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Mia Video Update

3 Videos!

Mia talks to her Pacifier

Mia in the Bath

                                                            Mia waits for her food

Happy Halloween!

Well, we had Mia's first Halloween over here in sunny Las Vegas. Last night, it was a balmy 75 degrees (I think it was actually around 82 during the day), so Mia's fleece ladybug costume was a little too warm to keep on during the day. Of course, I had picked it out with a mind that it would be cold by the end of November! Luckily, Jackie sent us this pack of Holiday 1st onesides, we had had something festive for Mia to wear during the day.

We went down to our new friends Joel and Dara's house to trick or treat. Now we have 2 sets of friends! Go us! We met them through our other Las Vegas friends and met up with them and their son Tybalt for trick or treating. They live in a nice niehgborhood in the South West side of town, where there are lots of houses pretty close together. We had a nice time, but it was hard to spot the houses that were open for business amidst the many (many) foreclosures (sad).

The people handing out candy started getting suspicious that a 5 month old was goig to be able to eat candy... so we did not stay out very long. Trick or Treating with babies is mostly for the photo ops anyway!

Adventures in Baby Food

Mia has started eating baby food. Thanks to Jackie (Brian's sister), we've been able to make the baby food at home and Mia's basically cleared to eat any vegetable that we eat.

We started with applies, which were not well received. We thought it might just be because she wasn't ready to eat yet, but now that I know how well she has taken the rest of the food, I realize that we may just have a picky eater on our hands. She took much better to butternut squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Next week, green beans.

Amazingly, we are still up in the air about the Baptism. The lady was supposed to call me back this afternoon, but she hasn't. As far as I know, we've already completed all the requirements... but you know. Apparently the Catholic Church is the same as the Federal Government.

Lastly, here is Mia's latest video. On Sunday night, she was cheering the Bears on!

Guest Post from Chloe The Beagle

That's right, it's the Newest Caccamo Family's first guest blog post. So, take it away Chloe:

Hi everyone! Remember me? It's me, Chloe! Yup, you remember. I'm the one that you all used to fawn over. I'm still here. And I'm still adorable, but I've gotta tell you, things have taken a turn for the worse over here in Caccamoland. Let me tell you my story...


I started out in a sad little pet shop on Ashland. All my brothers and sisters were meek and quiet, but not me! I barked and barked. How else is anyone going to notice how much better I am then the rest? Apparently most of the shop's patrons were idiots, because they kept on picking the quiet ones. The shop owners made an extra special sign over my crate, which said "50% off!" in big red letters, because sometimes, you have to make it clear which puppies are the best. Finally, this 15 year old Girl picked me and I went home with a family.

It was a good start. I had two teenagers, two adults, an older sister and a backyard. We all lived in a nice house with nice wood floors (perfect to pee on!). Everyone came to visit me because I was so soft and cute. My big sister was always trying to tell me what to do, but she was a Golden Retriever, and what do they know? I did what I wanted! I liked her though, my big sis. She always gave me her left overs. After a few years, things started to change.

My teenagers grew up and left the house. Then, my Girl came back from where ever she was for four years, and took me away from my big sister and my adults. At first, I was pissed, but soon, I realized that she needed me! How could I stay with the adults when someone had to take care of my Girl? Poor Girl, she was left behind. I had to be strong. I spent lots of time her. She always wanted someone to sit with her on the couch, or sit at her feet when she was at our table. I took her on walks, I took her to the beach, what more could I have done for her? I was so important to her, I even had to go on airplanes with her. My adults and my big sis came to visit a few times, and sometimes we went to see them at their new place. I took good care of her, we made a great team.

Then, this Guy started coming around and kicked me out of my bed. It's cool though, one less thing I needed to do. I like the floor better anyway. He brought a bunch of things into our house, and he was kind of a pain in the ass. He was always trying to play with me! No way buddy, I'm a Beagle. I am too good for those dog toys you're throwing around. Clearly, he'd never had a Beagle before. He was probably used to those other kinds of dogs, like Golden Retrievers, those suckers. She started wearing something shiny on her finger, and I think she was happy. It turned out, his lap was pretty comfortable, too.

Anyway, it turned out that this Guy needed me too. He probably didn't have anywhere else to go, the poor Guy. So, I started taking care of him too. I took them both on long walks by the lake, to the beach, and we even went on road trips! I sat on my Girl's lap, or at her feet, while he drove me around in the car. We went and visited my adults and my big sis. We went around to other people's houses, I think they were my Guy's people, because they all talked real loud, like him. They were all wanting to pet me all the time, telling me how cute I was. But, I put up with it. They were cool.

Then, one day, we went on a car ride and stopped at this place with lots of cats and dogs. They brought this little dope of a puppy around to meet me, and he was so annoying. He looked so scruffy and had a beard, and I don't know why everyone thought he was so cute. Hello, everyone knows that a smooth coated dog is superior. I don't know what this puppy's deal was, but he would not stop following us around, and he came all the way back into my car and then into my house.

They called him "Swarley". What kind of name is that? That's not even a real name. My Girl even set up a second bed on the floor, like he was staying! Man, I was pissed. He was always bugging me, and bugging my Girl and my Guy. Always asking to go out and to be taken care of. I don't think they knew that he was the kind of dog that needed taking care of, one of those Retriever types. They even let him come up on my couch. We still went out on long walks and the beach, but he took up so much of their time, it just wasn't the same. I guess he got better eventually, but he did have the nerve to get bigger than me. Don't worry though, I'm way tougher. This kid needs me.

The one day, my Girl started getting fat. Like, really fat. She didn't want to go on long walks anymore. We went on a long road trip and now, I don't need boots or a coat in the winter, but sometimes, it gets really hot. I wasn't too mad at her though, I didn't feel like going on long walks anymore either. One day, she went away for 3 days. I didn't know what happened to her, and I had to take care of Swarley. Everyone was always out of the house and my Guy only came by for a few hours a day. Then she came back. But she wasn't alone...

You guessed it. It was a Tiny Human. I had heard about these at the dog park. Those other dogs warned us this might happen soon, but I never believed them. It cried. All the time. My Girl's always holding it and kissing it. And me? I'm not allowed on the couch. I'm not allowed on the bed. Those other people, they're always asking about that Tiny Human. Nobody asks about me anymore. What's the big deal? The Tiny Human doesn't even have any soft fur to pet like I do. Even Swarley has better fur than the Tiny Human.

Sure, my Guy still takes us on walks. Sure, sometimes she still needs me on her lap, but only when the Tiny Human sleeps. Yeah, alright, I still get food, and water, a warm house, a soft bed, but it's not the same.  My Girl promises we'll go to the park again when the Tiny Human gets a little bigger, but I'll believe that when I see it. Sometimes, that Tiny Human watches me and Swarley run around and she laughs. And I guess that's kind of nice. But I'm still mad.

So guess what? I'll pee on your floor. That'll show you.

4 Months!

Although technically, Mia turned 4 months on Sunday the 25th, I decided to delay this post until we had her 4 month pediatrician visit, so that I could post her stats:

Weight: 13 lbs, 4 oz, 50th percentile

Length: 25", 75th percentile

Head: I forgot the measurement, but 25th percentile.

Shots: 2 - she didn't feel the first one, but screamed bloody murder on the second.

Post-shot nap.

We are clear to stick with soy formula (thank you Mia!), since she seems totally back to normal and no longer has any bloody #2s. She continues to have some trouble with constipation, so we need to continue with prune juice. In a more exciting transition, we are cleared to start solid foods. Mia's head control is good enough for her to start on all fruits and vegetables. We're supposed to get started on the high-fiber foods at once, so that we can cut down on the prune juice, which is a lot of sugar for a little baby to be ingesting every day. I'm excited to get the baby food processor out and get started! She's already started eating some cereal in the past few days, and we have good and bad feedings. Sometimes, she acts as though this baby rice cereal is the most delicious food in the world, and sometimes, she reaches for the bottle that is sitting on the table. Hopefully, she takes a better liking to apples, which we'll start on first.

Mia's makeshift work high chair, Mia says "Gimme mah cereal!"

Mia has hit all the milestones she's supposed to. She's holding her head up 90* when on her stomach and looking around. She's rolled over (although only twice at this point, but I guess it still counts!), and she is really starting to increase the baby talk. Lots of consonants and vowels, though mostly "Ha! Ha! Hoooooo."

We picked up an "exersaucer" at a local secondhand kid's store. I went to the store 3 times before I found one that looked clean and basically new. We picked up the exact one I was planning on buying on amazon and paid $32 instead of $70!

In more Baptism news, Las Vegas's Catholic community continues to astound us with the number of hurdles to get your kid to become Catholic. Once we 1) became registered parishioners, and 2) completed our baptism course, we thought that we were golden to schedule the baptism. It turns out, we need to have both our Godparents complete Baptism classes, and send over their confirmation certificates before we can even pick our mass! Crazytown. We have both Godparents scheduled and hopefully after October 7th, we'll have more definite plans.



Got it!

After a few unsuccessful attempts, we finally got Mia's giggles on video. The other day, she started laughing hysterically when I started playing with Swarley in front of her. Tonight, we decided to try bringing Swarley in again and giving Brian the camera. Here it is! Again, you'll have to excuse my over excited and high pitched voice.

Also, a video taken by one of my co-workers of Mia chatting it up.

On a not as cute note, it turns out Mia has a milk protein allergy. Last week, there were blood streaks in her #2 diaper. I immediately called the pediatrician, and they told me not to freak out, that it was probably just some kind of allergry, and to bring her in to the office in the morning. After a very fitful night of waking up every 2 hours, we went to the pediatrician with dirty diapers wrapped in doggie poop bags. After asking a series of questions about my diet and what kind of formula we've been supplementing with. Since I hate the taste of milk, it hasn't impacted Mia. Lately, I started eating cereal in the mornings for breakfast and eating ice cream after dinner. This spike in dairy apparently aggravated Miss Mia's tummy. So, we are switching to soy formula and sticking to that from now on. Apparently, about 70% of babies with a milk protein allergy tolerate soy just fine, but 30% require a more broken down type of formula that costs about 3 times more than regular formula. So, we are really REALLY hoping that we fit into that 70%. Cross your fingers for us!

So far, we have only seen a little bit of blood in the past couple of diapers. The pediatrician told us not to be alarmed if we saw more in the next few days, because it takes at least one week for the stomach lining to heal up. So, we are going to continue to examine every diaper and hope for the best!

Back by popular demand

Another video! This time, Mia enjoying the bath. Warning, there is a naked baby in this video :) Again, you'll have to ignore my annoying high pitched voice. You can't help it when trying to get your baby excited...

Another Update

Brian's branch is being reassigned. Even though he maintains that it is a lateral move, I'm going to go ahead and tell everyone that it's a quasi-promotion. The new branch is an extra 5 minutes away (We love Vegas traffic). He's being moved from a medium traffic branch to a high traffic branch. At this new branch, he'll be the only licensed banker, meaning that he's the only banker able to handle investments and business accounts. So YAY.

For now, we've also decided to forgo daycare for Mia. Since Mia has stopped going to Kate's, we visited a couple of in-home daycares, but I still don't feel comfortable leaving her with a stranger (not to mention the fact that one stranger's house smelled like cats, and the other stranger's house smelled like curry - we did agree that curry is a better smell than cats...). My company isn't doing particularly well (financially - the healthcare industry has taken a big hit, insurance companies are covering about 30% of what they used to, it's not good), so my paychecks are often delayed by a few days (or weeks....), which has made our bank account levels kind of unpredictable. Read: I don't always know when I'll have wads of cash available to fork over to a babysitter. I have been taking Mia to work. EVERYDAY. It's actually been going well so far. She loves meetings, something about people talking between themselves rather than at her is probably soothing.

As I write this (see? I'm not terribly busy right now) she's napping in her Pack 'n Play. It's awesome, and everyone has gotten used to coming into my office and speaking in hushed tones.

Parish and Baptism Update

After checking out two different churches, we've 100% settled on Christ the King Catholic Community, which is about 15 minutes away from our apartment. We became registered parishioners on Tuesday night, and got to talk at length with the Pastor. We're all set to go to this month's baptism class, which is on September 19th. Once we've completed the class, we'll be able to schedule the baptism. We're aiming for November 13th or November 20th. We'll let everyone know as soon as we know for sure, too.

This Parish is unlike any I've ever seen. Everything about it is completely progressive, something that suits Brian and I very well. Both of us have had issues with Catholicism's rigidity in the past (not to get into too much detail, but in my opinion, the Vatican's stance on many things needs to adapt to the modern world), and this Parish gives such a welcoming and community feel that all is forgiven, at least on my end. 

The Church itself is set up completely differently than your traditional Church. There is not traditional "altar", but the mass is conducted with the priest in the center of the room. His seat is not separated from those of the parishoners. There are no pews, but instead, there are chairs that can be moved according to the seasons. The priest explained to us that the chairs are rearranged into a straight line during Lent, and are in a circle during Advent, etc. The songs are modern and catchy, I swear the Cantor must be from one of the Strip's shows, she had an amazing voice.

This past Sunday's mass had a Baptism, and it was truly moving. The Pastor says that he makes a point of only doing Baptisms during regular Sunday masses, because he wants the babies to be truly welcomed into the Community. Everyone was so excited to see those babies. I don't want to give too much away, but it's a pretty spectacular event. You'll have to make the trip to Las Vegas in November to see what it's all about!

Transitions

This week, we learned that Kate will no longer be able to take Mia while Brian and I are at work. When I first went back to the office, Mia was a mere 7 weeks old. Now, she's a strong and active 3 month old, and she's starting to need more attention and activity. She doesn't like to just sit in her chair or lay in her crib between her naps. She likes to be held, walked around, airplaned and played with.

Now that she's growing out of the infant stage, I am much more comfortable putting her in a more traditional daycare setting, but we're not quite ready for the pre-school like environment (and pricetag) of a big daycare. So, we're looking into a licensed, in-home daycare. Tonight, we are visiting one that is just north of our apartment, so just slightly out of the way for me to get to work. Tomorrow, we'll visit another more conveniently located in-home daycare. The pricing is about the same as we were paying Kate, but they are requiring us to be consistent with our schedules. Since we can't commit to the same 3 days every week, we are only comfortable committing to 2. We'll do something like Mondays and Thursdays, or Mondays and Fridays, since those are the days that Brian gets off the least often. Brian will keep her on his day off, and that leaves 2 take your daughter to work days for me.

I want us to take our time making a decision, but we would like to have something set up by September 12th. I have to be in court on September 16th, and would rather not take her to work to be watched by my co-workers, who have their own work to do (although I am sure they would be happy to pass the baby between them.).

In ancitipation of Mia's new 2-days a week work schedule, I spent a good chunk of my morning setting up her "new room". I brought the pack-n-play into my office, set up the mobile, and the changing station. Having it here has already made a huge difference. She naps much more easily when she's not in her bouncy chair, and I don't have to clear off my desk every time she needs to be changed. We were even able to do tummy time, since the crib surface is hard and stable enough. I'm really glad with the set up, and since I don't see any clients in my office, this shouldn't cause too many problems. I even put on the lullaby pandora station on my laptop!

Mia's first sniffles

This weekend, Mia put on her party dress (or party ruffled jumper) and attended her first birthday party. Tybalt, our babysitter and friend Kate's son turned one and had a jungled-themed birthday. Although not fitting with the theme, Mia brought a nice turtle for her best (and only) friend:

Patchwork turtle, probably the most complicated thing I've made so far.

Mia was minimally fussy at the birthday, despite the larger crowd than she's used to. There were a couple of other babies there, one 4 month old and one 5 month old. She definitely looked smaller than those two, but was infinitely more alert than either one of those, which leads Brian and I to think that our daughter is probably a genius.

Unfortunately, Mia now has what appears to be her first cold. She's got a bit of sniffles going on, and fusses every 3-4 hours, which makes me think that she's got a sore throat similar to the one I have. We're lucky to have avoided any sicknesses to date by shying away from traditional daycare, but I guess we couldn't keep her locked up forever. I brought her to the office yesterday, and she wouldn't let me put her down, or sit down while holding her, so I had to stand up at my computer and type like this:

Moby wrapping it up!

Funnily enough, it felt oddly similar to when I was walking around the office like this:



I recently decided to embrace being a Las Vegan and a Mom, so I joined a Meetup group. On saturday morning, I went to a farmer's market a Tivoli Village, which is a mall that was constructed right before the economic downturn, so it's basically a really nice looking outdoor mall with only a scaterring of shops. The farmer's market had about half of the vendors of the one we attended in L.A., but it is certainly better than nothing. I had some freshly made mini donuts (mini means less calories, right? even if I ate 6 mini donuts? hmm...). We also got a very nice and delicious loaf of multigrain bread for Brian's lunch sandwiches, and some wax beans and fingerling potatoes from a farm in California. I met up with another Vegas Mom and her friend, who were very nice and I'm happy I met them. This mommy group has quite a few outines per week, and I'm looking forward to attending more of them, even though it is dominated by stay-at-home-moms and half of their activities are during work hours. This saturday, there's a storytime that we are going to at a nearby Barnes and Noble. I'll just keep telling myself that Mia will totally be into what's going on at B&N, just like I tell myself that she's paying attention to the stories that we read before her beditme.

Lastly, here's the most adorable Mia pic of the week:

I'll be 3 months old tomorrow!

Baptisms

Mia is almost 3 months old and is still not baptized. I think my grace period is starting to come to an end, so I am going to seriously start planning this thing now.

In making a few preliminary phone calls, we've realized that getting baptized in Las Vegas is infinitely more complicated than getting married here. The first step is become a registered parishoner. I've never been a registered parishoner anywhere, so I never realized that this would be a requirement. If I have to commit to one parish, I want to make sure I like it. Without making it all sound too trite, I will make my decisions based on:

1) Content and length of Homilies
2) Boringness/Animation of the priest
3) Number of attendees/Size of the church
4) Quality of the musicians at various masses

I am going to try to convince Brian to go to Christ the King parish, which is just West of us on Tropicana this sunday. Next sunday, we'll try St. Joseph husband of Mary parish. We've only been to one church here in Vegas, and that was in Henderson. Henderson is pretty far away from us, plus, we don't think we're going to end up living in Henderson once we buy a house anyway. Plus, I definitely did not like it. It was the size of a Sam's Club, and we were ushered to a reject room to the side, where we had to watch the mass from a flat screen. So, that'll be a big consideration.

From most parish websites, it seems that if I make a decision on which parish to go with by the end of this month, we should be able to aim for a November baptism! Pencil in your calendars.

And now, your obligatory photo:

Here's Mia showing off her skills and holding herself up on the nursing pillow!

Mia's Smiley Video

Honeymoon is Over

The take your daughter to work honeymoon, that is.

Mia came to work on Wednesday instead of Friday this week, because Kate had some scheduling conflicts. Mia was a total delight in the morning, smiling at all my coworkers and generally being adorable.

She sat in her little bouncer chair patiently and took a nap full of sleep smiles for about 45 minutes:

This picture is actually from a different day, but you get the idea.

Then, around 12:30, she decided she was going to stop being the perfect angel, because that would be more interesting for her. She cried if she wasn't being held, leading to this:

Mom, you should be grateful that you are getting to practice your one-handed typing skills!

If you'll notice, she's wearing a different outfit in the desk picture as she is in her adorable full of smiles picture. Yeah, that's because we had 3 poopy diaper blowouts. 3!!!! We've never even had 3 blowouts in one week, and she decides that Wednesday is the day to take 3 giant poopies in a row, at my office of all places. We went through every single spare outfit that I keep in the diaper bag, every single spare diaper, and all but one baby whipe. Around 4 o'clock, she started fussing again, acting like she was going to poopy again... and I decided it was time to take her home. Since we had no more supplies, and is not acceptable to put a naked baby in your work kitchen sink to wash off her poop, it was time to end that take your daughter to work day. Hopefully next thursday goes a bit better!

Lastly, Mia and I are sleep twins.

TGIF

Fridays is my weekly take your daughter to work day! So, after Mia gave us ANOTHER full night's rest (that's three in a row, for those of you who are counting!!), we both woke up at a lazy 8 am, ate breakfast (both of us), took showers (just me), and packed our diaper bags and purses and went into work.

Mia finished up a complaint that the Illinois lawyer is going to file on Monday, outlined a response to a USCIS inquiry that she'll write out next week, and sent off an H-1B petition. She's so talented for a 10 week old.

Actually, I really was pretty proud of us today. Mia slept in the morning, and then at lunch, and only stayed awake after luch. Even while she as awake, she was perfectly happy:

Yes, my office is messy.

Next week, she comes in on wednesday and friday because Brian has another saturday off!

Random Updates

Tomorrow will mark Mia's 10th week. As if to show everyone that she is inching closer and closer to college, Mia started sitting in the Bumbo chair without needing a pillow to support her neck. This is excellent for my morning routine, since I did not have to hold her and juggle my blowdryer in order to keep her upright for the few minutes following her feeding. She just hung out in her chair watching me do my hair. Behold, our non-newborn baby:

She's still just a little squirt, but we officially switched from 0-3 month Gerber onesies to 3-6 month size. Everything else still fits quite well, so we're not freaking out about needing to buy more clothes just yet.

In other news, Brian had Saturday off, so we spent the weekend in L.A., visiting our friends Katie and Christo who also just recently made the move West from Chicago. They are getting married next spring, so I spent the majority of Saturday at Bridal salons, while Brian was at Santa Monica. We did good work, and it was so much fun doing wedding things again. We went to Nicole Miller and Jenny Yoo, and if anyone out there is getting married, I definitely recommend checking out Nicole Miller. It is somekind of hidden Bridal gem, because all of the dresses were gorgeous and reasonably priced. All the dresses being gorgeous may have something to do with Katie being tall and perfectly proportioned, but still.  Mia came along to two salons and was a perfect angel, and Brian took his turn and took Mia for the second half of the afternoon and visited the Sunset Strip. Surprisingly, Mia did not get stopped by any casting agents, but maybe next time. :)

Mia, looking French at the French Creperie

Brian and I really enjoyed L.A.. It was nice to be a in real "city" again, with nice restaurants and shops all around, and being able to walk places. We definitely miss the neighborhood feeling that you get from living in a big city, and especially the excellent FOOD! We had lunch at a neighborhood Mexican restaurant on Saturdaty, complete with a lunchtime pitcher of Margaritas. On Sunday, we went to a farmer's market in the morning and had breakfast at a creperie on Santa Monica Blvd. We really have to make more of an effort to take advantage of the non-touristy things Vegas has to offer.

Mia slept the whole ride to L.A., but cried for about 2 hours of our ride back. Nothing was wrong with her, she had a clean diaper and had a full belly, but she was tired of being strapped down in her carseat. She would scream for about 10 minutes, then calm down, and after about 10 minutes of calm, she would remember how mad she was and start screaming again. She did this from Barstow to Primm, and of course calmed down once we could see Las Vegas' casinos.

I did a terrible job of taking pictures of things other than wedding dresses while we were in L.A., so you'll have to settle for other pictures.

All in all, it was a great weekend, but Mia's fussiness of the car ride extended into the evening and next day, getting me a bit worried that she might be sick, but she turned out to be just fine after getting hours and hours (and hours) of sleep and a nice warm bath.

2 Month Check Up

Weight: 10lbs, 7oz. (25%-50%)

Height: 22 1/4 inches (50%)

Head: 37 1/2 cm (25%)

Rash: basically gone, with occasional flare ups.

All dressed up for her Doctor's appointment, and afternoon at the office. Forget casual Fridays!

I guess she's relatively skinny for her age, but of average height. Her bump is still there, but the Doctor still says not to worry about it, and that the only way it goes away is for the body to resolve itself. So, I will stop worrying. Mia is now allowed to use lotion. She got 3 vaccines today though, and she showed off her powerful lungs and cried for a good 10 minutes once the nurse left. She even refused to eat until half an hour later. But, as is well, and she is now peacefully napping in my office.

See? I sleep.

Mia's stays at Kate's house have been going well so far. She's was there on Wednesday and Thursday, once on her own and the second day she got to hang out with Baby Ty. Apparently Mia cried everytime Ty cried, but I am sure she will start getting used to having another baby around soon. Mia has basically kept her routine of morning cat naps, followed by a long afternoon nap with Kate, too. So far, the only person she likes to keep up for more percentages of the day is her Papa.

Mia's smile

As I touched on yesterday, Mia's smile is currently my favorite thing in the world. She cracks an unmistakable smile so rarely, that to catch one directed at me makes me feel like a million bucks. Her first awake smile was at 5 weeks, and was directed at my dresser, and a few days later I got the BIG ONE which I was able to take those 3 precious pictures of. Since then, I've probably gotten about 3 real smiles, and half a dozen "we'll-call-it-a-smile" smile.

Yesterday was my first full day away from my precious girl, and it went better for me than I expected. She was asleep when I left in the morning, which probably made it a bit easier, since I decided to forgo the goodbye snuggle so that she'd stay asleep for Brian's morning. Even when Brian sent me a picture of Mia with her pink bow on, I smiled and continued with my work. On went the day, as I finalized some Immigration forms that had been waiting my return, until 4:45, when I was able to close up my office and head home.

When I walked in the door, she looked bigger to me. I have never been away from her for more than 4 continuous hours. She was fine, contendedly sitting on Brian's lap, with the back of her head snuggled into his armpit (this severely tampers with the precious baby head smell, contaminating the deliciousness with Old Spice). She didn't flinch when she saw me, which both made me glad, since she obviously wasn't feeling abandoned, and sad, thinking that she may not even have noticed my extended absence.

An hour or two later, she was hungry, and I fed her. She was wide awake during our feeding, and about halfway through, she stopped, looked right up at me with her wide open eyes, and gave me a series of enthusiastic smiles that completely revitalized me. I even got a second series of smiles at her 3am feeding, when I was startingto worry that if she didn't go to sleep soon, I'd have to face a full day of work on 5 hours.

The optimistic side of me says that she didn't notice that I was gone, but she did notice that I was home.

Now, Mia, please do the same for your Papa, because he would like the reassurance that you like him too.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

This week marks my official return to work. Luckily, Brian's day off coincides with my first day back, so Mia is still at home with her Papa while I play catch up. It turns out, I didn't to as bad a job as I thought working from home, because it's 3:30 and I am already able to take a bit of a breather (long enough to write this post and update everyone with some pics!)

Mia has changed so much in the past few weeks. She had her first plane ride, which she behaved superbly on. She cried for about 5-10 minutes on the ride to Chicago, waking up only briefly to eat. Her routine was very disrupted in Chicago, where she was shuttled from one end of the Chicagoland-area to the other, napping almost exclusively in the car and sleeping 5-6 hour stretches at night. Although I am pretty sure Brian and I were more tired at the end of our vacation than when we started, it was well worth it for the Caccamos to meet their newest family member.

Mia with her Big Granpa



Mia and Brian at the Zoo!

 Luckily, we planned our trip so that we would still have 2 days at home as a family to recover from our vacation. We took advantage by sitting on the couch, snuggling with our sleepy baby, and not doing the laundry but watching movies instead.



Mia with some of her presents!



Mia's daytime naps are starting to become less and less frequent, and she spends a lot more of her awake time thoughtfully looking at everything around her. She has started paying attention to both the mobile over her crib and the one above her swing. She tracks objects like a champ, and seems to be starting to become aware of her hands. It looks to us as though she might be a thumb sucker, but she sucks her fist more often than just her thumb. She still has tons of hair, and it's starting to be long enough for hair clips! Yay!

She is super strong and about 90% will support her own head when you're holding her. That other 10% means she is only a few minutes away from totally falling asleep. She still eats like a champ and my prediction for her 2 month pediatrician appointment on friday is at least 11 lbs. She's in size 1 diapers, but still hasn't outgrown any of her clothing, except for one dress that barely fit over her head when she was born.

 She still doesn't give smiles out to anyone, and so far has only given a full smile to me, Brian and my boss (of all people!). Since it's still pretty rare, it is still easily the most exciting part of my day, and nothing makes me happier. Here's what I was able to capture of her first smile, in progression:

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago, and she's already changed since then!!

That's all for now, I will try to be more consistent with weekly updates now that I am back at work.