Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 89

2007-06-19 25:01 (Kristen) Liam started to stir around 5:30, probably because it was already very humid and warm outside. Jamie, Liam, and I finally called it quits to trying to sleep around 8:45, and went downstairs. I have been trying to cut back on Jamie's television watching, which meant that I let the housework slide today (awww...) and spent the morning playing with the boys and distracting the older one from the tv. We read books (at Jamie's request), did a puzzle, and Jamie painted two pictures. Some television watching did occur, but he was good about turning the television off after a half hour each time. Yay, us.

We went to Browning for lunch, where Jamie ate all his lunch (with a little bit of cajoling) and Liam sucked back some lunch too. Jamie and I went back to John's mom's place for more cooking lessons, but I had to go and pick up Liam from Ken at the Second Cup. John came and picked Jamie up soon after I had to dash. Liam didn't sleep on his walk with Ken, but enjoyed sitting outside with me, Daniel, and Michelle, all of whom showed up independently of each other but who had fun ditting and being convivial. Liam started to fuss, because he was tired, and I looked at the threatening sky with some trepidation. The storm was moving very fast, and was greenish in colour (never a happy colour in meterological events), and so I dashed home with Liam (who just wanted to nurse, and was unhappy all the way). We were lucky that we missed the microburst that ripped down our street and Browning a few minutes before, as the street was littered with broken branches and, in a few instances, mature broken trees. There was a remarkable amount of damage, with half a tree down in the yard two over from ours, and a whole maple tree down further down the street. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Jamie, John, and Daniel went out later to get photographs. (John: see my facebook account.) In the meantime, Jamie was asleep in the car because he and John had gone to Loblaws, and the combination of the warm car and pitterpatter (drummmm) of raindrops is guaranteed to put him to sleep. Unfortunately, he fell asleep with an Aero bar in his lap in the nice warm car, and ended up smeared almost all over with big gobs of chocolate. A bath was required to rectify the damage, but he smelled like a chocolate Easter bunny for the rest of the evening, and a shampoo was needed at the end of the day. (John: I had given Jamie the Aero bar when we got in the car, and was somewhat concerned when he handed me back only a third of the bar and reminded me that if one eats too much chocolate one's tummy hurts - two thirds of a bar would definitely be in tummy hurting territory. It turned out that he had only nibbled at the bar, leaving the rest of it smeared on his face, his hair, his hands, his shirt, his pants, his legs, his hands, and even under his arms.)

Daniel came over for dinner, and we had a visit from John's aunts Nobuko and Tomoko, along with John's mom and dad as well. John and I bathed the boys, and while Liam fell asleep quickly, Jamie took a long time (thanks to the nap). He flopped and thumped around, until he finally fell asleep lying full on me. He still needs a lot of more intense reassurance and comfort after John and me being ill. It was 11:00 PM when he fell asleep, and I celebrated by making lunches for tomorrow so that I can sleep in a little.

2007-06-20 23:36 (Kristen) Jamie was up around 8:00, and Liam woke up around 9:00. We got out of the house with only a little comedy, and I dropped a happy Jamie off at Hakobune. I forgot to mention that we got the letter in the mail from Jackman School, telling us the name of Jamie's teacher and that he's registered for the afternoons. The afternoons aren't all that convenient for us (understatement), but we're seeing what workarounds we can arrange before knocking on the school doors, demanding change. I took Liam for a long walk with me to the American consulate to pick up a form, but we were denied entry because I had a cell phone on my person. Actually, I had an iPod shuffle too, causing the guard to say "she's got lots of electronics on her" to the other. Good grief. We walked all the way back to Hakobune, stopping for a snack for a wailing Liam, who finally fell asleep around 12:15. This was exactly not enough time for me to do much other than walk back to pick up Jamie at Hakobune, so that is what we did.

I took Jamie and Liam to the library, and Jamie had fun picking out some books. He's more interested in books and puzzles again, for which I am very grateful. It makes for better time spent together. Liam enjoyed pulling books off the shelves. We went on to Treasure Island, and John met up with us on our way home. I made dinner for us while John went to Scrabble, and Jamie enjoyed the mashed blue heirloom potatoes, steamed asparagus, and lemon sausages. Liam ate some salmon, zucchini, and okra (he'd stocked up on starches earlier). He has been eating well again, which is a relief. He notified me that he also likes broccoli, so I should do something with that now that I can (with caution) eat cruciferous things again. After dinner, we went to the Dairy Queen with Gary, Gary played some games with him while I ran the bath, and the boys went to bed. Jamie demanded an apple, and I went and got one for him. I was loathe to do so, as I smelled a delaying tactic, but did. I dropped off the apple, and went to do some things before coming back to check on him (I had heard exactly nothing from the room). He was asleep, with his hand in an empty bowl. He must really have been hungry, despite a big dinner and a whole lot of ice cream. Growing boy.

2007-06-21 24:22 (Kristen) Liam had a bad night last night, waking up at two hour intervals a few times. I dosed him up with Advil, but it didn't seem to do as much good as usual. I wasn't sure if it was intestinal or what the problem was, but Liam chomped on me later in the day, and my finger met his new tooth. It's an upper, and it is the smaller tooth beside the big front on the right. However, there isn't a big front on the right, so there is a big gap there until he gets around to growing the tooth there. It's kind of odd.

Unusually, I had to wake Jamie up at 8:50 for breakfast. Liam was up earlier, and not all that interested in food although he ate a full breakfast. We headed off to Hakobune, and dropped Jamie off. Liam then proceeded to not sleep, and scream his head off every time I put him into the stroller. Somewhat stressful. He finally fell asleep at 12:35 or so, which meant that it was time for me to go and get Jamie. Not one of our better mornings. John came to pick us up, and to talk with the Sasakis about Jamie's fall schedule. We will be trying to move him from afternoons to mornings at Jackman, which takes "persistence," I am told. This way Jamie will be able to do his Japanese work in the afternoons with his friends. Wish us luck.

John drove Jamie to Bill's Garden Centre, as we needed to pick up some gardening supplies, and I met them there with Liam. As I would rather cut my arm off than wake Liam up, I took him on the subway rather than try to move him into the car. Liam woke up on the subway, which meant that he had slept for an hour and a half, which I could live with. We all headed home after happy garden centre roaming, and Liam demanded another hour-long nap. He was rather tired, and I was hoping that he was getting back to normal now that the tooth was through. He, John, and Jamie went outside to play while I made dinner, and I am told that Jamie made Alexandria play hide-and-seek (his favourite game (there were variants tonight, as he made John hide with him under the covers while I had to "find" them). Jamie took his fire engine scooter outside, where it was coveted by two-year-old Luke. Luke has a fire engine pedal car, which he knows is good for a trade: he offered to trade with Jamie for a bit, and Jamie agreed. John thought that there might be some stress, as Jamie's scooter makes fire engine noises and has a siren, while the pedal car only has a bell (it's an old-fashioned metal car). Jamie enjoyed it very much, however, and both boys played happily until it was time to go in for dinner. It was a quiet evening, but not one of our more successful bedtimes. Jamie was, despite (or because of) his fatigue, utterly spun. He bounced, thumped, chattered loudly, and otherwise kept his brother awake for a good long time. I called John in to help, and I finally had to take Liam out to fall asleep in another room. Jamie wouldn't sleep without me, though, so I managed to keep Liam asleep while I carried him back into the room. Jamie and Liam both fell asleep and have so far stayed asleep since 11:00. I don't know if Jamie's behaviour means that Jamie isn't feeling well again, or what, but it was a most frustrating evening.

2007-06-22 23:23 (Kristen) Both boys slept well last night, and Liam (unusually) only woke up once or twice. I felt like I'd had a real night's sleep, which was a lovely but uncommon sensation. I woke up before both boys, got things ready for Hakobune, and then woke up Jamie. Liam woke up by himself when I started to get Jamie (easily the heavier sleeper of the two) up. Jamie was not all that pleased to be up, and we had a few confrontations and discussions of what is and is not a rude way to speak to Mummy. We made it to Hakobune, and after Jamie had gone in, I took Liam to play on the grass near Robarts Library for an hour. We had a doctor's appointment for Jamie to make sure that he was all clear of infections and the like, and Dr. Kennedy said that he was almost completely cleared up. Yay! We went home at that point and had a relatively peaceful afternoon.

Tom and Michelle had offered to watch the boys for us while John and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and so we ran off for the 5:00 show (three-hour-long movie!). The boys didn't miss us. In fact, they were much better behaved for Tom and Michelle than they usually are for us! Jamie ate all his dinner without being hounded, and Liam was, in Tom's words, sunny, joyful, and bright. He also made Tom help him go down the little baby slide in the basement about 150 times. No wonder Liam was happy and joyful! They didn't scream too much when we arrived to take them home, and the bedtime ritual was uneventful. Jamie fell asleep in about two minutes, and Liam is lost to the world too. Tomorrow is market day, so we should go to sleep early tonight.

2007-06-23 23:26 (Kristen) Jamie was quite restless this morning and was up early. I managed to convince him that it was not necessary for me to get up with him just to turn on the television, but it was eventually necessary for me to get up and change the DVD. Groan. Liam was up around 9:00, and I cleaned the kitchen and did some work before John got up and we all trouped off to the St. Lawrence Market. Jamie fell asleep in the car on the way there, and slept for twenty minutes. Liam and I roared around and got half the shopping done before he woke up, and we went more leisurely back through the north building to say hello to Nupur. Liam had his first pakora (chickpea flour, not wheat), and was pretty darn delighted with it. Nupur was also pretty delighted with Liam's reaction. We did the rest of the shopping and came back home. Jamie was a little draggy, and Liam had a nap, before we headed out to our friend Alison's for her annyal Motluck Potluck.

I didn't see much of Jamie after the first hour or so. There were five older girls, ranging from 4 to 12 or so, also at the party, and they ran about in a pack, feeding, playing, and running through the house for most of the visit. Jamie seemed very happy for the little that I saw of him. Liam spent most of the party in the middle of a big circle of adults, being exceptionally cute and adorable. We managed to extract ourselves from a most pleasant outing around 8:45, and got the kids into the bath as quickly as possible. Jamie was overly tired, and hungry despite a snack just before the bath. He finally fell asleep around 10:30.

John tells me that Jamie's favourite classic video game of the day is Twin Cobra (a vertical helicopter scrolling shooting game circ 1987). He even liked it enough to spend half an hour playing by himself. That's new. Liam was happy and sunny, and consistently made speedy baby tracks towards anything that might kill or poison him. I'm tired now. G'night.

2007-06-24 23:45 (John) We were all fairly tired today, or not feeling well, and manifesting in different ways. Liam napped longer than usual. Jamie was hyper, and more so as the day wore on. Kristen has passed out early and I can't wake her up, not that I've tried too hard. I feel like I'm coming down with an ear infection.

We spent the morning doing chores (laundry, gardening, cleaning), with the kids pitching in a little bit. Well, mostly Liam moved small objects that belonged at point A to point B, and when he eventually fell asleep Jamie did a fair job as a human baby monitor, checking Liam frequently to make sure he was still asleep, and somehow not waking him up in the process.

It was late in the afternoon by the time we decided we ought to do something with the day, having missed invitations to go to the Pride Parade or to the beach, and decided in the end to have Peter, Leslie and Simon over to Browning. That turned out to be a good idea, there was the right amount of food for a completely unpredictable number of people, including in addition to the usual barbecue fare some leftover ice cream (strawberry, Earl Grey) that I had made yesterday. Jamie was not interested in food until bedtime, as usual, whereas Liam was ravenously interested in food most of the day.

Liam understands a fair amount of language now. Definitely important words like Mom, Dad, Jamie/Oniichan, Up/Dakko, Out/Omo, No/Dame. Michelle thinks he was trying to say the word "light" today, and got quite close on one of his tries.

Jamie's favourite# activity, aside from general goofiness, is still hiding. Today he made me make one of his favourite# hiding shelters, out of a beach towel, four clothespegs, three laundry baskets and a baby bath. I must take a photo of it next time.

2007-06-25 23:32 (Kristen) Liam was ten months old yesterday, and is still a mostly joyful boy. His teeth started to bother him again today, and his chest was sheeted with drool. It was bad enough tonight that he wasn't able to nurse himself to sleep, or fall asleep in the muggy night when I took him out for a walk instead. I did give him some Advil, but it took almost an hour before it was working well enough for Liam to fall asleep (nursing, of course). Liam will only fall asleep nursing now, and can't be soothed back to sleep by bouncing, rocking, patting, or other methods. This is a step backwards, in my opinion, but I hope that this phase will last only a short time (likely as long as this tooth is a problem).

I've been meaning to mention that Liam sticks his tongue out when he's happy. The happier he is, the more we see of his tongue, with a huge grin around it. He seems to say "hi" and "hey" in situationally appropriate situations, as well as "light" and other things. He isn't much into sign language yet, other than "up." We'll keep working on it. He took a free step today as he tried to cruise from one place to another, slightly out of reach place, but he didn't do it again. He is very daring (to a degree of AUGH! on my part), and tried to climb up the stairs tonight. He thought he was very funny. I was less amused. He ate broccoli (Jamie's special request at the grocery store) and liked it well enough to eat a few pieces of it.

Both boys were up around 8:00 (Liam was restless from 5:45 onwards), and I decided that we should try to get our outside time early in the morning rather than in the afternoon, as it promised to be around 33 degrees Celsius ou today. I got the boys to the Big Carrot and back before 11:00, but Jamie was just not himself. He has been confrontational, oppositional, and generally not a happy person lately. I have been told that boys will go through a clingy phase at this age, and much of what sets him off has to do with Liam getting some sort of attention that he wants: nursing, riding in the stroller, being fed, or otherwise preventing me spending time with Jamie. He's not mad at Liam, but he's certainly mad at me, and I've not been dealing with the constant fights and power struggles gracefully. I am trying to spend more time with him, but it's not been easy. Fortunately, Gary spent a good deal of time with him today, and that is helping keep him relatively well. John has an ear infection that made our doctor say "That's horrible!" when she looked into his ears. We hope that the antibiotics will help.

In the meantime, we had lunch at Browning. Afterwards, Jamie and I had a better afternoon when I took Jamie to the Second Cup to pick up Liam, and when we walked over to Treasure Island, back to the cheese store and the Big Carrot, and home. I made dinner, including the broccoli that Jamie wanted, and Jamie only grazed while Liam hoovered. Gary played with Jamie, I played the flute for Liam, and we had an unsettled bedtime until I took Liam out for his walk and Jamie fell asleep with John around 10:45 or so. Liam was asleep, finally, around 11:15, and has woken up once. I'm off to work for an hour before dropping off myself.

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

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