Check ups

9 days since a post. Time to catch up.

- I'm back at work. It sucks.
- My mother arrived on the 5th, left on the 11th and had a great visit.
- Bianca had her two-week check-up. She'd gained 500g from her birthweight, she was up to 8lbs 3oz or 3720g. All her reflexes were great and she goes back next week for her one month check.
- Boat loads of pictures up. We took Sobi to the beach though we just carried her in her seat as we forgot to bring the Baby Bjorn. Won't make that mistake again.
- The pedeatrician said that she was right on track growth wise, but her charts were for Spanish children and she didn't know what the Anglo-Polish charts looked like.
- We applied for Bianca's US passport at the consular office in La Coruna. It was not easy. As an American citizen, I had to prove my 'physical presence' in the U.S. for 5 years, including 2 years after the age of 14. This is not easy. I pay taxes, have a bank account, have car insurance, a driver's license; none of this proves I was physically there. I feel like I'm in Spaceballs - "We're at now, now" I gave them my university diploma, but that won't cut it. My mother is going to have to scan and email my report cards or transcripts as that is the only way I can prove I was physically present in the US. I can only use passport stamps as secondary proof. The consulate said they had no way to verify that my passport- which I got when I was 21 - was my first! Are you kidding?!?! I can't bring toothpaste on a plane because its a security threat and yet, the government can't tell if you've had a previous passport. Why put the "Is this your first passport" check-box on the application. I could go on. I also had to note exact periods of presence in the U.S. and foreign countries, entry dates, exact ones. The form has 7 lines; not nearly enough. I took an hour and reconstructed every time I have entered and left the US during my life and on another sheet noted every where I was when I wasn't in the US. The consular agent went through every line with me to make sure that I didn't miss a day, not a day. Its not easy recounting 9 years of traveling when the passport stamps don't always show. Anyway, she should have her passport in 4-6 weeks. Oh, its not easy getting passport photos of a baby either. Eyes open, full face. Not easy.