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See that little brown box over there to the right of my blog? -->

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The one that says Top Baby Blogs?

Well, do me a favor and click on it to vote for my blog as a Top Baby Blog. I'm currently #93 out of 600 or something. I'm pretty sure sweet Baby Lucca is better than a 93 :)

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Vote as many times as you'd like!

Lucca, Lucca, Lucca

Lucca might just be the Name of the Year for 2009. Thankfully, it's no Emma, Madison, Olivia or Sophia, but it seems like it is getting much more popular. Everywhere I look, Lucca is popping up. My mom rips the name out anytime she sees it written in a magazine and I think she is up to 3 or 4 LUCCA'S on her refrigerator. There's a Lucca Couture clothing line, Lucca wine, two Lucca Delicatessen's here in San Francisco, Lucca restaurants in Boston, Portland, Sacramento and a Lucca boutique. Today I discovered a new Lucca item at Urban Outfitters...Lucca perfume! And it smells so good! I might go broke if the name gets any more popular because I just can't pass up buying things with Lucca's name on it!

Today was one of my most favorite days with Lucca. She is at such a sweet, fun stage of life. I always say I want to freeze time and keep her my little baby forever, but every day just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter! Today was just a typical Thursday, nothing planned out of the ordinary, but I just enjoyed the company of my 9-month old so, so much, all day long.

We went out to breakfast with Daddy. We went Christmas shopping. We played chase. We sang. We danced. We ate avocado's. We read books. And we cruised. Cruising is Lucca's current stage of mobility. (It now makes sense why we are in the Pampers "Cruisers" size...never realized the definition of the term when I first bought them...). She can get anywhere she wants to if she is hanging onto something. She cruises around the coffee table, the couch, my legs, cruises along the kitchen cabinets, the stove, the kitchen table legs, you get the idea. She's a mover!

Today was refreshing. Today makes me feel like we are doing something right. Today, we felt like we could have written Happiest Baby on the Block. And on that note, we are going to bed early, before anything changes :)

My Little Reader

All I Want for Christmas...

...Is my two front teeth!

9 months!

Little Miss Lucca will be 9 months old on Tuesday! We took her to her 9 month check-up and she is a perfectly healthy baby girl weighing 19.6 lbs and 28 1/4 inches long. I was surprised she's only 19lbs, I was convinced she weighs at least 25lbs. I guess I am just weak! :) She is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. We are so incredibly thankful for her good health.

Here's a lil' video of Lucca VS. The crinkly doctor's office paper:

Baby Boot Camp, Round 2

Our "once a good sleeper" has definitely not been a good sleeper lately. We kinda thought she was in a funk that she would grow out of, but not so much. Gone are the days of this family getting a good nights rest, so Lucca earned herself a one-way ticket back to Baby Boot Camp. Learning to sleep all over again. Crying it out. Oh, the joy!

We are only 2 nights in, but she is doing so good! We prepared ourselves for the worst, so the past 2 nights of great sleep have been a pleasant surprise, especially since mama & daddy are both sick. The goal of Boot Camp this time around is to get Lucca down without having to rock her for 20 minutes (hello, back pain) and to get her through the ENTIRE night without any feedings. I think we were breaking every rule in the parenting book, including nursing Lucca back to sleep when she would wake up in the middle of the night.

She is usually a good napper, after being nursed and rocked and set down. Trying to cut the rocking, so I nursed her, rocked her for just a minute to about 80% asleep (the magical 80% guessing game, right mom's?!) and set her down. She cried for 15 minutes and then fell asleep. I went in to peek at her and found her snuggled up to the crib bumper like this:

Whew. Whatever works. :)

(Fingers crossed she does good again for Night #3, considering my parents are staying the night with us tonight. Apologies in advance if not....)

Thanksgiving in Hotlanta

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Atlanta, where we spent Thanksgiving week with Rustin's side of the family. It was a looong flight from San Francisco, but we made it and it was so worth it! However, I am oh so very thankful I won't be confined to a teeny airplane seat with Lucca for 5 hours anytime soon. I'm sure the people sitting in front of us and behind us loved hearing us sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over and over again. Works every time. New Zealand would NOT be possible at this stage of Lucca's life (glad we took her at 3 months old!!!).

We had gorgeous, sunny weather during our whole visit. Lucca LOVED hanging out with her Mimi & Papa. Mimi must have loved Lucca too because she so graciously took the morning shift with Lucca (i.e. playing with her at 6:30AM!) and let us sleep in several of the mornings we were there. Thank you, Sally!!! On our last day in ATL, the whole family went to the local park...one of Lucca's favorite things to do. Lots of photos of our trip below :)

If only she slept the whole 5 hours...

The beautifully remodeled Casa de Chao

Jet-lagged Lucca and her sweet cousin, Lia

Mema playing "this little piggy went to market..." with Lucca's toes

Three cousins in a wagon: Lucca, Lia and Christian

Swinging at the park with Mimi

Climbing through the tunnel like a big kid

Having a blast and showing off her teeth

Mama enjoying the slide more than Lucca...

And my favorite: my little Queen of the Monkeybars