Step Into My Thimble

Hey it’s my birthday…

If you happen to be a beta tester in Ravelry and want to add me as a friend (the ultimate birthday gift!) my page is here.

7 dollars for 2.5 pounds of locally grown (but not organic) plus 1 hour of shelling, blanching, chilling and drying (with very cooperative baby on kitchen floor) = woman who knows why it’s easier to buy the trucked in frozen ones for $2.49 at the store. I probably should have used that precious hour for crafts. Every now and then the DIY way is not the preferred way…

Maeve’s her normal goofy self and the doctor said things are looking good. Tomorrow we brave the masses at an annual pig roast in Chelsea. Next week, blueberries!!

9:00 am June 13

9:00 pm June 13

The little ones, they do snap back quickly.

Yesterday was Maeve’s eye surgery, an outpatient procedure that took about 45 minutes. It all went very well according to the doctor. Some parts of it I’ll never forget include:

• Her little eyes looking at me desperately as they gave her the anesthetic gas (at least they let me go that far with her)
• The weird emotionally paralyzed feeling I felt while we waited for it to be over (knitting helped with that)
• How my own blood pressure dropped to 74/49 while they were taking out Maeve’s IV (they checked me because I almost passed out, and then I got hauled out in a wheelchair…nice)
• How breastfeeding saved the day

Medical studies show that since breastmilk is so quickly absorbed by the body, even though most surgeries require eight or more hours with no food or drink, a four-hour or even two-hour cutoff for nursing is acceptable. We could nurse for half of the night, at least, so we got a bit of sleep beforehand. They also let me nurse as soon as she was awake enough in the recovery room. I must have nursed a million times once we got home too, which both helped keep Maeve happy and, I think, prevented any nausea from happening. Thanks to my La Leche League leader Sue for giving me the info that helped me advocate for these things!

So now we’re taking it easy in the air conditioning, trying to keep little hands from rubbing little eyes, and having naps anytime we like. The house is a wreck, but who cares.

At the end of this trip, we didn’t want to go home. Not even secretly, a little bit, on the inside. Washington state was really really great.

A high point for me, and an unexpected one at that, was the fancy new Seattle Public Library designed by Rem Koolhaas. Maybe I loved it because we spent so much time in the children’s room, which Maeve enjoyed so much. Any place with a family bathroom and lots of space for crawling around is a hit these days, but it was so much more than that. Highly recommended. We also loved having millions of choices for Asian food. Much better than the one sushi place in town, you can actually work at finding a *good* sushi place, or eat Vietnamese, or Thai, or any other authentic Asian cuisine. Just being by water is also a big favorite for us, so riding the ferry to San Juan Island, walking along the coast, and even swimming in a hotel pool all were lots of fun. I wanted to stay forever.

Here is some touristy evidence for you.

Our two sadnesses about the trip: I didn’t get a chance to meet Karma, and we didn’t make it to the Fantagraphics shop. We got almost there but were running out of time on our last day and staring down a potential traffic snarl getting back home, so we had to bail out on the mission. That leaves something to look forward to (and to save up for) on our next trip to Seattle for sure! Sorry for being flaky, Karma. I even think I had the wrong cell phone number for you! I am not ordinarily that disorganized.

The whole Seattle photo set is on Flickr here.

At least Michigan has welcomed us home with some lovely weather.