Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 82

2007-05-01 22:00 (Kristen) We were woken up this morning by Jamie on the verge of throwing up in bed. We managed to get him a bucket in time but the poor little guy was *not* feeling well at all. He threw up again an hour later, and that was pretty much the tone of the day. He was complaining of a headache (not surprising), but did manage to drink a great deal and eat in the afternoon. Liam's nose continues to emit mucus and green bits, but his spirits are very high, particularly after he did a little crawling practice. Nothing is safe anymore. He followed me across the living room floor at a surprising clip earlier today. I took him out with me to do some errands in the afternoon, including a trip to the library and to the hardware store for a washer for our leaky kitchen faucet.

I got a little work done at the Second Cup, and came home in time for John (in theory) to have a nap before we went to see Dr. Kennedy about Liam's nose and Jamie's apparent flu. Jamie passed out in Dr. K's waiting room about ten minutes before we saw Dr. K, which she noted was very unusual behaviour for him. He stayed passed out as she checked out his ears and glands, and said that his ears were quite red. She thinks that he's getting whatever cold Liam has, but we're not sure if there isn't something else going on. The disturbing part was that Jamie peed himself in his sleep while we were in the office. He almost never does that anymore, and John says that he had peed only a half hour previously. We brought him home, and he hasn't woken up since. I moved him up to the bedroom around 9:00, where he has peed in his sleep again. We're somewhat concerned.

Liam, on the other hand, was hilarious tonight. He was the Energizer Bunny of babies; crawling here and there, trying to find out what the world tastes like when you can roam all over. He was in a fabulous mood, engaging in full body laughs, kicking and curling up as he did so, and even walking only holding one of my hands at one point. !!!! He also scarfed an entire oversizeed jar of turkey and mixed vegetables. !!!! When he has a spoon, I will often yell out "Spoon!" and laugh, because he will hold it over his head in what I can only assume is triumph, with a rabid grin on his face. Tonight, instead of saying "Spoon!" I said "Banzai!" Well, we did that sans spoon at least 20 times. We got John to do it too, and Gary even came to watch. He was very clearly delighted with this bit of communication; we will be doing it again soon, I do think. A lot. He's finally in bed, and I think that I'll be going to bed soon too, as I can't imagine that Jamie will sleep through the night. If he's up at 5:30, it will be a very rough day tomorrow.

(John) I spent the afternoon playing with Jamie and watching videos with him until Kristen came home. Jamie was tired and clearly not feeling well at all, but at least his appetite was good. I tried installing the washer that Kristen brought home for the leaky faucet in the kitchen, but it didn't fit, and while I tried to make it fit, the shutoff valve sheared off (inside the pipe). I shut off the main supply to the house to avoid flooding the kitchen, then followed took Jamie to Dr. Kennedy's to catch up with Liam and Kristen. When we were done there, I took Liam to the hardware store to buy replacement kits for the innards of the taps. I brought them home, installed one, but the shutoff valves were still toast. Hans came by, tried various things, then sent me out to Canadian Tire to buy new shutoff valves to cannibalize for parts. I came home, worked with him to install them along with the other tap, and the kitchen sink now works fine. Kristen carried Jamie upstairs, then I changed him out of his wet pants into his pajamas without waking him up (yay). I started working on getting ready for the NSSC, for which I leave on Thursday, and my MacBook hard drive died. I spent 90 minutes trying to coax it back to life, without success. Tomorrow, in between preparing for the NSSC and having a dental implant crown fitted, I will see if the nice people at the Apple Store can help me.

2007-05-02 21:03 (Kristen) So. Jamie slept until 7:00 before waking me up, and rousting Liam out of bed too. Hey: 7:00 is soooo much better than 5:30, which is what I was hoping for. He was full of vim and vigour, and was feeling much better than yesterday, although he was a little sniffly. That would be the cold Dr. Kennedy was talking about. Liam was all happiness and smiles as well, and John decided, after returning from the computer store at 9 AM, that we'd try to take Jamie to Hakobune. Jamie went off, and so did Liam and I got some gardening and other household tasks done. John came back with Liam, and then went out again (the replacement hard drive was installed, the old data was not recoverable). They were home around 12:25, at which point I took Liam with me to pick Jamie up at Hakobune. Liam slept until I went upstairs to get Jamie, and I came back downstairs to find Kathryn, our friend there, walking him about as he looked up the stairs to see where we were. Kathryn will sometimes watch Liam for me if he's asleep when I drop Jamie off or pick Jamie up, and this was the first time he'd ever woken up on her. Everyone was fine, and we zoomed off on the streetcar.

Jamie wanted to go to the Second Cup, and so off we went. I called time around 3:00, because I was tired and knew that I was not going to be patient that much longer. Jamie was non-stop, chattering about this and that, with every sentence starting "Mummy! Mummy!" Nice, but exhausting. Liam had had a full nurse but was wanting to fall asleep again, so we went home. The local kids were out, and so Jamie played with them while I did some gardening. John came home from his dental appointment, and the kids played some more until it was time to go to John's parents' place for Wednesday night dinner. Liam ate some salmon, rice, and asparagus, along with some pears and rice cereal, and got a remarkable amount of it into his mouth. He was the star tonight, as he managed to pull himself up into a kneeling position on John's old box of blocks, and was making a try for standing on his feet. He was utterly pleased with himself.

We're home now, after walking home, and Jamie's playing quietly beside me while Liam is up with John in the bathroom, getting ready for the bath. John will be away, starting tomorrow, until Sunday afternoon, and we're gearing up for the solo parent show. Stay tuned! Lots of thrills, chills, and spills!

2007-05-03 22:17 (Kristen) John was up with the birds this morning in order to catch his cab to the airport. Liam, who is a light sleeper, was also up. This meant that I was up (let's get to the most important story, here) at 6:15. A.M. Augh! I can't even remember if I made myself coffee. Liam needed a nap at 7:30, and we enjoyed that until Jamie woke us up around 8:00. The journey to Hakobune went without too much difficulty, which was great, and we were even on time. I'd woken Liam up around 9:00 (Jamie let *him* sleep), and so he wasn't ready for a nap until I'd walked him around a bit (apres coffee) at 11:00. I worked until it was time to get Jamie, at which point Liam kindly woke up.

He ended up playing with Kai-kun after Hakobune, and we've made a tentative playdate for next Tuesday. Jamie was acting pretty tired, but he was proud that he'd eaten all his lunch (except the apple) for two days in row. Sensei said that he was very pleased with himself. We went home, because he was too tired to go to the Second Cup. We hung out in the yard as I put compost around the roses and watered the garden, then went inside to watch "something else," as Jamie puts it. I made him popcorn, and we were mostly OK for the rest of the afternoon.

Liam didn't sleep much in the afternoon at all, and only fell asleep when we were walking to John's parents' place for dinner. Jamie had filled up on popcorn so he wasn't all that hungry, but still ate enough to keep everyone happy. He played the piano, talked with Tai Tai and Ho Ho (he's building lots of things with blocks), and played about. Liam had some very finely chopped chicken in his carrot and pea puree, and liked it. He laughed and stood up, wandered about, and played the "banzai" game with anyone he made eye contact with at the table. John's mom walked us halfway home, which occasioned a madcap game of hide and go see (another current favourite). We got Gary to spend a little time with us before heading up to the bath, and then to bed. Both boys have colds now, and Liam has already woken himself up coughing, but I hope that they'll get better soon.

2007-05-04 22:00 (Kristen) Liam had a rough night last night, possibly because he was "backed up," as they say. He has been trying some new foods lately, and it is possible that he is having some difficulty processing them. Whatever the reason, he woke up a number of times in the night and was hard to console each time, but he didn't act like it was teeth. Jamie woke up around 7:45, which was great because we were able to have breakfast and get dressed without being rushed. Liam slept until a little after nine, when I woke him up to get ready to go. Liam isn't a morning eater, so I didn't try to feed him before we went. We were there almost on time, and Jamie was happy to see his friends as we left. I caught the bus to take Liam to his Roots of Empathy class, in which he showed off his mad walking, crawling, and sitting skillz*, and was a Happy Camper. The kids in the class made him a beautiful book, which they laminated, of nursery rhymes that they had written out and illustrated. Some of the rhymes are even originals! We were very very happy with it. When I started taking Liam to these classes, I had hoped that he would have an effect on someone, and just make the kids happy, but he has done that in spades. I'm very touched and pleased with the whole thing.

New flash: Liam just pulled himself into a sitting position by himself for the first time! Woot!

We picked up Jamie, went to Indigo at Jamie's request to play at their train table, and then came home when Jamie got too tired. We rested at home before going to Browning for Michelle's birthday party. Liam and Jamie were in great moods and had a lovely time before we came back home. Liam is doing some exercising after finally having an enormous, five-alarm, change the clothes and drop him in the bath poo. Yay, Liam! Jamie is getting Gary to take him upstairs in an upside-down turbo lift. Liam is pulling himself up into a standing position. Nothing will be safe ever again.

2007-05-05 24:14 (Kristen) I passed out putting the boys to bed last night, and I'm lucky that Liam is such a restless sleeper; otherwise, I'd never have woken up to write the blog tonight. We kept very busy today, as I like to do when John's away. I should also add that I really miss John's SLR camera, which takes much better pictures, faster, than our old camera.

I experimented with hanging old, dark sheets over our bedroom windows last night, as the boys are waking up earlier and earlier with the sun. It sort of worked; Jamie was up around 8:00, which was still painful to me but not agonizing. He watched some movies, as usual, and while he was tired, I knew that he had to get out and be active. John's mom dropped by to remind me that it was Boy's Day in Japan, and to give the boys a little pocket money to celebrate with. This gave me the bait that I needed, and I lured Jamie out with a promise of bubble tea with this money. Liam was tired, and I figured that he'd fall asleep soon enough. We went to Spadina Station, got our tea, and sat on the grass in a churchyard on Bloor to drink it. Jamie liked playing hide-and-go-seek in a limited way there (one tree to hide behind), and had to be talked into leaving. Gary's workplace was half a block away, and Jamie was delighted to see him there. We had lunch with Gary, went back to the store for a little bit, and decided to get back on the subway.

Liam had fallen asleep but woken up in the store, which was a sad thing because he'd woken up coughing after only twenty minutes or so. He cheered up, but didn't go back to sleep. Jamie decided that we could go to the library and Teasure Island, so we did. He wanted to read books at the library, but instead ended up spending his time hiding in a cubby shelf. I compensated by taking out way too many kid books to read at home with him. At the toystore he was good, and I decided to buy him the sword that he has been desiring utterly for the last month or so. He was delighted. It glows blue when you push a button, and makes "kin kin" noises all by itself. I picked up a Lamaze fishbowl toy for Liam, as he'd enjoyed one on Friday and he got a treat too. We went over to Browning around 6:00, and set the boys loose on them. Gary came over too, and a good time was had by all. We got home, I put the boys to bed, fell asleep, and am only now writing. I will be back in bed soon!

2007-05-06 21:33 (Kristen) Jamie woke up around 8:30 this morning, which was better than 8:00. We puttered about (Jamie watched movies, I cleaned up and prepared breakfast), before my friends Mike and Alison came by for a quick visit before heading home to Kingston. They were spending their first weekend away from their son Rohan, which sounded utterly surreal, as they said, and like such a good idea. We'll see once Liam is weaned: a Grammie weekend might be in the cards for everyone! They also said that they have track all over their house too. Today, our track goes from the dining room into the kitchen; they have theirs going up and down the stairs. I can't tell you how good this makes me feel! Liam smiled at them, and Jamie alternately showed off his toys and attempted to pressgang either one or the other into being his new play partner. He had some success.

Afterwards, we got on the bus to go and have brunch with Simon and his parents, Peter and Leslie. We had a lovely picnic in the backyard, and Simon and Jamie got along quite well. Liam was in a good mood too, and did in some asparagus. Jamie got very tired playing out in the sun, however, and was a little judgement impaired by the time we got back onto the streetcar. Once on the subway, he fell asleep and we took the long way, south and down past Union Station and up to Bloor. I tried to pick Jamie up and push the stroller at the same time, but Jamie woke up halfway to the elevators. He had slept for about ten to fifteen minutes, but wasn't cranky or otherwise upset about being awake. We got off the bus, and John (who had arrived home a little earlier) knew we were coming. Jamie went off to look at some dandelions (he's waiting for the puffballs to appear; he also was very interested in ants today), and I pointed out a certain someone coming down the street. "Who's that?" I asked him, and he cried out "Papa!" and ran to meet John, arms wide. He missed his dad. We came home, the boys mowed the lawn, and played about, before John went for a nap.

Afterwards, we went to John's parents' house for dinner. Nobuko and Tomoko were there, and the boys were very happy to see everyone. Jamie played about with John and Liam and Nobuko, having a great time reconnecting, and I managed to get some food into a cranky Liam beforehand. He ate more asparagus, and wolfed down a good deal of tofu. He likes tofu. He also got everyone to go "Banzai!" and put their arms in the air: it's almost as good aa game as dropping his cutlery and plates. We came home, and Liam melted down around 9:30. I put him to bed, and Jamie had his bath with his dad before coming to bed as well. We read two books, and I told Jamie that we could raed books during the day too: that we didn't have to wait until nighttime. He liked that idea, and then fell asleep.

2007-05-07 22:58 (Kristen) I was woken up this morning at 8:00 by John's mom telling us that there was a natural gas leak two blocks from our house. I went back to sleep, and we all got up an hour and a half later, after the first good night's sleep in a little while (good being a relative term; good for us, but not for people who don't have kids, maybe). Sure enough, there was an alert not to go near the Dairy Queen, beside which is a construction site where workers had cut a high pressure gas line. Oops. We were told to keep our windows and doors closed, and we stayed inside for the morning. Luckily, the prevailing winds were from the south, and we managed to avoid the worst of it. Still, it was an ominous way to start a Monday, but the worst thing that happened to us today by far.

It was a quiet morning indoors, trying to keep Liam entertained and Jamie supplied with television fare. We went to lunch at Browning, at which point John and I hived off from each other, each with a child. I had Liam, who ate tofu happily at Browning and then went for a walk with Ken. I stayed behind to do some work while John looked after Jamie, also at Browning. Ken called at 2:20 or so to tell me that Liam was melting down and to meet him at the Second Cup. I met up with them, and sure enough, Liam was making his high, keening, kestrel-like sound of utter fury. He allowed me to calm him down, and I think that his problem was that he was too hot in his jacket. He was happier when I took it off him, while Ken told me that he was getting Looks of Death from the old ladies of the Danforth, who wanted him to wipe Liam's nose. Yes: wipe the nose, and make the furious baby even more apoplectic. Not such a great idea. Liam calmed down enough to let me spend some time working at the Second Cup, but not much more. We then went to Book City and then to the Big Carrot and another local produce store before meeting with John and Jamie at the playground. I think that they were there for a while; John was pretty tired.

We ran into our friend Debbie Ridpath Ohi on our way to Michelle and Tom's, which was great as Debbie was coming for dinner. Debbie is a lovely and very evil person, and was great fun to have over for dinner. Jamie enjoyed playing with her, Gary, and his usual victims, and was a full participant in the general mayhem. Liam observed and participated as best he could, and was happiest when people helped him walk on his two feet around the house, or eating bits of rice, salmon, asparagus or corn. We finally made it home, and both boys were very good about going to bed. Liam seems to have some sort of tummy trouble--possibly the unusual amount of solid food he had tonight--and I hope that it won't disturb his night's sleep too much.

Liam had fun making everyone do the "banzai" hand gesture as much as he could. Jamie asked John what "chuurippu" was in English (tulip). He's been speaking a lot more Japanese lately, which is making both me and John very happy.

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

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