Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 70

2007-02-06 21:48 (Kristen) Jamie and I were up before 9; John and Liam were up at 11:00. Liam fell asleep two hours later for a three-and-a-half-hour snooze, and seems to be fighting John's cold. He's been running a low-grade fever, which I'm dealing with by means of Tylenol, off and on today. He's (of course) having some trouble sleeping tonight, but I hope the Tylenol will help soon.

It was a quiet morning, full of Japanese kids videos, thanks to our friend Junko. Lunch was at home, and John and I decided to take the boys out on errands despite the cold weather. I remind myself that they *are* Canadian, and 1/4 Scandinavian too, so they have some Viking ancestors to impress. The wind was biting, but the sun was out. We did our errands, and had a Second Cup interlude before heading home. Jamie didn't nap, and has been indulging all the more challenging aspects of being three that he can find. It's been a long day, and a morning at Hakobune, running around with his friends, will not be amiss. John put him to bed tonight because Liam is fussy, and the sound of footsteps means that our older son is now asleep. Let's hope the younger one will soon follow.

(John) As I write this, I am editing my first DVD, a very lightly edited version of Jamie's Hakobune Christmas video.

2007-02-07 23:24 (Kristen) Jamie was up around 8:00, which was good; it was a Hakobune day, and it's always better when he wakes up himself. We managed to get me, Liam, and Jamie out the door and onto public transit on time, with some help from a tired and somewhat ill John. Jamie and I had fun playing the phonetics game (G makes a "guh" sound!) and when we were discussing the letter "G", he told me that Gary (which begins with "g") was his friend. It was very sweet.

Liam woke up on the subway and didn't fall asleep until 11:30; I did a little shopping, and then went back to get Jamie. The wind was so severe by an apartment building near Hakobune that we were nearly blown into the street; somewhat scary. We made it safely, however, and picked up a happy but tired Jamie. We met up with John at the Second Cup on our way home, and Jamie cheerfully ate his rice crispie square and drank his hot chocolate. Our usual barrista puts extra whipped cream on Jamie's. Then he nearly fell asleep at the table; John put him into the stroller, and he was asleep in a minute. Jamie slept at the Second Cup while John worked and Liam and I ran errands; then we all went home. Jamie and I ate dinner, Gary played with Jamie for the evening, and Liam and I hung out. while John went to Scrabble. It was a quiet night.

We're taking Liam off solids for a few days, because he's been having terrible (and I mean terrible) gas pains, and we need to establish a culprit. He's doing better so far tonight, which is a relief. Tomorrow I'll reintroduce the pears, since he really does love solids, and see what his reaction is. John's theory is that the rice cereal and the pears are reacting badly together in his gut. It's certainly possible. In the meantime, no solids for him!

2007-02-08 21:36 (Kristen) Liam had his third bad night in a row, waking up crying, and needing to be soothed back to sleep. He is refusing the breeast, which means that his little mouth hurts, but it's hard to deal with (beyond another dose of Tempra) at 2:41 in the morning. He eventually settled, but I was a little ragged today when Jamie woke up around 8:00. We went to Hakobune (and boy, was the wind cold) and then Liam and I went to the Second Cup nearby. Liam slept for a while, but still hard trouble nursing wehn he woke up, crying and fussing. I checked in his mouth, and finally felt and saw the tooth that he's worked on for the last three days. Yay, Liam! I hope that it means that he'll have a better night tonight. His mouth still hurts, and he's quite off solid food. It's funny: I tried to give him some pear to cheer him up this morning, and he sent it right back out: ptui! Jamie never did that, and I was shocked enough to laugh. I'd better not do that again; it might encourage him.

Jamie, Liam, and I went on the subway to meet John at the Second Cup. Jamie expressed the desire to see the end of the line again, but I told him that we needed to get off and meet John. (Tomorrow's adventure, however, will involve looking for buffers at the end of the line.) However, Jamie was a little slow getting off the car when we were at our station, and I had to grab him to pull him off before the doors closed. This lead to an interesting conversation about what would happen if he stayed on and Liam and I were left behind. He insists that he's big enough to ride the subway on his own; I look much more dimly on this idea. He's also been remembering a dream that he had a few months ago about falling onto the subway tracks. It frightened him, so he's been holding tightly onto my hand the instant we enter the station. We have also been having discussions about what happens if you fall onto the tracks. He knows to be like a subway mouse and hide underneath the platform, and was excited to see a real live subway mouse on the way home today.

Jamie had an orange juice and an iced cookie but enjoyed a hot chocolate too. He fell asleep, and was woken up when we took him to Dr. Kennedy's office for his immunization needle. He didn't enjoy it at all, but managed to be a reasonable brave boy about it. We're home now, having a quiet evening, where Liam is now happy and Jamie is tired. We're getting ready for bed now.

2007-02-09 23:38 (Kristen) We managed to get out the door and to daycare close to on time. John went off to some meetings, and Liam and I hung about the university waiting to pick up Jamie. He had a good day today, and actually told me a little of what he did. THis is unusual, and welcome. We did what we've done most of this week, and met John at the Second Cup, waiting for Jamie to finally drop off. He accomodated us around 4:00, and I took a newly awake Liam shopping before we all headed home. I had John look after Liam for a few minutes, and I have to say that I rarely see John as happy and relaxed as he is when he's holding Liam, or playing with Jamie. It's a lovely thing to see.

John took Jamie swimming, and they seem to have had a great time together. We had dinner at Browning, and Liam hung out with Tom while Jamie chased Gary and Daniel about the house with swords. Well, at least it's better than guns, which he refers to as "shooting guns," and I am far from trhilled about. He is still mispronouncing words amusingly: I forget exactly how he mangled spaghetti tonight, but it had more vowels, somehow. Bed was late, but Jamie was asleep by 11:30, while Liam still is awake, and needing to be entertained. I'll try again soon.

(John) Jamie took some coaxing to get into the water, but succumbed in the end to the large crate of bath toys the staff had put out for all the little kids to play with in the pool. He clung to me like a barnacle for about twenty minutes, then kicked his way back and forth across the pool until I got tired. Then we switched to jumping in off the top step of the ladder into my arms; then hanging onto the edge of the pool without touching me at all; then taking two pool noodles and making a train with Jamie the engine, a flutterboard full of bath toys the freight car and me the caboose. Eventually, and predictably, he refused to come out, at which point we accidentally discovered that he's tall enough to walk in the shallow end, so he had to practise that for a long time.

2007-02-10 20:30 (Kristen) Liam slept a little better last night, but Jamie kept waking up with problems of one sort or another. He was easily soothed back to sleep, but it was crowded in the bed last night. Jamie was fragile when he woke up, likely still not feeling well, and I can't say that I'm feeling all the spiffy today either as the family cold has landed fully on me now. John took Jamie to the market, while I took Liam for his afternoon nap/walk to the Second Cup. John brought a napless Jamie home around 4:00, and I brought Liam home soon after that.

Liam has been experimenting with paper, which means grabbing my magazines and ripping the covers off. He is definitely at the grabby stage althoug the book aspect will be a curbed behaviour. He can sit up if propped, and loves to stand up if we hold him. He's grinning away madly at Jamie, who is sitting beside me and watching Treehouse. Jamie's getting better and better at going to the bathroom by himself, which involves taking off and putting on his own clothes. Yay!

(John) Jamie had his usual good time and good appetite at the market, and also helped me pick up a Nikon D40 at Vistek. Our trusty Nikon CoolPix 5400 is at Nikon Service for a few weeks, and I had been thinking we needed two cameras to chase after the two kids, so here we are. Jamie was at his charming best at Vistek, getting our salesperson Jordana to fetch him stuffed animals while running laps around the showroom looking at all the cool tech. Liam is also fascinated with the new camera, which gets his attention in a way the 5400 never did. As well it should - after several years of taking pictures with digital point-and-shoots, it feels great to return to the SLR world.

Jamie was also in touch with his Icelandic heritage today, eschewing a coat despite the -4°C (25°F) daytime temperatures, preferring instead to run from car to building, tolerating at most the rain shield and a blanket when in his stroller. Don't tell Kristen.

2007-02-10 23:00 (John) Jamie fell asleep resting his head on my chest tonight, which he had not done in a while.

2007-02-11 22:30 (Kristen) Jamie just came up to me and asked to watch a movie; I told him no, because it was almost time for the bath. He glowered at me, but couldn't keep the act up when I tickled him. Heh.

We all slept in this morning, which was fine. I made the mistake of saying that I would make pancakes this morning in Jamie's hearing, so ended up going out to buy pancake ingredients for a late breakfast. They are one of his favourite things, probably because I put real maple syrup and whipped cream with fresh berries on them. Whipped cream makes almost everything better.

Liam didn't sleep much in the morning, but slept a lot in the afternoon. John took Jamie out for a walk to get him to sleep, but Jamie decided not to sleep. They met up with me and Liam at the Second Cup, where Jamie was high maintenance until John took him out again to get him to sleep, around 4:00. Liam had already been taken around the block to put him back to sleep after his brother's penetrating voice had woken him up early from his own nap. John and I got about two hours of work done before we took the boys home and woke them up.

Dinner was a nice vegetable curry that John made, and some chicken curry (store-bought) to go with it. Jamie decided that he wanted to watch Chicken LIttle (not a great movie, but he liked it) three times today. At least it's a short movie. Now everything is all about fighting aliens. When he pretends to fight, he makes a "keen keen" (or is it "kin kin"?) sound, which is apparently Browningese for the sound swords make when they clash. Jamie is very much into the "keen keen." Sigh. Liam was active baby tonight, grabbing for any piece of paper that he saw (he's fast, and strong), and doing his best to travel across the floor in any way he can, complaining loudly all the way. I'm going to miss the luggage stage deeply, I am beginning to suspect. Jamie has been playing with Ayami for the last hour, and is having a great time playing on the electric piano (which he was playing earlier today and making up his own tunes while singing Hakobune songs) and talking about aliens.

2007-02-12 21:28 (Kristen) Today felt full and eventful, with lots of firsts and things happening. Jamie fell asleep around midnight last night, and so we had to wake him up at 10:00. Liam was awake a little afterwards. Jamie was game but still a little fragile, and interested in our main errand of the morning: going to Jackman School to register for junior kindergarten. Yes, Jamie is eligible to start school in September, even though he will only be three, because he turns four before the end of the calendar year. In Mexico, apparently, you have to be four by the time school starts, and Jamie would be out of luck. We rushed to our appointment at the school, which really meant that there wouldn't be too many parents crowding the small school office trying to register. We're going to try for the afternoon class, which isn't as crowded as the morning class, so that Jamie can keep going to Hakobune.

We finished up at the school, and Jamie went with John to his parents' house to look after some things while Liam and I went to the Big Carrot for a few necessities (like honey for honey toast). I picked up Jamie and John, and Jamie insisted on carrying his bulldozer from John's parents' house to Browning for lunch, even though it meant that he wouldn't get carried by John. He, of course, changed his mind, and spent the short walk in tears: a sign that he really was very tired still. So, we thought that he would fall asleep this afternoon for his nap, but were wrong: no nap. Instead, we spent time at the Second Cup. Ken had walked Liam, and so Liam slept after Ken had dropped him off, and Jamie did his "work." He worked on making letters on a sheet that John had made for him, with the outlines of the letters of Jamie's name. He soon finished, and decided that he would work outside the lines. The look of pure joy on his face when I recognized the letter "J" that he made was wonderful. I said "It's great when other people understand what you've written, isn't it?" and he agreed. I think that he's, for the first time, realized that he can not only receive words but make his own. That's a great feeling.

Later on, he took advantage of the free Internet that John found to play some games on the Sesame Street website. He really likes Zoe's dance game, and I caught him imitating Zoe's dance moves with his arms out of the corner of my eye. He looked at me, and I studiously didn't look at him, so that he wouldn't feel self-conscious, which he was ready to be if I had been looking. Tee hee. I like that my son likes to dance.

John took Jamie to Browning, while I went with Liam to the library, to run an errand for Allie (Ted's wife), and to buy Jamie a new pair of Robeez boots, as he's grown out of the old ones. Liam fell asleep so I dawdled on my way back to Browning, where we then made dinner. Jamie ran about sword fighting anyone who would engage with him, and Liam had a good time being thrown in the air and carried about by whoever would have him. We're home now, getting ready for the bath, and Liam is rolling all over the floor. I am going to have to do some serious childproofing in the next week or two.

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

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