Good Things Come to Those Who Wait!!

At long last...our Davin has arrived and today turned one month old! It's amazing how the last weeks of pregnancy take so long and then the weeks following birth zoom by in no time. I look at our little baby boy and cannot believe how quickly he has grown...never mind that his siblings were ever that small!

This little guy was born smaller than either Kaisa or Alexander. It made for a quicker recovery. When Davin was only 4 or 5 days old, I was giving Kaisa a piggy back in the parking lot of our local grocery store. I felt so free!! Of course I have many pounds to lose before I'll be happy with my physique...but I just felt so mobile and liberated having lost that pregnant body!

Other than birth weight, another difference with post partum health and state of mind...I know and feel absolutely fine that Davin is our last baby. After both Kaisa and Alexander were born, I longed to be pregnant again. I felt incredibly sad at how quickly time passed and my newborn developed into an infant who would eventually grow all too quickly into an adult.

Brent was supposed to have returned to Iqaluit for his normal three week rotation on November 1, when Davin was two weeks old. However, he developed a terrible ear infection. As a pilot, he can't mess around with his ears. So, it meant no flying. As a result, he has missed the entire tour. The down side is of course financial. The upside is that Brent will spend a total of 2 1/2 months at home with the gang. It's amazing how a baby changes your perspective. Before Davin was born, Brent was focused on how quickly he needed to get back to work. (He had come down from Iqaluit almost a week early, losing 6 days pay, because I experienced false labour.) When Davin was only a few hours old, Brent was sitting in one of the chairs in our hospital room. Holding Davin, he said, "November first is too soon." Suddenly, money had become secondary.

We continue to compare our life to what it was up North in Iqaluit. Kaisa often refers to her friends from the home daycare she attended. Before we moved here, I really did not appreciate how much Isabel, her care giver, and all Kaisa's little friends meant to her. I thought the move was going to be harder on Alexander. With Alexander, I had worked in his former daycare which was in his school. So, I had a strong sense of his surroundings. Less and less, Alexander tells us he wants to go back up North. In fact, for Alexander, life would be quite different from what it was when we lived there. A number of his friends moved South after we did. Also, his judo teacher has moved South...apparently to Ottawa. At school, he would have been going to a class with three grades in it which could have presented some interesting challenges. His Kindergarten class had 9 students in the morning and then 6 or 7 pre-Ks would come in the afternoon. The Grade 1 to 3 class had about 20 students. Here, his Grade One class has the same number of students (20) in the class but only the one grade (1).

For Kaisa, her best friend does still live in Iqaluit. Because she is now attending a School is Cool pre-school program, she is beginning to make friends. I was happy when, the other day, one little girl told me, "I want to go to Kaisa's birthday party." From working at the daycare and listening to Alexander, I have learned the significance of The Birthday Party. (Alexander would start planning his about 10 months before his birthday!)

Something I did not know about that I will have to keep in mind for next year...parents here send wonderful little Hallowe'en bags in with their children to school. Yikes! I sent our kids off with costumes only. They came back with their costumes...and enough candy that it made it okay we hardly had anywhere to go for trick or treating. With Alexander's peanut allergy, we try to go only to houses where we know people. I figure I will try and redeem myself by sending something out for Christmas!!

Anyhow, the library will be closing in 5 minutes. Must round up the troops.

I shall bid you adieu in the meantime.

From our rainy neck of the woods - as opposed to snowy Iqaluit - Gabrielle