Time to be Outside

It's above 0, the sun is shining, the eaves are dripping, and springtime is beckoning... It is hard to stay inside these days! And there's so much going on:

Today wraps up the Arctic Winter Games, a weeklong series of competitions for circumpolar youth that is held every other year. This year Fairbanks was the host city, and it's been so neat seeing members of the different teams walking around town in their bright coats. Nine teams have been competing: Alaska, Alberta North, Greenland, Northwest Territories, Nunavik Quebec, Nunavut, Sapmi, Yamal, and Yukon Territory. There are Native events, like high kick and snow snake; winter sports like dog mushing and speed skating; and indoor sports like basketball, wrestling, and table tennis. What do those have to do with "winter games"? When it is cold, dark and snowy outside for half the year, indoor sports become very popular!

After Mass last Sunday, we met a reporter from Inuvik, Northwest Territories, who had come over to cover their team. Later in the week, Little Bear and I had fun watching some of the snowboarding. I'd hoped to take him out to see some dog mushing or curling, but the timing never worked with his naps.

Fortunately, there is more dog mushing to take in: the 67th Open North American Sled Dog Championship, recognized as one of the most intense sprint races in the world, is run in three heats this weekend: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. "Open" means that mushers can run as many (or few) dogs as they wish; in past years, I can remember seeing some 22-dog teams, and some with fewer than 10! Given his love of (obsession with?) dogs, I think we'd definitely better take Little Bear to watch at least one of the days.

To go along with the Open North American, downtown Fairbanks is also hosting the annual sled dog weight pull competition, Alaska Trappers Association fur auction, and Parka Parade this weekend. If you aren't in town but want to experience the race for yourself, check out the live streaming on the Alaska Dog Mushers Association website!

And before March ends, we have to make it to the World Ice Art Championship! We still haven't found time to go play with Little Bear in the mazes and slides of the kids ice park, and admire the works of art-in-ice that carvers from all over to world have created this year. It's particularly beautiful at night, when they have all of the sculptures illuminated with colored lights. Unfortunately, it isn't getting dark these days until well after Little Bear's bedtime!

I think we have enough to do to keep us busy...

SQTF 82: Spring Snow, Spring Break, Spring Fashion...

I

There is, I admit, a small part of me that's laughing at all of the grumpy comments on Facebook today about having snow fall on the vernal equinox, or "first day of Spring." The concept of the weather obeying our neat little division of the year into quarters just seems absurd; people expect it to be done snowing because we've reached a particular date on the calendar? Are they serious? Really, I don't get it. Yes, I live in Alaska, but it just doesn't make sense to me that people are put out because weather patterns aren't conforming to a piece of paper. I guess maybe that's unfair of me; I'm accustomed to having snow on the ground October through May, and most of the country isn't. 

II

This morning Little Bear and I visited the courthouse to fill out the temporary exemption affidavit for jury duty. He was kind of uncooperative getting through security, but the security people were nice and there was no one behind us. I'm so glad to have that taken care of! He still has yet to fall asleep, for a nap or at night, on his own... We are trying, but it just hasn't clicked yet. It would have been a horrible week if I had to try to leave him with someone else every day all week, because he wouldn't have gotten any naps, and nights would be awful because he'd be overtired, and I'm too tired and nauseous to deal with that.

III

My first appointment with the midwife is scheduled! It's not until Easter Monday, but just seeing it on the calendar makes me so happy. Matt may try to take sick leave to go with me, to keep Little Bear calm and out of the midwife's way and to ask any questions he has because I know I won't think of half of the things he wants to know. I'm seeing a different midwife with Squirrel than I did with Little Bear; I met her last year when I had an annual exam, and I really liked her--I remember coming home and telling Matt that the next time I had a baby, I wanted to work with her! As far as I know, she's the only NFP-trained CNM in town--knowing that she understands and respects our decision to use NFP makes me much more comfortable around her. It would probably be good if Matt had met her at least once before delivery, too.

IV

This past week has been spring break for all of the local schools and the university, and all of the University of Alaska Fairbanks employees got today off work. Matt's department is technically part of the U of A statewide IT, but because they are located at UAF, they were given the day off too. It's so nice to have him home for a three-day weekend! Especially since I've been feeling sick in the evenings lately, making me not feel up to doing anything fun in the little time that we do get to see each other before I go put Little Bear and myself to bed. I'm hoping that I am feeling well enough this evening for us to go to stations of the cross together tonight; it's usually too difficult to squeeze it in between Matt getting home from work and Little Bear going to bed, but since he's home today... we will see.

V

It seems like denim jackets always appear this time of year. And I always marvel at how they look so good on everyone, and wistfully remember having one I loved in high school, and then sternly inform myself that it would be a waste of money because I definitely don't need one. And I don't! I have plenty of jackets. But they look good with everything... But it would be even more of a waste this year, wouldn't it, since I'm pregnant and it probably wouldn't fit in a few months anyway? But if I got one now, then I'd know it would be the right size again for next Spring...

VI

This kid. If he sees one of us smell something, he will run over, stretch out his arms toward it, and sniff loudly until we let him smell it... which always involves mashing it against his nose. He really liked the fresh bread smell: every time we came into the kitchen for the next few days, he'd look all around until he spotted the loaf, then lean toward it, sniffing.

VII

It's time for our annual sunglasses hunt: every winter at least one of us manages to lose or break our sunglasses, and now that we have so much sun constantly glaring off the snow, we can't keep sharing one pair! This year, for the first time in quite a while, my sunglasses are the ones that survived the winter. They have been living in the car for a couple of months, though, so that whoever is driving can use them. It's sunny enough outside now--twelve and a half hours a day and increasing!--that taking Little Bear for a walk or even just going outside for a little while is painful without sunglasses. Once the snow all melts it won't be so bad, but we have a good while yet before that happens, so... hopefully the stores will put out their sunglasses displays soon!

Have a wonderful, warm weekend! Visit Conversion Diary for more quick takes!

Tired

Wow. How in the world was I going in to work every day through the first however many months of being pregnant with Little Bear? I am exhausted, y'all. Constantly. Forget teaching Little Bear to sleep in his own bed; I'm putting him to sleep the easiest way possible so that I can crash. Having my evening end at 7:30pm used to be frustrating, but now it can't come soon enough.

Was it really this tiring last time, or is it just the combination of pregnancy + toddler + running twenty million errands every day this week and shoveling my parents' driveway? Okay, don't answer that. Humor the sleepy pregnant lady.

There's one good thing coming from this exhausted, nauseated state of existence, though, other than the obvious bundle of joy in nine months: I'm supposed to start jury duty on Monday morning, but I called the jury clerk today to find out whether they reeeaaally want a juror who may be running out of the room to throw up sporadically all week, and she told me to come down to the courthouse and sign an affidavit granting a temporary exemption. Yay, I can be nauseous in the comfort of my own home instead of in the jury box.

Little Bear's recent desire to take his daily nap on the early side of midday has also been shockingly appreciated: if he isn't starting to ask for a nap by 10:30am, I'm catching myself yawning and trying to coax him to rest. My caffeine allergy definitely isn't helping with my being-a-sane-functional-person efforts, and I can't even give myself an occasional sugar-high energy burst because it's Lent. What to do? "Pillow" is one of Little Bear's newest words, and I'm definitely not above putting two pillows on the living room floor, laying down on one, and hoping that he comes and lays his head on the other so I can close my eyes for a few minutes...

Seriously, how do you deal with first trimester exhaustion? I clearly can't remember what I did last time, but whether that's because I was too tired then for memories to form or because I'm too tired now to be able to remember anything is probably a question I'll never know the answer to. Is there something I should be getting more or less of? Other than sleep, obviously, and shoveling. I don't want to be this tired and useless all the time for the next couple months...

Exercise

If you asked me on a typical day how much exercise I got, I'd probably roll my eyes and say "none." Sure I chase after Little Bear all day, and usually spend some time running around out on the driveway and playing in the snow, but that doesn't really "count," does it? Some days, very rarely in the winter, I will take him for a short walk: short because it's cold, and slippery, and snowy, and he decides that he wants to be carried after the first 20 steps and he's just way too heavy.

This week, though? This week I've gotten exercise. And oh, my body hates me right now.

Yesterday it was warm and sunny, and we were early getting to campus to pick Matt up from work, and I somehow got the bright idea to park way far away from his building and walk aaaaaall the way up the hill with Little Bear to meet him. It took us nearly a half hour. (Little Bear walked the whole way, except for when we had to cross streets!) And then, despite my knee starting to give me the stop-abusing-me-or-you'll-regret-it twinges, I agreed to walk back down with Matt and his coworker instead of taking the bus. Because pride, and other such foolishness.

This afternoon we found three inches of snow on my parents' driveway when we swung by to feed their dog. Their long, wide driveway that Dad usually clears with the help of his snowblower and  four-wheeler plow and small legion of kids. I gave the dog a defeated look and trudged over to pick up a shovel. It was light and fluffy, not heavy at all, but there was no end to it! An hour and a half later, I had to give up and leave the last twenty feet for my siblings because Little Bear was all. done. with this shoveling nonsense.

And now I'm laying here in bed, my back angry with me, ankles and knees and hips and shoulders aching, abs throbbing, terrified that I unthinkingly overdid it and somehow hurt the baby despite Matt's reassurances that I'm just hurting because I'm out of shape. ("Remember how you're always saying that you aren't physically capable of sit-ups? That's why you're sore. Everything will be fine.") Exercise? So very overrated.

(He's right, and the rational part of my brain knows it: I didn't start hurting until I lay down and let the muscles stiffen up, and I've been grumbling about my horridly weak abs for months and months. And I didn't do any heavy lifting, and I didn't exhaust myself: I just left the snow shoved up against their existing burms for the most part, and I certainly wasn't too out of breath to carry on a conversation with Little Bear while I worked. I even took a little break halfway through, to go find Little Bear some new mittens. But no one ever said that the rational part of a pregnant woman's brain was the loudest voice in her head!)

New Boots for Next Winter

I shouldn't have ventured into the super winter outerwear clearance at the store today--I definitely know better than that, when there's nothing that we need--but I'm glad I did, because I found the cutest pair of boots for next year:

We can't wait to meet "Squirrel" sometime around Thanksgiving! 

Weekend Wrap

And a sort-of photo dump, at least in comparison to how ridiculously few photos I tend to post. Matt takes most of the good ones, and half the time his phone only pretends to email them to me and I just give up and publish photoless posts... But not today, because he sent most of these last night while the internet was cooperating!

Friday afternoon: snow cave digging! As you can see, "It's Spring!" means something different in Alaska than it does elsewhere... because it is definitely Spring, and that's not at all an unusually-sized pile of snow to have sitting in the front yard. Little Bear has been just beside himself with excitement over how much time we've been able to spend playing outside recently!

Excuse me, child... what do you think you're doing?

Ah.

Little Bear was helping Matt unload the dishwasher while I set the table last night; the fridge must not have latched all the way behind me, because Matt turned around to see Little Bear standing up inside the fridge, happily eating leftover pasta. This kid.

"He... probably shouldn't be standing there."

"Yeah, but I've been trying to get him to eat that for days. At least take a photo before you move him..."

Parents of the Year, that's us.

Do we get extra points for feeding him eggplant? I made eggplant Parmesan for the first time this weekend, and while the little noodle-lover turned up his nose at the tricolor rotini, he could not get enough of the eggplant or tomato sauce. It didn't even have to have cheese on top to get him to eat it! I was impressed.

After he was up at 1, and 1:30, and 2, and 2:30, and so on and so forth this morning, we gave up and got out of bed at 6:30 am, hurried (okay, meandered sluggishly) into church clothes, and ran out the door for the earliest Mass in town: the 7:30 at my parents' parish. Little Bear was incredibly well-behaved--it's too bad it is so early, or we would have to consider going more frequently! It's an old, pretty church, and there are so many different things to keep his attention: stained glass windows, candles, the altar boys moving back and forth, the bells--the bells are definitely his favorite. After Mass, because we were still tired, and because Sunday is a little Easter, and because I was not up for cooking when we got home, we went to a little diner for breakfast. 

Again, a crazy-well-behaved child... what got into him today? He drank his water nicely from the straw--he's never seen a straw before--because I didn't have a sippy cup; he sang happily "back forth back forth" as he rocked in his booster seat on the bench next to me; and he ate his toast and bites of my omelet without fussing, or grabbing anything, or dropping any silverware, or trying to get down and run... I don't know what happened, but having a little boy all of a sudden instead of an angsty toddler was wonderful! (Yes, I do know better than to expect it to last... but I'm enjoying it while it does.)

What's a weekend photo dump without a What I Wore Sunday outfit? Top and skirt are thrifted; tichel sliding off the back of my head is from CoverYourHair.com.  Don't worry, the socks were well hidden in my big clunky brown boots, because we woke up to -11 F this morning... Fortunately, it warmed back up to the mid-20s by early afternoon.

And last but certainly not least exciting, Little Bear is doing a great job of learning to sit up nicely at the table with us and behave himself during meals.

At least, when he's not getting tickled...

Have a great week!

SQTF 81: Weaning, Spring Cleaning, and Fun with the Toddler

I

So I just deleted a couple of paragraphs of whining about my teething toddler dropping a coffee mug on my foot this morning and refusing to nap, and when he finally fell asleep the landlady starting to vacuum hard floors right above us... Such a fun day. Not. But now he is finally sleeping soundly and I'm going to try to find positive things to focus on instead of all of the frustrating stuff.

II

Things like the goofy boy playing with his toothbrush. You'd think it was the greatest toy in the world, the way he begs to brush his teeth (and tongue, and hair...) every time we go into the bathroom. He has such a blast making faces at us when we are brushing our teeth before bed, mimicking and over-exaggerating our actions.

III

And things like weaning; yes, that is a positive thing! I'd planned to let Little Bear be the one to decide if we would stop before he turned 2, but about a week ago, my milk pretty much disappeared all of a sudden. He's taking it better than I expected, although we've usually had one brief midafternoon bout of tears when he asks and I have to say no. There's still just enough to let him nurse before nap time and bedtime, which I'm sure has helped--he's going down easily and getting enough rest to be able to handle it the rest of the time. It's so nice to see him learning to fall back asleep without nursing when he half-awakens at night or in the middle of a nap.

IV

And the weather! Ladies and gentlemen, Spring has arrived. It is beautiful outside, and Little Bear and I have been loving the long sunny afternoons of playing out in the snow this week. Spring is the best time to play in the snow, because it's actually warm enough to pack snowballs and build forts. We still have several feet of it in the back yard, but in the south-facing front yard, the indentations are growing around the fence and the tree trunks. All of the main roads were clear when I was out running errands yesterday, although some were awash with melting snow and probably slickened up after nightfall. Little Bear discovered puddles for the first time yesterday when we were waiting to pick Matt up from work, and after Matt met up with us, Little Bear dragged us back over to the melting spots to show Daddy how he could splash.

V

Oh, and spring cleaning. I love going through cupboards and closets and getting rid of clutter, and last weekend, while Matt played with Little Bear I managed to go through my dresser and closet, actually try on every single item, and sort things. One pile to keep, one to mend, one to sell, one to donate. Anything that didn't fit, or I didn't like, or I was only keeping because "I really ought to have one of those for someday," went on one of the last two piles. No wonder I was always frustrated and uninspired when I looked in my closet: eight grocery bags of clothes went out the door! One to my sister, who is a size I'll never be again; one to a local consignment shop; one to Once Upon a Child, a "gently used" kids/maternity store; and five to the local thrift store. I am all done wishing to be the size I was back in the middle of college! I'm happy with myself the way I am, and--especially with as little storage space as we have here--there is no point to hanging on to cute skirts and tops that haven't fit in five years. There's definitely even less point to hanging on to things that I've never liked.

VI

Getting out of the house yesterday was definitely a positive thing; comparing yesterday to today, I think it's pretty obvious that being all by myself at home with the crazy toddler is a whole lot more stressful than being out running around town with him. Which sounds self-evident now, but I always think that I'm making my days easier by opting to stay home... Hmm. Anyway, yesterday was a little bit ridiculous: after Little Bear's nap and lunch, it was 1:20pm. We browsed the sale racks at the consignment shop while the clerk looked at what I'd brought, then got gas across the parking lot. Ran out to my parents' house to drop off the bag for my sister and let Liitle Bear see the "arf arf," which always makes him excited, then drove across town to Sam's Club. What should have been a quick stop morphed into a more-than-40-minute mess of wandering back and forth trying to find the dried fruit, which they had moved somewhere so illogical that none of the employees I asked could find it; I finally gave up and got a tin of their survival-food freeze dried strawberries instead. Once Upon a Child was a fun stop; Value Village was quick, just dropping things off, but I had enough bags that they filled up my savings pass stamp book: 30% off my next purchase! That'll be fun. After that we swung through the bank drive-through--possibly the best modern invention ever for moms of fussy tykes--and picked up some groceries from Fred Meyers, while Little Bear was bribed into sitting quietly and happily in the cart with a cookie from the bakery. By the time we left, we barely had any puddle-splashing time before picking Matt up from work!

VII

That was very long, and is going to count for two because it looks like Little Bear is awake.

Have a great weekend! For more quick takes, visit Conversion Diary!