Zoe Estelle Schiappacasse

The Roman summer has started with high temps and humidity all day and night... Zoe and Earl clearly have the same technique for keeping cool (but who taught who?)


Last week Zoe gave us her first smile! Now we also get a kick out of her newest trick -- a wink and a smile ;-)

Zoe also attended her first bbq on the terrace, in honor of Julia's visit from Zimbabwe (we miss u!)

Zoe asleep in her crib with the lovely personalized blanket sent by Zio David and Zia Lisa from California.

Zoe's also really loves the swing on loan from Steve, Alessia and little Phoebe -- grazie mille!

# posted by Dan and Amy @ 5:08 PM 1 comments

Toni enters the chapel on her father's arm.

The "handoff" from father to groom...Rohan, are you ready?

The deed is done! Friends and family shower the happy couple with white rose petals.

A view of the lovely chapel and courtyard of Titignano as the group head for champagne to celebrate. Zoe fell asleep on my shoulder and then slept through 6 courses of the 8 course-meal, not bad! The pink sweater she's wearing was hand knitted by her Abuela Loreto.

# posted by Dan and Amy @ 10:14 AM 1 comments

Meanwhile, Dan insists on getting Zoe excited for the World Cup. Here she seems somewhat interested in the match between her two nationalities -- Italy vs. USA. (Unfortunately, Zoe's third nationality, Chile, didn't make it to the World Cup this year.)

But obviously Zoe prefers just hanging out with her Abuelita!

# posted by Dan and Amy @ 1:17 PM 1 comments

Zoe's US Passport arrived after only one week!

A nice walk in Villa Pamphili park on Sunday morning...

Sacked out with Papa!

Zoe loves her adorable Mary Jane socks sent by Gayle from Tacoma, WA

# posted by Dan and Amy @ 3:16 PM 1 comments

Out on a walk for our Sunday cappuccino...

Papa's off to work :-(

Gossiping with the girls! A visit from the Annas (aka Sherwood and Norell).

A nice visit with Jenny from California (who has single-handedly provided Zoe's wardrobe for the next 2 years!)

Cuddles with Jenny's mom, Jane, who made a lovely Italy collage for Zoe's room.

And our good friends from Holland stopped by during their beach holiday --

Erik, Astrid and darling Rogier.

# posted by Dan and Amy @ 2:31 PM 0 comments

She is spending more time observing her surroundings, staring at our faces and is definitely more vocal with a wider range of sounds.



Last Tuesday, we attended a birth class reunion at the Birth Center. We were able to see everyone's babies and hear their stories. There were actually quite a few great stories including twins born in the car on the way to the clinic and a breached baby who was delivered naturally. A couple of the babies had more hair than Dan and one even looked like Elvis with sideburns. Unfortunately, there were also horrific stories of doctors pressuring mothers to have a Caesarean. In fact, it was announced this week that Italy has the highest rate of Caesareans in Europe.

We also found out this week that our midwife's son (Adriano) is a friend of a friend and stayed with us at our house during a visit to San Francisco. What a small world! His wife Vittoria, who is already overdue, is in the picture wearing orange.



This week we also started giving Zoe a bath, and she actually enjoyed it (most of the time). During the first week we tried giving her baths but she hated it so much we gave her sponge baths instead.

We also started massaging her with almond oil and making sure we oil her skin folds to avoid rashes - she already has a pretty nasty rash on her neck.


The other big news this week was that we registered her birth abroad with the US consulate, so Zoe is officially an American citizen. Her passport will arrive in two weeks. Poor Zoe almost ended up with my two last names - Schiappacasse Valenzuela - since the Italian birth certificate names both (long story). After an hour discussion with consulate personnel, a form was finally found that allowed us to drop Valenzuela from her official US name. We weren't allowed to bring our camera into the embassy, so there are no pictures commemorating the event.

Grandma Marcy has also been a big help this week cleaning up after all of us.

Gotta go, it's time for Zoe to take a nap. She loves her sleep sacks sent by Carola and Hernan (gracias!!)

# posted by Dan and Amy @ 9:07 AM 1 comments