Want to know what cabin fever looks like?

The temp is currently this:


And Connor doesn't think much of being cooped up inside. We have no clothes for children at this temp for the very good reason that no one thinks that you're crazy enough to take children outside in these temps. Well, you go a little stir crazy being cooped up for so long...ummm, right, Connor?




Cross dressing takes up a little time...



Oh no, Timmy's trying to swallow his fist out of boredom! Oh wait, that's just a regular Tuesday!



And the cabin fever spreads to the adults...



Since the forecast calls for -60 and below this weekend, we'll have many more opportunities to find out just how wacky we all can get. If you hear something about naked people running through subarctic streets waving asparagus, that was NOT US!

14 days...

...until Charlie leaves for Baghdad.

'm not whining...we've done this enough, both of us, to know that a deployment isn't the end of the world. I'm just sad and sorry I guess. I always miss him when he's gone, no matter if it's for a few hours or years. And I am very sorry that he's going to miss so much with the kids. He'll miss Connor's 3rd birthday, the second he's missed in a row. He'll miss the first day of preschool and swim lessons. He'll miss Timmy sitting up, crawling and maybe even walking for the first time. And I'm going to miss my home. I love my family very much and am very grateful they're willing to let me come and disrupt them for six months. But at the same time, it's not *my* family in the sense that we are complete there...it's not my house, it's not my life...not without Charlie. We're just pushing pause where we can til daddy comes home. Yet slowly, inexorably, children grow up despite our best efforts. What a beautiful yet terrible sacrifice we make. How very lucky I am to have such wonderful people in my life to mitigate the worst of another absence from my best friend.

I wonder sometimes if anyone who hasn't been there done that can truly understand what it's like to be on this treadmill of part time fathers, husbands, mothers and wives. I hope we do the right thing in Iraq and Afghanistan, so that none of this was in vain. I think about how many of us across the nation are spending tears on absences that are not of our choice, loving those who can't love us back the way we need because they're called to higher things and have to leave us behind, and I'm torn between pride and mourning. That's all we can do really -- smile and wave goodbye as our hearts ache. I hope I have the bravery to let him go with a smile.

Cold snap, Alaska-style

Alaska is a formidable place. As my girlfriend Breanne says, "People were NOT meant to live here." We've descended into a real winter wonderland nightmare this week with the temperatures plunging down to -40 and below and likely to stay there for several weeks. These kind of temps are just PAINFUL. Both literally and figuratively. Can you go out in it? Umm yeah. Should you? Ummm, no.

Especially when you've got small children. Unfortunately, small children are also the primary sufferers of cabin fever. Connor is extremely active -- during the summer we did not come indoors ever if we could help it -- and staying inside all day every day is not his idea of fun filled toddler days. No matter how nicely we kit out the basement (and it is pretty gucci if I say myself) eventually he will get bored and need some variety. But businesses and such close at these temps and even scuttling place to place takes a toll on a three month old. Sigh.

Think of us all trapped inside by a vicious toothy cold...

Christmas Extravaganza!!!

Connor woke up at 630 this morning and whispered to us for the next half hour about "kissmas" and "Kanka Cause" -- he muttered about toys and "pessents" while we vainly tried to get him back to sleep for another hour. He even resorted to bribery, offering us "tuddles" and "tisses" if we'd let him get up and see "Kanka." We finally gave up at 7 and told him we could go downstairs and see if Santa Claus came and left toys for him.

And boy, did Santa (and family!) come through...here's a picture of his chair draped in Santa presents.



He got a stocking stuffed full of animal figures -- Alaska and sealife ones, primarily -- and some chocolate coins, a big M&M full of little ones, a flute, and a penguin Pez dispenser. Thanks to Nani for some of those treats!



He got a camera of his very own from Santa. How does Santa know what you really want? He is kneeling in front of mommy's old dollhouse that we got out of storage...we took out all the chokables and left big furniture pieces. His animal presents have already taken up residence -- I think it would be very startling for his playmobil people to discover polar bears in the bathroom, but that's apparently where they belong. Sigh...the "free" toy is his favorite, I think!



Connor got this bowling set from Aunt Angela...basement bowling for everyone!



Here he is trying to pry the lid off the animal tube. No time to wait when there's starfish to be played with!



Now he's munching on his egg and toast daddy made for breakfast, playing with his automated bulldozer and watching Thomas videos (another gift from Uncle Davey and Aunt Christal!). He's already got plans to crack into the playdoh ice cream shoppe from Christal and Davey, and he's got a stack of movies (Horton Hears a Who, Toy Story, on and on) to watch. Add in mommy and daddy's gift of Candyland and it's going to be a full Christmas day.

Timmy slept through all of the Christmas festivities and was much more interested in nursing and chewing on his fists than his presents. He did get into a staring contest with the bear Uncle Davey and Aunt Christal got for him -- the bear won. He loves this funky little ball Nani sent him that has little arms all over it...he can grab and chew to his heart's content and he loves to stare at the star on the side.

Christmas Cookies!

We decorated cookies Monday for Santa...Connor thinks Santa is brilliant -- toys AND cookies!? This guy has got the gig! We made lots of sugar cookies with heart and star cookie cutters, and then the boys decorated them with blue, green and white icing.



Connor loves jimmies, and mommy had seven different kinds of Christmas jimmies...oh, the excitement!



When I'm making cookies or cakes or anything yummy, Connor stands on the little kitchen ladder and excitedly begs to "taste! Taste!" every few seconds. Didn't take him long to "taste!" the frosting.



Timmy slept through Christmas cookie fun, but woke up for a mass tasting and watched us all enjoy them from his bumbo. He thinks three month olds should get to gnaw on sugar cookies too, hence the woebegone expression.


We should be one of Santa's first stops since we're so close to his house in North Pole! Stand by for Christmas excitement tomorrow!

Happy Solstice!

Winter solstice is pretty much a non event for most people...shortest day of the year? Bring on the party hats, right? But when you live in the subarctic regions, it means that you have FINALLY reached the point where the days can't get any shorter and the daylight pendulum will swing the other way.

I took some pictures to illustrate the subarctic "day" here. This was the view from the back porch when the sun came up at 10:59 am:



Here is 12:49 pm, which is solar noon, the time of day at which the sun reaches the highest elevation in the sky; as you can see, not much difference between dawn and noon!

And lastly, I missed sunset at 2:49 pm with an ill timed nap with the baby, so I instead took a picture of the end of civil twilight. This was taken at 3:26 pm.


And now as I write this 3:40 something, it is full dark outside. No wonder we're all hibernating up here!

What a crazy few days...

It has been nothing but go, go, go at the Freel house for the past few days. Thursday morning my friend Emily called to tell me that my next door neighbor and our mutual friend Beth had gone into labor and was having an emergency c section. Besides that being bad news for anyone, Beth was only thirty weeks pregnant with twins, so lots of concern and angst spread across the base as the news got out. Emily tackled caring for Beth's little boy and then we cruised down to the hospital to check on her.

Amazingly, the babies were a very good size...well over 3 lbs and doing extremely well, considering the circumstances.

Her husband Rich and the twins were life flighted to Anchorage shortly after her c section -- no one here in the Interior has the resources to care for babies that small and early, but that left poor Beth here to recover as well as she could and fly down on Saturday.

Friday Emily and I blitzed her house and took care of laundry and baby care, then Saturday Charlie and I packed up the kids and drove to Fairbanks to pick Beth up so she could pack for her flight to Anchorage later in the day. She can only lift 7-8 lbs after a c section and was having difficulty moving around, so I stayed at the house and helped her get things together, get her some yummy lunch, pump one last time before her flight and all those various getting out of town duties. Her son was VERY happy to see her and didn't want mommy to go away again, but he was okay after some good snacks and playtime with Connor. He was going to sleep at our house last night, because Emily and Ethan had a work social last night...but then Ethan fell on the ice holding their 4 month old Jack on Sat afternoon, and they spent the day at the ER getting the baby checked, so they decided to stay in at Beth's house and watch the children there. It was probably best for Luke to be in a familiar situation with all the disruption he's had lately, though Connor was disappointed at missing out on a sleepover. Rich is coming home tomorrow to take over watching Luke while Beth stays in Anchorage with the twins...thank goodness her mom is coming to look after Beth. She needs to just focus on getting better and looking after her tiny boys.

When you add in Charlie's multiple reports and award write ups he is crunching out for the end of the year, deployment preparations, our own squadron holiday party for which a three layer red velvet cake was required, and the demands of my own house and children AND Christmas prep, I am very tired. We all agreed to stay in today and sack out watching Christmas movies and making sugar cookies for Santa. I don't think any of us are even going to get out of pjs today. I hope the rest of the week is relaxing in comparison.

Subarctic Living Questions answered

I get lots of questions about living up here. So I thought I might spend a few minutes answering some of them...Alaska is a very cool place to live and explore, but it is a lot different than places many have lived, and indeed, very different from Southern California where I grew up.

1. How do you cope with the crazy cold temperatures?

I get this question a lot from fascinated relatives and friends. There's many ways we cope...for one, people up here are prepared for many feet of snow, ice, etc and the subzero temps for months out of the year. LOTS of snowplows. No slating the roads, because salt doesn't work when it's damn cold to work, so everything is gravelled. We all have several choices of coats dependent on the weather and everyone has several choices of mitten thickness, hat cover, scarves, etc. Our arctic entryway is crammed full of warm clothing, as is the trunk of the car. You time things carefully - I personally try not to take the children out below -20 and for any sustained time if it's below -5. Timmy is just too young to be outside for long periods of time no matter how bundled up.

We both have snow and all terrain tires. I also have an auto start...an electronic remote that starts the car from a good distance away and so the car warms before I have to put the kids in super cold car seats. Timmy has an extra blanket bungee corded to his seat to keep him extra warm. I always sling Timmy to my body and use the Peekaru baby vest over us both. Only his head sticks out of the vest and I can wrap my coat around and keep him pretty warm. Connor always wears a hat and parka and some of the time we add mittens to that. If he goes ice fishing or playing at the ice parks, we add long johns and snow pants to that. I also have a big pile of chemical handwarmers for everyone's pockets when we're out in the wicked cold for an extended period.

And because just a few minutes outside in the cold unprotected can have serious health implications, we have survival kits in the vehicles. Kitty litter to make traction in icy conditions, flares, matches, packaged food, water, etc. We also have mounds of subzero temp socks -- they work great for layering on extremities. It was brought home to us recently how dangerous it is...a guy in Salcha was woken up by a house fire and was able to escape with only socks on. It was -35, he was outside for only 20 minutes but there's a very good chance he's going to lose a good part of his feet to frostbite.

Like anything, you just get used to it. I regularly walk to the post office box at -10 with just a sweater and vest. It would be a rude shock to go back to Las Vegas...70 is gasping hot here!

2. What's different about living in Alaska?

Well, it's a weird hybrid of living overseas and living in the United States. It costs more (I paid $9.99 for a small watermelon! $5 for half gallon of milk! $2.50 for gas!) and shipping/shopping here is weird -- we don't have some of the stores most Americans would consider essential like Target, no Olive Garden, etc. We do have some box stores like Wal-Mart, but not many.

The attitude is a little different down here too. We refer to the "Lower 48" a lot and have a fairly condescending attitude toward those less hardy souls that don't want to live here.

No trash pick up at our houses to avoid attracting bears and wolves. NEVER thought I'd live somewhere the predators are actually animals, and not just humans with no soul or scruples, but there it is. A couple months ago, three bears broke into a guy's garage in Salcha and ate 60 lbs of frozen salmon and moose meat in his deep freezer. Break ins in Vegas were a VERY different type I tell you!

Okay I've got a toddler yelling for letter games, a baby rousing from a nap, and three more loads of laundry to do...I must h1ie myself off to fulfill motherly duties!

What fun to be Way Up North!

When your day looks like this:



There's really nothing to do but build a couch fort!



And make your little brother laugh by doing weird contortions in said fort...



And have you both frustrate mommy with not allowing any pictures of you two being goofs and laughing your butts off when the camera is NOT on you.



But finally the baby cracks and gives mommy one last goofy smile before cocoa and naps all around!

Gratuitous Timmy Post

Timmy got to play in Connor's old jumperoo today...he can't bounce yet, but boy, he loved hanging and staring at the beads. We have to watch Connor so he doesn't launch Timmy into the stratosphere...




And he was so cute in his sleep sack Kellie bought him I had to snap a pic...

Connor met Santa in North Pole!

We decided to hie ourselves down to Christmas in Ice at Santa Claus' house in North Pole. It was a beautiful day and pretty warm (somewhere around 0 F) so we bundled up the boys to play in the ice and snow. Since the ice park is part of Santa Claus' compound, we decided to see if Santa was taking a break from making toys long enough to hear Connor's wish list for Christmas this year. He was out when we arrived at 2 pm, so we promised Connor we would come back after visiting the reindeer and playing at the ice park.

Dasher and Blitzen were out in the paddock for Connor to visit.


People carve this big smooth ice bowls...children can sit in them and dads can spin them around like chilly tops.


There were five ice slides of varying heights, but this was the screaming Castle of Doom slide. It was probably 75 feet long total, and had quite the steep incline. The first few slides, Connor had his eyes closed tight, but by the last few he was laughing in utter glee. He'd get down to the bottom and stumble around laughing, saying "WHOA!!!" I tried to take a picture of them coming down but my shutter speed is not fast enough for the whirling speed!



Santa came out of the reindeer barn just as Connor was coming back to the house to visit him. We thought Connor's eyes were going to pop out his head as Santa called out, "Ho, ho, ho!" He hopped right up on Santa's lap but was too shy to say what he wanted for Christmas, despite Santa offering a candy cane to loosen his lips. Mrs Claus oohed and ahhed over Timmy and promised him something special for Christmas too. Connor didn't want to leave, but Santa promised he would make it Christmas Eve to give Connor special toys, so we said thank you and waved bye bye!


We left just after 3 pm...which is well after sunset here this time of year. But I caught a beautiful moonrise from Santa Claus' front step. You can see why he lives here...it's awfully pretty!

Christmas Pics!

Connor loved decorating the tree this year. He liked it okay last year, but this year...whew! We showed him where Santa lives in North Pole, we explained what Santa does and that we have to decorate a tree so Santa knows we are ready for him to come and deliver presents. So we dove into it enthusiastically! It's very convenient for North Pole to be just a few short miles away so he can really internalize Christmas -- there's reindeer and an ice park with elves right outside the Santa Claus House.



Timmy was less enthused but really enjoyed staring in wonderment at the lit tree.



This one really has nothing to do with Xmas but it was too painfully cute to pass up posting.

Starfall.com should win a kiddie pulitzer

Connor and I stumbled on Starfall.com through this site. I was looking for some simple toddler computer games with at least a modicum of educational flavor so I could show Connor some computer basics while learning things at the same time.

Connor and I floated around several sites -- on one we discovered an EXTREMELY annoying animal sounds game that he insisted on playing six zillion times a day -- but once we found the Starfall ABCs game, we were hooked. Connor has known his ABCs forward and backward for several months and can "sing" the ABCs, can recognize his name and 12 other words, etc so I wasn't sure how much if anything he would get out of it at first. Well, I should not be hungry for awhile because I ate my words.

The "game" consists of alphabet letter blocks...click on the selected letter you want to play and it will do animated illustrations of different words as it goes along. Connor can hunt for the letter on the keyboard and press it to make the game advance and use his budding mouse skills to advance it even more. At the end of some of the letters are simple toddler games -- matching, find what doesn't belong, etc that have cool animated celebrations at the end if you win (it's hard not to win in a toddler game). Who doesn't like to have a celebration with lovely ladybugs lifting legs in a dance line? Connor's favorite is the alligator in an apple tree shouting "Awesome!" for sorting capital As and lower case as into their correct apple baskets. Whew that was exhaustingly alliterative!

Connor is learning tons from just a few 10-15 stints a day on Starfall. He's recognizing more words daily and is wanting to read even more than he did before, so he can point out words he knows, like dog and wet. We recently starting structuring it just a tiny bit and selecting one special letter every morning, playing that letter then roaming around the house to find objects that start with that letter, talking about the sound it makes, writing/drawing things on his Magnadoodle with that letter, etc. I've been trying to show him how to write some of the letters, but his motor skills are perhaps just a touch behind to do that quite yet -- our Cs turn into big swooping circles and it frustrates him, so I backed off some on that for a few weeks.

The best part? Connor thinks this all is fabulous fun. Letter games are an enormous treat in our house. We use them as bribes to use the potty correctly, to coerce good behavior while out, even taking letter time away for serious infractions like trying to paint the walls with watercolors. It's DEVASTATING when we get letter time taken away -- though mommy usually later catches us doing something good so she can give it back.

At my friend Brita's suggestion I also incorporated some daily exercise into his letter games. When I'm nursing, and he's bouncing off walls, I'll often ask him to run super fast ("hurry, hurry, big letter emergency!") into the kitchen and fetch me a specific magnetic letter or number off the fridge. I can usually get him ping ponging back and forth 6-10 times before it loses its fun. And then he gets ultra excited to put them back on the fridge because he then earns letter game time. Moms sure are sneaky making this learning stuff fun huh?

Anyway, if you have a toddler interested in computers, check out Starfall.com...you won't be sorry!

Connor's Traumatic Toilet Adventure

We had to go early this morning to get the car fixed, and I told Connor that we could go play basketball at McD's if he was good and patient for me. He was absolutely stellar, sitting quietly and reading books the whole time, so I followed through and stopped at the super snazzy McD's that has a cold weather indoor park on the way home.

He was playing basketball and was kinda crossing his legs and dancing a bit...not surprising since he'd had 8 oz water and 8 oz juice, as well as a cup of chocolate milk since his last pee. We went to the bathroom, he was whining a bit about going potty there (he kept asking for "home toilet") but I told he had to, so he sat down calmly. I held my hand over the auto toilet flusher...he leaned forward to pee and started to wobble so I reached out to steady him with my free hand and must have moved my toilet hand just enough to make it flush. Loudly. Energetically. TWICE!

Connor freaked like you read about. He screamed so hard he turned blue and then purple, and passed out. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds as I was trying to help him off and stop it flushing over and over again, but he passed out as I was trying to get him off while trying not to drop Timmy from the sling. He flipped forward and I caught him an inch from smacking his head on the tile floor. I righted him and he came back to consciousness almost immediately, just in time for the demonic toilet to flush again on his bum. I started to fumble at his pants (stuck on the lip of the seat) to get him off quickly, but as he screamed in terror, he peed -- so I kept him there til he finished. I kept gently smacking him on the cheek to try to keep him from holding his breath long enough to pass out again or hyperventilating. We got him down then and cuddled...poor kid. He was terrified. At least he didn't end up having to get stitches too...I'm so relieved I caught him. He lost the enthusiasm for the basketball park then so we came home and he told daddy about the "angry toilet" when he got home. I really think he thought the thing was mad and trying to hurt him.

He's peed just fine at home since then, so I don't think it was a horrible set back -- after all he's been pee accident free since Nov 13 and I'd love it to stay that way. But I'm wondering if peeing outside the house is going to be frightfully scary for him now. I feel so bad...I was trying so hard to stop anything like that from happening and it was worse than I thought it ever would be. Damn the makers of auto toilets!!!

Thanksgiving 2008

Charlie got home on Monday and Davey and Christal came winging in Tuesday night to spend Thanksgiving with us. We had a blast...Christal brought along tofurkey so she could have a traditional Thanksgiving meal -- I supplemented with vegetarian stuffing, green beans, carrots and mashed potatoes, as well as the meat lovers' turkey and traditional gravy. I made three different kinds of pie -- pumpkin, blueberry and raspberry crumble -- and a big pan of Davey's favorite fudge for a treat.


Thank goodness Christal's arms were available...Timmy was needing cuddles just at the moment mom had to get the dinner pulled together to put on the table.



Davey is looking great these days...that gym time is really paying off!


Connor hung out like a raptor waiting for the food to appear so he could pick and choose what he would eat. He also relocated everyone's silverware to his spot at the table...we're not sure why, but he loves silverware and likes a fork whether he needs one or not.


The next day we went to all see Twilight...I loved the book series and Christal and Davey are obsessed with both the movie and the books (Christal saw it seven times so far I think). My girlfriend Breanne and I shared the books so she came along and we had a great time going to a movie. It's lucky that Timmy is so lax...he slept the entire movie and only threw up on me once. Woo hoo!

Davey and Christal ventured out bravely on Saturday to enjoy some touristy stuff like the Santa Claus House and muskox paddock at the University. They must have brought some warm weather with them because it was above zero every day they were here...and they took it back with them, because it's -22 now and on its way to -35.

Poor Charlie got sick with the black plague the past couple days so we spent today sacking out and putting up Christmas decorations while he recuperated. Stand by for some cute Christmas pics in tomorrow's post.