our feet down when it came time to get into the car. Jamie was utterly uninterested in doing anything that we asked him to do, which made getting him into the car challenging. After a lot of work we were on our way, and Jamie was entertained by Gary's fun sound effects and multiple choruses of the Spongebob Squarepants theme song. He got home, got ready to go for a walk with John (again, with some effort), and they set out after a few readings of Sheep in a Jeep, John's present for Jamie (which is a very funny book). John says that Jamie didn't fall asleep until 3:20 or so, as there was much construction and interesting activity on the Danforth as the local merchants prepared for Taste of the Danforth, a big food festival that will last the next three days. Perhaps the baby will wait until it's over, just so that Grammie can get parking!

Jamie and John stayed out for a while, coming home around 5:00. Jamie played inside for a bit, and then we got ready to go over to John's parents' place for dinner. Dinner was later than usual and so Jamie was overly hungry when we arrived. First he didn't want to come in, which occasioned much yelling, but I got him in by talking about trains, and John finished the job with a bite of gyoza and a promise of more at the table. Jamie wolfed down his food, and had fun playing trains and blocks with John and Becky. He and I played the piano for a bit, and John's mom read him a Japanese children's book. Then it was time to go home, and we headed out. Jamie is now watching Thomas the Tank Engine in Japanese while we wait to get into the bath. I think that he'll fall asleep quckly tonight.

(John) Jamie woke up from his nap in our driveway today, as I'd had to run to the bank because my ATM card information had apparently been compromised by a fraudulent vendor recently and I needed my card reissued before the weekend. (Unfortunately, I fell victim a second time, to an inexperienced teller at the CIBC, who issued me a new card with the antifraud restrictions not lifted from it, so I won't be doing much shopping this weekend, or much banking with the CIBC in future. Apparently, having the extra-special "Imperial Service" card is good for getting very rapid access to a real human being who will tell you that you have to go back to your branch in person on Monday to get things straightened out.) But I digress. Jamie's first words as he woke up were "Papa no say goodbye again." Fortunately, before I started to feel too guilty he woke up more from the nightmare he was having about his father abandoning him for four days and he started to talk more sense: "Jamie need ice cream".

As the four of us sat around the table, Becky mentioned that she'd had to hose out and air out her knapsack to get rid of an egg salad sandwich she'd packed for the trip to Toronto. Kristen said she saw it and it wasn't a happy colour. Jamie perked up and asked if it was a "sad colour" or an "angry colour". Presumably a sad one is one that feels blue.

2006-08-12 23:32 (Kristen) Other than complaining that he didn't have a nice glass of bubble tea to start off his day right, Jamie was in a good mood this morning before we set out for our daily errands. Becky was with me and Jamie as I went looking for new sandals for Jamie before they went to the St. Lawrence Market, and helped out as I struck out in three different stores: the Shoe Company, Pay-Less, and the Bay. At least the Bay had sandals; the others didn't at all. The Bay just didn't have them in Jamie's size. He's worn out the treads on his current sandals, and he wiped out yesterday going around a corner (luckily no injuries).So, new sandals. John went to the bank to get his bank card problems worked out while we shoe shopped, and met up with us later, carrying bubble tea. Yay!

John, Becky, John's mom, and Jamie went off to the market after John dropped me off at home. I tried to get some work done but decided that I needed a nap if that was going to work. I was woken up around 1:30 by John calling me to say that Jamie had wiped out at the St. Lawrence Market going around a corner, and had hit his head on a stall going down. He had a cut on his forehead that required stitches, and they were going to Sick Kids'. I grabbed some books and a stuffed animal (Baby Frog) for Jamie, ran out the door, and as everyone I knew with a car was out, hailed a cab on Broadview (this being Taste of the Danforth weekend, I was reasonably sure that I could get one quickly, and I was right.) I arrived at the hospital about three minutes after everyone else did, and met up with John and Jamie in the intake section. I was very relieved to see that Jamie's cut was not as large as I had feared; I was worried that it was a large slash, but it was a small but deep centimetre-long cut near the bridge of his nose on his right eyebrow. still not good, but as I said, better than I feared. Jamie burst into tears the moment that he saw me, but John assures me that he had been fine up to that point. I understand that tears were necessary for Jamie in telling me the story that he got hurt.

We got processed, and went to wait for a doctor to see us. We were relieved to see that we were a Category 3 and not a Category 4 intake--Category 4 is "please stop wasting our time, you over-anxious parents, and bring your child back to us when there is a real emergency," but expressed much more nicely than that. Category 1 is "resuscitate," and I'm glad we weren't that either. We sent Rebecca and John's mom back to the market to finish shopping, and are very grateful to both for doing so. We ended up waiting until 3:50 to see the doctor (not bad, really), and Jamie was getting pretty tired as he hoovered the rest of the blueberries, some sembei* and cookies, and some Smartfood that John bought for him. The doctor (Dr. Lilian Rojnica) looked at him and said that she thought she could use glue to close up the cut, rather than stitches, which sounded great. She then put a gauze pad with a topical anesthetic on Jamie's cut, and sent us out for twenty minutes. Jamie spent his time making friends, and running about (slowly!). A number of parents smiled at me and asked me when I was due; I said any day, but please not today!

We were called back in after closer to half an hour, and Dr. Rojnica told us what would happen: they would "bunny" Jamie (swaddle him in a sheet) so that his arms were pinned, put him on a table, and glue up his head. John wisely asked that she refer to it as medicine, because Jamie hates anything sticky on him and would react to the word "glue." As it was, we didn't have to worry about him reacting to the word glue, as everything that happened afterwards was pretty much everything Jamie hates. First, he was put onto his back and swaddled (items 1 and 2), and a bright light was shone into his face (item 3). Then cloths were put around his face, water was squirted into the wound near his eyes and his eyes had to be covered, and another topical was put onto his brow (items 4-7). Dr. Rojnica said that the wound was small but just the wrong shape for glue, and she was going to have to put a stitch in after all. So, a needle to numb the area, which really made Jamie scream, and the needle and thread to close up the wound (items 8 and 9, which really should count for more, somehow). As Jamie screamed, I had to look away for a moment, and was told urgently to keep talking with him as I think both John and I had fallen silent for a moment (we both were there, holding onto him and talking to him as this was going on, John in particular having been asked by Jamie to hold onto his feet, which stuck out of the sheet). They really know what they're doing there. We praised Jamie for being so brave, and reassured him that it was going to be over soon. He was very tired by this time, and yawned a few times through his sobs. However, the moment it was over and he was allowed to get out of the sheet and sit up, he was a much different boy and calmed right down. John asked him to thank the doctor, and he said "thank you" very readily to the nurse intern and the nurse, and said "Thank you for fixing me" to Dr. Rojica (instant melt on part of ragged parents). We got the instructions for how to care for Jamie's wound, signed him out, and took him to the car. Thank you to Sick Kids for being so good with him, and with us.

It was close to 5, and Jamie was pretty tired. He fell asleep very soon after we started off, and so John took the chance to get some groceries from Loblaws and finish the shopping for the day. We got home, where Gary and Ayami helped bring in the groceries while Becky sat in the car with Jamie as he slept. He slept until close to 7, when he finally woke up. We took him down to Taste of the Danforth for dinner, where we had gyoza, roasted corn, bubble tea again, and some great calamari from Taste of the Silk Road with John's parents. We got off the Danforth and sat in the church playground near the Second Cup, and Jamie ran around and played (wearing his sneakers!) while eating a bit. He really stuffed himself at the market before his accident, so we weren't too worried. We got home a little after 9, and had Jamie in the bath a little after 10. He took a little bit of time to fall asleep but not much, and is sawing little twigs. It was a very exhausting day for him and for us, and I'm hoping that Baby #2 will have mercy, and wait another few days (but not too many!) before arriving.

2006-08-13 23:05 (Kristen) Jamie slept well last night, despite having napped so close to bedtime, and was stirring somewhere before 8:00. He stayed asleep until a little after 8:00, thankfully, before he got me up and we went downstairs to start our day. We decided to go shoe shopping and to Toronto East General to drop off our papers in preparation for the Big Event, which I hope will come soon, but more about that later. After dropping off the papers, Becky, John, Jamie, and I made it up to a Shoe Company around Bathurst and Lawrence (a big hike, for those who are not Toronto geography-savvy) and managed finally to find a good pair of sandals for Jamie to replace the old, worn, treadless sandals that he was wearing yesterday when he wiped out at the St. Lawrence Market. Jamie was wired for sound at this point, happily exercising his lungs in the car, and running around everywhere. We decided to go to Yorkdale Mall for some lunch (sushi and bubble tea), and Jamie fell asleep in the car on the way back home.

Becky and John ended up watching Jamie for the rest of the afternoon while he slept and after he woke, while I slept and rested upstairs (unaccountably tired today). They took Jamie out to the Danforth for some more bubble tea (we need to buy a store, or something), and to play at the playground. While at the Jackman playground, they met up with Chihiro, a 5-year-old girl who is visiting from Japan with her family for the next four months. Jamie and Chihiro had a fabulous time playing together, which mainly involved Jamie dropping his hat off the play structure and Chihiro racing to pick it up and give it back to him. They enjoyed each other immensely, and we hope to see Chihiro again before she has to go back. We ate dinner at John's parents' place, and Jamie happily ate all of his. He had fun playing with blocks, watched a little television, and then we came home. It was a pretty ordinary evening, and Jamie was in bed by 11:00 (which was a little late, but not unusual).

The baby continues to be low, and is causing me heartburn (which makes no sense to me, as this is a baby riding high side effect). The strange thing is that I am now having all the cravings that I didn't have earlier in the pregnancy. For example: I want celery. Lots of it. Fresh cucumbers too, fresh off the vine. Green crunchy vegetables. At the same time, I want to smell industrial smells: musty concrete, the subway, parking garages, and shoe stores. No rhyme or reason for this combination of the natural and the deeply not natural, except that one is smell and the other taste. Strange what pregnancy will do to you.

2006-08-14 21:23 (Kristen) Jamie was up around 7:00, to my extreme dismay. We were both pretty crabby with each other, and spent most of the morning watching television and arguing before the rest of the household got up. Jamie was dead set against doing what I asked him not to do (like knocking on Gary's door before Gary was awake), and I wasn't very interesting as a playmate. I was glad to see Becky and Gary around 10 or 10:30, and Jamie was too. They all played together while I worked on getting the overnight bag for the hospital topped up. Our midwife, Julie, was expected at 10 originally, but had to attend a birth so we rescheduled for early afternoon. Jamie went over to Browning with Becky and gary, and I met them there. Jamie spent more time eating Gary's food than his own, so I don't know how much lunch Jamie ate. He was pretty wired, however, and it took a little while to get him into the stroller. He kept going back for more food, which he knows is a great delay tactic, as we never deny him more food if he wants to eat. I had to leave to meet Julie before he left, but Ken took him out soon after and John was able to meet me at home in time for Julie's visit.

We had a good visit with Julie, and John took Becky with him when he went to meet Ken at the Second Cup. I didn't hear from them until close to 5, when John called to say that they were at the toy store, I wasn't surprised. We all met at Browning when it was time to make dinner, and Jamie had a great time playing with his usual crew of subjects. He wasn't that hungry, but I managed to get some food into him anyway. He's pretty tired, and having fun exercising his voice (i.e., how loud can I be? he thinks). Bed very soon.

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

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