All tied up

Domino Effect

Oliver comes running in from outside yelling that he had a poop in his underwear. He loudly explains that he tried to get to the bathroom but just wasn't quick enough, quoting verbatim from his favorite episode of Bear in the Big Blue House. I took him in to the bathroom, assessing the situation. Got his pants off. Yup, it was a big poop in his underwear. Yes Oliver, it's ok, accidents happen to everyone. Yes, you can try to get there faster the next time. No, could you please stop shaking your bum. Why? Because I don't want the poop to fall out down your leg.

I get the underwear off successfully. I dump the loose contents down the toilet. But now what? He's standing there covered in poop, and I'm holding poop covered underwear. Yay! A trash pail with a brand new plastic bag. I drop the underwear in. Bad move. SPLAT! Poop flies on the wall, on the toilet and on my face. So gross.

I deal with the splatter. Now, I need to get him cleaned up. Oliver, I'm going to put you in the shower and hose you off. Hang on while I warm up the water. The hand shower is a good choice for this. I have to push the button to turn it on. Wow, button is stuck, I can't get it to go. Push, try with both hands..... CRACK!!!!! Shower head comes crashing down. OH CRAP!! I broke the shower head! Dad's going to kill me.

Blood. Blood. Where is it coming from? Look, look, look... My finger. No, my fingers. I grab for tissues. It's bad and there is alot of blood. Tissues are sticking to the wetness. No Oliver! Don't sit on that. You're covered in poop! I need to deal with my fingers. What happened mommy? I cut myself, I'm ok. I laugh. See what happens when you don't make it to the bathroom? I laugh... I can't help it. I can't clean him with my fingers hemorrhaging. I'm admitting defeat. I'm so thankful I'm at my moms. I call.... MOM!! I need help.

Mommy to the rescue. My dad is there to deal with my fingers, mom takes O upstairs and gets him cleaned up. By the time I stop bleeding she has the underwear cleaned up, the bathroom back in shape. Dad forgives me for breaking the shower head since it was plastic and it was bound to happen at some point.

The rest of the evening I smell poop in my nose. Pretty sure I cleaned it off but yet the smell is strong. I sure hope there isn't some in my hair or something. I can't see it but it has to be somewhere.

Funny how one event can snowball in to a whole disaster....

My fingers are fine but I do have a good slice.

The poop smell is gone.

My little Drama King

Isaac couldn't be more different than his brother. Oliver is incredibly laid back and Isaac, well, he's very emotional and dramatic. These types of outburst happen more often that I would like but you can't help but smile when he sticks out his lip, covers his face and whines like someone just kicked his puppy. 

If I remember correctly this wail/cover you face/fake crying session was because I told him it was time to get in to the tub. If I was smart I would have grabbed the video camera instead of my Nikon. His dramatic protests are hilarious and cute and would have made a great movie. What I was actually trying to capture was him sitting in the sunlight and the contrast of the dark room.

On that note, please ignore the picture quality.... And my horribly dirty floors.

It's been 3 months now since we moved from our home in Nunavut to our new life in New Brunswick so I thought it might be time for the inevitable 'I'm not in Nunavut' anymore post. All the Northern bloggers do one sooner or later. It's a right of passage. A sort of closure for that part of your blogging career. I've been putting off writing this post for a while, in the mean time taking notes of things to add when something jumped out in my mind. For a long time the list consisted only of things that were good about not being up there anymore but now with some time and the perspective of hindsight, I have a list of things I'll miss too. So without further ado....

Southern things that are hard to get used to-
-Not having a years groceries at any given time. It seems I get a little snaky if I don't have at least 50 boxes of Kraft Dinner and 10 bottles of taco sauce in my pantry. I have designated one closet in my house as our 'sealift closet' and try and keep a small stockpile if our most used items.

-Recycling- When I moved north I was so hard to get used to throwing everything out. I felt dirty seeing pop cans and cardboard in a garbage can. I'm now astounded at how little garbage we actually accumulate in the run of a week once you sort out the recyclables. The downside is adding the disposal of the sorted items to your already busy schedule but I don't mind. I think I have to be extra dilligent to counterbalance all the garbage I left in the north.

-High def TV. It's just too much! I'm used to it by now but the first few weeks I found it rather distracting.

-Working 9-5. Well, not quite. Nick is working shift work so it's not 9 to 5 by any means but he has a schedule and is not ever on call. If he has the weekend off he knows he'll be able to plan something without the likelihood of being called out at any given moment. The phone never rings at 3am and a family event or supper is never interrupted by someone else's problems. It's nice having that stability.

-Choices- I'd come to rely on the ease of having little or no choice in where I shop or what I can buy. There is something freeing about accepting that you don't have much choice so you live with what you can get or you do without. Having so many stores to choose from and sites that you can afford the shipping from is sometimes overwhelming.

Things that I miss:
- The beauty of the north. I love the trees and the beauty New Brunswick has to offer but I will always miss the breathtaking views of the fiord out my front window.

-The unique experiences- When will I ever again get to stand on the tail of a whale, do a polar dip in July in the arctic ocean or participate in a northern style parade on Canada Day.

-The laid back lifestyle- A friend once coined Nunavut as her frozen Jamaica which I realised quickly was a very apt description. Everybody and everything runs on Nunavut time which is rarely on time and never predictable. While that took some getting used to it was one of the charming characteristics of northern life.

-Family Dinners- This is a little contrary to what I said earlier in this post but I miss sitting down to eat as a family every night. Even though Nick was always on call we did manage to spend the vast majority of our suppers together. With both of us working and the kids spending lots of time at their grandparents it seems we only sit down together maybe twice a week these days. That's something I'm working to change.

-The kids being able to run loose. I was recently showing pictures of my time in the north and there was a picture of Oliver being carried by an elder during Aboriginal Day celebrations in Cape Dorset. He would have been about 5 months old. My friend asked who the lady was and I said I have no idea. She was someone who saw that O was getting cranky while I was trying to do face painting and just picked him up to help me out. She said really? You let someone just take your baby? I can understand why people down here would find that shocking because I'm sure you would never do that here. I'm also sure they would never let their 2-1/2 year old run around all of Canada Day with kids they don't know and not being at all panicked if I looked up and he wasn't in the same place he was 2 minutes ago. The sense of community parenting was strong in both Cape Dorset and Pang. I couldn't go to the store without someone adjusting my amauti or asking how the kids were. I guess the fact that a random white kid living with an Inuit family would attract alot of attention should someone actually attempt a kidnapping also takes alot off a mother's mind.

-The Northern Lights and 24 hour daylight. The daylight might be a surprise to people who can't imagine dealing with that. Don't knock it till you try it, I would have taken that with me in a minute.

One thing that hasn't changed:
-Monitoring water usage- Now it's because we have to pay for the water we use instead of just worrying about running out but it's still something we think about every day.

What??

I don't claim to fully understand this 'Statcounter' thing but it seems that from 9:43pm and 10:19pm this evening the blog received 77 hits from someone or people Googling images of 'White Guy Afro Singer'..... huh??

The post they are getting is a picture of me showing off the 'White Man's Afro' that I was blessed with while in Hawaii in 2009. See the photo here if you care.

The Internet is a strange and wonderful thing isn't it?

A new name

Change- It's the theme of our lives lately. I'm embracing it as it comes and trying to keep it positive. When my mom suggested that I change the name of the blog to reflect one of the biggest changes I wasn't sure if I wanted to. The change she was referring to: the fact that I don't have babies anymore. She suggested Boys and Bulldogs.

I mulled it over for quite a while, asked for opinions but still couldn't decide. When I asked my brother Ryan his thoughts, he said yes and told me to call it 'The Boys and A Bulldog'. The Boys includes Nick and my nephew Erik who has become a fixture in our lives. And we really only have one bulldog which is something that always bothered by about the old name. I loved the name right away so the change has been made.

Welcome to The Boys and a Bulldog. Feel free to update your sidebars, or not.

My URL     babies-bulldogs.blogspot.com stays the same.


Thanks Mom and Ryan!

Kudos to Mr. Mom

I've been working for over two weeks now and we are settling in with this shift in our family's dynamic. What I didn't mention before is that Nick has been trying his hand at being a stay at home dad so this is not just a huge change for me. But no, Nick didn't quit his job (or get fired). He's just cashing in some of the bazillions of vacation hours he accumulated while we were up north. Since he works shift work and has 4 days off at a time it was pretty easy for him to work out being home during the day. This avoids the need, at least for the time being, to pay for childcare which as you all know is a huge expense.

I will be the first to admit that when he came up with this idea I thought he was crazy. I kind of left it alone so he could think about for a while. I thought he'd change his mind when he realised what he'd suggested. I secretly started looking for daycare on my own so I had a back up plan. Then he actually got the time off. I was surprised but still thought that this was going to be a very short lived solution because I honestly figured he's last a week tops. I said as much to several people in a not so joking manner. I would have bet the farm in Vegas against him.

Just to clarify, Nick's a really good Dad. I would say he's a better dad than I am a mom in more areas than I'd like to admit. It's not that I don't think he could do it. I just figured he'd very quickly be done with the day to day tedium and frustrations of dealing with kids. We're also talking about someone who has spent a full day with the kids.... maybe 5 times? And I think that could be generous estimation when I really think about it. I've just always been there and Nick was no stranger to using work as an escape from whining, pooping, crying and general not listening when he'd had enough.

I'm pleasantly surprised to announce that after more than two weeks at home, the kids are happy, fed and dressed everyday. Dressed was a big shocker Nick is famous for all day PJ wearing. He's taken them out, done errands, cleaned, done laundry, yard work and has even made supper for me a couple of times. He says he's enjoying having the time to get things done around the house that he hasn't when he's been working full time. He's getting to see the kids do first hand all those cute things that I used to tell him about at the supper table. Nick has even admitted that he didn't realise how much work it is to get 2 kids up and out at any given time....and he hasn't even had to deal with snowsuits and boots! It's nice to get that little bit of validation for what I've been doing for so long.

As much as I'm really glad that things are going well at home it's been a little strange for me. I'm relinquishing control of so many things which is hard. It took about a week but I'm no longer calling several times a day to check to make sure this was done, and that was taken care of. I have to admit I'm loving being out of the house everyday and having regular adult conversations. Getting up and out of the house before the rest of them are even awake isn't fun since I'm not a morning person but over all, work is working for me. The best part? Coming home at the end of the day to Isaac yelling MUM!!! and doing his best to get down the stairs as quick has he can to hug me. I barely get a hello from Oliver but Isaac's enthusiasm makes up for it.

This arrangement isn't going to last forever but I'm happy that Nick's getting the special time with the kids that he hasn't in the past. I can already see how they are deferring to him more and doing things his way. I don't always like that since the control freak in me wants everything done my way but I guess I'm the one that needs to adapt. As I've said before, Times they are a-changing, but the changes are good.