You ain't gettin' my numba, movin' on over to wordpress.

I really enjoyed blogger during the time I spent here. And frankly I will miss it a little, but I moved on over to Wordpress.

Come check me out here http://jentography.com

You see, when I tried to make another blog with this account, google showed up and told me that I had to put in my cell phone address so they could text me...you know to verify it was me. Except I have NO idea how that would actually verify "me", seeing as I have never previously entered in a cell phone number. And guess what google...you are so not getting my cell phone number. And as some people pointed out, what if I didn't have a cell phone, like many MANY of the folks up north?

I guess it turns out that blogger was concerned I wasn't me and trying to hijack this account with more blogs. Again I have no idea how the cell phone identification would have worked instead of just e-mailing my private e-mail address with some kind of verification. Whatever it's too late now. I had to check out wordpress and lets say I'm pretty impressed.

Goodbye forever Jen of Nuavut & Blogger, Hello spiffy new blog.

For Northern Mommies

Did you know that cost-co has recently added their baby wipes to the list of things they are shipping for free? You can check it out here. If you haven't tried these wipes, you need to. They have done wonders for Ezri's bum and don't seem to irritate her the way others do. But more importantly all you northern mom's can get months worth of awesome wipes for $30 and free shipping. I'm just excited for you. It doesn't make a difference for me anymore obviously since cost-co is just a hop skip and jump away, but then again maybe I'll take advantage of it so I don't have to endure those irritating crowds and annoying line ups just to your receipt "checked over".

Birthday Cake (babies & doggies eddition)

Christmas Eve marks the celebration of my first year of being a mother, also it was Ezri's birthday. I have a few photos to share with you of the celebration, but an entire year of motherhood is exhausting and tomorrow is Christmas, so here is a quick bed time story to tide you over until I can write a more detailed post.

The afternoon was filled with cake, family and friends. The little girl received more then a little girl needs for her first birthday. After all the guests had gone, only a single piece of cake remained uneaten. The mother gave into the dog, who sat unmoving, focused on the last remaining piece of cake. The plate was placed on the floor and the mother left the room for only a moment to clean up the left over wrapping paper. When the mother returned to the kitchen, she found the dog and the little girl sitting on the floor sharing that last remaining piece of cake. Here is the conversation that ensued that evening.

Ezri: "That's what I was telling you about earlier. You kept sliding the plate across the floor like that piece of cake was a hockey puck. You had absolutely no control, eating cake is not some kind of game. Here is the answer to your problem, this is a bowl."

Ezri: "You see, the bowl has this nifty edge around it that allows you to push the food into the side for a better grip. Honestly, how did you even survive before me? Clearly your quality of life has improved since I've come along. Yes, yes I'm working on opening the fridge. All in good time. You just keep bringing us those treats you find in the garbage can."

I miss you already

I miss you, Nunavut. I don't think about how much I miss you during the day time when I'm driving in my car, texting and eating a Big Mac (but not really because texting and driving is illegal in my area, and I'm a perfect citizen). I don't really think I miss you when the weather is warm, I'm wearing a tee-shirt, the grass is still green and it's November. I vaugly remember you when I'm power shopping the mall, online shopping a distant memory, sipping a Starbucks and heading through a self check out.

But late at night, when I'm fast asleep, visions of snowmachines drive through my head. Blizzards, cold and the snow. And I remember how much I hate rain, rain sucks. Then I start dream wondering why it hasn't snowed here yet, this place sucks and I'm never going to snowmachine here!

Then I really, really miss you!

Playing the single parent, and it sucks.

We recently had my friend Julie come over and take some photos of us in front of my mother's "Bay store entrance" tree (this is what I call her Christmas tree because she does it up like the ones you see at the front of The Bay, you know where all the ornaments match). My tree, which is still not up, normally looks like Christmas barfed all over it, rather then the well thought out, choreographed tree at my mothers house.

This was supposed to be a family portrait, but Nathan was called away for a 3 week work course and I was left a single parent. I didn't really think much of it at first, but now that the 3 weeks are almost over and there are only 2 LONG days until daddy comes home, I am now realizing how ridiculously hard it is for single parents of the world. Now granted I am 6 months pregnant and feeling a little bit of extra burn because my body is hard at work making another person, while I run around, chasing a creature that has just been unleashed to the world walking, with no concept of electricity or stairs. I'm pretty freaking tired. This child also does not like to sit still, or stay in any one place for too long, this also includes mommy's lap. I call her my "free range chicken", because she is constantly on the go and gets very cranky when not left to her own devices. I've got my fingers crossed that the second baby is a little more chilled out. I'm going to start pumping Bob Marley into the womb.

Only 2 more days and the daddy can do all the picking up and lifting. And maybe a diaper too.
You can see more of Julie's exceptional photography here.

Ezri (10 months-ish)

Ezri is really growing, it's a pretty magical experiance to watch. Also under the law of being a mom, I have to also say that she is so amazing and gorgeous and the cutest ever. But holy toledo. am I ever exhausted! This might have something to do with being 5 months pregnant, but I'm thinking it may also have to do with someone getting up at 5:45am since the time change. Ezri enjoys taking off anything that touches her feet, screeching as loud as she possibly can constantly, standing & walking with something to assist her. Two days ago she took her first steps unassisted, but realized she could reach her destination much faster if crawling. We haven't seen much more on the walking front, but we know it's coming and soon. She is a woman on a mission and has no time to slow any of that down with cuddeling or standing still. She has been too much fun and I'm hoping that one day soon I'll get some energy back so I can keep up with her!

Back of the line

Just like the south, the north has it's little irritations that you just put up with. Just before I left the north I started letting those little things bug me just a little more then I would normally let myself get away with. I had caught the "grass is greener" syndrome, everything in the south was going to smell like roses. I usually reverse my outlook depending if I'm north or south. I flip flop like that, it's how I roll. Some people might call that flaky. Well since I'm down south for good this time I've reverted back to the north being all peaches and cream and remembering all the irritating things one has to deal with down south. One of them being waiting in line. And if you don't believe me, I'm telling the honest truth, you almost never wait in a line up north, maybe only on hot dog day once a year, who is going to pass up a free hot dog?

I've had the pleasure of waiting in sorts of lines since my return south. Of course there is waiting in line at Tim Horton's. A minor irritation at 8am when the line is busting itself out of the parking lot and into oncoming traffic. But it seems to move along at a reasonable pace.
Then there is the grocery store line when nameless huge chain only pay to have two cashiers on shift when their is clearly need for more. They tell you it's so they can bring you those Delisio's for the low low price of $5 (a mighty drop from the $16 I used to pay for them up north), but I know that since you're only paying your two cashiers pennies an hour to work anyways, you could probably shave a few bucks off of those dripping with fat CEO bonus cheques and get one more employee scanning out my pizzas. I'm entitled to my agression because I worked for said nameless grocery store for 6 years prior to my time up north. I know the deal. That or maybe you can use all that money your shamelessly charging for plastic bags in the name of the environment and then pocketing. I'm just saying.

Then the mother of all line ups, the one it took to get vaccinated for H1N1 in southern Ontario. Please, some of my northern friends pipe in and tell me how long it took you to wait in line to get vaccinated? Well it took me only an hour and half and that's because I got crafty and drove to another smaller city and got in line an hour before the clinic opened. The one I tried to get into (twice!) the night before was 2.5 - 4 hours long. I'm not going to get into the touchy subject of the vaccination itself, all I can say is that I'm sound with my choice of getting if for my pregnant self and 10 month old daughter. Happy I got it, and just in time too, lots of my friends are popping up with H1N1. Meanwhile back to the line up and how panic and lots of people mean waiting in sweaty, stinky school hallways. If Canada wants it's larger popluated areas to get vaccinated, making people who don't really want the vaccine wait in line for 4 hours isn't going to do the trick. Also who's idea was it to shove a bunch of pregnant ladies, kids and immune compromised individuals into tiny, cramped, low ventalated area with hundreds to thousands of other people. I almost turned into a germaphobe, I must have been purrelling every 10 seconds. Everytime someone caughed or sneezed, out came the purell. Then horror of all horrors, some random kid came over to Ezri, took one look at her and then proceed to lick her hand!! Where are we? Lets all share our germs and then get a vaccination, somehow that feels like it cancels it all out.
Here is Ezri being a trooper and waiting in line. At this point we are being told to make sure we have our Health cards ready, because it's soo important and omg where is your health card. I pull out our Nunavut Health cards, the lady doesn't even bother to check our names and tosses them back to us. "I can't scan these". Ontario your so high and mighty with your scan cards (notice how I'll say that until my Ontario health card comes in the mail). I could have been from Mars and still got the vaccination. Lets just hope that I never have to wait in one of these southern panic lines again. I've had about enough of waiting in line.