Miss Independent/ce

I know. I know. The excuses are too numerous to contemplate but go something like this: work, baby, baby, work, travel, blah, blah, blah. For me, the summer has just begun and thus I too, begin again, vowing to write more often and with more, shall we say, vigor.

SO, now I begin with the latest adventures of Baby O. O is now six months in age and in spirit. She woke up this week fortified (after having begun to experience the sheer pleasure of solid food--more about that later) and decided to start playing. I mean playing, for reals. She grabs her toys, dances with her little animals from her stash of "bath friends" and has started trying to "sweep" up the stripes off our carpet. She also loves the sight of other babies, particulary the ones in her babies and animals book from G, H and A. She is "talking" up a storm and is cooler than words. In all, she is, to borrow my dear friend, Aunt Bomb's, phase: pumped and awesome.

By the way the portrait above was taken by my friend, M, the photographer.

Say my name, say my name

I know. I know. It has been too freakin long. So much has happened. . . so much work, so many changes in Baby O. Since my last post O has started turning over (well, according to M she has because I haven't seen it. Every time I put her on her stomach she fusses. But both M and my mom swears she does it. So, there you go!).

Anyway, since the last time I wrote, O took her first trip to Philly--a much better flight than our trip to Houston. We had a fantastic time. It was so good to be "home" introducing O to lots of friends and many of our old haunts. We also went to see G/J, H and Lil A, who correctly summed up O's activities: "Baby O drinks milk from boobies." A is a hilarious and wise two year old.

O has also started laughing and is super smiley. Everyone asks, "what is she like?" And all I can think of is an email I received from my friend A, who is living in It'ly this year with his wife C and their little daughter, S (who is four months older than O and is O's soon to be BFF). Anyway, in the email A, when describing little S, simply said "S is just perfectly S." I think that about O. She is so many things and the only way to describe her is that she is perfectly herself.

Every day there is something new with O--some new skill she has mastered or some exciting thing she now does--and today brought us the realization that O know her name. She is now turning her head when called on, looking up at us with a big smile as if to say, "yes, I am O and I am right here." It is pretty freakin incredible.

I promise to be better and return to more regular correspondence and in the meantime, leave you with this recent photo of O taken by my friend, M, who is a photographer and took a few shots of O in my office. You will notice she has begun to grow hair like a champion and looks a hell of a lot like M.

PS: Happy belated birthday to my dearest GZ and to Lil HW. Can't wait to see you both in NYC for the big day.

Baby Momma's B Day

We just returned, exhausted and starving from Houston, and so I will report on our adventures in the next 24 hours. However, I couldn't let the evening pass without wishing M a very happy birthday. Along with December 27th, it is my favorite day of the year.

Also, I must give a early birthday shout outs to DDK who celebrates tomorrow. Cheers!

I'll bet the house

Seeing as how O is a Jew and I am a lapsed Episcopalian trying not to eat a lot of candy, we spent our Easter weekend practicing a new religion, "Bracketology." You see O and I are in deep in a serious, and potentially lucrative, NCAA Final Four pool. (I thought it is never too early to get O interested in gambling and hopefully she can win a little spending money in the process.) After kibitzing for several hours and reading extensive background on ESPN, O and I made our picks and ponied up our dough. So, after the first weekend, I am tied for first place, but am not that excited as I know it won't last. You see, every year is the same story. I am riding high after the first weekend, only to then fall apart during the "Sweet Sixteen." The Davidson upset killed O as she had Georgetown through to the finals and so she sits close to the bottom pool. But, she is a little trooper and is taking it fairly well.

Happy Birthday Mikey B!

Because he turns 40 today, Mikey B gets his own birthday post.
So . . . Happy Birthday, Mike! Wish we could be there to celebrate!
Lots of love,
M, C and O

"Don't wake me, I plan on sleeping in"

Here is O this morning after sleeping through the night for the first time. I am not counting the other evening where she went from midnight to seven because, on that day, she had decided that naps were for babies and so she was up from 10 a until midnight. But yesterday, she was back on her "normal schedule" and went to bed around 7:30, got up for a bite from the late-night bar menu (as she usually does) at 10:30 and then went back to bed until 6:30 am. (She even went back to bed after breakfast.) I love that kid! M and I, of course, woke up a few times, wondering "what the hell?"

There were so many owls down there, I could hardly believe it!

I have been meaning to post this for days. Orly is now enjoying making all kinds of noises. Her favorite and most accomplished sound is the "hoot hoot" she rocks from her crib. You can see that she also has the outfit to match.