Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 60

2006-11-28 22:25 (Kristen) I do think that Jamie is finally giving up his naps more than he's keeping them. It's a long process; they don't get dropped overnight. However, we're going to have to adjust now to afternoons with Jamie. It makes the workday a little shorter, which is problematic, but I have sometimes thought that I'd like more time to do things with him like art projects and going to the Science Centre, which have been more difficult to do when he sleeps the afternoon away. I think that i"m going to have my chances now.

John took Jamie to Hakobune this morning, and I went to the Second Cup to work with a sleeping Liam. I ate lunch at Browning, and Ken took Liam for an afternoon walk. I went home in time to meet John and Jamie, and played with Jamie while John had lunch and took a nap. Then I went to meet Liam, who woke up (having, I later discovered, pooed but not seen fit to mention this to me). Liam was awake for the afternoon, which did in my work time, but we went to the library, did an errand or two, and met up with John and a very wide awake Jamie at Withrow Park. I went to the Second Cup as I thought that Liam needed to eat, but he fell asleep on the way. John and Jamie met up with us there, and I took Jamie to get some cheese while Liam gazed up at John in the coffee shop. We headed home soon afterwards, where I read Jamie a number of the books that Liam and I picked up at the library (The Subway Mouse is a hit; we've talked about the mice in the subway before). It was a quiet evening, marred only by an overly tired Jamie's inability to fall asleep easily. He's asleep, but Liam is up now, hooting and cooing on my lap as I type. I may have to give up working again tonight, if only for my own sanity. John is taking Jamie to Hakobune, so I should be able to get some work done then if I pop Liam into the stroller.

2006-11-29 24:00 (John) Kristen has a bad head cold on top of leftover flu. I have the dregs of the flu along with my preexisting condition. The kids are, miraculously, quite healthy and full of energy. I took Jamie to the day care today, and we chatted about the mechanics of driving a car all the way there. When we go anywhere by car, I have to allow ten minutes now for him to sit in the driver's seat with me quizzing me on what each of the controls do.

While he was at Hakobune, I did some grocery shopping in Kensington Market and worked on my thesis in the car. When I picked him up, Mrs. Sasaki said that he had been too distracted to eat lunch, nibbling only a little bit before getting up to play with the first boy who finished his meal. On the other hand, he does quite a good job of singing grace in Japanese. He finished his bento sitting with me on the bench downstairs, telling me a story about running into (literally) one of the other boys, a fairly frequent occurrence.

When we got home, we played with trains for half an hour while Kristen got the boys ready to go out for their afternoon walk. She took them to the library, the toy store and the Silk Road Cafe, the last for therapeutic quantities of hot and sour soup. Jamie was a good boy and enjoyed each stop. We made a big deal of sitting together at the kitchen table, all four of us, to eat dinner together, and Jamie ate well, albeit with a quid pro quo of one mouthful eaten per page of dinosaur book read. Kristen got the boys to bed remarkably early, at 20:30, and was sound asleep when I got home from Scrabble at 22:45.

2006-11-30 24:18 (Kristen) I was out like a light last night, and the boys were with me (marvels of marvels). Both of them woke up around 5:30--Liam for a change, and Jamie with a request for a tangerine--but I got Liam to sleep after changing him, and Jamie to sleep after a drink of water. `I was up around 8:20, and I had to wake Jamie up to get him ready for Hakobune. Remarkable!

I had a regular checkup with Dr. Kennedy after John and Jamie left, and Liam obligingly slept for two hours. Jamie fell asleep in the car, after refusing to leave it when he and John arrived home, and slept for two and a half hours. John brought him in when it was clear that Jamie had wet himself in his sleep. Poor guy. He was awfully upset, but I made him hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles, so he forgot about it quickly in the negotiations for more whippped cream and sprinkles. It was a quiet night, but Jamie did not fall asleep until after midnight, and Liam is still awake and fussing over something, poor guy. John spent the last hour with us, which was unusual and nice, and a sign that he's finally starting to get better.

Liam has been very chatty over the last few days, and will hoot, chirp, and coo for long periods of time with whoever will talk with him. He is quite as sociable as Jamie was, and maybe even a little more so. Jamie and I have been going to the library lately, and he's been driving me crazy with requests to read this, that, or some other book that we got. I think that we have over twenty books out, but I'm not sure (lost count). He is enjoying the books ,more than television, and I do like the time we spend together, but he is an insistent audience when I am trying to do little things like make dinner or clean the dishes or nurse his brother. Still, I'm glad for it.

2006-12-01 24:49 (Kristen) Liam had a rough night last night; I'm not sure why, but something was bothering his little tummy. He woke up at least five times after finally falling asleep at all (around 1:20), crying in discomfort. I would pat him on the back, settle him, and then we'd have a little sleep before it started again. When Jamie woke me up at 9:00, I asked John to take him in to Hakobune for me as I was just wiped. John did, and after I saw the evil weather outside, I was doubly glad that John did so.

Liam was better after a mighty poo, but I had to take him for a walk to get him to sleep long enough for me to get some work done. The rain makes him sleep too, like Jamie, but he didn't sleep for long. To make up for the lousy night's sleep, however, he stayed peacefully in his stroller for half an hour and let me finish my work. What a good boy! We headed home to get Jamie, who slept for an hour and a half before we went to the toy store and then to Browning. Tom looked after Liam, and John looked after Jamie, who didn't want to eat much again tonight (although he always has room for ice cream). Liam is fussy again tonight, however, and so I must go.

2006-12-02 19:06 (Kristen) It snowed last night, and Jamie was delighted to see the lawn covered in white stuff. Unfortunately for him, most of it had melted by the time he made it outside. John made him a tiny tiny snowman out of the snow he found on the front porch, and that seemed to do. He is anxious for the snow to fall so that he can make big snowmen. He asked me again today about Mio and Taka, because he remembers making very large snowmen with both of them with great pleasure, but accepted grudgingly that they were still in Japan.

John went to the market with Jamie, and I took Liam with me to the Eaton Centre to get some Christmas shopping done. Liam liked sleeping in the stroller on the subway, but like Jamie, he found the Eaton Centre too full of lights and noise to rest properly. He fell asleep again on the subway ride home, but I had to wake him to bring him inside out of the cold. He's been having a hard time sleeping ever since, and has been chewing the living daylights out of my thumb. This, unfortunately, has all the hallmarks of teething. Poor lamb. I had hoped that it would be easier for him than it was for Jamie, but I am thinking that it may not be.

Jamie, Liam, and I stayed home while John went to see Dr. Ling, and we've had a nice peaceful day. Jamie isn't interested in dinner, although he will eat ices, and Liam is still having a hard time being anywhere but in my arms. Because Jamie didn't nap, I'm hoping to put him to bed early tonight, and maybe watch a movie afterwards while bouncing a fussy Liam. Parenthood gives one a strange idea of what might consistute a relaxing evening...

2006-12-03 21:19 (Kristen) We had a rare family day today, with all four of us going out and doing things together. This meant going to Yorkdale Mall, buying bubble tea (Jamie's favourite), and playing with the train table at Indigo, and the castle at Pottery Barn Kids (which is almost as evil a place as Williams & Sonoma, which has a cake pan with an engine and eight cars in it to make train cakes, which would make me the Queen of Day Care if I bought one and made such a cake. And I never would have had a thought like that five years ago. But I digress).

First, we woke up and had a slow morning. Jamie continued his love/hate affair with food, eating his honey toast and demanding an egg, but not eating any part but the yolk. Then we headed out to the mall, and did our thing. Liam slept and Jamie didn't. We came home, and John's mom came over for a bit before we headed to Tom and Michelle's for dinner. Yay, Michelle and Tom! Gary and Ayami were there too, and Jamie was overjoyed to see Gary, who has been working odd hours lately, and has not been available for play. Ayami got Jamie to eat dinner, Daniel played with Liam, as did Tom, and we had a very pleasant evening. We came home a little late because of it, and now Jamie is holed up in the basement with Gary and Ayami, watching videos and getting in as much fun time as he can before it is time for sleep.

The other thing is that Jamie is really hitting the Terrible Threes. He looks you full in the face and says "No!", runs around doing what he wants to when you tell him stop, and has temper tantrums where he has a particular cry that says that he is trying to see if he can push you into giving in, rather than signifying real distress or pain or fear. He's testing all his boundaries right now, because he is three, and knows that some of the rules are different, but not others. I, on the other hand, have turned into the Queen of No, and realize that I'm getting a little too fast on the crabby trigger finger. I'm looking for ways to see if I can avoid the head-to-head fights a little more by defusing them before they start. Ice cream for breakfast, however, still remains an unnegotiable "no." I mean, really.

2006-12-04 21:59 (Kristen) Liam had another rough night last night, waking up at 2:30 and 4:30 kicking and having trouble nursing. There was definitely much gas, and therefore much pain for our poor little guy. I was a little rough in the morning, however, but functioning enough to get a bunch of errands done from home. One of them was making an appointment with Dr. Kennedy to see a rash on Liam's arm and legs, which has been developing over the last week. I thought it might be eczema, but Dr. Kennedy says that it is developing in an atypical way for eczema, if that is what it is. I'm continuing to put lotion on him, and Dr. Kennedy thinks that it's probably a viral rash, and we'll keep an eye on it to make sure that it doesn't get worse. We're the Rash Family. Sigh.

I took Liam out for a walk around 2:00, and got him to sleep a little afterwards. I went to the Second Cup, and John arrived soon afterwards with a sleeping Jmie. Yay us! Jamie slept for two and a half hours, while Liam slept for three hours. John and I got a huge amount of work done, and I, at least, am flying. Better than drugs, really. We woke Jamie up and John took him to Sun valley and the toy store, while I looked for a reference book at Book City and a white shirt for Jamie at a local children's clothing store. I didn't find one, but I did get him next year's raincoat (fleece lined) for $15. Yay me!

Tami wasn't at Browning today, so we did our own veggie prep, and dinner was on the table later than usual. Jamie had fun playing with Tom, Gary, and Ayami, and Liam hung out with Daniel and Tom. Jamie has been missing Gary terribly, and when I told him (in response to a question) that Gary was at home, he said "No, he's not, He's at work." Poor Jamie. He was, indeed, delighted to see Gary and even now is in the basement with Gary and Ayami, sucking up as much time as he can get. It's time to put Liam into the bath, and run downstairs to brush Jamie's teeth. We're a little late with bedtimes, but it's not a bad thing since Jamie slept late with his nap.

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

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