A year later. We miss you mom. Judy Wallace, 54

November 15, 2009: A lot has happened over the past year. Beautiful Mia was born and seems so big now. She practically walks and talks. Our family is growing, despite the loss of a year ago. We remember fondly and know that the seeds of our growth and future remain rooted in our past. We miss you mom. Love always, Ian, Staci and Mia

********************

Judy Wallace, 54, a well-known singer, songwriter, performer and recording artist who also enjoyed a rewarding career as a library director in Mattapoisett and on Cape Cod, died peacefully at home early Saturday morning after a remarkable, valiant 9-year battle with brain cancer. She was the wife of David Gries. Judith Ester Wallace was born June 20, 1954 in Southington, Conn. and grew up on west-central Connecticut, attending local schools and Greer Academy in upstate New York. She began singing at a young age and performed locally with her sisters as “The Wallace Warblers.” At age 16, she hitchhiked to the West Coast, and spent time in California and northwestern Montana before returning to the East and moving to Wellfleet, Mass., on outer Cape Cod. She began collaborating with many local musicians including her future husband, Hamilton Kahn. Their fist son, Ian, was born in 1976. Matthew, their second son, was born in 1982. They divorced in 1991. Judy enjoyed a long career as an accomplished professional musician. In addition to her vocal talent, she was a skilled guitarist and harmonica player and gifted song writer. By the mid-1980s she had established The Judy Wallace Group, a changing cast of some of the area’s best musicians including Lisa Brown, Tom Fenton, Gary Locke, Bruce Abbott, Dick Wetmore, Mike Taylor, Tom Filogomo, Paul Nossiter and Rick Arnoldi, among others. The group was noteworthy and built a following by appealing to audiences of all ages, playing a combination of swing, blues, and more contemporary styles. Judy later collaborated with her husband David Gries and many other accomplished South Coast musicians, with live performances continuing throughout her battle with brain cancer. Judy was also a great lover of books, and in the 1980s resumed her formal education, earning degrees from Cape Cod Community College, UMASS Dartmouth, and Simmons College, before becoming Library Director at Brooks Free Library in Harwich. She moved to Mattapoisett and served as Library Director there, continuing to work through her illness and treatments until several months ago. Judy showed tremendous vision and drive in transforming both Harwich and Mattapoisett libraries into greatly expanded facilities with large collections and state-of-the-art technology resources. Survivors include her husband; 2 sons, Ian Kahn and his wife Staci of South Boston and Matthew Kahn of Boston; her brother and 5 sisters, Sharon Scharrer of Roanoke, VA, Rose Wallace of Eastham, MA, Gayle Wallace of Jacksonville, FL, William Wallace of Orleans, MA, Suzanne Wallace-Correiro of Hyannis and Tina Masciangioli of Arlington, VA; several nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held on November 30 from 1-4 pm at the Mattapoisett Public Library. Private funeral arrangements are with the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home For Funerals, 50 County Rd. (Rt. 6) Mattapoisett. Donations may be made to the Mattapoisett Library Trust P.O. Box 475, Mattapoisett, MA 02739 or to the American Cancer Society.

Just BEEing Cute

In the spirit of better late than never, here are a few of our favorite pics from Mia's first Halloween. The buzz around South Boston was that Mia was the queen bee among the many cute little bees that pass through our areas seasonally in late October. For some of you, these pics may look familiar, as we have done some facebooking already. Still, we think these are good the first, second, third..... times around. Enjoy!

Mia's First Flying Lessons.

Check out all the strollers. Halloween is for the little ones.

Nothing but blues skies for Mia!

scary babies

As first time parents on Halloween, Staci and I have already taken Mia to at least 3 different events in her Queen Bee costume (19.99 from Old Navy)....and as I type, it is 9:13am on the 31st, so we ain't done yet. To be sure, Mia is the cutest little Bee you've ever seen, and in our next post, we will show you just how much. For now, a few lessons learned for any of you that have not yet made it to your first Halloween as a parent:

1. Babies don't really like Halloween. The Costumes are not as cozy as normal outfits. So truthfully, this is just a big indulgence for parents...showing off that fact that you have the cutest baby with the best costume, which is cool....as long as you understand not to feed your little one that crap that they hand out from door to door.


2. Go for cute, not clever. Babies are supposed to be cute. Think aminals, bugs, princes and princesses, etc. We saw one yesterday dressed as a pirate and his stroller was rigged up as a pirate ship. That was cool! What is not cool are the costumes that are trying to be clever in a stupid, non-baby cute way. A few of the better examples are in the picture we posted here. The money bag is ridiculous. Makes me think of a bank robber movie. Dumb. Not baby cute.


3. Go out early, stay up late. This is important. The little ones need to go out early, because the later it gets the more teenagers ruin it for everyone else. More importantly, the little ones need to stay up late! Remember, we are into daylight savings time starting tomorrow, so whatever time the've been getting up (usually 6am for Mia) will be an hour earlier tomorrow. We've been trying to turn her clock back for the last week, so with any luck we'll be okay...

crawl, stand, scale, walk, run....crash

After Staci left early for a PT conference this morning, I spent almost an hour this morning chasing Mia around the house until our Nanny arrived to take over. She is non-stop trouble these days, and she is not even walking yet. She does crawl but seemingly only for the purpose of positioning herself to get into trouble....her favorite page in teh playbook these days is to crawl to something that she can climb up on to a standing position, so she can be vertical for a while until she eventually wipes out....meaning, we basically need padded floors (rugs don't cut it). Needless to say, she falls a lot and has gotten her share of bumps and bruises already. Kind of traumatic at first, but we are getting used to it!

Should she stay or should she go now?

Staci and I managed to go to the movies this weekend, where we vegged out to Couples Retreat, the new Vince Vaughn flick. It was stupid in parts but funny overall. Mostly, it made us want to go on a carribean vacation, right away! I mean, seriously. Staring at the crystal blue waters and knowing it is a short plane hop away, it is a pretty east leap to make....when we were in the car on our way home we both agreed we needed to book something. So the next day I made a couple calls and figured out that between frequent flyer miles and hotel points, we could stay first class on the cheap.....hence the trip was book. So now we ponder, should mia stay with staci's parents or go with us? What do you think?

Pro's for going:
Mia is pretty cute in a bathing suit
Mia would be so cute splashing around in the carribean waters
We'd miss her so much if she did not come
She is free

Pro's for us going, sans Mia:
We can't get away with going on a trip like this without her for much longer
We could party and let lose in a way that just won't happen with her and does not happen much these days!
Sleeping in!
Might get to read a book or two
The sun is pretty strong down there for her
Did I mention sleeping in?

New Mia Video

The apple does not fall too far from the tree!

on the healthcare reform debate...

is sharing some interesting analysis by one of the world's leading political scientists, Ian Bremmer:

"by now, obama staffers in the white house readily admit that they misjudged how badly the infighting--within their own party--could get by allowing congress to take the lead in developing a health care plan. obama took the reins back last week. the white house plan for the speech was to visibly back off some of the most progressive (and expensive) parts of the health care plan, while reaching out to moderate republicans (particularly senator john mccain), so it looked like obama was offering a potentially compromise bipartisan package. at which point, the white house tacks to the underlying strategy--rally the democratic leadership and do whatever is possible to get a bill through.

the republicans will surely be unhappy with that result. but securing support for a bipartisan proposal was a dead letter, given the already strident republican opposition to obama-led legislation in general, to say nothing of the nature of the healthcare debate over the past two months. instead, president obama upset a few progressive democrats, accepts a weakened bill with his name on it...and gets it through congress by the end of the year. if you accept metrics of success for obama that the administration sets for itself, it looks like a big win. in short, obama's first year goes from slipping into serious trouble to creating a bounce for the president's popularity"

Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) should clean up its act

The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) should clean up its act with respect to the trash pickup services that it performs on and around Castle Island. While out for our typical early morning walk my wife, 7 month old daughter and I had the very unpleasant, but not unusual, experience of finding ourselves in the trail of a large, odorous garbage truck leaving a steady stream of unsanitary garbage juice in its wake. The trouble was, we had no where to go as the garbage truck was driving directly on the sidewalk that surrounds the sugar bowl area, instead of on streets that run in parallel. It seems that driving on the sidewalks may make the trash pickup a bit easier and maybe slightly faster for the pickup crew at the expense of pedestians like us. This runs counter to the stated mission of the DCR and is a practice that should be immediately discontinued. Furthermore, we observed the same pickup crew leaving a significant amount of trash on the ground that easily could have been picked up. Some of this was refuse that the crew dropped during its handling of the barrels that it was emptying, but apparently deemed unnessessary for declaring a job (well?) done. From our standpoint, this looked like a crew going through the motions, with little consideration for public interests / pedestrians and similarly little pride in the quality of the job it was doing. I hope we see improvement in the future.

quick update

- mia is about to crawl. for the past 2 days she's been getting up on hands and knees and rocking back and forth. anyday now she will be launching from there. time to childproof our place!
- we did the acquarium this week and she was def pretty into the fish tanks, though for half the price of admission we like the children's museum better
- for other newish parents, we bought mia some clothes at costco for the first time today. the have lord and taylor brands for prices that are 40% less than babies r us stuff if you can believe it. great value as usual there
- took advantage of restaurant week and had a fantastic lunch in the south end yesterday at aquataine....great stuff for $20
- stock market rally continues....how about dow 10k?
- finally the red sox seem to be putting the pieces back together. went to my first game of the season tues night. beckett and lester are rock solid. hoping for a sweep of the tigers and a trouncing of the yanks next time we see them!

i love to wear my daddy's hat

The "Times"

Newspaper subscription ran out today and we agree, no more home delivery. I went down a couple times to look for it before realizing that the subscription ran out. This seemed normal since the deliveries were routinely late on the weekends. When it rained, we always expected a soggy edition. It seems the news is always on time, dry, and in color on our 20 inch monitors. No need to fetch from the front steps either. I may miss the tangible edition, but then, touch screen tablets are already far from being in the category of bleeding edge technology, so I suspect that is next. However it arrives, we have more news today than ever before. Say what you will about the quality.

Who are you calling messy face?

Mia, that's who.

It's about time....

....a new picture was posted. The blog was looking pretty stale with no pics. Shame on us lazy bloggers!

A weekend in process....

- Missed the cape this weekend. We tried to compensate with fried seafood at the Barking Crab. The spot is an A+, the food is a C-......

- After talking about how we would all swim in the water by the south boston beaches over lunch yesterday I read in the globe this morning that warnings have been posted due to high levels of bacteria from all of the rain we've had recently. Didn't we invest millions in a system that was supposed to take care of that?

- Caught the last few innings of the sox game last night. Nice to see us beating up on the O's. John Lester is completely awesome. Can't believe he was getting cancer treatment not too long ago. Talk about a story that probably does not get enough attention.

- Did anyone see the lame page 2 opinion piece in the globe that talked about being sick of the whitey bulger story? What write the piece if you are so sock of the story? Stupido. And you wonder why newspapers are in trouble. Seperately, not nearly enough coverage for the Jim Rice story.

- Planning for our first trip to the Children's museum today. Should be fun.

Congrats to Lisa and Shawn on their engagement!

We are so hapy for you guys! The pics from your trip to Europe are fantastic. Getting engaged over there is amazing. We can't wait for the wedding and look forward to being a part of the whole journey with you both.

Love - Staci, Ian and Mia

Mia was a party animal yesterday...

....at Kayla's Bat Mitzvah, which was her first big party. She got to visit with 4 generations of family and really enjoyed playing with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. We finally got her to bed last night around 8:30, which is pretty late for her these days. Today should be fun too with GG's 80's bday party at Rob and Wendy's....Mia always loves swimming in a pool! We have a ton a great pics that we will post and share around once we get home.

Looking forward to a few things

Mia and Staci have a baby wiggle dance class and Emma is going to join them and then hang out for the afternoon. Should be fun. Ian has another 5 Mile road race on Thurs which he is running with Nick, Alicia and Jenny.

Dad / Grandpa Tony is doing well

Ian's Dad, Tony just had an Acoustic Neuroma removed last week at Tufts Medical Center. The operation went very well and he is back home in Wellfleet recovering. The full recovery may take up to a couple months but he will be good as new!

4th of July Road Race

Ian and Dave ran the 5 mile Mattapoissett Road Race on the 4th of July this year. Mia and Staci met us at the finish line, making the run extremely worth while! It was Ian's first road race in more than 15 years and he has already signed up for another, next week in South Boston. The 5 mile time to beat from the last race was 41:25.

Baby Love

Mia and Motown - A winning combination!

Toes in the water

Mia had her first little "dip" into the Atlantic, and more specifically, Wellfleet Harbor, on May 30, 2009. Surprisingly, the bay water was very warm and she seemed to enjoy it, or at least did not complain!

Memorial Day

We had a great weekend with grandma and poppy. They came to visit this weekend, but had to leave early this morning to beat the weekend traffic. Ian, Staci, and Mia went to the beach down the block from our home. It was a perfect beach day...not a cloud in the sky! This was Mia's first adventure to a Northeast beach and she loved every minute of it......well almost every.

Happy girl!

This is one of our favorite new pics. She is a happy girl and is doing great! This has been a very talkative stage for her, which is a lot of fun for us!

Mia's First Big Girl Bath

Mother's Day

We had the best Mother's Day weekend! Mom (grandma) and Aunt Lisa came to visit. They left Sunday morning so we were able to eat a small breakfast with them before they hit the road. Then the 3 of us headed out for a delicious brunch at one of our favorite places on Newbury St., Sonsie. We walked around for a bit, then made our way back home. In the afternoon we went for another walk around Southie and made a stop at Scoops for ice cream, then headed towards the beach. What a beautiful day!! Finally for dinner, Matt came over and Ian cooked and cleaned up the whole dinner. What a perfect day! I wish everyday could be Mother's Day :) !!!

4 Months Old

Mia is getting bigger and bigger by the minute, weighing 14 lbs. She turned 4 months old last week. It was a huge week for her. She rolled over from her back to belly for the first time! Above is a picture of her naked, just as she finished rolling.

3 Months Old!!!

Mia is getting bigger and bigger each day. Yesterday was her 3 month old birthday. Where does the time go!

Cool new website: Blooms for Baby

Our friends just started this small business and we can attest that the product is very cool. As new parents we got one of these and it was the best gift. Most have never seen anything like it so it was fun to keep on our mantle for a while until we eventually opened it up and put Mia into the clothes. If you need to grab a baby gift this is something to consider!

www.bloomsforbaby.com

Beach Bums Heading North

After a wonderful 10 days in Bonita Bay and Boynton Beach, Florida, we are heading back today. The weather was near perfect for the entire trip and our hosts were extremely accommodating. Mia seems to really love spending time outdoors. She especially enjoys a nice breeze and also liked her time in the pool. She was almost perfect on the plane trip down, so we are crossing our fingers that our return trip will be almost as good. Overall, this trip (our first one as a family) was a great way to close the book on what has been a long winter in new england. We are looking forward to a nice spring and summer!

Florida Sunshine, March 29, 2009

We are at the midpoint of our Florida trip. So far the weather has been excellent. Mia has been in the pool a few times so far and seems to like it. We had a nice round of golf and have enjoyed some nice meals. Overall, we've had a great time visiting with Scott and Debbie and are looking forward to heading to the east coast later today.

Graduation

Mia graduated her Great Beginnings class last Thursday. Here are all the new friends she made.

Start me up!

This is us having a little fun with the movie maker within Picasa. Enjoy and look for new material from us once we get back from FL....

Pretty in Pink!

Mia Loves Her Swing!

Mia's First Trip to Long Island

Mia and Brayden finally meet!

The Gang at Shannon's

Mia's First Playdate

Logan is 6 months and Autum is 3 1/2 months. They are enjoying tummy time together, except Logan just rolled over onto his back.

Visit from Aunt Katie and Uncle BJ

Born to be a mom!

Happy Valentine's Day

Smile Anyone!

Picture of the day

How cute is this!

Happy Birthday!

Mia turned one month old yesterday! She's only a little longer than her pink bear.

Out in the City

Mia's first day exploring Copley Mall and Newbury Street.

Bath Time

Getting cold and wet is never fun. But being wrapped in cozy towel is great!

Tummy Time

Mia is working hard!

1/30/09 Weigh In Results

Mia finally eclipsed her birth weight today, weighing in at a whopping 7 pounds 6.5 ounces, which was actually 5.5 ounces more than she weighed on Monday. Pretty soon she might actually start to fit into her newborn clothes! She clearly got her size from her mother!

Parking in Boston (a non Mia related post for a change)

This was submitted as a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe/ Mayor Menino was described in Brian Ballou's article today, entitled "digging in on shoveled spaces," as being of the mind that a "common sense approach" should apply to the parameters around saving parking spaces when it snows. It is clear that his stance reflects the many who have taken it and run with it to the extreme. Many abusive citizens hold onto spaces with ugly markers for weeks on end and then react criminally when others seek to use the spaces that they are laying claim to. In fact, our parking spots are public property and should be no more subject to reservation than a seat on the T or a spot on a public beach or park. There should be no rationalizing one person's claim to a piece of public property above another's. This is blatantly wrong and exactly the kind of behavior that runs against the establishment of the "sense of neighborhoodliness" that public officials have called for in response to a rash of recent break ins. It is time for the city to take a hard stance against this bad practice that has been taken too far for far too long. Let the city plow the streets and let the parking spots be available to all on a first come first serve basis. Certainly some citizens would be angry with public officials if this were the established rule and norm, but at least they would not be angy and frustrated with eachother over something that none should have a right to claim.

Revelations from 13 days of being a parent

• Being a parent is the best thing in the world. This one is hard to explain, but so true. Try it and you'll like it, but it is hard to imagine being a single parent or not having help because it is a lot of work.
• The baby industry is out of control. I am convinced we just have way more stuff than we need. Not complaining, because it is all nice and useful, but having a baby seems to have gone the way of consumerism like most other things. I think this helps to explain why buying people gifts always feels so hard. It is because everyone already had everything these days. Same goes for having a baby. We seem to have everything all of a sudden so the challenge is figuring our when and how to use it. One of the best examples of excess is the baby wipe warmer we have. It seems to warm the wipe a bit but really, when we change her she is generally not too happy anyway, so what is the point?
• Appointments with the pediatrician take a long time! We were in a grove of 20-30 minute appointments with Staci's Dr. during the pregnancy. We now seem to be in the 1-2 hour range plus travel time, which with Mia is much greater. The picture you see with this post is our first appointment with the pediatrician after leaving the hospital, which was also the first time we took Mia out of the condo.
• Everyone wants to help and most have opinions. We were really prepared from all of the classes, reading, etc and at times it all feels like a bit much but the help is great. It is odd to think that we still have really yet to experience what it is like to take care of Mia on our own, but soon enough...As much as being a new parent is a challenge, we were definitely ready for it and take a lot of confidence from our preparation.
• Baby books are fun. We've had a lot of fun putting together a baby scrap book for Mia that I am 100% convinced she will love having when she gets older. I highly recommend doing this to any other expecting parents.
• Technology enables sharing of the new baby experience in a wonderful way. We've been sharing pics through picasa, posting through our blog, emailing, and skyping video calls with friends a family that make it feel like Mia is known to so many so quickly. Not that long ago none of this was possible. Pretty cool stuff.

The Day Mia Juliet Kahn Was Born

Mia Juliet Kahn was born January 5, 2009 at 6:52pm. She arrived a 7 pound, 5 ounce bundle of joy, stretching 18 1/4 inches long. This is how it happened…

January 4th was a quiet Sunday at Staci and Ian’s condo in South Boston. The nursery had been organized, the doctors were on call, the weather was mild for the time of year, and Staci and Ian waited patiently for a sign that the baby was coming. Staci and Ian woke at a typical hour, after having had a nice dinner out the night before. Staci made banana pancakes with yogurt and maple syrup for breakfast and Ian had coffee and a bagel. Ian went to the gym and prepared for a quiet day that would probably be highlighted by watching football playoff games on television and sharing a game of cribbage with Eric Young. Staci made plans to go shopping that day with Jennifer Young. The day began to unfold as planned, with the two passing the time casually while waiting for the baby to show a sign that it was her time to arrive.

At 7 pm Staci began to feel intermittent cramps, which were not overpowering, but still, different than usual. Staci and Ian did not know at the time, but this was early labor and it would continue for several hours.

By 11 am the contractions were getting stronger, but they were still somewhat sporadic. Staci tried going to bed but sleeping would not be easy on this night. After tossing and turning for some time, Staci realized that she would not be able to sleep. January 4th had passed and by 1am on January 5th it became clear that active labor was starting. Staci and Ian recorded each contraction on a sheet of paper for an hour and they were consistently 5 minutes apart, with most lasting for nearly a minute. Things were happening, but active labor for first time parents can last for a long time.

At 2am Staci took a shower. Taking a shower helps to relax through the contractions and cooled down Staci and allowed her to feel refreshed. After Staci had finished her shower and dressed, the contractions continued. By 2:45 it was clear that it was time to get moving to the hospital. A call was placed to Staci's Doctor and then messages sent to family and close friends while bags were gathered for the trip to Beth Israel.

After packing the car, Ian drove Staci to the hospital at 3am. The drive was made with caution due to freezing rain conditions, but there was no traffic at this time of night, so the trip was easily made.

Staci and Ian arrived at Beth Israel by 3:30am, which was expecting the couple on the 10th floor. Triage confirmed that active labor was well underway and admitted Staci and Ian into labor and delivery, room 14. The nurse, Maura, told Staci and Ian at 4am that Staci was 3 cms dilated and 90% effaced. Staci's contractions were strong and it was now only a matter of time before that baby would arrive.

The delivery room was fantastic. It was spacious and private with a great view of Cambridge and Fenway Park. Staci was breathing through her contractions while listening to music from the portable iPod stereo. By 6am a new nurse, Cheryl, had taken over for Maura, and Staci was 5 cms dilated and 100% effaced. Meanwhile, the contractions kept getting longer, stronger, and closer together. Still, Staci kept breathing through each contraction. She was doing great, but the contractions were becoming difficult to bear. By 8am, an epidural was in order to lessen the pain and by 9am Dr. Mary Carson said Staci was at 6cms. By the next exam at 11, Staci was up to 8cms, with only 2 more to go until pushing would begin. While this was good news, Dr. Carson also found that the baby was slightly turned to the right, meaning a less than ideal, but still fully deliverable, position. Dr. Carson was hopeful that her position would improve through the rest of labor, but did not believe this would be a significant roadblock.

By 1pm Staci was 9 cms dilated, but not yet fully dilated. The doctors started pitosin, which is a naturally occurring hormone that when administered promotes stronger more regular contractions. The purpose of the pitosin was to move things along to 10 cms. The pitosin started with a light dosage and was increased gradually over an extended period of time.

By 3pm a new nurse, Abby, took over for Cheryl, and Dr. Carson was getting concerned about the lack of significant progress – Staci was still at 9 cms despite significant pitosin dosages and labor was now much longer than expected and getting harder and harder for Staci and the baby to tolerate. Dr. Carson talked about the possibility of needing to do a C section if things did not improve. The baby's heart rate was already getting higher than it should during contractions and Staci was on antibiotics because she had a fever of 101.

Despite the challenges of labor, Staci finally made it to 10 cms at 4pm and it was time for pushing to begin. Staci pushed vigorously for 90 minutes. She pushed as hard as anyone could, despite exhaustion from being in labor for so long. Eventually, pushing had to stop, because although Staci made some progress, a lot remained and Staci's fever was persisting while the baby's heart rate remained high. The doctors said it would be best to opt for a C section. While this was a difficult thing to accept, after so much labor and so much pushing, this was the best thing for Staci and the baby.

By 5:30 Staci and Ian were on the move from delivery room 14 to a nearby operating room. The Doctors took Staci for preparation and Ian got dressed for the operating room and let the family know the news. By 6 Staci and Ian were in the operating room together. Staci was given a local anesthesia but was fully awake and aware of what was happening. Ian sat by her side, holding her hand and talking her through every moment, experiencing the birth and in the company of a large group of some of the world's best medical professionals.

The experience of a C section is surreal. The mother experiences the process through her ears, unable to feel as a result of numbing anesthesia, and unable to see from a large blue curtain, but the noise is spectacular at times. The father can hear and see, though parts of the operation are hidden by curtain, and the baby, instead of being pushed out as nature intends will experience being pulled.

Staci took the operation very well, which took roughly 20 minutes from incision to baby. During that time, little was known by Staci and Ian, who had never been through this and were not planning to have a C section. You could say Staci and Ian were not well prepared for this process. After about 20 minutes, a loud, very clear sucking sound took over the room as the baby was pulled from the womb. Crying followed, and Mia Juliet Kahn was born. It was exactly 6:52 pm.

Mia was perfect and the earliest family pictures were taken right away in the operating room by a medical student who had been observing the operation. Mia made a brief visit to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where she was examined to make sure she did not carry any infections from Mom's fever, and then quickly pronounced a healthy baby. Staci was moved to a recovery unit, and soon thereafter joined there by Mia, Ian, and later by Grandma Joanne. By 9:30 the family was joined by Papi Mitchell on the post pardom floor, room number 582, where they would stay for four nights of recovery and exploration of the new relationship that would blossom with the new parents and their new daughter, Mia Juliet.

Mia Juliet Kahn has arrived

Born January 5, 2008 at 6:52 pm, Mia Juliet Kahn arrived 7 pounds 5 ounces, 18 1/4 inches long. Check back later for the full story!