The Amauti Tango

This is me & Ezri getting into the amauti, as requested by Catherine in my comments section. It may look as though I do get her in all by myself, but the truth is I needed a little help from my friend Morena who also did the filming for our feature presentation. We just did some fancy editing to make it seem like I didn't...but if you pretend I didn't need help, that's what it should look like. I have cotton on the inside of the pouch that apparently makes it harder for the baby to slide it, although I have mastered getting her out all by myself. Any northern moms have good tips for getting their babies in solo?

Mother-In-Law

Thank you so much for coming up north for a month. We woke up this morning and the house just seemed a little empty.

Torture

Yes I'm a bad mommy, I let my dog eat cheesies and pretzels. But am I not also an amazing trainer, look at that restraint.

Wearing Babies

Morena, myself and Meaghan got out with babies yesterday. This is really the only way to do it up here. Morena made me a FANTASTIC bunting bag for Ezri, so she stays up straight and slips in better to the back of the amauti. I think everyone that has an amauti needs one of Morena's bunting bags, they are amazing!I'm looking to replace my ties on my amauti and tried making some on my own, but got too lazy. If anyone is interested, have a look at this catalog, they make some pretty awesome ones. I'm going to order mine soon. I'm also in the market for a lighter amauti for summer, but the material at the store is down to bare bones.

Inukshuk?

Or my friend Morena?

Snowboarding in Nunavut: Doing it the hard way

We got out on the land snowmobiling yesterday and this time we took out Nathan's snowboard. This is something he has been meaning to try for sometime now. The idea was that I would drive him up the hill on my machine and then he would snowboard down and we would continue this cycle for maximum fun. I however was not going to board. I can not and will not. I like my legs in one piece, in fact I like my entire body that way.

We finally came across an acceptable hill and realize it's just too steep to mobile up. Nathan decided to park his snowmobile half way up and then crawl up the rest of the way. It seemed like an eternity passed as I watched him wade through waste deep snow and then use his board to climb up the rest of the way.
When he got to the top, we proceeded to try and have a muffled conversation about which way he should head down to avoid the mine field of rocks. It was a nerve racking moment while I finally communicated with hand gestures that he need to stay to his right so I could take him home in one piece. Why are men lunatics sometimes? And why do woman get to suffer watching them do insane things?

He finally took off over what seemed like a cliff of snow that was a straight drop. He kept it together for most of the way down and then...
Wiped out. But remember how hard it was to get up the hill because the snow was so loose and powdery?

Well he survived and got back up...
And went down the hill a little more.
At the end of Nathan's trip down the hill, my friend Morena and I drove up to Nathan's machine where we both promptly sunk our machines into the really deep loose snow. Getting them dug out was (insert bad word here) hard. We were wading through thigh deep snow, digging out our machines and doing it all wearing enough puffy clothing we'd put the stay puft marshmallow man to shame. It was -30C outside and I was still sweating.

This next photo might look like a crime scene, but really it's just Nathan taking a nap and Morena INGENIOUSLY rolling herself down the hill, saving herself the pain of wading through the snow. Its defeating walking a few steps and then sinking in to your hip. In the end, we made it out. I hope if anything came of that little adventure, I might have burned a few postpartum calories!

My Amauti

Here is a better look at my amauti. Right now I'm trying to fiddle with making my own ties (the one that was made for me that goes around my waste is a tiny bit too small). I think it would be fun to experiment with adding some kind of personal touch.

Kara had mentioned that her cats were very interested in her seal skin pelts and here you can see Tallinn is investigating my seal skin Kamiks. He wasn't supposed to be in the photo, but I swear every time someone picks up a camera he some how ends up in the shot like a photo HO! The one positive thing about the kamiks needing to be stored in the freezer (they're not tanned) is that they are out of reach of certain wandering puppies and kitties.

Cup of the Cakes

For valentines day this year I made some delicious cupcakes, chocolate with pink cream cheese icing. I had a lot of fun doing them, except for the part where I had to carry Ezri around the entire time. Not that I minded having her "help" me make them, but it's hard to see what your working on when there is a 2 month old hanging off your stomach. She was in a cranky mood, perhaps knowing she couldn't actually eat the cupcakes I made, and would only sleep while being carried.

I'd like to think I'm developing my super mom skills!And if you were wondering about my romantic other half, he said for my Valentines day gift this year he would not hassle me about how much my amauti cost and also he cleaned the litter box. Very well appreciated, practical gifts. All and all a pretty awesome Valentines.

And Now for your entertainment...

When I first got pregnant, my brother Aleks put together this image. He took a photo of a lady in an amauti and photoshoped my face on to it. He also took my baby photo and Nathan's and morphed them together to create the creepy baby in the hood. That is not Ezri. My mom thought it was so cute, she printed it off and stuck it in her wallet. I cringe every time I see this photo...look at my hair.Well I had to take a real life photo and with hair to match. I just got my amauti and check it out how similar it is to Aleks' depiction. He must be able to see into the future. I will get better photos of it soon and with my hair not looking like it's on drugs.

Mini Him

She may not look like it, but in the world of babies, Ezri is an amazon. This 6 week old is fitting into 6 month old clothing. She has her dad to thank for that.

Mom-mobiling

I'd been back all of 1 day and I desperately needed to get out on my snowmobile. I have missed half of the season because I was down south having Ezri. I was also hesitant to snowmobile while 8 months pregnant, but I did manage to get out once, very slowly and also not on the back of Nathan's machine because he can tend to be a bit of a maniac. Generally I like to drive my own machine, I feel completely out of control when I'm riding with someone else and find the experiance way less appealing. I'm a woman in charge, I need to have my own ride.

While I was down south I noticed more snowmobiles driving around the country side and also picked up on tracks in farmers fields. I was clearly sick for my machine and drooled every time I saw someone else riding. I could almost say that I had a little tear in my eye every time I caught someone else on a machine. I knew that I needed to get out as soon as I got back, but didn't know when that would happen with Nathan getting back to work and the baby. Thank goodness I was able to sneak in a small, but tasty trip in yesterday. Thank you handy, diaper changing husband, I think I'll keep you around.

The photo is of my friend Morena and myself out on the frozen inlet, you can see town behind us. We are a couple of Snowmobiling Mammas! Morena also left an infant behind at home while we went out, in fact our kidlets are a mere 12 hours apart in age!

It's good to be back.

Big Stress.

If there is one thing that stresses me out it's packing & flying home after being away from home for a long time. I have been gone for 2 & 1/2 months now (because of the baby). I'm looking forward to returning home, but nothing that falls between getting up tomorrow and 5pm tomorrow. EEEk!

The dog also feels my stress. Although he loves driving in the car, when he sees us packing the suit cases he knows we'll be flying and starts stressing out, panting and drooling. The two of us are a pair really, except I control myself from the drooling.

The worst part is only getting half way home and getting stuck in Iqaluit because of weather, mechanical or mystery reasons (you know like the sky is full of killer bees and we can't see through the cloud so we'll not be making you flight home today, have a nice day). So, tomorrow there is a blizzard in the big I.Q. and I'm almost guaranteeing I'm not going to be sleeping in my own bed tomorrow.

Please everyone in blogdom send your mojo over to the eastern arctic and blow this blizzard outta here!!

Out to Wash

I think any new mom is freaked out about most things. Everything is new and it doesn't matter how much advise you get the first time you do anything it's frightening. It's no different for the first bath. I recently bought a Baby Spa bath, it's basically an over glorified, expensive plastic bucket (except all the celebrities have one). I tried her in the bathtub and also the sink, involving me using the counter and my chin to squeeze out the shampoo, because I couldn't remove either of my hands for that task. I had to hold her up, if that meant getting soaked & covered in shampoo. The Baby Spa is supposed to help the infant sit up while you wash. However she kept sliding to the side and wanting to take a little dip, of course I didn't let her go under, but sit up by herself she didn't. I'm thinking I will get better use out of it when she is a little larger. The other problem is that I can't take it back to Nunavut. She'll probably be big enough the next time we are down and hopefully baby number 2 will get a lot more use out of it.
Calling all moms: Anyone had to deal with Baby Acne? Do you have any super tips?

Fat Bottom Girl, You Make My Rockin' World Go 'Round!

I know you're all eager to see more baby photos (not). Nathan reminded me the other day, after telling everyone about something cute Ezri did, that not everyone wants to hear about baby stories. And then I realized oh gawd I'm a mom. So I guess this is going to be another mommy blog, too bad for you.

Aleks (my brother) made up this Warhol-esk photo of shots of Ezri. He had made a movie of her the other night and we are probably going to play at her wedding (because we are evil). Of course I think every face is freaking hilarious, but is that just my mom eyes?

My little Jabba The Hut was weighed a few days ago at the doctors office and she is 11lbs 5ozs! Up 3lbs from her birth weight. I guess that puts her above 95% of the babies in her age/height group. This of course meant that I had to go get her a couple more, larger footie PJammas to last us when we head back north. Oh, Children's Place and Baby Gap, how you give me a shot of sweet adrenaline. The one thing I have learned as a new mommy thus far is that pants look ridiculous and footie Pjammas are really the only way to go in terms of convenience and comfort. I only wish that A) they made them in adult sizes and B) it would be socially acceptable for me to wear them everyday.

*I know I changed my header a few days early, but I didn't want to forget with my lack of brain.

She who occupies my time

This is my excuse for being a bad blogger. And I don't mind one bit.


We return to the north in a week and I can't wait to get back home. Hopefully my posting will pick up a little when I'm back.

Baby Dr. Evil Demands...

...that you take part and vote for this years "Nunies" awards for Best Nunavut Blog, Best New Nunavut Blog and Best Post from a Nunavut Blog here.

My Reign of Power is Coming to an End

Well I've spent one glorious year as Queen of Nunavut...ha ha ahhh I mean champion of Nunavut... I guess that's not right either. My blog won some awesome awards last year called "Nunies" and their time of power is coming to a close. It's a whole new year and a whole lot of other wonderful blogs contending for the awards.

The Nunies blogging awards are the baby of Clare from The House and Other Arctic Musings and although most of us in the Nunavut blogging community agree Clare should take all these titles, he has graciously opted out of being nominated so the rest of us have a chance.

I have left this a little late as this is the last day to submit nominations, but I have good excuses! You can check out how to nominate your favourite Nunavut Blog over here. You can also check out a whack load of fantastic Northern Blogs on my side bar. Don't be fooled they aren't all from the Superior Nunavut community, you'll have to check where they are writing from before you submit a nomination. (I'm just kidding, you know I love all my Northern blogs just the same!)

Someone ate my Cadbury Creme Eggs!

The only evidence was the nicely emptied box of one of the 3 packs of Creme Eggs, with a few teeth marks. All egg and egg wrapping was nonexistent. I asked Nathan if he had consumed the eggs, because he has been known to gobble them down so fast he has left teeth marks in the box as well. When he denied this accusation, we immediately knew who done it!
Don't worry he is still alive. This is just how Tallinn likes to sleep. The Creme Eggs only gave them some obnoxious gas and no other lasting effects. Just like the Nerds and Sweetarts he was into over Christmas! He didn't like those as much, only spending the time to taste the flavor before spitting them back out onto the carpet. We don't just leave these things out for him, he snipes them and then unwraps them carefully. Sometimes he tries to hide the packaging and it doesn't turn up until days later. We try our best to keep these things away and out of reach and then again sometimes I'll come out and find him standing on his hind legs scoping out things on the kitchen counter. Meanwhile he knows he isn't even allowed in the Kitchen, but that's only a rule to be obeyed under a watchful eye. At least he is enjoying his vacation down south.

Twenty Two Pounds & Dropping (hopefully)

A Baby Story

Well it's been just over a week....and I still can't believe I'm responsible for a little person. As you can imagine I haven't had much sleep and although she is just one tiny jelly bean, she has occupied most of my waking hours, which has been pretty much most of the 24 out of a day.

I was still not experiencing any real contractions when we finally arrived at the hospital. We got checked in and you can imagine how busy it was at 5am on Christmas Eve... I felt like we were in some resident Evil video game, no one around and your just waiting for zombies to come out of the rooms and start chasing you. Of course because I wasn't experiencing any kind of discomfort the nurses had us walk around the halls... the empty halls, the ones with possible zombies, to see if that would bring on some contractions. Since that didn't happen and the zombies kept to themselves we took entertainment from an abandoned wheel chair. My sister-in-law Jen raced down the hallway to see how fast she could go, then Nathan and of course then I had to try as well. When we finally got into the delivery room the nurse said I was too jolly to be in labor. Clearly I was having WAY too much of a good time, so they put me on Oxytocin, allowing me to have more consistent and real contractions. At this point I was on my way into a world of pain. A world that I would be rescued from by Captain Epidural.
I had waited a while to see how bad the contractions actually were and finally decided after Nathan was trying to use tickling as pain control that I finally was ready for the Epidural. I recommend it for anyone who is interested. I had a fantastic experience. I was so pain free and in such a calm state that we all stopped to watch Extreme House Makeover in between pushing when it was finally time. Here I am after the epidural, and boy did it feel good.
The whole thing from start to finish took about 12 hours and it felt like it just flew by. I didn't think I'd actually want to see it happening, but finally broke down and asked for a mirror and watched the entire thing, it was incredible (especially because I couldn't feel a thing). It's not anything I could possibly describe... I was one person before and a completely different person the moment the kid popped out.
I have never felt such passionate emotion and love for one tiny little thing. Of course I've spent the last week completely jacked on hormones and can start balling at the drop of a hat. I'm freaked out about everything, is she too hot, too cold, what are the spots on her face, is she eating enough? I have also never felt so content.

Introducing Ezri Eve .E.
Triple E
E Cubed
Tallinn's Sister

We settled on the middle name Eve because she was born on Christmas Eve. It was my sister Jen's suggestion and it jived well, especially because we pretty much didn't have a name up until the point I was in the middle of labor.