Pink Toes

Yesterday I painted my toe nails for the first time this season. I'd been putting it off because despite the warmer temperatures, it's still not exactly flip flop weather. Then yesterday I got out the nail clippers because even if I wasn't ready to paint, the nails really needed clipping. It was that action that made me realise the window for painting them myself is quickly disappearing along with my waistline.


I'm 24 weeks along and my weekly email tells me the baby is now the size of a papaya. That's a surprise since it seems more like there's a watermelon in there but I'll take their word for it. I'm loving my growing belly and I look forward to the nightly dance party that the baby hosts. As much as I love getting bigger, sleeping on my stomach, easily bending over the tub to wash Oliver and putting on my own socks is getting harder every day.

 In the end I was successful in maneuvering around the papaya and I now have pretty pink toenails. I think unless Nick decides to step up and help me out when I need a touch up, the next time they will look this good will be when I get to indulge in a professional pedicure down south. I really can't wait for that day, the place I go has these amazing reclining chairs and heated booties!

Boots

O's favorite things lately are his rubber boots. He wears them morning till night and it doesn't matter if they are over his sleeper or without pants.

 

This is why I love blogging

Wow! I can't believe it. Tonight's is post is number 200 since I started this blog. It seems fitting that this milestone comes on a day that I once again need help from the blogging community. I started this blog to keep in touch with family and friends for the most part but it's become something much bigger. Not only have the other bloggers been really welcoming to their group, I've also made some genuine friends who have become 'pen pals' of sorts. My online friends have helped me with all sorts of things over the last 200 posts, mostly in the department of kids stuff. People are always quick to give their advice when I ask for it which I love. It's like Googling a problem and getting answers from people you trust.

Tonight I'm asking for a different kind of help. I've been corresponding with someone in Nova Scotia who has had some job offers to come up north to work. I've been giving her the ins and outs, negative and positives, dos and don'ts of making the move. Turns out she may be going to Cambridge Bay instead of to Pang as originally planned. She was hoping I'd have a contact there for her to talk to but I don't, at least not one I can think of. So, I'm sending the request out to you. Does anyone out there have a contact in Cambridge Bay that wouldn't mind getting an email from my friend?

Thanks in advance for the help, you guys are the best. And here's to 200 more.... posts, not questions :)

Yummy Bouquet

It's my Dad's birthday today and as usual I had the hardest time trying to decide what to get him. What do you get the man who has everything.... I know that's cliche but not so far from the truth when it comes to my father. I've seen several times the commercials for Edible Arrangements and have long thought that a fruit bouquet would be perfect for him since he loves fruit. Of course, when the time came and I looked into it, the company didn't deliver to my parents area. But, a plea in a Facebook status update led to many suggestions and I was able to find a company in my home town that did the same thing. 

This is the finished product. I will be the first to say it's much skimpier than the picture on the website but it still looks pretty good. He loved it and that's all that matters. The company is Blossoms and they apparently have them across Canada. The price was very reasonable and I ordered late on Friday night and Dad got it by 4pm the next day so I say that's pretty good service. They have lots of of designs, most of them more impressive than this but he's not a fan of pineapple or melon so that narrows down the options a bit.

Anyway, next time you're stuck for a gift idea, this could work for you. It's certainly something different. I hope someone gets me one of these in the future... it would make a great in the hospital kind of gift that a husband might send a wife after giving birth to his beautiful baby.... Are you getting the hint Nick?

Happy Birthday Dad!

17 months

The most wonderful, cheeky, challenging, frustrating, fullfilling, amazing, beautiful, satisfying, exhausting, makes me laugh every day thing in my life.

She's back!

I'm sure many of you know it already but I wanted to be sure everyone is aware that Jen is blogging again. Jen of Nunavut has reincarnated herself as Jentography with her characteristic whit, interesting subjects and fantastic photography.

We're so glad you're back Jen, we missed you.

Unofficial beginning of summer

Sometimes I'm amazed at how out of touch I can be living up here. It was brought to my attention by a random Facebook status update that this is the first long weekend of summer. Or to all you maritimers.... MAY 2-4! I had no idea. When I read it, I was all, 'what do you mean long weekend?'

In honor of what I'd like to be doing this weekend, instead of watching the snow fall, I'm going to day dream.....

....I'm sitting on a lawn chair, around a campfire. Phil and Andy are playing their guitars and we're all singing bad versions of Blue Rodeo and Pearl Jam songs. There are hot dogs on straightened out wire hangers over the fire, there is lots of beer in the cooler and I'm surrounded by all my favorite people. We are all laughing hysterically, my husband is being inappropriate (as usual), Sarah is taking too many pictures but we all smile anyway.... it's my favorite place in the world.

Happy unofficial beginning of summer everyone! I hope you all get to be in your favorite places. Please have a beer for me.

Happiness is....

a case of pizzas... well, at least it is for Nick. It IS his favorite food next to turkey dinner.

I've started stocking up on things for Nick to eat when I leave Pang for my 'confinement period'. To those of you don't know, woman can't deliver babies in the small northern communities that are only serviced by nurses at the health center. The normal procedure is that at 35 weeks or so you are sent out for 'confinement' to Iqaluit where you stay and wait for the baby to arrive. Gotta love that they call it confinement huh? As you can imagine, I'm not willing to do that so I'll be heading back to Saint John NB, our home town, to be around people I know and love. I'm actually leaving earlier than the norm, around 30 weeks so Oliver can enjoy a bit of the summer in the land of beaches, playgrounds and play dates. And Grandma's.

So back to the pizzas. Foodmail this week had them on 2 for 1. You can't beat that, especially since Delissio's here are $17 a piece. So, I ordered 12. I'm sure that won't get him through the 2 months till he joins me in Saint John but it'll make a dent. I also started to load up on ground beef in preparation for the lasagnas I have to make. Eventually I'll also make him some meat pies, and I think this time I'm going to make an attempt at sheppard's pie as well. These are all things (exception: the lasagna) that I don't eat and that freeze really well so it's a perfect time to let him indulge without my having to suffer. It's also because if I don't fill the freezer for him I know full well he'll exist on omelets and sandwiches.

I think it's the least I can do since I'm leaving him behind to fend for himself while I enjoy restaurants, family members cooking for me and take out. After cooking every single meal for months in a row, if I don't see a stove for a while, I won't complain. In the meantime, I wait for more ingredients to go on sale. 7 weeks and 5 days till I leave... but who's counting?

Books are precious

Books are precious... that's the saying my friend Cheryl is always telling her grand daughter when she gets a little rough on her reading material. I love it. I've even stole it and have tried to instill the message on Oliver as well. I don't know how it's working on Mercedes lately but Oliver doesn't seem to care in the least.

As you can see, Oliver has made a fair attempt at wrecking several books around our house. There are more but these are the ones I could find quickly for the picture. A couple of them were beyond repair so they ended up in the garbage. He's broken spines and pulled out pages (from board books, I don't know how he does that) Right now he's very into the books that have flaps to look under. Unfortunately, as much as he likes reading them with me, I think he likes it better when he can rip the flaps right off the page. He of course does this when I'm in the other room and will bring me the the flaps like he's so proud of what he's done.


I'm not sure how to go about dealing with this. I'm sure all kids do it and he's only 17 months, it'll be a while before he really gets the books are precious message. In the meantime, do I put them all away so they are out of reach unless he's with an adult? I hate to do that because I like that he looks at them on his own too. Or do I just chalk the losses up to casualties of babyhood.

In the news....

This subject has been bouncing around the news and the not so legitimate news for a few days. I'm sure you've seen it by now....The 8 and 9 year old girls that did their dance routine to Beyonce's 'Put a Ring on it' wearing very little clothing? Since this is for the most part a Mommy Blog, I thought I'd put my thoughts as a mommy in writing.

I will be the first to say that 99% of the time when these types of stories come on the news I'm on the side of 'Give me a Break... Do you not have anything better to do than to worry about stuff like that?' So being true to form, my first reaction was just that. Now that I've seen the video 20 times or so, on every channel, I'm not feeling the same way. I really don't think I'd want my daughter in that routine. I of course don't hold any fault to the girls in this. I'm sure they worked really hard practising and there is no denying the talent that made them do that routine as well as they did. They were really very good. What I have a problem with is how the parents are saying that it is being taken 'out of context' and that 'it wasn't meant for public consumption'. Wake up people! Do you really think that nobody was going to tape it and it would get out? These things always do now a days.

When I see the real music video played along side the girls' you can't help but notice that even Beyonce is wearing more clothes than these kids are. And I'm not a prude, I know dance costumes are usually skimpy. I think it's the combination of the bumping and grinding and the half naked children that put it over the line for me. Would more clothes make me feel better about the whole thing? I think it would actually. 

Anyway, maybe I'm just getting old. I don't know. I'm not outraged about it, I think in the grand scheme of things it isn't that huge a deal. I don't think these kids are going to be scarred for life or anything. I just feel the parents and the choreographer of this dance could have made a better choice considering they were dealing with kids at that age. Isn't there enough sexualisation of age groups that have no business being sexualized? I can just see the pedophiles out there making this a go-to in their video library. Putting it in that context, I would definitly not want my daughter in that routine. 

But maybe it's just me.

** You'll notice I didn't add a link to the video as I usually would. Considering my stance on the whole thing I thought to do so would be hypocritical. If you haven't seen it and want to, I'm sure it's easy enough to find.

How much at Sotheby's?

My son's going to be an artist! An artist along the lines of Pollock I think which makes the word 'artist' debatable but still, look at his use of color!

This is Oliver's first attempt at drawing. I can honestly say there was zero parental intervention other than the taping of paper to the table and the opening of the markers (washable of course) I was so proud of him. He gets his sense of color from me since he used every single one of them. I love color too.

Officially this was a mothers day gift for his grandmothers which I scanned and emailed to them but I couldn't help but show it off to the masses. Someday it could be worth something and you can say you saw it when. :)

The melt is on!

It's amazing what a difference a few days can make. Last Thursday, so five days ago, Nick, Jen and Phil where out bombing around Pang on the snowmobiles in typical arctic weather. Today, this is what it looks like outside our house.

The temperatures got up to a balmy +11 on Sunday and +7 yesterday so the snow started disappearing at a rapid pace. The parking lot at the northern is full of ATV's now instead of snow machines. I guess I won't be seeing those kids sized snowmobiles bombing around the back of the house anymore. Watching them trying to navigate the 'jumps' gave us lots of entertainment. I wonder if those kids have little quads? I hope not since I've already had to put my foot down to Nick about getting O a little ski-doo. I don't know if I'll win another of those arguments.

Today we got back to more 'seasonal' temps, meaning colder, but it looks like the thaw is on. I guess it's time to pull my rubber boots out of the closet cause mud season is here.

Bring it on!

Mother's Day

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms out there! I hope you were treated like the queens you are.

I was lucky to have my own day of royal treatment. Nick hasn't always been the best at remembering or acknowledging holidays as I thought he should. I've always said, it's not about the gifts, I don't need gifts I just want the occasion to be acknowledged. He really took that to heart this time around. I didn't get a gift. What I did get was a sleep in and breakfast in bed, made with love. Nick made a point to tell me that Oliver did the jam on the toast which explained why there was about an inch of it. Oliver and I shared it along with the cereal and it was nice family time.

When I got up, I realised the dishes were done and the kitchen was clean. Since the kitchen is my usual morning routine I had a leisurely shower and the opportunity to call all the mothers in my life. And to top it all off, Nick even took care of dinner tonight!

The thought Nick put into the the day meant more to me than any gift he could have chosen. Thank you my love. And to Oliver, thanks for the jam induced sugar overload this morning. I couldn't ask for a more special little guy and I love being your mom. Your laugh makes my day, everyday.

The Name Game

Sometimes I wish that when you had a baby it would come with a name. You know, like your Cabbage Patch doll did? It would sure save months of headaches, arguments and unwanted opinions trying to come up with something for yourself. But then again, would I want to have a child named Trista Esther because that's what Xavier Roberts decided it should be? You did have the option to change your doll's name once you got her but then you're back to those headaches.

Now that we know the baby is a boy I have been scouring my baby name book and the usual websites to try and make a short list of names we like. The problem is, there is so little that will work.

-Aiden, Liam and Ethan-Names I love but they are way too popular for my tastes.
-(......) There are a name or two that shall remain unwritten here that we like but everyone makes a face when I say them. I know it's our decision but I don't want to have my kid go through life with a name that people hate.
-Cohen, Jonah and Kalen.  Favorites of mine but Nick has thrown out the veto on them.
-Ryan and Matthew- Off limits because they already belong to my brother and brother in law. 
-Simon and Lucas- Not a fan of the S sounds with the last name Steeves.
-Gabriel and Anthony- Love the names but hate the short versions. And I'm the worst offender of shortening names if you can so I know it'll happen.
-Oscar- We like it but really? Can't name our kid after a green monster who lives in a garbage can.

Even though we still have 4 months or so to decide on something these are just some examples of why I like to start really early. We have so far put about 6 names on the short list but truthfully only 2 of those are strong possibilities. I guess with only 2 names we can use the strategy we employed in choosing Oliver's name and go with a coin toss. Then again, since Nick won the toss with O, maybe I should be the default winner this time around and get make the final choice. But then who would I blame if I decide I made the wrong decision?

I'm back to wanting Xavier Roberts to name my child.

Little helper

Things have been busy the last few days with the arrival of our friends Jen and Phil. It's so amazing to have people willing to come visit us in on the tundra. I had some downtime this afternoon because Nick took them up to Auyuittuq Park for the day on the snow machines while I stayed home with Oliver. As much as I would have loved to go along, O's still a little young for a day out on the land. I took advantage of the time to clean up the house and use my new vacuum. I'm so in love with my new Dyson Ball! It was worth every penny of it's exorbitant price. It seems O likes it too and wanted to help me do the rug. I love that he wants to help so I don't mind that his 'help' turns a 3 minute vacuum job into one that takes 10.