Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 55

2006-10-24 24:00 (John) I have been ill for a while, but feeling a little better the last two days. I took Jamie over to the Jackman school playground for an hour before lunch, to run him around and to meet with an old friend who was unexpectedly in town with her five-year-old daughter. We then met Kristen and Liam at Browning, where Tami fed Jamie lunch while I went home to get his stroller. Jamie was a little unsettled, I think because he has some new virus, judging by his general behaviour and (ick) the nature of his stool. So I didn't even bother to tell him we were going out for a walk, which would have led to resistance on his part due to his mood, but instead asked him to help with some errands, which he readily agreed to. He eventually fell asleep in the middle of the last errand I could think that needed running (groceries at the Big Carrot), around 15:00, and slept for 90 minutes until a loud and untimely noise woke him up at the Second Cup. I brought him home around 19:00 and it took me close to two hours myself to take a much needed 15-minute nap, so I shouldn't be pointing fingers at my older son.

When I woke up, Jamie and Kristen had finished eating, which was fine, as I'm on a restricted diet for the foreseeable future. We all played on the floor of the train room, taking turns picking hiragana tiles off the floor calling out what would be on the picture on the reverse. Ahiru-no-A, Inu-no-I, Usagi-no-U, Neko-no-Ne, that sort of thing. Jamie doesn't really know his hiragana yet, but he seemed to be having fun.

There was a little excitement in the middle of bedtime, as one of our neighbours got taken to the hospital, which had the whole block up and awake, including our kids. I took Liam for a walk around the block in the chill night air, which did nothing to settle him, as he ooh-ed along to my rendition of various Japanese children's songs. Worth a try though. Also tried letting him lie on his back and flail his limbs, a favourite evening pastime, but as usual, that just made him tired and thirsty. Jamie finally fell asleep a little before midnight, I hope he'll be feeling better tomorrow. I hope we'll all be feeling better tomorrow.

2006-10-25 24:12 (Kristen) It feels like we've been really busy lately, either with babies who are fussing, or children who need to play, or something. Liam is still up late at night, which makes blogging harder, but we're trying to give him some exercise on the playmat, or somesuch, to encourage him to sleep earlier. He still bestows the best smiles, however, which is really enjoyable. Jamie was out of sorts today, and complaining of a tummy that hurt sometimes, but he fell asleep in about an hour tonight, despite a nap and the presence of a (sleeping) Liam. It was lights out at 9:30, and he was asleep by 10:30, so there is improvement.

Jamie went to Hakobune this morning and came back singing more songs that neither John nor I know. Liam slept for most of the morning, and for a good part of the afternoon as I had him slung in front as I walked Jamie (a proven sleep inducer). I bought Jamie's Halloween costume today (a fireman's outfit), and we had dinner at John's parents' place as usual on a Wednesday. Justin is staying with us tonight, and Jamie is looking forward to playing with him tomorrow. Liam has reached the end of his patience: that is all.

2006-10-26 21:30 (John) Thanks largely to Kristen's efforts, we managed to make it to Hakobune only about fifteen minutes late this morning. Jamie seems to be feeling better today, done with whatever minor bug had him a little off for a few days; today he's full of energy. Too much energy to sleep, which I desperately wanted him to do in the afternoon. He asked instead to "go to a farm and see sheep", and since Riverdale Farm (the onetime Toronto Zoo) is only two miles away, I thought there would be a reasonable chance that he would fall asleep en route. No such luck, even after the visiting Justin caught up with us and added his considerable energies to running Jamie around. Ask me sometime to show you the "bunnies video". Jamie looked at all the animals with some curiosity, found the smell inside the barn and the henhouse unpleasant, and was unsurprised not to find Quack from PEEP and the Big Wide World in the duck pen. He almost fell asleep on the two-mile walk home, but not quite, didn't want to come inside and opted instead to have Justin push his tricycle up and down the driveway for half an hour. He was quite tired when he eventually came in, as were we all, initially refused to eat the omelette Kristen made, but was tricked into it by his father who offered samples of his somewhat boring stir-fried string beans (still on a bland diet) as rewards for eating the eggs.

(Kristen) Liam and I spent a good day together while John and Jamie painted the town red. Liam gets bored easily now, and will fuss to be picked up but then can be mollified with "squid hands"--where you wave your fingers like a squid in front of him, keeping him inexplicably amused. Then you can put him on a mat, or leave him in his carbed, as long as you talk with him, or interact in some way. He's also trying really hard to pull himself up with his own arm strength (holding onto my hands) and is almost succeeding.

Jamie fell asleep on the counch while watching Peep around 7:30. I had looked over a couple of minutes previously, and asked him if he was sleepy,. He said, in a perfectly alert voice, "No. I'm not sleepy." The next time I turned around, he was crashed out on the couch. We got him upstairs, and he slept for an hour before waking up for a bathroom break. He settled down again quickly, and is still sleeping.

2006-10-27 08:59 (Kristen) Jamie slept until 8:00, which means that he slept for twelve hours last night (he fell asleep at 7:30, but was up for half an hour for a pee break). Hooray! Too bad Liam stayed up until 1:15!

2006-10-27 23:35 (Kristen) I was quite exhausted this morning, and so was Liam, but he got to sleep. Jamie was rather tired too (perhaps from sleeping an unaccustomed length of time), and so we had a quiet morning. I made some curry for lunch, as he didn't go to Hakobune. We traded today for Tuesday, when the day care will be having its Halloween party, which is much more important.

Liam and I stayed home while John took Jamie for his walk. Jamie didn't sleep, but did happily recognize a little AnPanMan figure at Wakame, a Japanese food store on Jones near the Danforth. John tells me that Jamie has been singing an AnPanMan (an action hero made of bread filled with red bean paste: "Red Bean Paste Bread Man") song for weeks now, but I had no idea what that song was about before now. John bought the action figure for Jamie, who was sorry after dropping AnPanMan the third time from the stroller, and Jamie insisted on wrapping AnPanMan in a blanket and that he was sleepy. John also says that Jamie read books quietly for forty-five minutes at the Second Cup while John did math. Wow! I've been reading books with Jamie (little first readers), and has been starting to enjoy books on his own. Tonight, he read his train book by himself (quite insistently) before bed as his bedtime story. I have noticed that he is memorizing the stories in the readers we've been reading, the monkey, but we're still getting reading practice out of them.

Liam and I went to pick up Jamie so that John could go home, and we went to the library to pick up some books. Jamie fell asleep soon after we got inside, and stayed asleep for a little under an hour and a half. I woke him up so that we could go to Browning, and he had a fairly good time playing and doing the usual. We all did a good job of interesting him in things that were not television, and kept it up when we returned home. Liam was in a wonderful mood, and has spent long periods of time being quietly alert and happy when he isn't being carried around by me or Tom. He will sit in the bouncy chair while I shower, which makes me very happy. Liam still has most of his hair, and while he is either losing a little or wearing some of it off at the back, where is it short and fuzzy, it is mostly there, and thick for an infant. His eyes are definitely brown now, and I suspect will be his dad's colour. Jamie fell asleep around 10:45, and if we could balance off 7:30 with 10:45, we'd have a decent bedtime.

2006-10-28 22:03 (Kristen) Jamie woke up at 8:00, and did his best to get me to get up with him. Liam and I resisted util 9:00, then gave in to Jamie's will. Liam had a very restless night last night, and so I was a zombie mom. John took Jamie (and Justin) with him to the market around noon, and I looked forward to putting Liam down for a little while, as he was still unsettled. No such luck, so I took him for a walk in the big stroller. I was very hungry but didn't have a chance to get something to eat, as Liam would fuss every time the stroller stopped moving for more than a few minutes (long lineups on the Danforth on Saturdays). John called around 3:00, and Liam and I raced home to get Jamie for his walk. Jamie was pretty tired, and fell asleep by the time we reached Chester Station, and LIam was asleep in the front carrier. I sat in the Second Cup for a while, where Liam and Jamie were both praised for their cuteness and beauty (but of course!) and Liam's sweater was praised mightily twice (Jennifer knitted it, and it is beautiful).

Both John and I were feeling pretty run down, and so we leapt at Tom's offer to make dinner. Jamie, Liam, and I headed over around six, and John joined us soon afterwards. Jamie had a good night running around with Daniel and Ross, and Tom bounced Liam for an hour (hallelujah!). We're home now, and Gary and Ayami are playing with both boys while I type, and John gets ready for the shower. I think that I'll be falling asleep at the same time as the boys tonight when we put the kids to bed.

2006-10-29 20:10 (Kristen) The switch back to Standard Time meant that we got up around 8:00 rather than around 9:00, with Jamie waking up first and climbing all over me to make sure that I was awake too. Groggy mother. He was in a high-need, high activity phase this morning, and Liam was not a happy camper at the same time (do they plan this out in advance between the two of them?), so it was a little chaotic for the first hour or two. John and Justin took Jamie for a (windy) walk in the valley, while I made pancakes for lunch. Justin and Jamie played trains until it was tiome to go for a walk. Jamie doesn't want to go but John convinces him by turning it into an errand that Jamie can help with.

Jamie didn't sleep, and has been overly tired for the rest of the day, indulging his alter ego, Judgement Impaired Boy. He has spent a good deal of time watching AnPanMan videos that John has found for him, but which require a grown-up present as they are sometimes scary (in a two-year-old way). Dinner was at John's parents' house, and Jamie ate all his dinner for the first time in a while. We are home again, getting ready for an early bath and bed.

Liam is holding his head up very well now, and only gets thrown off when he gets tired, or when he tried to turn his head too quickly. Jamie was telling me yesterday that certain colours are either funny or not funny. Green and blue are not funny; white and gold are. Black wasn't yesterday, but is now. Orange is funny, but red is only a little funny. We'll see if any other colours are declared funny or not, and if any others get rehabilitated.

2006-10-30 21:30 (John) I'm feeling better again today, and have learned that dermatographism and shiatsu don't mix. Feh. Kristen took the boys out for their walk while I went to the allergist (Ken is still sick), then I met them at our family doctor for Liam's two-month weigh-in and shots. Liam is 13 lbs. 7 oz. (6100 g), with a head circumference of 41 cm and a length of 61.5 cm. That's apparently 90th percentile for the first two and off the chart for the last, so the breastfeeding seems to be working well. Jamie is 16.5 kg and 96 cm, which is about 75th percentile and 50th percentile, so he is a little heavy, but it's nothing to worry about, and it certainly looks like it's all muscle to me. Liam took his vaccination okay, but has been very upset since about an hour ago (four hours after the shot), and I'm guessing it's going to be a rough night. He's taking Tempra every four hours, starting with right before the injection.

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

Back to Vol. 1 No. 54, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 1 No. 56.