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!