Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 1 No. 90

2007-06-26 23:25 (Kristen) It's hot around here. Really hot. And humid. And smoggy. Ah, summer in Toronto. I got up at 6:00 AM and turned on the airconditioning, and so we made it through to 8:45 or so in relative comfort. Jamie has been watching The Emperor's New Groove, and sat down at breakfast to tell me that he was "one hungry Emperor." Then I was a hungry Mummy Emperor. He's good about that sort of thing. We spent the morning inside, because even the morning was disgustingly hot outside. We did pack up to visit with Justin's mother Alice, Justin's sister Melda, and Justin's new (six-month-old) niece Leyla over at John's parents' house. Liam fell asleep on the way over and slept for close to two hours in the front hall of John's parents' house. Wow!

Jamie was excited to see "baby Leyla," and Leyla thought that Jamie was just the best and funniest thing she'd ever seen. They got along quite well, and Leyla seemed to think that we were all right. We have married off Leyla to one of our sons at some date about twenty years from now, and I hope that the kids approve then! Liam liked her too, when he woke up.

When the visit was over, we headed home and hid from the heat some more. I forgot to add that Jamie did some number work and some pasting work too for the first time in a while. He can now count to twenty, with some resistance from that dastardly number 15, and can write them out nicely when they are in front of him as examples. After dinner, John's aunts came over for a bit (and brought along new bath toys!), and we had a very funny time playing with a small pink ball in the dining room. After they left, I ended up taking the boys outside for a bit, and we finally came in out of the pleasant but increasingly dark outdoors in time for bedtime. Jamie was much more calm today, possibly because we had a talk about how I didn't love him better than Liam, or Liam better than him. He seemed to accept that I did different things with each that the other couldn't do, and also seemed happier afterwards. Poor guy. He's still one of the most secure kids in the world, though, and knows that he is firmly the sun in the middle of the universe.

2007-06-27 22:54 (Kristen) The morning went off without a hitch as we got up, ate, and made it to Hakobune on time. Wow! I took Liam to Indigo (air conditioned), where we saw Tomoko. We spent some time together, including a lovely lunch at Holt Renfrew, during which Liam finally slept. She came with me to pick up Jamie at Hakobune, and helped me on the streetcar and subway before we parted ways at Yonge station. Jamie's friend Kai-kun (with his mom) rode with us part of the way, and there was much excitement and small boy hyperactivity. Afterwards, we rode to the end of the line on the lovely airconditioned subway, got off at the library, read some books, picked up a bunch more, went to the toy store, and came home via the Second Cup. After a dinner that Liam couldn't get enough of and Jamie couldn't have cared less about, Jamie went to play with Gary and Ayami, and I arranged to have Tom, Ross, and Daniel join all of us at the Dairy Queen. Beforehand, I was outside trying to calm down a tired Liam when Ben from two doors down came by and started talking and playing with him. The rest of his family came by, and Liam had a great time talking with Luke, Ben, and Sam. Tom and family arrived, and Liam was just delighted to see His Tom, and Tom obliged by carrying him all the ways to the DQ and all the way back (I really didn't need to bring the stroller, I guess!). Jamie too had a great time with his people, and was mostly great about coming up to bed when it was time. Both boys are sleeping well now, and we'll start all over again tomorrow.

For a good part of today, Jamie told me that he was a squirrel (likely inspired by the squirrel from The Emperor's New Groove. I was a mummy squirrel. He worried very much that we were going to get off at Kipling instead of Pape when I told him that our train was bound for Kipling, until I finally figured out a way to explain to him that the terminus was Kipling, and that our stop was before that, and that we hadn't missed it. Mrs. Sasaki was telling me that Jamie really enjoys building things with the building blocks they have there, and Jamie did show off a very elaborate plane/robot construction to me when I met him after daycare. Liam likes Mrs. Sasaki a lot, as she was permitted not only to hold and play with him, but received a smile in return. Jamie can also do simple subtraction (X - 1) now, and did some mazes today. He really gets bored easily.

2007-06-28 23:09 (Kristen) Jamie was in a bad mood when he woke up this morning, which resulted in a rather extraordinary conversation at the breakfast table. He has been getting into the habit of telling me that he doesn't want whatever it was that I had made for him to eat, and that he wants something else (usually named) instead. This morning, to shortcircuit this, I asked him what he wanted to eat before I made anything. He told me ochazuke*, which was a little labour-intensive, but fine. When he sat to eat it, however, he didn't want it and in the ensuing "discussion" declared that it sucked. Exact words. I didn't rise to the bait, and we got some of it into him before we had to leave for Hakobune, but I was more than a little annoyed.

Turns out that the boy was in more than a bad mood. When I picked him up at 1:00, he was quite warm, and has been running a fever of 39 C (102 F, for you Imperialists out there) on and off (thank you, Tylenol) since. He is seriously not feeling well; he complained of a headache earlier in the day but has not needed to throw up and has not declared any pain anywhere else. He spent the rest of the day watching >James and the Giant Peach (which was scarier, and required more explanation, than I'd realized), Anpanman, and when he needed comfort watching because he was too tired for anything else, Thomas the Tank Engine. Poor guy. We'll be keeping him home tomorrow.

Liam is fine, and had fun playing on the grass at the university in the lovely weather while we waited to pick Jamie up at Hakobune. He likes playing with small balls that he can pick up, and is good at rolling one back and forth with someone. He has a definite vocabulary, and says "hi" (well, more of a "hey") at appropriate points with appropriate intonation. He can sign "nurse" now, but uses it to mean "food" with John, and "nurse" with me. He's pretty pleased with himself about that. He slept for 20 minutes around 11:30, and for an hour and a half at 3:30 or so. He was, otherwise, a little whirlwind/dynamo/danger boy, as he relentlessly, and with good cheer, obstinately threw himself back at the things and activities that I told him were either "bleah" (dirty, like the garbage can) or "abunai*" (dangerous, like climbing the stairs). He also likes to poke his brother, but I don't believe that he is deliberately doing so to bother Jamie but rather does to get his attention. Poor Jamie. I didn't think that we could have a child more stubborn than Jamie, but we seem to have done so.

(John) Jamie fell asleep leaning on my shoulder watching TV while I was feeding Liam dinner; I had to call Kristen on my cellphone to get her to lift him up off me without waking him up.

I think the high point of Liam's day might have been the ten minutes he spent running back and forth from Mom to Dad in the upstairs hallway (holding onto both hands of one adult each way). Hard to say though, he has a lot of high points each day.

2007-06-29 20:58 (Kristen) We had a bad night last night; Jamie was up at 2:00 with the dry heaves, and his fever wasn't getting any better. This morning, he was up around 9:00 (Liam was up and chirpy at 8:00...ugh), with a fever of at least 102.2 F. It was hard to be more precise, because Jamie doesn't keep his mouth closed enough for the thermometer to take a more accuate temperature. John was still feeling poorly too, and so Liam did his part to help me out by sleeping for almost three hours between 10 and 12:30 or so. We put in a call to our long-suffering doctor, and waited until she called. Jamie watched much television, and was flat as a pancake until the Tylenol started to kick in. He ate well in the afternoon, once the fever was down (but not out). Ken took Liam for a walk, and with the warning that Liam had slept all morning and was likely to just enjoy the sunshine. Liam started to yell near the park, and Ken let him out to play for a while. He reports that Liam doesn't like the feel of grass on his toes. They came home just in time for us to go and see Dr. Kennedy, who looked at Jamie and said that he had tonsilitis and a sore ear. New antibiotics, and a new hope that Jamie might be feeling well soon. He spent the rest of the day watching television and playing a new game which involved him on the landing, me at the bottom of the stairs, and us throwing a large red ball back and forth up and down the stairs.

John took Liam over to Browning to pick up a little bit of dinner for us, and Liam was more than happy to play with Tom for a bit. We're all a little dragged out and a little low, but we're hoping that a good night's sleep will deal with my tiredness, John's neuralgia and skin, Jamie's tonsils, and whatever might be lying in wait for Liam. I should mention that we said goodbye to our neighbours Iain and Clare and their parents, Kate and Scott, who are going back to Australia after visiting Toronto for 18 months. Jamie in particular really loved to play with them, and they were great kids to have in our neighbourhood. We'll miss them, and hope that we'll see them again someday.

2007-06-30 22:45 (Kristen) Jamie woke me up at 8:00 or so to turn the television on for him. He can do it himself, technically, but he had trouble changing the channels. I got Liam around 9:00, and our day was off and running. Jamie ate some breakfast, and was acting about as stir-crazy as a small boy can be. We channelled that energy into a game of ball (amongst other things) where Liam, Jamie, and I rolled balls back and forth to each other. Liam was just delighted to be included in a game with Jamie, and was quietly happy, as though any metaphorical jumping up and down would end the game. Liam's very good at rolling the ball to someone else, and is very dextrous for a young man of ten months vintage. We made it through the morning, and our ship of the day careened into the afternoon through the lunch hour. Liam did his part ot keep the Good Ship Chew afloat by taking a two and a half hour nap, which earned him a gold star. Sachiko, the woman who stayed with us a month or two ago, is staying with us again for the next four days, and she played with Jamie for a bit. Jamie grabbed Ayami later for a romp while I put a few plants into the ground and did more dishes. (I have an enchanted kitchen, where there is always at least one dish to wash, no matter how recently you did the dishes.) With John and Jamie sick and Liam a ball of hyperkinetic energy, I have to settle for doing little bits of housework here and there when I can, rather than doing anything all at once. Grab your chances while you may. Then we went for a walk to the bank, and Jamie fell asleep on the way. He slept from about 4:30 to 6:00, which told me everything I needed to know about how the evening was going to go. What surprised me was that Liam, who didn't nap between when he woke up at 2:30 and bedtime woke up after 20 minutes and wouldn't go back to sleep. He's cheerfully playing in the living room while I type on the laptop and John is lying down with Jamie. He called down a little while ago to say that Jamie almost threw up again, and so we're going to have to keep a closer eye on what he eats. We're not out of the woods yet, as they say.

John's mom came over and spent the evening (outside with John because we didn't want her exposed to Jamie's illnesses), and John walked Liam around outside. Liam loved it, and going down the little baby slide in the back yard with John. I didn't see how many times, but knowing Liam it must have been many many many. Jamie grabbed Gary and played the racing car game, summoning me downstairs to be blown up a few times, with Liam by my side. I can't remember much else, but I do remember that Liam didn't fall asleep until midnight last night. I do hope that he falls asleep earlier than that tonight.

(John) Getting ready for bed, Liam and I played "douzo/arigatou" handing back and forth a piece of paper. We did it three times, then he decided to see what I would do if he didn't let go of the paper. I stuttered on the "ari-", which amused Liam and Jamie to no end, then we passed the piece of paper around in a circle for several minutes before lights out. If I were clever, I would sell pieces of paper to other parents of toddlers for a large amount of money.

2007-07-01 20:33 (Kristen) My disciplinary winning streak continues, as Liam responds to my stern "no"s and admonitions with a huge grin and laughter. I'm bewildered that a child could be more stubborn than Jamie was, but Jamie was positively compliant in comparison to Liam. He's in love with the idea of climbing the stairs, and so I'm up and down a good deal, saving him from iminent hospitalization every few minutes. Sigh.

It is Canada Day here in the Great White North, and we celebrated by going to an Indigo bookstore and spending the afternoon (Jamie's request). The day started off badly when Jamie woke up needing to pee at 7:00 AM, and refused (with gales of tears) to go back to bed (it being light out, you see). I reacted (by all accounts) badly to this severe truncation of my own sleep, and have not exactly been my spunky self today. It was a loooong morning, as Liam joined his brother around 8:00, and I needed two coffee before noon to keep going without any further mishaps. After some internal debate, I took Liam and Jamie to Indigo (Jamie had asked to go to play on their train table yesterday) in the afternoon. As I planned, Jamie fell asleep on the way there, and Liam fell asleep in the backpack an hour afterwards. Jamie slept for almost three hours, and Liam slept for almost two. I got an hour's worth of work done and a bookstore browse. We were all happy.

Jamie had fun playing on the train table when he woke up, but was still not himself and was prone to breaking out into tears at small provocations. We came home at close to 6:00 PM, and I made dinner. For once, Jamie actually ate a reasonable amount and Liam decorated himself with noodles. Liam likes feeding himself. Jamie has monopolized Ayami and Gary this evening, and Liam has made one or two solo steps before falling down and being caught by me. It's a grand game, and he enjoys it immensely. He's just about done now, however, and we're about to put hiim into the bath. Jamie will soon follow, and I hope that he falls asleep tonight. He should, despite the nap, given how early he was up this morning. For all our sakes, I hope he doesn't do it again tomorrow morning.

(John) Jamie continues to be helpful with laundry, loading and unloading the washing machine, and attaching socks to the sock hanger. He continues also to be obsessed with building hiding structures out of blankets and baskets.

Liam was making me point at things and tell me their names, with much glee. I test to see if he knows their names by waiting until he looks away from something, calling its name, then seeing if he looks at the right thing.

2007-07-02 24:20 (John) I am taking medication which makes sleep a lot, just not necessarily at the same time as the rest of my family. Last night, Kristen and the kids slept from 22:30 to 07:00, I think I slept from 25:00 to 11:00. I'm also not entirely there when I'm awake, but perhaps the same might be said of some of my other family members.

Jamie is still on erythromycin and having a tough time with his ear and tonsil infection. He is on an uncharacteristically short fuse, and is solidly back on an afternoon 2-3 hour nap schedule, typically alerting us of the need by melting down. When he's up though, he's got a scary manic gleam in his eyes, and is in perpetual motion.

Liam is trying to cut his last central incisor (upper right), which should fill in the gap and make eating easier for him. For now, he shrieks in pain a few times an hour, and keeps wailing until you can find something to distract him.

It's black raspberry season in our neighbourhood, and when I pick a bowlful, Jamie carefully counts them out, making sure that each of us gets the same number, even (or especially) Liam. In the bath, he finally decided to let Liam play with one of his prized bath fish voluntarily; I wish Liam had been more enthused.

Liam is still at the walking and teetering holding onto one hand stage, stopping to look at anything interesting, especially cracks in the pavement. Tom said that he was impressed with how comfortable Liam is with dials and switches; that's probably thanks to our leaving our living room stereo on the floor (sigh). Liam wasn't much interested in food today, except for the black raspberries and the death grip that he had on the cob of barbecued corn I gave him to teethe on. He actually managed to bite the end of the cob; something to watch out for in future.

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

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