We're still here....

Just a quick update - no pictures.

Here we are in Saskatchewan. We had a wonderful time in Disney World. The kids enjoyed it and we were much more relaxed than last time, as we knew what we wanted to make sure we did. After a fast 10 days, we flew to Saskatchewan. We have had a busy week catching up with friends, family, and routine things like haircuts and dentist appointments. In fact, tomorrow morning the boys have their first real dental checkups. We'll see how that goes. My expectations are fairly low; anything involving an open mouth will be a success.

Liam is getting excited about Hallowe'en. He has tried his costume on a couple of times and makes a fantastic Transformer Bumblebee! Logan is a great Optimist Prime, but we'll see if he actually "performs" on the big night! We took pictures on the practice run, just in case.

More visiting in the coming weeks....

The past week saw the kids gain much more confidence at school. Logan will agree to wanting a song now, and he will nod when Ullu Ullu Ulluriia (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star) is suggested. And he happily participates in all the songs, singing quite loudly and loving all the actions that go with them! Liam has been answering Inuktitut questions ("How are you?" "What did you do yesterday?") in English, which is a start. They are both getting good at the days of the week, and I'm not doing so poorly either.

Yesterday, while the kids were playing with dress up clothes, the ladies came and got me to go play dice games with them. Hooray for me! I didn't win (that's okay, really!) but had lots of fun and laughs. And they were kind enough to let me name body parts in English, lol!

Today was the Terry Fox Run in town. The school, daycare, and preschool all participated, and it seemed like most of the town must have been out. Logan saw "My friend teacher," so he was happy. That would be the teacher that he relents to allow her to wash his hands, go get a library book, line up. The things that he just loves to say "No" to me about because he is... well... 2. It's just so much less tedious if he goes with her! And a good sign for January, when he can be in class by himself.

The walk was from the school, in the middle of town, down to our place, back up the road along the beach and all the way out to the giant rock on the way to the airport, then back to the school. We took the stroller for Logan, but Liam walked the whole way. I was planning on taking his bike, but at the last minute I had visions of me trying to get a stroller, a bike, and a boy all the way home. He was pretty tired by the time we got out to the rock, but he had lots of company to keep him motivated.

I wish I would have taken the camera. You could have seen him sitting on a smaller rock beside the giant one, holding court. He was able to break away long enough to have some of the juice the firefighters had set out. Then it was back to town. Liam played tag.... okay, it was more like chasing whichever kid was wanting to be chased... but it kept him moving and limited the number of "I'm tired" and "Where is our house?" complaints. Logan got pushed by 4 or 5 people at a time, and eventually fell asleep with all the gentle bumping along the road in the stroller. I kept count, and the most people in our entourage at one time was 14. Two little kids walked back the whole way, each with a hand on the stroller, "helping" me. And their mothers tried to take them away and they screamed. I didn't mind, and really, the faster Liam ran, the faster the whole crowd went. So the moms should have been happy!

It was a good walk. The kids did very well. I find it exhausting, though, having so many people... around us the whole time. The whole time is answering questions, keeping an eye on the kids, whether they are being "handled" too much (the local kids love to touch their hair, pick them up, hug them, etc. and sometimes the line has to be drawn), rescuing them, keeping them going. Once we got back to the school, all three of us were definitely ready to go home and have some hot chocolate!

Our newest addition

This is the latest carving that we have added to the collection. It is caribou antler, and it is a man with a club. If you look closely, you will see the following:

A fish (char, I presume)

A bird (loon)

A beluga

A seal

An iglu

Northern lights

Frosty's visit

	Sunrise	Sunset	Day Length
Thu SEP 10	5:25	7:34	14:09
Wed SEP 09	5:21	7:39	14:18
Wed SEP 02	4:51	8:13	15:22
Wed AUG 05	2:21	10:53	20:32

The weather started to really change yesterday, when the wind picked up and the rain just kept drizzling. The waves were rolling in and crashing against the shore.
This morning began with cries of: "Look, snow!" "Where are the polar bears" "The boats are all covered is snow!"
The boys were up, fed, and dressed fast - maybe faster than ever before! Liam had his own snowpants on befure I could even find hats and mitts for everybody. That's when I realized how much they have grown since March. Liam needed the straps on his snowpants let out because he couldn't even get them over his arms. Logan's mitts that were so annoying last year because they kept falling off now fit perfectly. And he's ready to move up to the next size of boot - and he can, now that I've found them!
Once we were out the door, the excitement kept going! We had a snowball fight - age appropriate, of course! I took some action shots, then discovered that I had left the focus on manual. Oops.
Of course, we had to build a snowman!
The blanket of snow before we went outside	And... After

Learning

For the past two weeks we have been going to Parents & Tots / Preschool. It was very nerve-wracking the first day. I didn't know whether we would be welcomed or not, and didn't want to put my kids into a bad situation. On the other hand I didn't really want to stay in the house for 2 years. So off we went. And it was okay. But still stressful. There is nobody there for whom English is a first language, and although they know what they learned in school, they definitely don't use it on a daily basis. Everybody was very helpful, and I do feel that we are welcomed there. The parents and tots part is more for babies, while preschool is for 3 and up. Therefore, Logan doesn't fit into either group. However, we seem to have found a compromise, so that we stay in the same room while the big kids do writing projects and he can either sit at the table and write, or we sit on the floor and look at a book.

It is a very structured program, way more so than I expected. Before school starts, the kids brush their teeth, get a sticker on their calendar, and trace out their name.

Every day "circle time" starts at exactly 1:30. Everybody (moms, babies, toddlers, preschoolers, elders, whoever is there) sits in a circle and we start with a prayer. Then a teacher goes around the room, address each child by name, and asks how they are, the child responds, then they ask what they did yesterday. Once everybody has had a turn, the kids get to pick a song or rhyme to sing. Some are English, most are not! We have learned Twinkle Star in Inuktitut, and I'm sure the kids will know more soon. Once songs are done, they go over the calendar and say (I think) what day yesterday was, what day today is, and what day tomorrow will be, along with the month and the date. Somewhere in there we also count how many people are present.

After all that, the kids go get their library books from the day before, line up, and take them back to the library where they pick a new one (unless it's Friday, when they pick 2). They check them out, then find the sticker with their name on it (in Inuktitut, of course) to label their book. Then they line up and go back into the classroom.

When they are back in the room they do something different depending on what day it is. Now, we've only been going for 2 weeks, and not everyday, so I'm not exactly sure yet. But it seems that Mondays are "journaling" where they concentrate on colouring in the lines, numbers and shapes, and well as writing out the names for the numbers. Only been there for one Monday so far; we'll see next week. I think we've missed both Tuesdays so far. Wednesdays are cooking day. They all went into the kitchen, washed their hands and made pizza. They all took turns kneading the dough, spreading it out, covering with sauce, putting the toppings on, etc. Thursday they did those developmental things I read about in books!! Continuing a pattern ( X O X O __ __ __ __), cutting shapes, matching and gluing them. Friday is game day. Last week we played dice games, then the kids played picture bingo while the moms played their own dice game. This week we played different dice games and we all played picture bingo together, as well as a round of a musical chair kind of game. This may be the most important learning day for our household, as the adults play too, and they certainly don't let the kids win! Not that we do, but the competition is fierce, and when you are out of musical chairs, you are out! I will admit, there were some tears, but lesson learned, I think. After the games on Friday, the kids play with toys or blocks. Every day ends with a healthy snack. All of that takes an hour and a half. We all come home exhausted!

It is difficult to be completely immersed in a new language and culture. I try to stay out of helping Liam and just keep Logan busy. I'm glad that this Friday the teacher pretty much stopped speaking English to Liam during circle time, as he has stopped paying attention until he hears English. I'm sure he would learn faster if I weren't there, but Logan just isn't old enough to participate fully, and he's too old to just sit on my lap while the other moms have coffee and sew. There was another kid his age there on Friday, but unfortunately he seemed to have spent the whole time crying, poor kid. Maybe next week.

Liam can recognize and write his name in Inuktitut now, and Logan is about 50/50. Now if only Mom was 100% sure! Like I said, we've learned Twinkle Star, how to count to 10, and they just gave me a copy of the prayer that we start off with. Everybody is very kind, which is a huge relief. There is a big language barrier, but hopefully that will come down with time. We'll see what next week holds for us!

Random pictures from the past month

Logan with his friend bulldozer (and Liam, too)	Pointing at a ship in the harbour
Liam wrote a letter	Our house
Deep in thought. Oh wait, watching TV!	Another picture of the bay
A rainbow over Clyde River. That should mislead some Google searchers.	Another picture of the bay.
Twilight	Snuggles with a sleeping baby.

Ships in the harbour

In the past couple of weeks we have had quite a few ships in the harbour.

They have brought building supplies for the new school, sealifts (including ours), supplies for the town, and even a shiny new bulldozer!

As you can see our sealift arrived.... We spent that evening and part of the next morning unpacking and putting it all away. At some point, some containers of orange juice had holes poked in them. This resulted in half a crate of mold, 40 pounds of spoiled flour, and lots of bleach to get the mold of about 50 litres of juice. Oh, and it seems there were some maggots for good measure. Gross. Other than that everything arrived in one piece. There were the usual surprises of things I had ordered and things I thought I had ordered, but in fact, had not. And the substitutions.... You get the feeling that they just replace what you ordered with the things they can't sell. If I had wanted marshmallows in my hot chocolate, I would have ordered them!