Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 2 No. 14

2007-12-11 22:43 (Kristen) Liam decided that he wanted to be awake at 5:45 or so this morning, and it took me until 6:30 to convince him that he wanted to stay asleep. Ugh. He stayed asleep until 9:05, which was better. Jamie apparently woke up on time, and went to school with no hitches reported.

Jamie's friend Jake came over after lunch, and both boys are utterly spun out of their minds on Christmas. It's Christmas this and Christmas that, and both Jake's mom and I are thinking that the next two weeks are going to be reaaaaally long. When Jamie gets up, the first thing he does is watch Christmas-themed DVDs. Then he watches them again when he gets home. The tree is up, because it makes Christmas that much closer. If we get Jamie to bed before midnight on Christmas Eve, I'll fall over. Both boys were somewhat overwrought, and so Jake left a little earlier than usual. Liam slept very badly for his nap, and woke up after 45 minutes with a streaming nose and tears. He hung in for the rest of the day, more or less, and was pleased as punch when, at dinner, I finally realized that he was asking for *me* to have a drink of juice, not for juice for himself. He's at the "we all do the same, and I will aggressively share" phase. He was full of smiles and laughter for a while afterwards, flush with the success of *finally* getting Mom and Dad to understand what he wanted.

Jamie was very tired, and so we put the kids to bed early. Jamie was passed out very quickly, while Liam continues to wake himself up with post-nasal drip and coughing. I've got him propped up on some pillows, but I'm pretty sure we're in for a rocky night.

(John) Jamie's difficult question for the day: "Santa Claus has been old for a long time. Why isn't he dead?" Answer: "No one can predict when someone will die." Interesting question for the day: "Why does Santa Claus live at the North Pole and not the South Pole?" Answer: "Because he uses reindeer to pull his sleigh, not penguins."

2007-12-12 24:08 (Kristen) Liam had a difficult night, but not as horrible as it could have been, I suppose, given the start we had. He was full of beans, laughs, and giggles as he woke up, and insisted on getting out of bed when John's alarm went off at 7:45. Ugh. He fell asleep again, unusually, around 10:30, but woke himself up coughing and unable to breathe. Once he was awake, he ran around happily and mugging people to read books to him, as many as he could get away with. The boy really likes books. John went to get Jamie and take him to Hakobune, and reports that Jamie didn't eat his lunch (onigiri*), and was rather punky. So tired, in fact, that he fell asleep on the way home in the car, and had to be carried inside. He was only asleep for about 15 minutes, however, as he woke up when John put him to bed. He had a small fever, and is likely fighting the cold that Liam has (and that I am sharing).

Liam puts his boots on (well, one boot, and usually the wrong one, and with no socks) when he wants to go outside. I took him for his afternoon walk, although he could have gone out much earlier, as he was wandering about with one boot on. He ate well enough, and slept for an hour and a bit. He woke up in Treasure Island, where I was finishing off Christmas shopping for the boys. I had an enormous pile of packages, and am 3/4 of the way through my shopping. Yay, me! Liam had fun playing with toys. Oh: for anyone wanting to buy the boys clothes, Liam needs 18-24 months sizes, and Jamie is a 4. Liam's 12-18 month clothes are a little short, or just right. He's growing like a weed. Jamie isn't growing quite so fast, but is still maturing. He hasn't grown past the "I can't be alone for a minute" phase, unfortunately, which made it difficult tonight at bedtime, when he needed to be in the bathroom because his stomach hurt (pain of unknown origin), and Liam was not settling. I ended up having a screaming Liam in the bathroom while I watched Jamie, who was upset because Liam was yelling (and because I was obviously frustrated that I couldn't make both children happy at once). John was at Scrabble, which meant no backup, but I managed to get Jamie back to bed and finally asleep. He's expressing his feelings and thoughts in more self-aware detail, which is very helpful and fascinating too. Gary had dinner with us, and played with Jamie for an hour or so before bedtime. I hope that both boys are feeling better tomorrow.

2007-12-13 12:30 (John) Jamie woke up at 1:00 screaming in pain, doubled over and unable to straighten up. Kristen carried him to the bathroom where he tried to poo hard enough that he broke out in a petechial rash under his eyes from straining, but without any other effect. He claimed he was hungry, but I thought he might be misinterpreting stomach cramps, and gave him a little warm camomile tea, which sat okay. He was still in agony at 2:00 though, so Gary went out to warm up the car, Kristen and I took turns packing overnight supplies and Ayami watched Liam while Kristen loaded the trunk and I carried Jamie into the car and held him in my lap.

Jamie calmed down looking up at the streetlights going by, and stopped cying by the time we arrived at the Hospital for Sick Children around 2:15. The service at Sick Kids was outstanding as usual. We spoke with a triage nurse right away, who asked him at one point to see if he could stand up on the scale to check his weight, and he was able to do so for several seconds. She assigned him a five-level triage classification of Urgent (III), below Resuscitation (I) and Emergent (II), based on the unknown nature of his abdominal pain. She then carried our bags to a bed (!) while we spent five minutes registering.

The rest of our stay was uneventful. Jamie watched Anpanman movies on my laptop. I passed out for a few minutes at a time. We were visited regularly by nurses and doctors, who meticulously ruled out all the possible -itides before officially pronouncing "abdominal pain of unknown etiology" and unofficially saying that they were seeing a lot of kids this week with the same problem and thought it was the early onset of some sort of stomach flu.

We left in a cab at 5:30, were back asleep by 6:00 and slept until about noon. Jamie is a bit pale and tired but seems otherwise fine, and has a good appetite but we're keeping him on soft foods for a bit just in case.

2007-12-13 23:00 (John) I had to go meet my thesis supervisor at the university, so Kristen had the two sick boys for most of the afternoon. It helped that Jamie was subdued, and he passed the time doing workbooks and watching TV. I believe Liam passed much of the day telling Kristen what needed to be done, and celebrated at the end by cutting another eyetooth. Liam was very happy to see me when I came home, as Kristen had fallen quite behind on the day's agenda. He had me read ten board books to him in between feeding him snacks; then Jamie kept me company by watching YouTube videos of Marble Blast on my laptop while I paid bills on the desktop. Jamie had no appetite for dinner but since he had missed breakfast he ate a special order of honey toast; Liam and Kristen had curry; I too am not feeling well enough to eat dinner. After our bath, Kristen went to bed with Liam, where his furnace-like warmth will help bake the cold out of her chest, and she in turn will be able to comfort him whenever he's dribbled too much mucus to breathe. I got Jamie to sleep at 21:20, and will join him shortly, hoping that we all miraculously feel better tomorrow.

2007-12-14 24:31 (Kristen) We all slept well last night, and all woke up a little later than usual. Jamie expressed a desire to go to Jackman, and after he ate a normal breakfast with no ill effects, we took him there. Of course, he was slow to get ready and to get dressed, so he didn't arrive until close to 11:00. John had mentioned to me that Sabine seemed to have a little crush on Jamie (who is a typical male, and clueless). After dropping Jamie off, he came up to me and said "When we got into the classroom, the children were milling about and doing their thing in their own worlds. Guess who came up and talked to Jamie first?" "Sabine!" John laughed, and said "She cried out 'Jamie!' and gave him a big hug.' Jamie, of course, barely noticed. Sigh. It's sweet to know that someone out there thinks my son is pretty cool too.

We picked Jamie up, and took him to Hakobune. Liam got to press the elevator buttons donw, and was quite thrilled by this. John and I did some errands, and then he dropped Liam and me off down on Queen Street before going back to the university for a meeting. Liam fell asleep just before we got out of the car, and was a sweet, peaceful lamb for over two hours before waking up a little before 3:00. He was pronounced cute by the Bakka staff (Michelle was there too, and we had fun talking about books) both asleep and awake. Chris (the manager) wiped his (running) nose, which resulted in screams of high dudgeon for about three minutes, but the visit was otherwise without incident. John and Jamie came to get us, and we went home for some quiet time and some Gary tim (depending upon who you were) until dinner at Borwning. The usual good time was had by all, and the boys were in bed a little late tonight. Liam is having trouble with a cough, and Jamie is somewhat concerned over his voice sounding a little hoarse. We're all working through the Evil Cold in our own ways.

2007-12-15 22:33 (Kristen) It was a Niishu Gakkuin day, so we were all up early. John drove Jamie to school, then came back to get me and Liam so that we could all go to the market. We did our shopping quickly, as we were due back at the school at 11:25 for the Christmas party. The kids sang "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in Japanese, and played a version of bingo with hiragana to get numbered bells, which were keyed to their presents (all parents brought a gift for this purpose). They seemed to have a good deal of fun, and we enjoyed watching.

Liam fell asleep in the car once we left the school, in the beginning of what is supposed to be a major snowstorm. The weather has worsened considerably, with lots and lots of snow being blown about by strong winds. At least it is warmer than it was when we left the school, when it was -10 C. We did a few errands, and then finaly came home. Liam woke up in the car as we were dropping food off at John's parents' house, and stayed happy instead of crying because his brother was watching Anpanman on John's computer and Liam could see it. Liam loves Anpanman. We got home, and spent the afternoon playing. Jamie helped John to put the groceries away, and read Liam's favourite Japanese book out loud to Liam. I couldn't see Liam's face from where I was, but John says that Liam had a look of absolute adoration on his face. John and I were pretty pleased. Jamie also happily took the suggestion that he play with Liam and even did so for five minutes with wooden dinosaurs, until Liam accidentally whacked him. I was very pleased with Jamie.

In the evening, we cooked our usual Monday dinner as we will be at the Oshawa Scrabble club's Christmas party that night. Liam played with Tom, and Liam ran about playing with Daniel and everyone else. Both boys ate well, despite Jamie's protestations that he didn't like anything on his plate (translation: eating is boring. I'd rather be playing.). Afterwards, John and I played Hearts with Daniel and Ross, and Liam and Jamie came by to watch. by the end, Liam was sitting either on my lap or John's, and it was clear that he was happy to go home. Bathtime wasn't particularly difficult, and both boys were asleep a little after 10:00. Oh: and Liam helped to put the dirty clothes of the day into the laundry basket, and was utterly delighted to be able to help. It was very cool.

2007-12-16 23:00 (Kristen) The big storm blew in overnight, and we woke up to blowing snow and icy temperatures. The snow had already built up enough for our neighbours to have lots to shovel around 8:30 AM. John and I quickly decided that it was a good day to go to the mall, as there wouldn't be anyone there, given the loud and frequent requests by authorities of one stripe or another to stay off the roads. After breakfast, and after the city sidewalk plow went past, we headed out. John had gone ahead to shovel out a path to Broadview, and we're glad that he did. (John: Two elderly ladies waiting to catch a bus on the way home from church called me their guardian angel after I dug out a path through the snowdrift at the bus stop.) The streets were mostly deserted, but the buses were running frequently enough that we were only moderately covered with snow when we got on (it was snowing very hard).

Liam fell asleep soon after we headed out, exhausted after a long squawk, and stayed asleep for close to three hours, In that time, we went to Yorkdale by subway, shopped, had bubble tea, and got much Christmas shopping accomplished. Jamie was starting to get tired near the end, and surprised both me and John by being scared of a man with dwarfism who was in the children's section at Indigo. Jamie burst into tears, and I took him away to talk with him about it. He was convinced that the man was going to hurt him (there was absolutely no interaction between the two), and while he was willing to talk about it to some degree, it was distressing for all of us. He's never reacted negatively to anyone before, regardless of appearance or age, so we have no idea what the reason was today beyond fatigue and rhinovirus. He was still disturbed tonight as he was falling asleep, John says, and so we'll have to keep talking with him about judging people by appearances before you get to know them.

We loaded up on sushi as we left the mall, and ate it happily on the slow subway train home. We made it through the snow that had accumulated while we were gone (John estimates 45 cm of snow), and were happy to be home. Jamie ran downstairs to play with Gary, Liam had a nurse, and John shovelled the driveway. I eventually went out to help while Ayami played with Liam, and both boys had some more snack before bedtime. Jamie drank a lot of juice, and so I'm a little concerned about how many times he'll be up in the middle of the night, but the juice was good for him. Liam is still coughing a little in his sleep, but hasn't woken up yet. He is finally starting to get better, overall, so perhaps there's hope for the rest of us.

(John) I've been meaning to report on Liam's language skills for a few days now. He has started clearly distinguishing between "[shriek]" or "Ah!" and "Boo!". The former mean "get me that" and the latter means either "put it back" or "make it go". The latter should also not be confused with "Buh" (book), "Bah" (dangerous, from Japanese "abunai", or dirty, from Japanese "batchi") or "Bat" (cat). One must resist the temptation to form sentences such as "Put back the book about the dangerous dirty cat". He also says "Ji" which is the Japanese word for "letter", referring to English letters, and "tss!" (hot, from Japanese "atchichi").

He understands two-part commands ("Put that down, come back here", "Give this to Mom and come back", "Put your boots on and then wait by the door"), and often conducts one-time experiments with tricky utterances such as "Gary" or "Thank you".

This is in addition to a reasonably large signing vocabulary, most of which he has made up himself. If for instance he wants his favourite Japanese board book where the bunny greets all of his friends, he'll say "Buh" and then bow at you. This afternoon, for instance, he came across a picture of a bunny in one of Jamie's workbooks, got excited and had to fetch that Japanese greeting book, then as usual got excited when bunny greeted elephant and had to get his Japanese songbook with the Elephant Song in it. He spends a lot of his growing spare time happily browsing his book collection, occasionally looking hopefully through our books in case one of them happens to have pictures in it, especially of a bunny or an elephant.

Jamie spent some time this evening preparing to be Ms. Schofield's assistant tomorrow, which includes Show and Tell privileges. He's taking an Anpanman toy and book, and spent a long time asking me how best to translate the names of the large cast of characters.

2007-12-17 24:17 (Kristen) Jamie reminded us, in a very serious fashion, that there are only eight days left until Christmas. As I kept thinking it was two weeks, I feel the shove of a bomb underneath me that pushes me onward and upward towards getting this holiday organized. Ack!

Jamie continues to be very slow in dressing himself; in fact, he is even slower than he was a couple of weeks ago, and has regressed in dressing himself in regular clothes as well. Meanwhile, Liam is still trying to figure out how to remove the middleMom from the dressing equation. Very different boys. John asked Jamie yesterday if he got help at school (they're supposed to dress themselves) and he said "Yes." Who from, John asked. "Lauren (a slightly older classmate)," Jamie replied, as John and I both rolled our eyes and threw up our hands.

Jamie went to school without incident, and there was much fun with snow in the schoolyard before the kids went inside. Liam spent the morning finding new and better ways to kill himself. John was a little traumatized after Liam tried to stick his fingers into the toaster, tip himself backwards on a kitchen chair, and one other daredevil thing all in five minutes or less. Liam kept the pace up until John took him along to get Jamie. He was happy to be outside, but was reportedly crabby at the playground, with crying and needing to be carried. The reason for this was clear when John called me, in a panic, saying "Liam's fallen asleep in the sled, get the stroller ready!" Sure enough, the child not only was asleep, but was listing out of the sled, folded over to the side so far that his head could brush the snowbanks that lined the sidewalks. Our neighbour, David, helped John to get home with Jamie on the other sled, and then Liam and John headed out for some work time while I fed Jamie and took him to Jake's for a Monday playdate.

The kids had fun at Jake's, with Parker also in attendance. They built a snowfort (with help from moms), and played with this and that. The only time they were all quiet was when they watched a Toopy and Binou Christmas video. Liam woke up screaming for John, but quieted down after five minutes of high dudgeon. I realize that his crabbiness might also be because a molar is coming through on the lower right side (I saw it in the sunlight when Liam was laughing in his highchair). They did some shopping, played at Treasure Island, where Liam liked the dolls, and came to get us.

John had the following conversation with Jamie this afternoon: "Papa? Is the tooth fairy real?" John: "What do you think?" Jamie: No answer. John: "What do you know about the tooth fairy?" Jamie: "She takes your teeth and leaves money."John: "Does that seem reasonable?" Jamie: "Yeeeesss..." John: "Has anyone ever seen a tooth fairy?" Jamie: "Noooo..." John: "well, that is one reason to believe no. What does the tooth fairy do?" Jamie: "She takes your teeth and leaves money." John: "Does that sound reasonable?" Jamie: "Yeesss..." John reports that Jamie is still weighing the possibilities, plus and minus.

We had dinner tonight at the Oshawa Scrabble Club's annual Christmas party, and we all had a great time. Liam ate an amazing amount of food, ran around an enormous amount to settle it in his hollow leg, and was so pleased that he ran along, giggling, and doing the "happy stomp" every ten paces or so. We're so glad that Liam is starting to understand communication so well. He now clearly has "yes" and "no" in his repetoire, which makes many things much easier on all of us. Both boys were polite and well behaved. Liam fell asleep in the car without a peep, and Jamie finally fell asleep around 10:45, with a great sigh. He asked me more questions about the man at Indigo, and seems to be coming around, on his own, to the idea that you should judge people by their actions, and not by their appearance. This is a source of great relief to me.

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

Back to Vol. 2 No. 13, or up to Jamie Chew's Web Log Archive. or forward to Vol. 2 No. 15.