A Few Recent Occurences

I'm back at work now but just a few days a week and WITH Lucia. I'm really lucky that my boss lets me bring her in with me. Cheers Fabian!

It's amazing the things that people will do for one of baby's beautiful smiles. (Lucia is the overexposed orb in the the lower corner.)

Here's Shely and I with our Ergo carriers. Lucia lives in this thing.

Rising up (little chicken)

waking up is hard to do

note: Did you know you can click on the photos in this blog to make them bigger? You'll want to do that with this one to fully appreciate the final frame.
Lucia has discovered a thing called naps. You would think a newborn would sleep a lot during the day but not her. Until now. See, apparently she wanted me to tell her when it was an appropriate time to rest and put her in bed with the curtains drawn. I thought she would just conk out wherever she was when sleepiness set in. Hey, I'm new at this parenthood thing. But now we have a lovely little ritual in the afternoons and every one is feeling well rested as a result. Next I might even try introducing her to a fancy thing called the crib.

Backyard BBQ

Our old friend Allen came through town this weekend after being away for oh so long so we had to have a barbeque to celebrate. There were babies galore, Lucia's future possee (even though they are mostly unaware of eachother's existence as of yet).
Lucia's the one in the center of the party

Mamas Kate, Shelly and myself:
Notice how hard it is to get three women and three babies to ever look in the same direction simultaneously.

Autophobia

before
during
after

Sorry to say this is what Lucia looks like on a typical car ride. She hates it! Perhaps she is going to be a green pioneer of her generation, encouraging people to walk or take the bus? Well it's already working on me. Since that is really to only time she screams and cries (thankfully!) it is quite nerve wracking to hear. I've tried putting a mirror and a brightly patterned fabric for her to look at. Anyone have any other ideas? I've heard from other parents of anti-car babies that is wears off with time. Until then it's life in the slow lane for us I suppose.

Hi Friends!

Allright! Lucia is 2 months old now and I finally seem to have intermitent opportunities to get on the computer while she explores the joys of sleeping places other than my chest. So we're blogging now!
Let's see, the first month was great and terrifying with Lucia finding the world to be bright and unpredictable and the force of gravity to feel alarming at times; and with myself finding motherhood to be awe inspiring and challenging but finally finding out that I could probably do it. The second month has been pretty much pure bliss. I reflect every night on how lucky I am to have this little one in my life, and Lucia's enormous smiles seem to say it all. We've already had some great adventures since emerging out into the world from the safe confines of the home: a plane trip to San Diego to meet the extended family, a baseball game, a couple of outdoor concerts, visits to friends houses, and lots of trips to the park with faithful companion Niko Sue. I can't wait to see what adventures are still to come...

Photos from July

Four Generations of Laz Women
Go A's!
Quiet Times at Home

Flashback to the Birth Day

Lucia Rose Laz was born June 5, 2007 at 7:23 pm. She weighed 8lbs. 11oz and measured 22 inches (which changed to 20.5 inches after her head returned to a normal shape). I'm so happy to say that she was healthy and spirited from the get go.
I went into labor around 7:00 the night of June 4th during a small dinner party at home with Marisha Danny, Carl and Ta Wei. Perhaps it was something in the spices of Ta Wei's cooking... Around midnight Marisha, Danny and I decided to make the trip over the bay bridge to the hospital in Berkeley. Michael and Meredith chipped in by having Niko for a sleep over. It was a beautiful night, the roads were clear, thre was a light mist falling and the song Thank You by Led Zeppelin was playing on the radio. During the next 24 hours I was supported by my wonderful crew of Danny, Marisha, Chelsa and my doula Gia. Long story short the labor was long and painful until the epidural around 6:00 am, and then the pushing was long and painful (almost four hours!). But everything went relatively smoothly and at last she emerged in all her glory. I know everyone says this but it truly was the most amazing moment of my life.