Baby, Mom and Dad: Catching Up With Chiara Post!

We hate to make excuses, but we are realizing that once a child passes the stage of being a cute potted plant, it is much harder to find spare time once they start crawling around the house! There have been so many experiences since the last post, we thought it would be easiest to just inform everyone of the latest "firsts" for our dear Chiara.

First Swim

Chiara has always enjoyed her baths, but you never know how things will go for a first dunk in the pool. This little swim took place on the rooftop of her Godmother Sylvia and Zio Dan's condo building. She did fine despite the wind and a small audience.

First Picnic

Lunchtime is always a good time to take a picture of our little gourmand. It looks like either Avocado or Broccoli. This was an awesome day. We decided to take a drive to Charlottesville, VA to have a picnic and stroll around the town. This outing led to two other firsts, but we do not have any pictures of them. She experienced her first concert, when we ran into a free patriotic music concert on this Saturday before Independence Day. Unfortunately, she also experienced eating dirt for the first time, when she reached beyond the blanket and helped herself to the most organic food of all...a good old chunk of mother earth. Luckily, we stopped her at just a taste!

First 4th of July

This was a bit of a two for one First. This was her first 4th of July and her first 4th of July party. Tony and Anita invited us over to celebrate with some of their friends over a nice home cooked meal. You would never believe it, based on how adorable she looks in this picture, but she wound up creating her own fireworks causing us to leave earlier than we hoped to on such a fun evening. She was clearly exhausted, as she slept through our neighbor's annual live band/fireworks celebration. While we feared our roof...our roof.........our roof was on fire, our little sweetie slept like a log.

First Wearing

This was the first time Chiara wore this outfit, that she should have clearly wore a month earlier! Don't worry sweetie, this particular line runs very small ;-)

First Proclamation

This is Chiara's first time proclaiming her Italian heritage. Zio Rob brought her back this shirt from his trip to Boston. For the record, he also gave her the famous Douglas the Duck! This is not a two for one first, even though it looks like she polished off her first tray of cannoli or first pound of pasta. With so many outfits and so little time, we probably should have let her start wearing this one a little earlier too! :-/

First Wrestling Match

While this was Chiara's first wrestling match, her old friend Magdalena looks quite experienced. We're not sure if Magda scored any traditional points at this stage in the match, but she certainly gets some for style. Although it looks like Chiara is seriously considering using that foreign object as a weapon (WWF Style), she most likely put it in her own mouth no matter what position Magda decided to place her.

First High Chair at Restaurant

This is Chiara's first time sitting in a high chair at a restaurant. I know that is a lengthy and trivial honor like (Best Sound Editing for Foreign Short Story). However, I had to come up with something, because this is such an awesome picture. She actually did sit up nicely throughout the whole meal. This was taken in an Italian restaurant, but she still did not score her first cannoli or plate of pasta. However, her mom and dad provided a heck of a demonstration for her.

First Swim Lesson

This was Chiara's very first swim lesson. She is enrolled in the Daddy/Daughter swim class at the local recreation center. She did great for the first time in the big pool. While some (much older, I might add) kids cried, she was pretty much all smiles. That temporary look of concern on her face was due to her feet getting caught in her dad's chest hair!

First Stroller

This is a picture of Chiara's first ride in her new big girl stroller. We are all celebrating graduation from the Snap and Go, as it was getting more and more challenging to lug her around in the infant car seat. This one is pretty sporty. It came with lots of standard equipment and should last until she is four years old.