Suck It!

Baby O has been doing many magical things the last week of so--commando crawling, laughing at peek-a-boo, babbling and picking up new sounds. She also has begun the not so magical activity of sucking her arm. You see she has been teething something awful and despite our attempts to provide her with other objects on which to exercise her little baby gums--the mini bagel, the frozen teething ring--Baby O will not be moved and continues to suck her own little fleshy drumstick. M and I find this all incredibly disturbing. Is this because she is causing herself pain? Yes. Is it because the result of this activity is the presence of little baby hickies up her forearm? Yes. It is because these hickies look awful and we worry what our daycare providers will think? Possibly. What are we to do? Baby O knows we don't like it. Each time I ask her to stop, she does for about a second, looks up at me and then smiles and begins again. As I mentioned we have tried to no avail to redirect her sucking. Suggestions are, of course, welcome. She is beginning to look, as Michael Kors would say, slutty, slutty, slutty.

Can I get a cleanup on aisle nine?

For me summer ended today and so I must get "back to school" and back to the blog. And so, here it goes . . .having returned from all summer vacays and required appearances, and having confirmed that lil Baby O is up for pretty much anything and finding ourselves all at home together this past weekend, we managed to pack the last two days with activity.

Friday night found us at a local summer Catholic parish festival. Until I moved here three years ago, I was unfamiliar with such an event but here in the Nati they take their church festivals very seriously. There is a festival every weekend from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and they are such a big deal that each fall there is a summit during which the parishes hash out who takes which weekend for their festival. You see there can be no two festival the same weekend because how would we be able to decide which one to attend? So what is a parish festival, you ask? Well basically it is like your PTA-sponsored school carnival--a few rides, games, dunking machine, food stands that include funnel cake (delicious), "walking tacos"(that's taco fixins in a bag of Fritos), soft serve; and tweens as far as the eye can see. The only major difference from the parish festival and the school carnival of my youth is the amount of drinking (so much beer) and gambling, serious gambling. Seriously, there was not only a the festival hall full of the "bid and buy" (think silent auction) but there was an outdoor tent which housed a hopping casino. It was out of hand. Baby O, in attendance with her BFF Lil S and her parents, A and C, had a fantastic time watching all the other kids and trying to figure out where all these people came from. I enjoyed the funnel cake.

On Saturday O hit the courts and watched her first professional tennis match when we traveled out to the ATP Tournament. Mauresmo lost in the third set which, if you ask me, was full of bad calls. It was incredibly sunny and the ladies in front of us were not happy about our talking during the match but O, Lil S and all the parents had a good time. It was adorable to watch A with Lil S. A, a good and avid player, is already hoping that Lil S will pick up the game in a few years. He spent most of the match explaining the intricacies to her. So cute! Me, I am hoping O will take up the guitar (I want her to rock) and maybe hit the pool.

But Sunday was the big day . . .O's first trip to the grocery store in which she got to ride in the cart and she loved it. She smiled at the cans of veggies and tried to grab everything in sight. M finally handed her a box of Jello pudding "to play with" during her ride. We ended up paying for it as O managed to gnaw the paint off the corner of the box. Responsible parenting, I know. O also managed to notice the gumball and toy machines. I see her working this down the line. Anyway, she was so tired that she had to take a juice break before leaving the store. All-in-all O had a kickin weekend. Next Saturday: the Zoo.

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