Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 65

2007-01-02 21:18 (Kristen) We're back home again, with a car packed to the roof, but with two happy boys and two exhausted parents. John got up with Jamie this morning at his usual hour of 8:00, after finishing packing the car late last night. We went out for brunch with the Dahls and Mom (our usual blast-off tradition), and were on the road by 1:00. We met up with Ted, Alice, Ian and Amy at Bayshore, and convoyed back towards Kingston.

Jamie fell asleep somewhere along the way, and Liam did too, so we didn't stop in Kingston with Ted and his family the way that we usually do. Instead, we drove as far and as quickly as we could until Jamie was woken up by John braking heavily as we approached some backed-up traffic (construction, it turned out). He was in a good enough mood, but Liam definitely wasn't when he woke up soon afterwards. We stopped at Trenton for about 45 minutes, while we had some food and some running around time, before getting back onto the road. We were home by 7:00, which wasn't bad time. We came in, unpacked the car, and let Jamie drag Gary off while we did. Around 9:00 we realized that we hadn't fed Jamie, so he had dinner after his bath, and then went up for his bedtime stories and a tooth brushing. He's still awake, as is Liam, which doesn't surprise me, given how much they slept and how little they exercised today.

Both boys are growing like weeds. Liam is growing out of his 3-6 month outfits, and Jamie, who hasn't grown much in a while, looks like he's going to bypass the 3X sizes all together on his way to size 4 in a sudden growth spurt. Liam has very sturdy legs, and can easily support his own weight if his hands are held. He needs to work on his back and upper arm strength, however, before he'll be able to sit up on his own or pull himself up. He's working hard on crawling: he can get his bum fully up into the air and pull his knees up properly, but he doesn't have the arm strength or belly clearance yet. He's working on it, though: next week's project, I suppose.

2007-01-03 22:37 (Kristen) Jamie fell asleep late last night, which after a week of falling asleep quickly makes me wish that whatever my mom puts into her sheets to make Jamie fall asleep right away was something that we had here. I suspect that it's my nieces and nephew, however, who are to blame/bless, and that we're just going to have to run his legs off ourselves. Liam had a restless night, and I wasn't feeling well rested when Jamie woke us up at 8:30. John (bless him) got up with Jamie, and I groggily got up with Liam soon afterwards. It was a quiet morning, and John took Jamie out around lunchtime to do some shopping. I tried to get Liam to sleep in the stroller but he only slept for an hour. He's been remarkably sleepless today, and i'm not sure that I approve. His sweet little lump phase is almost at an end, I suspect, and he'll soon be demanding to be doing this and that, asking to drive the car, and entering a new, more active (and Mom-intensive) phase.

He was pretty good at the Second Cup, letting me work for 45 minuteswith a minimum of interaction before it was time to go home. Once there, I kept an increasingly hungry and tired baby amused while Gary kept Jamie amused and John went to collapse for a little while before going to Scrabble. We unwrapped some presents for Jamie that included a Fisher-Price huntsman and dragon for the Little People castle set. Jamie loves the dragon in particular, and it ran around with the dragon puppet that Badger and Jeanette gave to him and Liam for a good while. Liam received a Baby Tigger and some lovely clothes. ate some dinner, and as he hadn't napped, was in high-energy, low-inhibition mode. We did have some fun doing puzzles before he knocked a piece under the heavy couch and decided to be judgement-impaired. He did pull it together enough to unwrap a few remaining presents, including a new Kumon maze book from his parents. He did two mazes at the back, and they were a bit of a challenge but nothing he wasn't up to. Then he watched some Thomas and came up for his bath. I had him in bed by 9:10 and asleep by 9:45. Liam is still awake, despite my best efforts, and won't stay asleep by himself for longer than five minuts (yes, I counted). He's been nursing fiercely all day, and John has just called out from the bathtub (where he is bathing Liam) that he is all chubby, and looking ready for a growth spurt. Well yes, I could have told you that. I'm off to drink more water and have a snack to provide Liam with his own snacks for later.

(John) Gary told me that he and Jamie were laughing themselves silly this afternoon with a game that Jamie invented and named "baserock", which is apparently just like baseball, except that you play it with a rock. This is typical both of Jamie's imaginativeness and sense of humour.

2007-01-04 22:55 (Kristen) We were up around 8:30, which I'm getting used to, and may even enjoy more than getting up around 9:00 (or later). We did some errands by car during the morning and over the lunch hour, but Jamie decided that he wanted to go out in his stoller. He was tired enough to have a stupid fight with me, but not tired enough to fall asleep until 4:00. Sigh. Liam has been in the pink of health today, sleeping in his stroller, and I even managed to get him to sleep in the car bed this morning. Wow! I can't remember the last time he did that. I always fail my roll, but not today.

We had dinner at Browning, as John decided to make salmon dinner to make up for our missing it earlier in the week. Jamie had a good time (I didn't see him much) and Liam played with Tom. We're home now, getting ready to leave for Kingston tomorrow for the weekend. John will be at the annual Montreal vs Toronto Scrabble match, and I'll be working away at Ted and Alissa's, while Jamie runs around with his cousins and Liam is his usual smiley self. I'm getting good at packing, and at least we won't need as much stuff as we took to Ottawa for the week. Thank god.

2007-01-05 23:32 (Kristen) After a restless night, we were up around 8:30 and trying to get ready to leave for Kingston around 1:00. I managed to get everything packed early enough, but was feeling rather run down. Tami called to say that there was lunch to be had at Browning, and so we took her up on it while John stayed back to get his stuff done. It was nice to spend time with Tami and Ken, Gary and Ayami, as we haven't seen much of them in a week or so. Jamie was acting tired (he had spent the morning watching television, and so probably wasn't feeling all that hot), and didn't eat much.

We were out the door and on the road by 1:45, which is very good by our usual standards. The trip was uneventful: Jamie slept for an hour, and Liam slept for close to two hours. We stopped once for donut holes at Tim Horton's (and for a much-needed coffee for me. No brain without coffee) and made it to Ted and Alissa's house by 4:20. Alissa had made osechi* (Japanese New Year's food) for us and for friends of hers, and we had a lovely dinner with Ted, Alice, and their kids, and with their friends Jeffrey, Sawako, and their son, Kevin. Jamie didn't eat much of the main course (he's been complaining of belly pains today, and I think he means gas pains, but am unsure), but really got into the chocolate fondue for dessert. He's starting to break out, however, and the evidence is pretty clear that he's mildly allergic to chocolate. Poor guy.

Jamie is pretty wired but otherwise in a good mood. I think that the amount of travel is throwing him off a little, but he's an adaptable boy and will be fine tomorrow. He and Liam are sleeping peacefully, snuggled together under Jamie's Scrabble blanket, on the bed as I write, and they are unbearably sweet together.

2007-01-06 10:41 (Kristen) Liam has been getting along amazingly with his Uncle Ted (whose name he has as one of his middle names). Liam slept in this morning, after having some large bouts of gas last night (which passed quickly, thank goodness). I went to check on him around 10:00, and found Ted rocking a placid Liam and listening to Japanese children's songs on iTunes. Liam was entranced by the iTunes Visualizer (which shows trippy abstract animations while it plays music), and didn't seem to miss me at all. He hung out with Ted for a while, and is now lying on the floor, talking with him. It's very sweet. Jamie is watching television, after going downstairs to say hello to the rabbits. He's still a little thrown off, but seems to be adjusting better now, and is having fun.

I was reading back, to see where Jamie was developmentally at this point, and Liam seems to be pretty much on the same track as his brother. He's starting to reach out slowly to guide things in a controlled fashion into his mouth (his car mobile, in particular), and is rolling over onto his left side with increasing ease.

2007-01-06 24:39 (Kristen) Ted and Ally got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, and Jamie has fallen in love with the boxing game. The Wii has something called a Wii-mote, which is a motion-controlled wand that lets the player control his/her character by doingthe motions themselves. Thus, you "bowl" in the bowling game by making a bowling motion with your arms, etc. There is a boxing game, and Ian was trying it out. Jamie wanted to play, but couldn't get the hang of it until Ian told him that he was to think like AnPanMan's punch: the "AnPunch." Jamie got it then, and was frighteningly good, waving his arms in the air, his little chin thrust out, and an expression of utter concentration on his face as he yelled "AnPunch!" over and over again. We didn't know if we should be delighted with his new-found prowess, or disturbed by his ferocity and desire to "punch people again." Ted took some digital film, thank goodness.

Jamie also made us laugh when Alice got into the car to drive us to dinner toinght. He was puzzled when she sat in the driver's seat, and said "Auntie Alice is not papa." Then he worked it out that Auntie Alice was like a papa. "Papa Auntie Alice?" The upshot was that she was a papa because she was driving, and not a mummy, because mummies don't drive. He worked it out so that it fit his worldview, but it is definitely imperative that I get a driver's licence and learn to drive, pronto.

The day was otherwise well. We got up, had breakfast, and the kids played well together. Jamie was visibly tired by 2:00, so we all walked the fifteen minutes to the local mall to do a little shopping. Jamie didn't fall asleep, and neither did Liam. We did pick up a Fisher-Price castle for Jamie with his Christmas money from his Grandpa, which he was pleased with, but Jamie didn't fall asleep until it was almost time to leave. I think that he slept for about half an hour before the wind woke him up on the way home. We picked up Indian food from Curry Original to share with John down at the Scrabble tournament, and both Jamie and Liam made a great impression on Scrabblers. Jamie had great fun running around with Alex Boys (who is two), and didn't want to go. Go home we did, however, and I got the boys to bed late, despite Jamie's lack of sleep. Tomorrow is another exciting day.

2007-01-07 23:56 (Kristen) We were up around the usual time, and John went off to his Scrabble tournament while we saw my friends Michael and Alison, and their two-year-old son, Rohan. They kindly came over for an hour, and Jamie enjoyed playing with Rohan and his cousins. Afterwards, Uncle Ted took the kids to play in the local playground, while I got some work done. Liam was mostly cooperative. Jamie came home exhausted, and after some lunch, Ally and I stuffed him and an equally tired LIam in to the car for a nap. We visited the delightful Cha Cha Tea (a wonderful tea shop, run by Kaoru Miller, with lovely teas from all over), and let the boys sleep. Jamie woke up after an hour, and I let Liam sleep for an couple of hours. John came home, and we had dinner with Ted, Ally, and faimly before heading home. We made record time, and Jamie and Liam were delighted to play with Gary and Ayami while JOhn and I unpacked the car and our baggage, and got ready for bed. The boys are both asleep now, and I think that I would like to join them.

2007-01-08 22:35 (Kristen) We were up a little before nine, and puttered about before going to take Liam to see Dr. Kennedy for his four-month shots. He was very brave, and even smiled at Dr. Kennedy afterwards (he cried for about twenty seconds). He is 17 pounds 8 oz., and still around the 90th percentile for height and weight. Yay, Liam! Jamie has grown a centimetre and gained a pound and a half since October, so he's measurably on a growth spurt.

(John) Ken took Liam out for his afternoon walk. It was cold and windy, with occasional snow pellets. The weather made Liam happy, and he burbled at the wind. He's weird. Jamie, Kristen, Daniel and I went to the Second Cup to wait for Liam. We ate a lot of pastries and had hot chocolate and green tea. When Liam arrived asleep, Kristen stayed with him to work; Daniel, Jamie and I went to Book City, then to my parents' house to check on it, then over to Treasure Island Toys, with Daniel and I talking about Mexico travel plans most of the way. Jamie fell asleep on the way to Browning for dinner, and slept for an hour, but was still quit tired for the rest of the evening. He puttered with trains, and played with Tom and Ross in the basement, while Liam sat with Mom (Liam was a bit tired from his shots), and Daniel and I played Lost Worlds.

Jamie and Liam both love to play with our rubber bath fish, but in different ways. Liam gets a look of intense concentration and joy as he repeatedly lunges for them, trying to catch them in the water; Jamie makes up elaborate reenactments of the day's events, as acted out by fish representing family members.

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

Back to Vol. 1 No. 64, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 1 No. 66.