this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

This week I'm going rogue and sharing a series of three photos because they are so adorable. And frankly so funny. But since this post isn't supposed to have any text, I'll let you decide what happened to our friend Clarence the Garden Gnome.

If you have a this moment post, please share it in the comment section. I'd love to see it!

Cooking Inspiration: Where do you get yours?

I love to cook. I love to bake.

These are some of my favorite cookbooks to flip through when I need a little inspiration. I also find myself going to the Internet as well.

But some days, when I just need a quick and easy recipe that I know I have all of the ingredients for in my pantry, I rely on this old standby:

 

What is your cooking standby? What are some of your favorite recipes or go-to-cooking sites? I'm looking for some new cooking & baking inspiration and would love to hear what you can't live without in the kitchen!

imom: Worst. Eye Mom. Ever.*

*This post is not for the squeamish.

You know your child goes to too many eye appointments when she immediately runs to spot in the office where they keep the model eye ball. And then takes it all apart.

OK, now that the formalities are out of the way, I need to share our latest eye-adventure.

Last Tuesday, the hubby took Ruby to the contact specialist because it was time to get her contact swapped out and clean. Plus, her allergies were bugging her and her eye was red. By the time the hubby picked her up from daycare, she had managed to rub it out of her eye. Luckily, they found it so all was well.

So they go on their merry little way to see Miss Susan at the contact office. They clean the contact and look at her eye and realize it's pretty red and just needs a break. The doctor looked at it for a while and thought it was just irritated. They sent them home and told them to come back later in the week for the new contact.

Two days later, two days with no contact and no patching (and hardly any battles....sigh....) she and I venture up to see Miss Susan again. I'm hoping the new prescription contact has come in (she had her new prescription lens in less than 24 hours when she lost it. Another post for another day when I have a gin & tonic in hand). But as I'm getting her into the car seat, I notice something in her eye: a contact. Now I know this can't be because they took it out 2 days earlier and said no contacts for 2 days. But yet, here was a contact. In. Her. Eye.

Maybe I'm crazy? Maybe I'm seeing things because I always want a contact to be on her pupil. Maybe she found one in her crib and thought, "Huh, what's all the fuss about anyway? I'll just pop this bad boy in my eye and let's forget the doc office & hit the park!"

Ruby & Miss Susan, our contact lens savior playing on the floor. Susan is pointing out the lens in her play eye - the one she is missing. I told Ruby to pick up the lens and put it in her coat pocket. I know, another parenting win.

I arrive at the office and promptly tell them I'm crazy because there's a contact in her eye. They give me the same look I'm giving Ruby. We all look and sure enough, there is a contact right on her pupil. Apparently, at the Tuesday appointment I missed, one of the doctors thought he saw something in the far, far corner of her eye but couldn't really tell because it was so red and irritated.

We pop it out and give it a good cleaning. We pop in another contact** (an older one because of course the new one hasn't arrived when I'm off of work). Susan and I both hope the mystery contact is in fact the new prescription one we thought we lost a week ago and it had simply been floating around somewhere in the back of her eye. 

However a quick check under the microscope reveals that no, it is not the new one, but an older one. Meaning God knows how long that contact had been floating around in my baby's eye ball!!!!!!

If you've just had that squeamish feeling run up and down your spine, then yeah, you're right where I was too. I freaked out for a second and then said, you know, this isn't the worst thing in the world. It clearly didn't bug her as she gave no indication there was something wrong with her eye (and trust me, she usually does.)

I've known something like this can happen and frankly, will most likely happen again. And again.

So for now, I just do my best to make sure the contact is on her pupil and we start the patching process again. We're down to just an hour a day again. However today, she proudly wore her eye patch all day. On her shirt.

Ah Ruby....good thing you're so damn cute!

**I love how I say "pop the contact in" like it's a breeze when the truth is we can't do it ourselves. We have to go into the clinic about every other week to get it switched out and cleaned. It takes myself, an assistant and Susan to get the contact in her eye. She's a fighter. And a screamer. And a kicker. But with three of us (OK, somedays it takes 4 of us)....we can make it happen. Susan and I have also decided this counts as a workout because there's a lot of stress, increased heart rate, sweating, tears (mostly Ruby's. And if we're honest here, mine too). And then Ruby & I go to Starbucks for a treat which is thankfully next door.

F.O. Breckenridge Cowl & a weekend away

Somehow from all my blissed out relaxation time I forgot to blog about my knitting weekend retreat with my knitting group in early May. It's our annual trip to Port Townsend to stay in the officers housing at the military base of Fort Warden. (For all you movie trivia buffs, this is where they filmed an Officer and a Gentlemen. I should really watch the whole thing one day.)

It was a great time with great friends. A lot of knitting was done. I also went on many walks along the beach (basically right outside our front door!).

I think the pictures speak for themselves. 

We had a knitted gift exchange this year. The theme was an accessory that has cables or lace. Since I'm anti-knitting lace, I opted for cables. This is Breckenridge Cowl from French Press Knits. It was for Cara who loves jewel toned colors. Plus I thought it would look great with her beautiful red coat.

Erin had my name and I received a beautiful pair of pink cabled fingerless gloves which I don't have a picture of. You'll have to take my word that they are just lovely. 

As you can see, it was the perfect weekend for knitting and relaxing!

FO: Poppy Cowl from Pepperberry Knits

I just finished this luscious Poppy Cowl from Pepperberry Knits. 

It's from her handspun cashmere yarn in bulky Honeycomb.

It is as soft and delightful as it looks!

And because I live in Seattle, and because it's Memorial Day weekend (which means it's raining), I can wear this right away!

Ravelry details can be found here.

this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Library Time!

Who doesn't love the library? So many adventures waiting to be had! One of the many things I love about the Seattle Public Library are these great book bags. They are customized for either toddlers or preschoolers. And there are on every topic you can think of. From zoo animals to potty training to season to becoming a big brother/sister. Every topic. Seriously. 

They were very highly regarded by some of my friends with kids, so I decided to try them out. I strolled down to the main branch on my lunch break to see what they had. I opted to go with farm animals.

The bags come with about 8 books including and activity book for parents and kids and a CD. We lucked out and scored with an Elizabeth Mitchell CD which I loved a bit more than Ruby!

As you can see, it was a huge success! She loved it, I loved it. If you haven't checked one out yet, do so. And if you're not in Seattle, maybe your library has something similar.

Happy reading!

imom: Will Patch for Cake

That's just one of the fun and great designs by Jessica Butler, founder of Eye Power Kid's Wear. She's another imom just trying to do the best for her little boy who, like Ruby, was also born with a pediatric cataract. 

She's got a kickstarter campaign for her t-shirt designs that are aimed at kids in glasses and patches. The fun designs and tongue-in-cheek sayings pretty much sum up things when our kids are out and about and people say things about patches and glasses. (Editor's note: Ruby doesn't wear glasses with her contact and patch but she will sometime I'm guessing within the year.)

I'm partial to the shirt with a super hero cape. Frankly, the world needs more shirts with super hero capes.

Especially for imoms. (Editor's note: that was totally and completely biased.)

Ruby will be sporting one of these Will Patch for Cake shirts soon. Because, really, what wouldn't you do for a yummy cupcake?

this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Little Free Library

Have you heard of them?

Little Free Libraries are popping up around neighborhoods all over the world. They are just that, little free libraries that people set up in their yards with the purpose of sharing the love of reading.

On a recent morning walk, Ruby and I discovered one in our neighborhood.

We peeked in and low & behold, we found a little board book by one of our favorite authors. 

Ruby was thrilled! 

Now we just need to head back to this little free library and return one of our books to pass along for someone else.

P.S. Aren't these Little Free Libraries so cute? I kind of want to build one in my front yard! Don't you?

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's hoping your Mother's Day was filled with flowers & homemade cards.

 And a few adventures in parks with lots of smiles & giggles!

this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Ruby's painting

My grandmother Doris was an artist. She was a great artist, a fabulous painter. 

I'm lucking to have a few of her paintings that I treasure. Some are on the walls. Others are waiting to have new frames put on them. Others are waiting for me to find the perfect wall space.

My Aunt Julie, Doris' daughter is also an artist. She inherited her mom's wonderful artistic ability. And I'm also lucky enough to have a painting or two.

And now, so does Ruby.

She gave Ruby this sweet little bunny as part one of the gift during a visit last summer.

Then recently, part two of the gift arrived.

It's perfect! And it fits in beautifully with Ruby's room!

She loves it too! She likes to sit in her chair and turn around and point to her painting. She also loves her sweet little bunny! Thanks Aunt Julie!

this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Patching Politeness

Ann over at Little Four Eyes has a great post this week about what not to say to young kids in eye patches. I think it's well written and very helpful. Especially now as our patching adventures have improved and we're venturing outside our house with the patch on.

We were at a play area at the mall on Saturday and I couldn't help but notice every kid that passed Ruby did stare a few extra moments, but not one of them said anything to her. She just laughed and kept climbing up the little slide, watching the big kids and then giggling as she made her way down.

(Ruby at our first out of the house adventure with the patch)

Thanks for the great advice Ann & LFE!

Progress!

Somethings happened recently. I'm almost afraid to put it out there in universe for fear it might change. But I'm willing to take a risk as it's been a long hard journey thus far: We Are Patching. 

 It started out slowly. What used to be 10 minutes of thrashing and screaming and crying (by both Ruby and me) with her squinting the bad eye so that she wouldn't even open it, has now turned into what I'm calling a symbolic eye patch protest for about 3 minutes, and then it's like, uh. ok, the patch is on, let's go play.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still on her the entire time. I have to keep my eye on her and my hands have to be faster than her speed of light toddler hands. She seems to forget the patch is on if she's occupied and happy. But if she touches it, it's back to square one.

When we venture out of the house, I'm in the back seat with her, keeping her happy, keeping her occupied, keeping her from ripping the patch off in the car.

And when I get cocky and think I've got this imom thing down, and get her patched and the two of us head out. I hear a little bit of laughter coming from the backseat as she rips it off and waves it around. (OK, maybe she doesn't laugh on purpose but I feel like she does. Like look mama, I'm totally in control - no patch for me!)

We've been able to patch anywhere from 1 hour to 3.5 hours. I'm still aiming for a 4 hour goal which is still low for our 4-6 hour a day recommendation from our PO. But as my hubby keeps reminding me on days when I'm bummed about a 1 hour patch session, this is a huge step from where we were two weeks ago. And he's right.

We had a visit to her PO about two weeks ago. The visit went well (I didn't cry for the first time, so really, there's a victory there). But we had the hard talk again about being strong with the patch. And this time, I think Ruby heard her doctor. The very next day she patched for 30 minutes at daycare. I almost cried when her teacher told me about it at pick up. We were both so excited! And it's been at least 30 minutes a day ever since.

Tomorrow we head back for the second part of her appointment (sometimes her appointments are really long and we have to break them up.) We are getting a new lens with a prescription that's not as strong as her current one (hopefully it's in so we don't have to go back a third time) and her glaucoma test. Fingers crossed we get good results on that one! Children who've had a cataract removed are at a higher risk for developing glaucoma.

But for today, we'll keep up the patching battle and be happy with what we have! Stay strong patchers! And stay strong imoms!

this moment

~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Coming up for air

It's been a rough couple of weeks. There's been a lot on my plate, both at work and at home. I'm not going to lie, it's been hard. 

Being a working mama is hard work.

But things are finally beginning to settle down. I'm beginning to look around for ways to get more relaxation and exercise into my daily routine. 

Because the current routine of stress, downing chai tea lattes and playing with my favorite wee one isn't quite enough. I'm wondering what you all do for relaxation in your busy schedules?

Hey baby....nice coat

Pattern: Baby + Toddler Coat & Jacket

Yarn: Berroco Vintage Chunky

Size: 0-3 month

For: A sweet baby girl who will be here soon! She'll live in Seattle so she'll always need a good coat pretty much year round!

Vogue Knitting Live: Seattle

Last weekend Vogue Knitting Live was in Seattle for their first show in our area. It was full of classes, lectures, fashion shows (in true Vogue fashion) and of course, a marketplace.

I met up with some dear friends for an afternoon of catching up, knitting and yarn "browsing." Upon our arrival, Rebecca and I quickly decided we need to walk through the entire venue before making any purchases. A tactic employed by our friend Monica - who shows great restraint at all yarn shows for day one. Then on day two - stand back and just take it all in. It's that impressive. So we decided to try "The Monica" and wander and just marvel at the soft, pretty yarn.

That lasted maybe 20 minutes before one of us broke down and bought something. (It was Rebecca).

I at least waited about 30 minutes and 10 minutes of knitting before dashing back to the Cascade 220 booth for this beauty.

It'll be turned into this beauty.

I also learned that Cascade 220 has a huge inventory of lovely and FREE patterns on their site.

Knitting shows are so educational.

Then, after another 10 minutes of knitting I returned to the Cascade 220 booth and took advantage of their special: 4 skeins of Cascade 128 Superwash for $25!

Yeah, that's right...no typo there! That's enough to make this coat for Ruby that's on my knitting list.

(For great pictures of VKL Seattle, check out Rebecca's blog. I had my camera but was clearly mesmerized by all the pretty to take any pictures.)