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Melanie Tito's avatar

Hi Celi I haven't been reading many Substacks - or reading at all in an organised way of late - but I have enjoyed seeing your posts in my inbox. (Just wandered over to your Wordpress site too on a whim, and learned that it got full!! Wow!!)

Happy for you and your daughter and family with the arrival of your beautiful new grandbaby. So precious. I was near tears reading about the C-section the other day. I'm thankful to have survived two emergency C-sections and precarious situations for my babies, and that that chapter is behind us! So good you could be there for your daughter.

Mel

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Mel - darling girl! And yes! Wordpress will not allow me to add any more images unless I upgrade AGAIN, so I have left. The site will remain live and I am using it as the TKG archives. It has turned out well.

Substack is free and my fellowship came with me.

I am still horrified by the C-Section. To see ones own daughter cut into like that was very difficult. It broke my heart. We were clutching each others hands, she was shaking uncontrollably. But the surgical team was exceptional and managed to turn a very tense situation into a celebration. I cannot thank them enough for what they did for her. And for our wee baby who is doing really well now.

Nothing can be organised with kids in the house so I am doubly happy to see you here with your words. Take care of yourself when you can. Mums work hard.

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Melanie Tito's avatar

Perfect! I am glad you are leaving the site up - so much love and work has gone into it. x

Gosh - such a lot to go through - big BIG hugs to you and your daughter. Yay for a good team too. I always heard about C-sections and thought it didn't sound very nice at all but when I was told I had to go through one the reality of it was even more difficult to grasp. It was Covid and I had to be put to sleep - so I asked the nurse to hold my hand as the anaesthetic kicked in! She graciously did. My husband was there for the second one and he said the curtain was there but he had quite the view through the reflection on the surgeons' things they had on, maybe it was face shields. I can just imagine it wasn't nice to be him either ... I am more squeamish looking at others' wounds than my own. Birth - such a miracle - for babies & all mums! Thinking of what you have gone through with your own too!

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Kate Chiconi's avatar

If I ever found myself with only one hand, I'd invent a jig I could put my bread slice into to hold it still for buttering. That's how much I love butter on my toast. Losing one arm to baby-holding is a worthy loss, though, and to be treasured, since since the privilege passes so soon. They are babies for such a short time, and are too big to carry so quickly!

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

It is lovely to have a baby again. This is one thing I know I am good at!

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Darlene Foster's avatar

Moms and grandmothers are so good at doing things with a baby in their arms. It's been a while. I loved the little piggies.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Just like riding a bike. You never forget!’

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Patricia Solari's avatar

Oh I enjoyed the retrospective. Can never be tired of piglets and black and white cows.e

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

It is so calming to look back - those were such busy days!

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Hans Jorgensen's avatar

Lovely to revisit the pigs, and the English language. It is a curious concoction because so many people over so many experiences have shaped it! I remember the way "fast" is connected also to the verb "fasten," and that helps me with this connotation.

How fun to see the baby on the monitor, too. Life flows at a different pace now.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Holding fast is my fav. It is a great old word.

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Mad Dog's avatar

Poppy and the dear little pigs. I saw some pictures yesterday of spotted pigs in a Pigloo - a round pig house in the woods, with sloping sides, so the babies can escape to safety. I thought of you!

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

That sounds like a great idea! Pigloo! How funny!! The lengths we go to to keep those babies safe

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Andy Randall (Andrea)'s avatar

Oh l remember those little piglets,they were my screen saver for a while. Hope all is well on the farmy and they are coping without you. The things you can do with a sleeping baby on your shoulder😊

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Just about anything but butter toast!! 😆

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

Fresh babies are the best. I'm keeping a close eye on California from right up the road in Portland. Reminds me of when they send in the feds to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations here in 2020. Made things infinitely worse. Keep focusing on Louie.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

What worries me Charlotte is if there are bad players in the protests pushing from the back. Do you remember the troublemakers in the unions years ago. Sent in to create confrontation. They want the violence. It is a worry.

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Neela 🌶️'s avatar

Optimistic tea’ is just tea you haven’t spit into the sink yet, right? hahahaha

My auntie used to say babies sleep like they’re being hunted.

Was she right, Cecilia?

Sending you warm hugs for the week ahead.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Yes. She is right! Ha! I never heard that one before! I love it.

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Neela 🌶️'s avatar

It stuck in my head Cecilia hahahaha

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Eha Carr's avatar

Memories from way back Illinois and the piggies, smiles at the use of IT to monitor a present-day bub sweetly snoozing and anger, frustration and fear reading about California - is there really a civil war looming in the 21st century . . . love, be well . . . get some sleep .. .

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Nadine's avatar

Well done Popy, and to use a serial for your monitoring skills, Poppy had very cute piglets! 🐖

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

They are Hereford pigs. Such a beautiful breed. They are the cutest babies!

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Nadine's avatar

I thought they might be, my dad is from Hereford 🥹

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Connections within connections. 😆

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