My baby biker

Last night after dinner I had to go out and put the ATV's away (in the box) and Lily asked if she could come out. Generally this would be an easy yes but it was getting late as everything yesterday was about an hour and half later than normal due to my getting three geese and Margot shopping ($150 for two small bags of groceries!). So we head out around seven with my telling Lily it would only be for a few minutes. Well, next thing you know she has her bike out and riding around all by herself on our rocky, muddy roads and is having a great time! Then a few of her friends show up on there bikes and Dieter, my niehbor comes out with his son and it's a an arctic evening street party. There is snow shoveling, finish line rocks being laid out and bike races. We did not make it in for bath until 8:20 so it ended up being a late, but really fun night.

I ofter reflect on living in the north and the pros and cons of the choice Margot and I made coming up here. I am not going to list them here, but I have been feeling somewhat negative since returning with Beckett about the apparent danger of our little hamlet and the lack of a hospital to name a few cons. It is a scary thing to think about needing to be medivaced out and having one's flight grounded due to extreme weather, which is a common thing. However, there are some really cool things about having a young family up here. The kids are very friendly and include Lily in everything. We have kids over at our house for play all time. I have so much time with my family and I know many parents who don't get to say that. And I would say it is quality time, not just time spent driving around from place to place on the weekend. Well, it may be driving around, but we're on a snowmachine or ATV and lily is sitting in front of me as we sing and laugh and bounce about. We have a great time. I am trying very hard to focus on the good of being here versus the rose coloured glasses rememberings of the best places at the best times from our lives down south that cloud my judgement. The grass is not always greener. Life here can be a lot of fun.

-Richard

My goose is cooked... soon.

Well, summer fast approaches and I must admit, I am really excited about standing barefoot in cool, soft, damp grass and wiggling my toes! We are going to southern BC for most of the summer holidays (yes, the dogs too) and are looking forward to seeing the house and van we bought after Christmas that we have yet to see. My parents have been really great about helping keep an eye on it for us and getting it ready for our upcoming arrival. It is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house near parks, downtown and Lily's mama and papa. The main floor is rented and we are setting up the basement suite as our summer place. I think it will work well. In preparation for having the kids sleeping together over the summer we re-arranged rooms at our place here in Kingait. Lily and Beckett now have the master suite with the walk-in closet and Margot and I have Beckett's old room and Lily's old room is now guest room/gym/storage. It has been going alright, but I know Margot is quite tired because Beckett is eating more frequently. He is getting huge! A few days ago he weighed in at 16 lbs 10 oz at 3.5 months old. He is wearing nine month suites. I will try to get a few photos of everyone posted in a few days.

It is light here pretty much all the time now and I am having a hard time with it. ATVS and snowmobiles racing around all night, people out and about at all hours and carver with power tools who started carving near us at 4:30 am make it very hard to sleep.

Things are warming up here quickly. The inlet is melting/breaking up fast and the snow has become very slushy. A couple of friends went out for a ride/hunt yesterday and I opted out due to my concerns over the thickness and stability of the ice. Luckily they made it home without incident.

I have been lucky hunting the last week or so and have gotten a few Canadian Geese. Yesterday I learned (thanks Internet!) how to pluck and singe geese so they end up looking like turkey one would buy from a store. Margot said she would be much more willing to handle and cook them looking like that which is nice. A month ago Margot made Walrus stew with the walrus I helped bring in on the flow edge during winter. She got nothing but compliments! It was actually pretty good and not too fishy tasting. I have not really enjoyed Walrus in the past.

Life is pretty good these days. Margot is home with the kids and I am still working. Lily goes to daycare in the mornings so she can play with her friends and most days, this allows Margot and Beckett to sleep in while Lily and I have breakfast, cuddle and watch the news, pack and head out to school. I pick Lily up from daycare at lunch and we head home. Margot has lunch waiting for us. We all eat together, chat, have coffee, then I head off to work while Margot gets the kids into nap mode, some days more successfully than others. Lily is in the process of not napping these days. By the time I am home from school Lily often has friends over or they are all out and about (shopping at the stores).

Work is alright but I will admit I am getting a bit burned out. The kids are extra hard right now with cheap candy for sale at the Northern and light all the time. They are either wired or completely exhausted if and when they bother to show up. Oh well. It's the end of the day and I am going to go goose hunting before dinner. Wish me luck.... or not if you don't like hunting!

-Richard

Lockdown

April 16, 2012

I know that I am behind on updates about baby and my time in Ottawa however today’s events deserve to be written about sooner rather than later.  Today is the last day of Spring Break for Richard but Lily was still headed to school to get in some playtime with ‘her kids’.  Beckett was happily cuddled up with Richard so Lily and I got dressed and I took her to school.  I hadn’t been home more than 30 minutes when I got a call from Kootoo the director of the Daycare telling us that they were in Lockdown.  Richard and I are co-chairs of the Daycare Board of Directors so are involved in making decisions about closures and such.  Richard was not happy with Lily being away from home where he could keep her safe.  So he hopped on the snowmobile to go get her.  Meanwhile Kootoo and I discussed whether it was safer to keep all the kids there off the roads or get their parents to come and get them.  One of the other Board members was trying to get information from the police and so we’d wait to see what they said before calling parents.  As Richard headed home he stopped on the hill outside our house to take a look at the house down the road where we heard someone was hiding.  He got honked at and waved on by the dump truck driver who was parked blocking the entrance to the circle road we live on.  Richard zipped home and came inside.  He brought with him our neighbour and her son Benjamin who had also been at daycare.  We invited Ben in for a play since they were not at school.  The kids had a great time.  Meanwhile we got a little more information.  Apparently this morning a man stabbed a teenager and the boy died.  If it is who we think it is Richard knows the boy and he was part of Richard’s drum club.  The man came up to our road and barricaded himself in his cousin’s house which is at the end of the road.  The police were on scene but nothing seemed to be happening.  Just before lunch we got word that both stores had been closed and I called the police station to confirm.  The woman I spoke to confirmed the stores were closed, confirmed there was a standoff in the 2300 block (our road), and agreed that it would be safer to close the daycare and get the children home while things were calm.  Nothing changing, nothing changing.  So we just stayed inside, ate lunch and put Lily to bed for a nap.  We have had the blinds closed all day but I caught sight of movement out the window.  I went to peek and saw a pickup truck full of SWAT guys pull up in front of my house.  Crazy!!  For over 4 hours we waited hoping things would be safely resolved as we watched the policemen move across the snow towards the house.  And then it was over.  Since we can’t see the front door we didn’t see how they went in but we saw the man in handcuffs being put into the RCMP truck.  I heard he surrendered.  Later we saw the police dog searching the hillside.  Lily said she wished she was a police so she could work with the dog!

All of this leads us to again question what we are doing here.  There are lots of good things about Cape Dorset but the violence is hard to take as in such a small town we are all affected.  We should not have to explain to our 4 year old why someone was murdered, why it is not safe to go outside, be near the windows or why men with machine guns are standing outside our house.

 The boy who died was a student at Richard’s school and a member of his drum club.  School still opened on Tuesday.  There was no support offered to the staff or students.  They were just expected to carry on as if nothing had happened.  The language also poses a problem as the staff are not able to understand what the students are saying to process things or if they are in trouble.  There has got to be a better way.

Margot

We're still here!

Hello all, we're still here. Sorry for the lack of updates but life has been quite crazy. I have been meaning to update but have been overwhelmed by the amount of info I felt needed to be included. However, I have decided to give a simple update and we'll go from there. I am sure Margot will also give an update and fill in a few holes.

So, before Christmas, Margot started having to fly out every two weeks (weather dependent) to have a special ultrasound done in Ottawa to ensure the baby was okay. This is right around the time Lily and I got hand, foot and mouth disease which was extraordinarily unpleasant. I later learned that it made its rounds through town and one of us must have picked it up at school. 

Margot was on one of her checkups in early January when things started "happening" and I got the call Friday morning that the baby might be coming in 2 hours, 2 days or full term (March 3). So I frantically got  2 months of prep done for my class, did report card marks and wrote final exams for my subjects. This along with booking flights, cleaning the house for house sitters (our friends are AMAZING!!!!) and packing kept me and Lily busy for the weekend to get ready for our flight to Ottawa Monday. 

Meanwhile Margot was able to get us into the hotel we had planned to all stay in during the baby's birth time. It is right downtown, one block from the mall and one block from the Byward Market. It's rooms are set up as small apartments. After we were moved from a stinky, shabby 2 bedroom  at our request, we were put into a new renovated 2 bedroom suite. It was a nice space with a full size kitchen, dining table, 2 bathrooms and laundry in room. 

Margot, Lily and I really enjoyed being in the city, but we refer to our time there as a stresscation. Margot was very uncomfortable and we spent many days at the hospital with all the tests. But we also squeezed a whole lot of fun things in. The pool was the biggest hit of all. The winter carnival happened during our stay so we went ice skating on the Rideau Canal, checked out ice carvings, ate frozen maple syrup, went sliding at Jaques Cartier Park. We also spent time at the Museum of Civilization. What a place! They have THE coolest stuff for kids there. I highly recommend it. We also toured the Parliament buildings and the Fairmont. We did High tea twice and Margot surprised me on Valentines day with dinner at the Fairmont. What a treat. Our first date in forever! My mom also came to stay with us to look after Lily while Margot, baby and I were in the hospital. It was so great having her around. We also had lots of time to visit with Margot's dad and stepmom who live in Ontario, we even got a visit to Ikea in. Thanks for the ride David! Margot's sister Megan came out from Halifax to meet Beckett and have a visit also.

The baby decided to stick it out in the womb until the doctors felt it was time to induce. So we went to the hospital all prepared and they broke Margot's water after she assured them she did NOT want drugs of any sort. The staff looked at her like she was crazy, but I am so proud to say she stuck to her plan and had a natural birth. She was great!

We now have a little boy, Richard Beckett Haworth 5th, or Beckett. He was born 8 lbs. 4 oz. We had to stay in the hospital 5 days due to the blood complications. He was having trouble processing destroyed red blood cells or billy ruben (not spelled right). He was very jaundice and they put him under special lights that helped him break them down. They also did numerous blood tests to ensure things were progressing well. Poor little guy had lots of cuts on his feet because that is how they draw blood on newborns. 

We were released from the hospital but stayed in Ottawa for a few more days to ensure Beckett was doing alright. Our flights home to Cape Dorset were uneventful and it was great to come home again. It had been 7 weeks away for me and Lily and over 2 months for Margot since we had been home. It was so nice to see the dogs again, boy I really missed them. Lily was so excited to have her toy and her room back.

Shortly after getting home, we started getting ready for Lily's birthday, the big 4. What a lucky kid, you should have seen all the gifts. That little girl has a lot of people who care about her! Thank you everyone!

Mom flew out a couple of days ago and should have arrived in Kelowna, BC late last night. Dad drove over to pick her up. 

Thanks again Mom!

kms, got four ptarmigan and two adult Caribou. I also broke my qamotic and barely got my snowmobile home after using a large nail to make an out on the land repair and breaking two of my springs. I have been considering buying something a bit newer and bigger, but this experience convinced me. So the next day I bought a used 2009 Skidoo GTX (grand touring) 550. Dieter and I also did a 4 hour round trip to go and rescue my damaged Qamotic. 

Sadly Margot came down with a bad cold a few days ago but is feeling a bit better. Beckett is eating a lot and growing lots. He is sleeping pretty well, but we are still getting used to the lack of sleep. Lily is very happy about being a big sister and wants to do everything. She has started spending afternoons at home after I pick her up at lunch and we all eat. It is nice for her to spend the morning playing with her friends at school and the afternoons at home with Margot. 

This is the very fast update and we'll post pictures soon. 

-Richard