Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 53

2006-10-10 24:09 (Kristen) Jamie slept until 9:30 or so, and got up in a comparatively good mood. We hung out in bed for half an hour before stripping the beds and getting the laundry going (Jamie puts the clothes and the soap in). Getting dressed was a little tricky, but I got him to put his overalls on (a New Clothing Item, and a New Style) by telling him that I was going to put mine on, and that seemed to work. He had breakfast with John, and watched Peep and the Big Wide World on DVD. I'm cool with that, because it's really a science show in disguise.

We headed over to Browning for lunch, and Jamie ate most of his food because Ross wasn't watching television (Jamie is a slave to the box, and will not sit in his chair if the television is on), and because I fed him most of it. He'll eat if he can run around and do other things at the same time. Sigh. Ken took him for his walk, and says that he fell asleep at 2:00. John wasn't feeling all that great, so I met Ken at the Second Cup. Jamie apparently talked him into buying him a popsicle from the Evil Ice Cream Truck at Logan, after being bargained down from his initial position of an ice cream cone. Jamie woke up after 80 minutes (he could have slept more, but I kept him up), did some errands with me, and then agreed to go to the toy store. The toy store was exciting in that we had three visits to the bathroom: one for Liam, and two for Jamie, who had drunk the rest of my Italian soda. He was tired and somewhat cranky when we left, and we had a small meltdown over the fact that he had to sit in the stroller because he ran away from me in the grocery store, after I told him to stay with me (repeatedly). Tough beans, kid. When Jamie cries, he demands that we "clean his eyes" (wipe them dry), and it's usually a sign that he's ready to stop crying and talk about the problem. I cleaned his eyes, and we headed on to the cheese store, where he got some cheese to go with the apple packed in his bag. A quick visit to the Big Carrot for other dinner items, and we headed home.

John watched Jamie while I made dinner, and Jamie had fun playhing with the neighbourhood pack. After most of the kids went in for dinner, Alexandria and her mom, Karen, invited John, Jamie, and Liam in to listen to Alexandria play the violin. Liam was rapt, John says, and stopped fussing while she played. Jamie consented to eat most of his dinner, despite the oddness of it (polenta-stuffed peppers and salad), and we spent as quiet an evening as we could, with a fussy Liam. We got Jamie into the bath by nine, and he was in bed with lights out by 9:45. We went back to the old routine of a book, then lights out and a cuddle with Mom. He was quiet for the most part, and definitely wanted to be able to snuggle right up to me. John took Liam for a bit, until Liam's furious crying was too much, even after a walk around the block, and I nursed him again before handing him back to John. Jamie lay there, quiet and alert, for a while until I pulled the covers up over us, and he was able to fall asleep. That was around 11:00, which is still an hour and fifteen minutes better than earlier this week, despite the nap. Who knows how these things work? However, we're going to try the routine again tomorrow night, and hope that does the trick again.

2006-10-11 25:09 (Kristen) Liam kept me up until after 1:30 last night, and we all slept in on a grey, rainy morning. Jamie made it to Hakobune with John for 11:00 (they were due by 10:00) and Sensei told Jamie to go to bed early tonight so that he could be on time tomorrow. I'm taking him tomorrow, so we'll see how we do. Liam was fussy all morning until around noon, when he finally got rid of a lot of gas. Yay!

Jamie and John rolled home around 1:45, and John took Jamie for a walk. Jamie fell asleep, but woke up an hour or so later in Dr. Kennedy's office, where we were all getting checked out and relaying our woes. She gave us some advice on how to help Jamie get some sleep, amongst other things, and declared Jamie free of ear infection but cultivating a new virus. Oh, goody.

Dinner was at Pearls (John's parents' place), then John went to Scrabble while Jamie played with Tai-Tai for a bit before we headed home in the rain. Jamie and his fish boots played in puddles until he fell, then we headed home to relax before our bath. I had him bathed and in bed by 9:30, but sleeping turned into a problem once again. The current theory is that he doesn't want to share his falling-asleep-time-with-Mummy with Liam, and so he has trouble falling asleep with Liam in bed with us, unless Liam is asleep (and he hardly ever is at this time). Jamie was just about asleep when John got home at 10:30, got excited, overly tired, and then stayed awake until close to midnight. Liam is fussy, and I'm just not a happy camper again tonight as I have to be up early tomorrow to take Liam and Jamie to Hakobune.

Jamie has been worried about me, as I have been "broken" for a long time now. With Dr. Kennedy's OK, I am "healed," as long as I take things slowly. Jamie is overjoyed that I am now "fixed," and can carry him a little bit.

2006-10-12 19:34 (Kristen) I got up around 7:50 to get Jamie and Liam ready to go to Hakobune. The goal was to be on time: we *were* going to be on time. Heh. I got Jamie up, and he was intrigued by the idea of eating breakfast on the subway, but we were slowed down a bit when he rejected the first piece of raisin toast and demanded a second piece, and I misplaced one or two last-minute items. But, we made it to the bus, which stopped for us short of the stop, and we had a lovely chat with a neighbour, Kim, who lives in the apartment buildings across Broadview from us. We made it to Spadina Station at 8:55, but our efforts to be on time were stymied by a delay. We managed to get onto the fourth streetcar leaving the station, and fellow travellers were very helpful in assisting us to get on and off the streetcar with a stroller. Jamie refused to take the hand of a woman who offered to help him get off the streetcar behind me, but he refused to, insisting that I do it. She laughed, and said that I had him well trained. I only wish, but it isn't a bad impulse on his part.

Jamie barely said "goodbye" before running off to play with his friends. A little girl was going into Hakobune at the same time as us, and he insisted on following her and going in at the same time: he even took his shoes off without a murmur, and quickly too! I took Liam over to Yonge and Bloor, where I did some errands, and Liam slept for most of the time. He got many admiring compliments, which I appreciated even if he slept through them. John and Jamie picked us up on their way home, and Jamie had some food at Browning before heading out with Ken for a walk. Liam slept for a bit, then woke up and has been fussy ever since. He has had many many poos (six? seven? I've lost count) and isn't happy unless he's on a shoulder or being carried around. I don't know what the problem is, but getting anything done that requires two hands has been challenging. I've been pretty tired, so I haven't tried too hard.

Jamie slept for two hours, and came back home briefly with John so that John could pick up his cell phone. They went back out again, but were driven home by a freak snowstorm. Jamie has been asking for snow for weeks, and John says that Jamie was initially excited until the fierce wind picked up and drove the snow into his face. This activated his childhood fear of wind in his face, and he declared it cold and time to go home. We've had a nice quiet evening so far, and Jamie ate relatively well before dashing off to visit Gary. Liam has continued to be fussy, but John has taken him to Sobey's and is bouncing him while I write. Early to bed tonight for all of us.

(John) I looked after Liam in the green room while Kristen got Jamie to fall asleep. Liam was in a very active state of mind, and was obsessing as he often does with the radiator, presumably because it's shaped to push buttons in the newborn brain, all rectilinear with high-contrast edges. I had him sitting on my stomach facing the radiator (his neck muscles are strong enough that his head only wobbles when he gets tired), and he surprised me by insisting on standing up and then taking very tentative steps up my chest toward the radiator. We then Had to Repeat This ten or twenty times, and by the end of it he was very excitedly walking along the mattress with me just holding his hands for balance. Not bad for a lad who's only eight weeks old.

2006-10-13 23:59 (Kristen) John took Liam last night while I got Jamie to sleep, and it only took half an hour: much closer to what it used to take to get him to sleep. Excellent! Jamie, Liam, and I woke up together this morning, and Jamie insisted on having a cuddle before getting up. I think that I need to institute some sort of "Jamie/Mummy" time, because he has been insisting today that I put Liam down so that he can give me a hug, and has been very snuggly. Perhaps the permanence of Liam's visit is sinking in, or maybe he's not feeling well.

John took Jamie to Hakobune, while I stayed home with a sleepy Liam. Liam usually sleeps the morning away. I met up with John and Jamie at Browning, where Ken took Jamie out for his walk, while Gary looked after a sleeping Liam for twenty minutes. John had a haircut appointment, so I met up with Ken at the Second Cup with Liam. Jamie was asleep, and stayed there, with little to no help from me, for close to three hours. John met up with us and did a little shopping with me before heading home. Jamie watched some television, and talked with me for a little bit while John had a nap, and then we all headed to Browning together. Jamie ate dinner at the table, largely by dint of us telling him that he could get down when he had eaten X bites of his food. It worked. He then grabbed Gary and spent the evening with him, while I looked after a fussy Liam, with help from Tom and Daniel, who both love to hold babies. John and Liam went home first, and were finished their bath together by the time Gary, Jamie, and I got home. John and Jamie took a long bath while I got Liam to sleep, then I managed to get Jamie to sleep in a short period of time too, while they were both in the same bed with me. It helped that it was quite late, and Jamie was quite tired, despite his long nap.

2006-10-14 20:20 (John) Kristen let me sleep in until 11:00 this morning, which I needed; I've been very run down this week. We got Jamie ready as quickly as possible for the market, then walked him down in the little stroller to my mom's house in blustery weather more typical of November than October. Jamie was tired, and was acting about a year younger, insisting that I do something about the wind (put the rain shield on the stroller) and the sun (pull the stroller backward), and I was afraid he was going to fall asleep in the stroller. He perked right up after the walk though, and was more full of beans than I'd seen him in about a month. He powered through the market, trailing my mother and me, hitting all of his favourite haunts, and only started to flag as we got back to the car. By the time we got to Loblaws, I could see he only had about fifteen minutes of good behaviour left, so I didn't sit down for the smoked salmon sandwich I usually have there, but optimistically took it along for later. We got back to the car in time to watch a little snow squall blow through, along with quarter-inch hailstones. We took a circuitous route home following train tracks to try and lull Jamie to sleep, while he dissected and ate my sandwich: first lettuce, then cheese, then a little of the salmon, then all the flour licked off the outside of the kaiser bun. He fell asleep just short of my parents' house, my mom unloaded her groceries, got me a piece of lettuce to help reconsititute my soggy lunch, then we headed back home, where Kristen unloaded the groceries and I kept an eye on Jamie in the car while he slept.

When Jamie woke up an hour and a half later, he wanted to play in the alley with Ben, but decided quickly that it was still too blustery, and came back in to pee and then play inside with Gary. I looked after Liam for a bit so that Kristen could make dinner. Liam is much more responsive to human interaction this week, and it is to our mutual delight that he will crinkle up his face in a huge grin when he sees us. I have to photograph this, but my heart always melts when it happens, and it's hard to remember to grab the camera. Kristen spoon-fed Jamie a good dinner while I read him a book (one bite, one page, more or less), and then Jamie headed back downstairs to watch Godzilla with Gary (which explains why he was running around Browning last night yelling "Warning! Warning! Biohazard!").

(Kristen) Jamie has been needing some more special Mummy Time lately, and has been displaying this by needing lots of hugs, and asking if I'm happy. I take this to mean that I've seemed crabby, and we have been locking horns more than usual. We did some playing together and have had many cuddles, so I hope that helps. He's fixated on Pep and the Big Wide World, which is better than many of his television fixations because it's actually a science show in disguise for toddlers and small fry. He likes Quack the best (as do we all). Liam was fussy for a large part of today, refusing to let me put him down for longer than twenty minutes. This made doing the housework a little more challenging than I would have liked, as I can only do so much with him in a sling before my back starts to complain. I do have most of the toys (with the exception of the stuffed animals) organized, and did work on the Room of Shame in the back of the house (more prosaically the laundry and storage room). John took the kids so that I could make dinner (I've been enjoying cooking lately), and Liam has calmed down considerably since then. Jamie is down with Gary, and I'll be taking him upstairs soon for his bath.

2006-10-15 24:42 (Kristen) Jamie woke up around nine, I think: it was before me, which is most of what I know. We cuddled and hung out in bed until Liam woke up and needed to be changed, which was closer to 10. Liam had another fussy day: he was spitting up and in obvious gastro distress for a good part of it, and slept only lightly and was easily disturbed in his sleep for the rest. I'm going to try and cut out dairy for the week, and see if that helps him. I'm getting exhausted by his crying, and not being able to put him down for any length of time, although I see by reading back in the blog that Jamie had a phase like this at just around the same time. I hope that it passes soon.

John took Jamie for a walk down into the Don Valley before lunch, and Jamie walked the whole way himself, except for the last little bit back down Broadview to home. He wasn't all that hungry at lunch, but I think it's because he kept almost falling asleep into his food. John took him for his walk, and Jamie slept for close to two hours, he says. They came back home, and I took Jamie into the back alley to play with Sam, Ben, and Luke. Sam and Ben were playing soccer with Paul, and Jamie gamely tried to play, but utterly fails to understand the concept of kicking the ball to someone else, or of games in general. Paul assures me that he'll get the idea very soon, and it remeinds me that I might get some very basic board games for Jamie for his birthday.

We went to Pearls for dinner, and there was much bouncing of Liam and playing with Jamie. We came home and got the boys into the bath. Bedtime was a little late, but Jamie fell asleep quite quickly once John took Liam. Liam, however, has taken much longer to settle, and only just ell asleep, draped across my knees. I am terrified to move him into a better position, as he is just a bear when his sleep is disturbed. It may sound strange to those with no kids, but I'd rather cut my legs off than take the chance that I might wake him. Parents out there understand.

2006-10-16 22:00 (John) My brother's arguments carried the day, and my dad decided to buy a Toyota Corolla rather than join the ranks of the car-free. I got up early, drove my parents to Don Valley Toyota to meet with Ken Yokoyama, a salesman there and friend of a friend. He walked us through the process of buying a car (silver 2007 Corolla CE, C option package) quite smoothly, and we return to pick it up on Thursday afternoon. In the meantime, Kristen looked after the kids, and by the time we were back downtown she was out shopping with them on the Danforth. We went out for lunch at Mocha Mocha to celebrate the purchase, where Jamie opted for a vegan diet (he ate much of my salade nicoise, though of course not the tuna) and drank 300 mL of grape juice and about 200 mL of Orangina. (more later, Liam is crying)

2006-10-16 23:00 Kristen took Liam to the library, and I set off to try to get Jamie to fall asleep. I took him to look at two men resurfacing a patch of asphalt on the Danforth, a vacuum store, the firetrucks go in and out of Toronto Fire Station #323, the subways being marshalled at the Greenwood TTC yard for afternoon rush hour, the outside of the TTC Greenwood Carhouse, a body shop on Greenwood with an impressive collection of vehicles suffering head-on collision damage, and a VIA train on its way to points east. He kept complaining he was sleepy, but just wouldn't fall asleep. Go figure. We stopped because I wsa tired, at a little playground we'd never been to, where he announced that he desperately needed to pee (see previous entry). We ran up to Starbucks, peed, then dragged ourselves over to Jackman School to pass Jamie over to Mom with Liam, met Junko and went to play in her backyard until dinner time.

Dinner was at Browning, the usual, except that Ayami was working at her new job at Nami, Gary was sick, and Ken and Tami were also out of commission (each for unrelated reasons), so we were a little short-handed, but we managed with help from Tom and Michelle. Liam went for about nine hours without a poo this afternoon, but the crisis has passed, along with a lot of gas, thanks to Dad's expert technique. Bicycle his legs, tuck them into his tummy and rotate, stand him up and get him to do deep knee bends, then get him to walk along Dad's tummy, which he will do, if he is pointed at the Hypnotic Green Radiator. Jamie fell asleep a little early, having also managed eventually to get rid of all of the fluids he drank.

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

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