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.