Go Bears!

For those of you that don't know, I am a pretty big Cal fan and we have season tickets for football. I was pretty excited to take Fiori to her first game but also a little scared as how it would go for an 11 month old. Well, let me tell you she did great and was a total hit with the folks around her.



The game was a blow out and we thought about leaving early but I kind of wanted to see if she could last out the whole game. Check her out - still going with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter...

Baby's first baseball game

Fiori went to her first San Francisco Giants game on Wednesday. She had quite a bit of fun. The Giants lost by some ridiculous score like 16-5.

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come as today she goes to her first Cal (UC Berkeley) football game and we can't have jinxes attending .

One month home

Fiori has been home a month now so I thought I would post some observations as it has been pointed out that I am heavy on the video and light on the prose. So here goes...

1. When I went to pick her up, the caregivers repeatedly told me that I was lucky and she is so funny. That is totally true. She makes funny faces, loves to make you laugh and is just an all around happy baby.
2. She is on the small side. She is in the 25th percentile for height and the 50th for weight. She is wearing 6-9 month clothes and 0-6 month old shoes at 11 months of age.
3. She is very vocal. We tried taking her to family day at a local theater. Big mistake. First, there were no other families there and second, I spent half the movie in the back of the theater trying to entertain her and keep her voice down. She has recently begun saying "hi" while waiving. Cute!
4. On that same note, she has developed an ear piercing scream that she typically uses when she wants another bite of food. We are trying not to indulge that but it is hard not to when you are at a restaurant.
5. She has adjusted remarkably well and our bonding seems to be going well. She has so far attached a bit more to me than to Matt which makes sense as I am staying home with her. She has also started developing a tad bit of stranger anxiety which I take to be a good sign as far as attachment is concerned.
6. She sleeps 12 hours a night. I was joking with Matt that he was getting more sleep during his parental leave than he did before she came home.
7. In case you didn't notice from the previous videos, Fiori is one hell of a dancer. I can't believe her natural rhythm and how many moves she has. House music seems to be her favorite so I turn it on during the day.
8. She crawls up stairs and is really trying to walk. We figure she will be walking by herself in about a month. Lord help us.
9. She is kind of potty trained meaning I can put her on the potty and she will often go both number one and number two. Of course I have to make the decision to do it since she in no way tells me she needs to go.
10. I think she will be a natural swimmer. We got in the pool and she immediately put her face in the water and flailed her arms about. Must look for local baby swim lessons.
11. She now loves all dogs and rode on the back of a mastiff the other day. She is OK with horses and I think she just thinks they are really big dogs.
12. She is fascinated by baseball hats and eye glasses.
13. She eats pretty much any food we do including spicy stuff.
14. She is thus far really healthy. We have had all kinds of tests done and so far nothing (knock on wood). No diaper rash, no runny nose, nothing. We have had our share of explosive diapers though, usually at an inopportune time like in the middle of dinner at a restaurant.
15. She interviews really well. I took her to a day care that had a 20 person waiting list and the owner whispered that if we were interested to let her know right away as she would choose us. FYI, we chose not to go there mainly because they only do full days and I'm not ready to give her up for that many hours.
16. She loves her Combi car bouncer.
17. She loved Cheerios (is there any kid that doesn't?).
18. While she sleeps well at night, she doesn't particularly like naps. I am lucky to get her to take one slightly longer or two very short ones.
19. Since she's such a great baby, we're really afraid that it is all downhill from here. I'm trying to prepare myself for when she is no longer so great at restaurants, gets really sick, has temper tantrums and days when she just hates the world.
20. She's turned me into one of those sappy camera-wielding, video-taking, "isn't my kid the cutest?" parents.

Dancing while eating

Still trying to get a handle of what kind of music gets her moving. I thought for sure Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way would do it. Nope. I think the girl likes House and Techno.

Crocodile tears

Funny Faces

Men are ridiculous

So this is Matt changing diapers.



At least he is not this bad...

Baby's first photo shoot

Not a photo shoot per se but an impromptu session by Matt. He's good, eh? Or maybe Fiori is just really photogenic. ;-)

Oh yeah, Brooke Shields is in love with Fiori!

On our long journey home, we ran into Brooke (yes, we're on a first name basis now) on the inter-terminal shuttle at JFK. She was quite smitten with Fiori and Zaela and was super happy to stop for a photo op with our girls. Nicest woman ever; despite having missed two flights already and trying to make her next connection, she stopped for several minutes to play peek-a-boo with little Fiori. She even said our girls made her want to have another.

Brooke, you are welcome to baby sit whenever you want.