Baby's First Passport

We will be going to Costa Rica in December to visit Lucas' family. His mother, older sister and younger brother live there. Since it's Gaby's first international trip, she never had a need for a passport until now. Saturday we finally went to apply for it, considering the fact that we fly in 5 weeks, we are cutting it close. According to the US Department of State, it is now taking about 3 weeks for the application to be processed. I sure hope they are right. The applying part was easy enough. I took Gaby to the CVS pharmacy to take her pictures and downloaded the application from the website. Our local post office is an acceptance site, so we didn't have to go far. Since Gabs is an infant both parents had to present. The ID's needed were, her certified birth certificate and our driver's license. We got there and the clerk had us sign the application which needs to be signed on site. She made copies of our license but the original certificate was to be mailed with the application (will be mailed back to us). We paid by check, $60 application fee (made out to US Department of State) and $25 processing fee (made to post office). I found out that I could have taken the pictures there for a $15 fee ($7.99 at CVS). Next year I will have to go through a similar process for myself, my passport will be expiring in July. I can't wait because the one I have has a terrible, now 10 year old, picture. I hope that the passport will be used to go to Brazil (if I don't get to go before it expires!). Can't believe I haven't been there in almost 10 years!!!