Thumbs up at the Dr's!!

Chiara had her 2 week Dr appointment! She is a growing machine! She weighed in at 7 lbs 7oz and had the length of 19 and a half inches. Whew! Over an inch a week! The Dr said mama must be serving something good! :)
Although Chiara can't talk, she is able to point out her various moods on her baby mood chart!
REM sleep. Seems to be good stuff. It's the only time we have the joy of watching Chiara smile and even hear her chuckle. This was a sneak photo taken during one of her REM cycles.First swing ride!!! Chiara lulls to sleep in her bumble bee swing!

More Vistitors and New Friends!

SURPRISE!! Ty and Keddi-Ann came to visit from Canada on their way to a Mariner's baseball game!
DREW!!! A favorite friend at the Wilcox house, came to meet the littlest Wilcox!!!
Piper, born exactly 2 months before Chiara, is double her size! Time shall fly, eh?!

Family Photos!

Many visitors!!!

Opa came all the way from Germany and he finds Chiara's "toot-a-rooting" rather hilarious!

Grandpa "W" is here from Montana. He stepped right into the spirit of things and got to snoozing ASAP!
Grandma "W" arrived from Montana as well. She did not end up snoozing, but instead enrolled herself in the "Chiara Adoration Club".Oma flew in from Kandern, Germany and has been helping mommy with the "night shift".
Auntie Shawna flew in from San Francisco, California. However, she didn't bring any of her California sunshine. But, she did buy Chiara her first set of shades!
Brad and Kathy came to visit! Kathy is a natural and Brad brought "pink cigars" which he and Ben puffed out in the cool April air!

First day at home

Chiara is a sleepy baby!

Two days old..

Daddy's Girl

Necessary Bath!

Chiara had to have a bath after proving her accurate aim across the bathroom. Whew! What a mess!!!

Little Known Fact #1

Chiara was born at midnight. She first peeked her head out on Sunday, and it was Monday morning before she lay her head down on Mommy’s chest. The doctor was kind enough to let Sharla choose the day.

Little Known Fact #2

Q: Where the heck did the name “Chiara” come from? A: Coming up with a name was not easy for us. In spite of our attempts to have other people to name her for us (see the prize-laden contest at benandsharla.blogspot.com) we found ourselves three months into the pregnancy with no agreement. After a few more of our “discussions”, I started offering more unusual names in hopes of tricking Sharla out of her three vetoes. Everything went according to plan with “Zoltan” and “Gertrude”. But to my surprise, Sharla actually liked “Coco”. For the next several months we jokingly used Coco as the baby’s working name while we looked for something more sophisticated. Enough repetition, however, makes a child’s name her own. We soon found ourselves looking for names that would be a pretext for her nickname Coco. We considered, Kokanee, Kokomo, Coquihalla and even Pebbles (“cocoa”, not “fruity”). But in the end, it was “Chiara Nicole” that won us over. Chiara (key-ah’-ra) is an Italian name meaning light. The middle name Nicole just seemed to marry Chiara to Wilcox. Someday we hope she’ll like art enough to recognize the allusion to chiaroscuro. Until then we’ll keep calling her Coco.

Little Known Fact #3

Chiara may be impatient. Rather than wait for her due date, she decided on Sunday to take fate into her own hands. While mom lay in bed, Chiara began kicking. She kicked so hard that mom heard and felt her break the amniotic sack.

Little Known Fact #4

Chiara’s first bedtime story was out of Plato’s Republic. I’m not convinced she listened for the irony the philosopher intended, but at least she had the good sense not to ask for Aristotle instead.

Little Known Fact #5

Being only two days old, Chiara is still an undocumented resident here in the US.

Little Known Fact #6

Sharla’s favorite thing about Chiara is her hair. Chiara was born with a full head of brown hair. Well, a full head with a little balding, anyway.