A sad goodby

Tomorrow is a day I've been dreading for months. Tomorrow Jen and Nathan move back down south and I'm very sad. Jen has been a life line and my go to person for the last year and it's just not going to be the same here without her. I met Jen via Blake's Blog when I was googling information on Cape Dorset. I posted a message on his comments page and Jen contacted me after seeing the post. I was thrilled to find she was also part of the RCMP family so I knew we were going to see alot of each other if. For the next few months we emailed consistently. I asked all the usual questions and she was full of great information. I can't imagine having made the move without her. Actually, I can imagine. I would have showed up without rubber boots... what would I have done then? That of course was not the only good piece of information I got but it's one appreciate to this day.

Early on we confided that we were both planning on starting families soon. I remember she wrote, 'as long as we're not due in the same month' as it would be hard for both our husbands to get time off at the same time. Not long after, Jen told me she was pregnant. Well, I was too but hadn't told her yet. What a shock it was to find out that we were not only due in the same month, but the SAME WEEK! Two days apart actually. Luckily, it all worked out and Nick and Nathan both got home in time. And would you believe that our kids were born exactly 12 hours apart? It was great having another pregnant lady and mom along for the crazy ride.

I'm going to miss Jen for lots of reasons but the biggest one is that she's a do-er. I'm a homebody and a follower by nature so I really like having an instigator to get me out of my routine. Jen is always the one planning getting out to penny sales, walks with the dogs, ski-doo afternoons, girls nights, spa nights... I could go on. With her gone I may never leave my house again!

For their last night as northerners we decided to have a group dinner. Our dinners have become a regular part of our social life so it was a no-brainer. Not to mention their house is packed up so otherwise they wouldn't eat. Tonight sort of brought us full circle since they hosted our first northern meal. It seemed only right that we host their last.

So farewell my friends. I wish you well and hope 'down south' treats you well. Think of us often and know that you'll be missed.


I love this picture! And a good example of why you need rubber boots.

Meaghan was pregnant along with us and had her baby three weeks after our kids were born.

Tank and Jen have a special connection. He listens to her much more than he does to me.

Ezri, Oliver and Mercedes. This was the last time the three of them were together. O will miss you Ezri!

Leftovers

As a rule I hate leftovers. But as you know, there are exceptions to every rule and this is mine. I love cold, home-made chicken balls. With ketchup.... and I use alot. I'm going to have them now, before Nick gets up, so I don't have to listen to him comment on my ketchup intake.

Thanks

Today I don't have any stories to tell or any pictures to post. I spent the day scrapbooking and playing with O while the wind howled outside. Oh! We got our first snow, that was exciting. No accumulation, just blowing. Anyway, since I don't have anything better to say I thought this would give me the perfect opportunity to say thank you.

When I decided to start this blog I was apprehensive, wondering if anyone would read. I could say I started it for my family (and I think I did on post #1) but truth be told, I hoped it would reach a wider audience. I'm very pleased with my level of readership and am thrilled that you keep coming back to see what's going on and what I have to say. So THANK YOU! I would also like to send out an extra big thanks to all the other northern bloggers. I've found it to be a great community to be part of and feel like I'm making friends with people I've never met all over the north. Thanks for adding me to your side bars too. I'm sure many of my readers are yours. Thanks for sharing them.

Ok, this is getting sappy so I'll leave it at that. I hope it isn't too cheesy a post, I just though it was time for an acknowledgement. Thank you, Merci, Nakurmiic (Inuk spelling as per omniglot.com?) and Dank Ja (for my reader in the Netherlands)

Can I get a Nine?

I think Oliver is playing with me. (If you havn't read in a couple if days please read my previous post to put this one in context) At 5:20 am the red light on the monitor went up to the maximum and a I woke up to a screech. Here we go again. As I always do I took 10 minutes to get myself together while he plays in his crib. I ended up dozing off and when I woke up 15 minutes later, there was silence. OMG! He went back to sleep. YEAH!!!! I was back off to dreamland.

I woke up again at 7:20 and there was still silence. At 7:45, SILENCE! At this point I'm cranking up volume and the monitor and putting it to my ear to it to see if I can hear him breathing. Wow, a nice change from the fives. Well, would you believe we made it to the nines? NINES!!! He was awake a 9:02!!! I don't want to complain but I didn't even get to enjoy it because I spent most of the eights listening to the monitor to make sure he was actually still alive. But I'm not complaining. You know who was complaining? My wonderful husband. Nick and I each take a weekend morning for sleeping in while the other gets up with the boy. He chose to take Sunday as his day to get up and now figures he made the wrong choice. What are the chances O will sleep late again tomorrow? haha! too bad sucker :)

Seven, six, five, four....

I don't even know why I'm still awake.

The last couple of mornings my darling son has decided that waking up in the fives is appropriate. The fives, as in 5:10 am yesterday and 5:50 today. While I disagree wholeheartedly on this plan of action I unfortunately don't have a say in it. I could turn off the monitor and just sleep through his calling but I'm guessing that would be classified under bad parenting.

I wonder what's going to happen tomorrow. The great news... O was so tired from being up so early, which means early nap schedule of course, that he was dead on his feet by 6pm. He was down by 7 which is an hour earlier than his usual bedtime. I really hope that doesn't mean he's going to be up in the fours. I think if that happens I may just have to be a bad parent and ignore him. I just can't do fours. Then again, maybe I'll get lucky and he'll go back to his usual schedule and be up around 7 or 7:30.

Sevens are acceptable. I can do sevens. I'd better get to bed. Goodnight all!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Nick complained to me the other night that even though the blog is called Babies and Bulldogs, the baby posts far outweigh the bulldog ones. That is true. I guess like most parents, the first born dog somewhat falls out of favor in photos and stories once the human baby comes along. With that in mind today it's all about Tanko.

I always joke that Tank is the biggest celebrity in town. When we arrived last summer we couldn't go anywhere him without a mob of kids (and a few adults) swarming us. Most told us they had never seen a bulldog in real life which makes sense since they are not exactly a cold weather breed. The first question we always heard was 'Does he bite?' I always found that a funny question to ask about a pet but I guess his toothy smile could make people wonder. Now a year later the mobs have stopped but I don't think I've ever out with him that I don't hear 'Hi Tank!' from someone.

Tank is faring very well in the north. He's always loved the snow and will frolic when there's some one the ground to play in. Watch him 'sliding' by the house next door. He'd do this over and over.


I was worried that we would have a problem with him in the cold and he would have to use pee-pee pads in the front hall. I wasn't pleased about that considering how long it took us to train him. I even bought him boots and a coat to keep him toasty so I wouldn't have to deal with that. As it turned out, it wasn't a problem and he won't have anything to do with his cold weather gear. We just don't keep him out too long.

The only downside of having a bulldog is that not everyone appreciates their unique um... shall I say beauty? I can't tell you how many times people have told me he's the ugliest thing they've ever seen. I hate hearing that because to me he's a gorgeous boy. Some lady in Iqaluit said, 'he's got a face only a mother could love' to which I replied. 'Yup, and I do'.

Spacing??

If anyone can tell me what's up with my spacing I'd love to hear it. I don't know anything about HTML, if that has anything to do with it I don't know. On my preview it looks just fine so I'm stumped.