My Stubborn (with a capital S) little girl...

So for the past week or so I have been trying to get Chantal to take a bottle in preparation for our trip in 2 days to Colorado. I figured it would make things a lot easier if I could just hand her a bottle during those times not well suited for nursing. I remember the last plane trip I took was a little awkward when I had to nurse next to this random strange guy...

Anyways my daughter is just not loving the whole bottle/sippy cup thing. Today was the worst day by far because I tried to hold out on her so she'd be hungrier for food. 1 bottle and 3 sippy cups later and we both had tears in our eyes and our hands up in the air!

                       When she calmed down she found that the sippy cup was sort of fun to chew on-

So I guess for now we'll just keep plugging away at it. Hopefully our trip will go okay and I'll find a way to work in the nursing. 

Things in Kotzebue are still cold- we're just hovering around zero, without the wind chill. This cold weather makes it pretty hard to get out of the house and do things- since most of what we do here is outside. We had plans to ice fish yesterday, but with the wind there was no way the baby would have been able to go- so we scratched that idea. Ahhh- sometimes I feel like we are just incubating in our homes here- waiting to hatch come spring time- which for us is probably June!



Meanwhile....

Rangeley has been more interactive with the baby lately- he's such a good boy!

Here's a smile from him!

Just Driving Around...

We've been continuing to take our car out for rides while we are waiting on warmer weather. I am just itching to get my stroller unpacked!

 I wanted to share with everybody what driving around the village entails. If you want to access our only loop road on the peninnsula you will come upon the following-

Haha! that's right- we have to cross the airplane runway! Better look both ways ;)

(And this is the real, one and only runway- the jet planes land here!)

So, needless to say I am always a bit squirmish before I cross this and I look about 10 times- just to make sure there are no planes coming!

The other day I had to wait about 15 minutes before I could cross because I had 2 plans depart and one leave right in front of me.I snapped this pic of the jet plane- with my 50mm lens- no zoom! This was how close the plane was to my car.



When Kev and I went out 2 nights ago we got stuck and troopers had to come to our rescue- thanks guys!



This is looking out the back of the car. Rangeley couldn't believe what was going on either. But no worries, we were out in no time.

Anyways, thats a bit of what we've been up to!

And Here We Go!...

Soooo excited about my new camera! I just can't seem to put this thing down. I've had it for about 2 days and I think I shot close to a thousand pics. Luckily I have some very talented neighbors here that are also into photography, so I'm learning!

Here's one of my favorites of Chantal-

Ok- so since my car was dug out the other day and temps seem to be remaining above zeroI seem to like Kotzebue a bit more. I can now put the baby in her car seat and stroll around town- of course now I will always be doing that with my camera close by. I went out for the sunset last night and snapped a few-

I've also been out on the snowmachine with Kev since it's been warmer. It's amazing how much more out of town you can get that way. There are a few trails, but you can also go pretty much anywhere you'd like since it is all tundra. I went out with Kev to check a couple fox traps. Unfortunately there were no animals, but it was fun all the same. This picture was taken off the beach, where a lot of snow has accumulated.

Back from the City

Still recovering from my big visit to the city of Anchorage. I did have fun, but at the same time I really appreciate the simplicity of the lifestyle we live in Kotzebue.

To start off the trip Chantal did not appreciate being restrained in her carseat- and she let us know, at the top of her lungs. I can't say I blame her, especially when she is not used to it- In Kotzebue Chantal usually stays home while Kev or I run to the store, so she hadn't been in one since she was 6 weeks old.  

Nursing was somewhat of a nightmare. There were a few times when I had to feed Chantal standing up, while swaying back and forth in a public bathroom. There were also the places with no changing tables, etc. Between feedings, changings, and fussings I think I had about 20 minutes in each store. Needless to tsay I got a lot more efficient with shopping. Which in this case means I took whatever shirt that looked like it fit and did not sport rhinestones and shoved it into my shopping cart.

I feel like there was more to talk about, but I am exhausted, so I will leave with this for now-


Chantal has really perfected her flipping from back to stomach and now shows off every chance she gets. I'm a proud momma!!

Around Kotzebue

So yesterday was in the single temps and to celebrate Chantal and I went for a walk while Kev was out checking his trap line. It felt wonderful to get out of the house for a bit and walk around town. Chantal did really well riding in my font sling and even fell asleep during our outing.

 Here are a couple of pics I took-

 

This is our Front St. next to the sea. Last summer we had the road widened and the lightposts installed for a hefty price tag of 40k a piece! Our neighbors kid came up for the summer to work with the construction crew and made some big bucks helping out with this project...

Here is a house on Front St- shows how much snow we've gotten this year.

Chantal after our walk





Later on that day I became a little worried when the weather took a turn for the worse and the boys were still not back. A storm came in very quickly and knowing they had our neighbor's kid with them, we were all hoping they were okay. Just before dark I happily heard snowmachines coming in the yard, but I knew there had been some trouble when I saw only 2 snowmachines - they had left with a party of 3. Turns out one of the machines had blown a motor and they had gotten it stuck towing it back. At least everyone was alright. All in all they had gotten a lynx, and some frostbite. Here's a cool pic of the lynx found in the buried trap-

I am excited to be off for Anchorage tomorrow!



Getting Back!

I was so excited this morning when I decided to try my wedding band on for the 20th time post pregnancy and it fit!! Well, kind of. Woo-hoo! To top it off I even got the buttons closed on a favorite shirt of mine, also pre-Chantal. This is serious motivation to keep nursing, exercising, and controlling my urges to chow down on the Ben n Jerrys. Actually I'm just kidding ( "I jokes" for you Kotz residents) our store doesn't usually carry Ben n Jerry's  :( 

I like this picture because it was not too long ago I remember not being able to see my feet!



I can't resist posting a pic of Chantal after bath time- she's just too cute! She is starting to really like her baths- just like her momma.

 I can't forget Willow...she recently found a spot in the nursery that gets some sunlight, and allows her to watch over the baby!



Weekend Update

It's almost 2 AM and despite the baby being sound asleep, I find myself unable to close my eyes for more than 5 minutes. I think the mid morning naps with Chantal might have to stop...

So this weekend Kev checked his traps and was pretty pumped to find 2 lynx out of the 3 traps he had set. From my understanding he had only set 3 this year so far because of the bad weather and snow we had been getting. Anyways, all that doesn't mean much to me. I just need to figure out what I'm gonna make with the lynx we already have! I think we might start selling them this year...

I didn't really get out much this weekend. However I did "dine" at our local restaurant with my hubby last night! Which, by the way,  has now started to put sushi on it's menu! I know- fancy! I ventured enough to try the deep fried shrimp roll, somehow I am not yet comfortable with eating raw fish here yet. 

Here are some more pics for you Chantal admirers. The boy is the photo is my neighbor's kid, Gage.