It's been wonderful to visit friends!

Rannva is still creating seal skin coats and accessories and doing well with it.

Ross had me over for a tasty roast beef dinner!

The 3 children helped their mom care for Kaden during his first few days in the world! Annie, the youngest, wanted to call him "Tootoo" perhaps like Jordan Tootoo, the hockey player. If Kaden's prominent calves are any indication, he'll definately be sports minded. And if Brian has any thing to do with it, Kaden will be involved in every sport, watching TSN with dad! Gabrielle and I take a break during a gathering at her place- good food, great childhood stories!

My time is short. I leave tomorrow back down south and will land in PEI on Friday! I can't wait!

Here are a few more shots of Kaden, mostly asleep. I put the shot with me in it to represent one of the first times Kaden projectile vomited down my top!

I had the chance to sit in on a sewing class held to teach traditional parka making. Wolf fur is being measured for making mittens.

Dorothy watches Kaden while her mom, Mary in the background, adjusts a woman's parka lining. The 2 girls are working on caribou hide to soften it for making inuit boots - kamuks. If you look closely at the girl on the right, you might recognize her as the star of the Snowwalker movie! They were gracious in allowing me to watch. At one point, Mary pulled out a frozen char from the freezer, and the women sat around cutting off pieces of frozen char to eat along with some frozen black berries and home made bannock. Many Inuit deep fry their bannock. Hard on the arteries, but tastes great!

I visited the museum to see the latest northern exhibits and contemplate some carvings and jewelery for sale. It's the most reasonable place to purchase art aside from the restaurants. I also went to a market held every Saturday where I bumped into a few sewers, Mary and Ooleepeeka, I used to work with in our school sewing program. Saila Kipanik is the carver who made the whales and seal carvings on display in my living room. He does wonderful work and is known for his fluid tails. I picked up the knit hat for Kaden!

Inuksuk High has changed as well as the students! A 32 camera surviellance system was put in place to increase security there!

Here are some school decorations - an Inuit drum for drum dancing; a caribou skin and a seal skin traditionally laid out for drying.

While touring the school, I bumped into a few students who've accomplished alot since I last saw them! Lilly is in grade 12 now and actually Kaden's second cousin, and Akeeshoo is now in grade 11. Staying in school has been a challenge as many students drop out after grade 8 or 9.

Here is some artwork that the students have decorated the school with. Lots of talent here!

It takes a lot of practice to get Kaden in and out of the amouti. There is actually a pouch behind the hood for him to rest. As you can see, he lies vertically against my back and travels with me like that. It's very warm in there for him, especially because I need to put extra blankets in there to support him because he's slipped on a few occassions onto his back! I just have to pull the hood up around my neck to protect him from the elements when outside.

Amouti's come in different styles according to the community. Men have their own versions as well seeing as this is the snuggly of the north!

After visiting with some former staff, I made my way to the Inuktitut classroom where I knew Mary and Malaya would be to help me put the finishing touches on my amouti.

My next stop was to the high school where I used to work. The white building is one of the 3 elementary schools (gr. 1-4). There is a middle school (gr. 5-7) and one high school (gr. 8-12). Snow mobiles are commonly parked around town as well as komatiks, the sled pictured here that carries supplies or animal carcasses while hunting.

One of my first ventures out was to the grocery stores. Northmart is the main store and it's like Walmart... you can by guns and beans all under one roof!

Here are some prices to compare with ours! Rhe orange juice sells for $8.99!

The other store, Arctic Ventures, has a grocery store on the main level, a Radio Shack, video rental shop and a mini Inuit book and souvenir shop. I like it better there because they sell President's Choice products! A recent strategy employed by the owner to detract youth from hanging out on the doorstep has been to loudly play opera music outside the building. It works!

the last few days have been more quiet with getting used to a routine. Lots of sleeping, eating and changing poopy bums!

Check out the cute infant parka and seal skin boots (called kamuks).

I hope to get out in the next couple of days to take pictures of people and places around town! All is well here, but I'm getting the itch to move around town! I just have to figure out how to do it around feedings!

It took Brian and I until Monday to decide on a name. We wanted a name with some meaning, and ideally an Inuit name. We vito'd many of the names each of us thought were appropriate. We asked Linda's family if the Inuit names we found on the internet had the same meaning as was listed, and they weren't even close. It must have been a different dialect of Inuktitut. We finally agreed upon Kaden, an Arabic origin, which means "companion". The official name is
Kaden Brian Amosee Gillis. Amosee was a name chosen by Linda's grandmother and came from a deceased elder in the community. This is a tradition of Inuit to name a child after someone from the community who has passed on. Gender is not an issue in terms of the name given that child, nor is it an issue among peers.

The baby boots were given to us from Rachel and Travis Hoffe, who bought them from a local woman selling them at the restaurant. It is common practice for Inuit to go around to each table selling carvings, jewellery and other crafts. It can actually get a bit competitive in terms of seeing something on display at another table and knowing that if those people bought it, you were out of luck. We used to strategically place ourselves near the entry way so we would be one of the first tables to be approached. That's shopping for you!

Rowan, sorry, but Kaden I guess is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan! He was wearing these socks when I met him. Aren't you proud Adrian and Jim?

It's been great getting re-acquainted with people I haven't seen for a while! Stephanie is top left, PEI Lorna is top right, and Wende is bottom left. I can't wait to see more folks as it's been 2 years from seeing some people.