Lake had a great time hanging out with the “grands” over the weekend: “Grandpa Greg” and “Grandma Julie”… We all had a “grand” time!

I am/used to be an avid reader. I seem to be taking a hiatus for the moment. Lake is my drishti, my focal point in this phase of life. I have huge stacks of books by all my “landings”: the Ekornes Stressless chair where I spend a lot of time with Lake during his mealtimes, the bedroom where I used to read a bit before bed, the sofa where I used to curl up and read…

I seem to have found my new genre of motherhood reading material: tough grit women’s adventures of challenge and triumph. I stumbled on this realization while at my mother in law’s this weekend. 

That my favorite prenatal birthing book was 

Polar Dream by Helen Thayer 

could have been my first clue. That I had recently picked up and set down a multitude of books by old favorite authors

Animal Vegetable Miracle and Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

The Plover by Brian Doyle

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez 

could have been my second clue that the old interests weren’t currently relevant enough. 

Then I picked up 

Learning how to Breathe by Alison Wright

and I couldn’t set it down. So apparently something with the tag line like, “one woman’s journey of spirit and survival” with a foreword by the Dalai Lama is the only thing that will hold my attention now. I wonder why. 

Last night we were watching some Olympic highlights from Rio 2016, watching the women triathlete finalists wrap up their heroic feats. We watched raptly as the British, Swiss and American women honed in on the finish line. When Gwen Jorgensen collapsed in tears after breaking the ribbon for the gold medal in just under two hours, my mother in law exclaimed, “almost as much work as giving birth!”

Touché. That must be it. Seems a bit pretentious to equate my childbirth experience to winning an Olympic gold medal, but it seems the main difference is that Gwen consciously chose to compete, whereas pregnant women find themselves ultimately without choice but to go for the gold. There’s only one way out, and that’s to continue. 

Women are incredible. Gold medalists in birthing. The effort, the miracle, the recovery. And so many women are doing it every day, that this out-of-this-world experience is accepted as normal. It’s truly heroic. I’ve gone from triumphant-yet-broken-in-bed on bedrest to triumphant-yet-recovering still 12 weeks later. I think the tendency is to minimize the impact childbirth has on ones body. It’s not just the birth, but the physical and psychological postpartum recovery period too, that represent significant bodies of work. I could have died. Without that 24 hours of Ptosin that baby may not have come out at 64 hours post-PROM (premature rupture of membranes). Even in this day and age here in Seattle at one of the top medical centers a woman my exact age died from sepsis of childbirth complications just days after Lake was born. 

As our bodies and minds and hearts pass through the crucible of childbirth, our pelvic bones and perspectives on life are forever altered. Like Helen Thayer and Alison Wright though, their drive to eschew complacency and push their bodies further resonates with and inspires me. And so I continue to self-select gold medal reading material to go with my gold medal spirit. 

We are on Bainbridge Island appreciating the nature. We are reveling in the natural air conditioning of the respiring trees and the fresh ocean air. Looking back over the pearlescent water of Puget Sound, Seattle and Mt. Rainier look like a mirage. 

Today we kept cool by walking through the water. We crossed Rolling Bay on foot, wading sometimes knee deep. Our “path” carpeted with sea lettuce, eel grass, kelp crabs, and soft sand. The water and the breeze keeping us refreshed as we walked over the tide flats at a midday -0.5 low tide. We watched as an osprey  first fished with their eyes, getting into position, and then dove impressively straight down, disappeared into the water and popped back up, successful in catching a fish. Awesome!

We got to comparing “hottest ever” notes. Greg had the bottoms of his Birkenstock sand led melt off in Los Paz, Mexico when he set his feet down on the pavement from the seat of his motorcycle. Julie witnessed seagulls actually panting from heat in Potholes, WA. I’m not sure what my hottest hot experience has been thus far. Lake get heat rash, or prickly heat” fairly often these days so it normalizes it. It’s common for infants because their sweat glands aren’t fully developed, though not a normal physiology for adults. I remember having heat rash at Turtle Bay Resort in India at Christmas. And that was right on the water. Working in West Texas one summer (1995) in the Guadeloupe National Park, we were always laughing about the perpetual weather report. 

Sunny with highs in the low 100’s. 

And we had to wear helmets, long sleeve work shirts, long pants and leather gloves and work boots. That might have been the hottest, and every day the same. I couldn’t drink enough water. Not being able to drink enough water remains a constant these days. Lake drinks it all off me. 

Lake is stalwart through it all. Enjoying his air time. Developing heat rash. Walking through the water. Simple in his needs, always open for taking in his environment. He is easygoing company. A perfect summer day. 

With 91F on the radar for the next couple days, we are anxious to get out of the city.

It’s actually quite pleasant in our flat, all things considered, with the windows open, cross breeze maximized and industrial fan on lowest setting (at higher settings it starts traveling across the room). Without an accessible garden to escape to though, it’s a bit unfair to Lake. He was more than ready to eat and sleep the heat of the day away, but there wasn’t a lot of happy-baby playtime going on. So today we are going to become climate refugees.

We will be hiding out at the inlaws forested retreat on Bainbridge Island. We are going to take advantage of the ocean breeze and being on Puget Sound and say 

Yes!

to the proffered hospitality of family. 

First we will enjoy the journey to get there. We are busing it to Ballard for lunch with our PEPS pals. We are checking out No Bones Beach Club which is apparently a vegan tiki bar specializing in no-fake-meat vegan nibbles. One word: delicious! The sauces are amazing!

Such nice surprise to run into a few old coworkers along the way, too. Hello friends! I am still working as well, just a different kind of job. Lake is my primary client. He runs a tight ship with some pretty mean hours. The benefits and quality of life are entirely worth it!

The three of us went up to yoga this morning for a postnatal “mom and baby” type class. That’s a trick. We looked really cute, all matching with light blue shirts and black yoga pants. Michael dropped us off and went to the neighboring catopia café while we commenced to lubricate our aching joints. “Motion is lotion” Darshana, my rockstar physical therapist said at our last appointment. 

Lake was content for about 85% of the class. That left 15% discontent. The 15% loomed large though, especially considering it came near the end. By the end I was breastfeeding him in Shivasana. 

These days he’s still sleeping through the night eight hours, which I’m incredibly thankful for. Then he has a near constant appetite while he’s awake. And he’s appreciative of attention and play. None of these attributes are particularly conducive to synchronized mom-baby yoga. It seems to work better if I go to adult yoga class after he’s had a good meal and I can leave him to have some quality daddy downtime. He really doesn’t need a class to get his yoga on. He’s a relaxation expert, stretching constantly, holds no grudges, very flexible. He’s a born yogi. 

Lake sure had fun sharing the Woodland Park Zoo with his old friend Clarence today! His favorite part was lunch where he got to break out of the Baby Björn and bust a move! He’s getting so smiley and engaging! 

The animals were impressively active too, given our midday visit and the heat. Reticulated giraffes. Wolf Pack. Brother Bears. Komodo dragon lizards. Hippos. 

The hippos were keeping it real. Reminding us the breathe and chill. And cuddle. 

The big felines were all caught mid-siesta: sleeping jaguar, lion, three tigers and a snow leopard.  At the end we watched Yola be hearded off by her mum. Succinctly prodded patted and nudged off stage left. No question about her maternal confidence! All in all a great zoo day!

Afterwards Lake and I met Daddy for a movie date. We checked out another philosophy of parenting style and watched Captain Fantastic at the Guild 45th. There we got to check out the sound proofing in the baby room. 

(Tolle asked that I finish the entry today. So… after a long leisurely zoo stroll, she accomplished movie-out baby management at the theatre, then nigh passed out after dinner with BBC Olympics on the projector telly. 6 miles on her phone counter, a low day — yesterday it counted 11. Tolle loves the zoo, long walks, movies, dinners, and watching volleyball. And Lake. So, a perfect day then. -ed)

Michael has recently been appointed the newest Regional Supervisor for his pharmaceutical fraternity: Lambda Kappa Sigma. Their mascot is the Lamb and their colors are blue and gold. Or so I believe. It’s one of those closely guarded secrets. I’m in the rival pharmaceutical fraternity Kappa Psi so I wouldn’t know for sure. 

I didn’t let that get in our way though today! This morning we composed a photograph to send out to his regional chapter presidents. By way of introduction. How cute is that?