Lucy and Lillian

Here are some cute recent shots of Lucy and her friend Lillian (18 months).  Lillian's parents are our dear friends Orrin and Alicia Johnson.



I love this one.  Such smiley girls.



Lucy looks a lot like David in this one.



Yes, we allow children to eat cereal off the carpet.

Lucy bear-crawling away.  This is one of her signature moves, lately.

Mother's Day Photo Shoot

I wanted to get a photo of Lucy and me together on my first Mother's Day.  Unfortunately I waited until a little too late in the day and she was not really in the mood to have her photo taken.  So here is what I got.  What can I say, sometimes she cries!  She's very passionate. 

11 Months!

Lucy is 11 months old today! 

Baby Tricks:
This last month she has started in on some new baby tricks, including cruising along the furniture and occasionally standing without support. 
Another exciting trick as of late (exciting for me, at least) is that she has started sleeping through the night!  We usually put Lucy to bed in her nursery around 8:30 to 9:30 and then once she wakes up we bring her in to our room where I nurse her and then she spends the remainder of the night with us.  Before the ten month mark she had only slept through the night a couple of isolated times, one involving Benadryl.  But just recently she turned the corner and started sleeping until around 5:00 or 5:30 quite frequently.  After nearly a year of never getting a full night's sleep this is very exciting for me!

She really likes pointing now, often pointing to what she wants and making this funny little "ooo ooo ooo" monkey sound.  Her communication skills are growing in other ways too; she shakes her head no if she means to answer no to a question.  She also says "di di", which means "thank you."  Yeah for manners!

Lucy has also mastered closed mouth kissing along with an "mmmm" sounds to accompany a kiss.  It is pretty adorable.  And once she gets started she wants to kiss us over and over.  She also now waves goodbye (sometimes).  Her more typical goodbye is blowing a kiss, which she bestows on everyone from family and friends to strangers at Home Depot.  Sometimes blowing a kiss means she touches her mouth and then flings her arm forward but sometimes she just touches any part of her head and then flings her arm out, sometimes behind her rather than toward the kiss recipient.

Oh, and her father has taught her to flush the toilet. Fancy, yes.

New foods: I'm really losing track of all the things she has tried now but some that stand out from the last month are beef, lamb, oranges, pickles (which I hate), ribs, all types of berries, some nuts, cottage cheese ... don't worry, she still eats lots of veggies and I'm sure I have given her some new ones I just can't recall which are new.

Favorite Foods: Although Lucy remains a great eater she is starting to express some preferences.  Her favorite food is definitely cheese.  She loves cheese.  She also very much likes beans and blueberries.

Likes: Brushing her hair (she tried to brush mine, too), shoes and socks, pretending to talk on the phone, washing her hands, holding fruits or veggies in the shopping cart, playing with toy cars, baths, pressing the buttons on the TV.

Dislikes: These are not really changing.  She still very much dislikes getting buckled into her car seat!  People nearby in parking lots probably think we are pinching her or something.

Here are a few pictures of our sweet baby from the last month:


Wearing Mommy's 1/2 marathon medal and Daddy's 5K medal (yes, they give medals for finishing a 5K)

Checking out the newest cousin, baby Aria Belle.  Also pictured: Cousin Eve, Mommy, Aunt Tiffany.

Talking on her plush cell phone, an Easter gift from Mimi. Fashionable tunic courtesy of Jamie Burke!

Bundled up to go out for a walk with Mommy and Mimi on Mother's Day

Enjoying some berries

Prodigy quality, I tell you.  And a good shot of the baby mullet.



Madeline and Lucy enthusiastically providing some entertainment at an O'Mara gathering




Hanging out in the garden



Easter 2011 - Part Two

For Easter dinner we enjoyed a Greek feast.  Although Catholic Easter and Greek Orthodox Easter often fall on different dates, this year the calendars aligned and both fell on the same Sunday.  Easter is the most important religious feast of the year for all Christians but Greeks have some special Easter food customs.  Our brother-in-law, John/Scooter, is Greek and this being John and Erin's (and Sophia's) first Easter in Reno after moving from Atlanta, a Greek feast was in order.  All I made was the Greek salad (apparently Greeks call it "country salad"), but look at this spread!  It was delish!

Red Easter eggs, a Greek tradition, dyed red to represent the Blood of Christ and the Resurrection. Eggs by Sophia and Erin.  Lots of egg bonking went on at the end of dinner.  Spring table setting by Cat, the O'Mara Family Table Stylist.  Note the jelly beans and candles.  Despite Cat's protest that they are merely ornamental and possibly having candle wax on them, some jelly beans were consumed (ahem, David).

Appies!  Dolmades by John, hummus by Maureen, spanikopita by Maureen, bacon wrapped veggies by Bridget

Lamb with spicy mint sauce by Bridget.  The mint sauce was amazing!

Pastitsio by Erin (Lucy loved this)

Country salad by David and Courtney

 

Not Greek, just yummy.  Easter Bunny cake by Sophia.

Lucy and Sophia post-feast.

Easter 2011 - Part One

We had a wonderful Easter.  In the morning we went to Mass at Our Lady of the Snows and then joined our extended family (O'Mara and Miller) at Pat & Lara's house for an Easter egg hunt and brunch buffet.  Lucy slept through the first half of the egg hunt and, not surprisingly, was not very interested in it anyway.   Here are some photos of all the fun!

Lucy's cousins waiting for the hunt to begin: Grant (2), Abby (5), Sophia (4), Madeline (22 months), Mark (3.5)

So excited ... Madeline and Eve (3) head out

Mark and Grant, eager to find eggs

Eve

Maddie and Lucy

Craig (6m)

Lucy and Mommy

Lucy and Mimi

Lucy with Uncle Pat

Lucy and Aunt Erin

Back at home, Lucy with Daddy and the treats the Easter Bunny brought for her

Daddy helps Lucy explore her Easter treats

Baby Tricks - Climbing

Lucy is becoming an accomplished baby climber and explorer.  She very much enjoys climbing into cabinets, baskets, the Bumbo, etc.  She has also recently become pretty proficient at descending stairs.  This past weekend she descended the full flight of stairs from our second floor to our first.  Here are some photos of her adventures.

Perched atop a box in her nursery

Climbing into the Bumbo

Hanging out in the space where the food processor is typically stored and rearranging the ramekins while she is in there


Climbing in to a kitchen drawer

In her drawer again.  She did this all by herself.

Scaling the stairs

Pictured here on Easter in the space usually occupied by the Kitchen Aid mixer

NNWLA Article: Not Guilty – A Reflection for Mother’s Day

I recently authored a short article for the Northern Nevada Women Lawyers Association (NNWLA) May newsletter, which included several pieces about lawyer motherhood. I thought some OMARALICIOUS readers might enjoy it so I have included it below.

Mommy and Lucy in December 2010

Motherhood brings with it so many surprises.  Before Lucy was born last June I knew I would love her, but I was surprised by just how much I love her!  I knew returning from maternity leave would be difficult, but I was surprised at how it actually felt.  I thought I might feel guilty for returning to work, for liking my job, for not seeing my new role as a mother as some impediment to my career.  The cultural background noise told me to expect guilt.  But I didn’t feel guilty.  I felt many things that I imagine other working mothers (and working fathers) also feel when still counting a baby’s age in weeks: I felt tired from waking up every few hours to nurse and care for a needy infant, I felt busy from keeping up with deadlines, billable hours and professional networking while adjusting to the new reality of my home life, but I didn’t feel guilty (at least not about working, my housekeeping skills are another story).  For a day or two I even felt guilty about not feeling guilty!  And then I just got over it and turned my back on the cliché of working mother guilt.  Instead, I feel proud to be Lucy’s mother, including the working mother part. Of course it helps that I am lucky to have a very supportive husband and extended family who help us with Lucy’s care. But when I get home at night Lucy is smiling and happy, ready to give me one of her wet kisses and to play on the floor.  What’s there to feel guilty about?

Happy baby, helping contribute to the general messiness in the kitchen (April 2011)