It's Been A While...

Ok, this is ridiculous. Who has a blog and then neglects it? Me. I think it all started when I went back to graduate school this spring...my free time disappeared. And by the way, I did try to get a B+ in the course and ended up with an A- because I can't help but "try my best." Thanks a lot, parents. Now I'm neurotic.

So I don't feel like summing up the last few months. It's been more of the same, and do you really want to read about it? I'd rather write about...this summer. Boston is a mostly "cold" place because the winters are about 6 months long. I define it by the jackets I wear and I wear my big warm orange coat for a large part of the year. In May it starts to feel like winter's given up - some people call it "Spring" - in Boston, it's really just a conduit to the real time of year that we love: Summer. Sweet, sweet summer. Mornings when you don't leave with a jacket. Your feet are somewhat "exposed" and you need a pedicure. Evenings when the windows are open and there's a slight breeze, and a glass of white wine tastes delightful. Even sweat feels nice because hey, you're not shivering and covering every inch of your body when you leave the house. You're not running to the car, turning on the heat, and damning Old Man Winter to hell, asking yourself why why why you are so freaking cold.

Enough about the weather and seasons. I get that from my husband.
Here are some new photos to share: CLICK HERE.

I've been sooooo bad about updating this blog. I think there are a few reasons:

1. I'm back in graduate school so my time is limited.
2. It's really time consuming to load the photos onto the computer, then upload them to the Picasa site, then post on the blog. I wish there was an easier way!

Here are the most recent photos, by the way!

So in the last few months there has been a lot of progress and growth (umm, for all three of us!).

Cooper. Cooper's taken a few steps on his own, he's gotten a molar, he's starting to feed himself, he can say a few words, and he's a master sleeper. Wow! His development over the last few months has been amazing. Interesting to watch.

Matt: Matt is coming out of a slow season at work and he'll be getting busy starting in May. He's been working from home on Tuesdays and taking care of Cooper which has been a fun experience for both of them. He's excited to go to Oberlin in April to visit our friends, Ben and Tanya and their kids, and also to visit his Dad.

Mer: I've been busy with graduate school (yuck) and work. Trying to balance the working mom, student, wife stuff. I've started going to bed a bit later these days - around 10pm - so that's been nice.

Kitties: Yeah, they're getting older and we need to get a "senior" cat food for them. They still fight sometimes but sometimes we see them sitting close to each other and they're fine with it. Caille and Cooper like to play together and it's really cute. Trying to teach Cooper to pet and not hit.

So there's an update on our household.

We can't wait until the weather warms up even just a little (c'mon spring, seriously it's been in the 30s and that's too cold to go for a walk). The warmer weather will bring morning trips to the Magnificant Muffin (or the "Mag Muff" as we call it), visits to playgrounds (now Cooper can actually enjoy them since he can stand), walks with our friends (Alyssa, Alex, soon-to-be-mom Katie), visits to the beach (slather on that 50 SPF because that boy is WHITE), BBQs with our friends (again same bunch + Rebekah), maybe a visit to the outdoor shopping mall I've heard so much about, and lunch at the Barking Crab (sun + beer + seafood = amazing Boston).

I promise to try harder to get the blog updated. For now, enjoy!!

The Boy Turns 1

So I have to apologize for not writing for a while. It's been busy! Between our trip to Turks and Caicos for Thanksgiving to swimming lessons to getting in a car accident to eye surgery to Cooper crawling...well, there have been ups and downs. Here's it in a nutshell:

1. Cooper's making progress...though slow. We know, everyone says they develop at their own rate. Blah blah blah. He crawled at ten and a half months and he's getting close to walking. He's a little behind but that's fine. He can be a whiny but also has a great smile. We're so proud of him.
2. Total Bad Luck (TBL). I've had a string of bad luck. First it was emergency eye surgery, then a car accident, then something job-related, then a travel nightmare over the holidays with mom. Therefore, I'm expecting 2011 to be simply amazing. Thank you very much.
3. A String of Visits. It's great having friends and family visit. In the last two months, I've seen Kathy (upside down Christmas trees) and dad/Dana (thanks for the care during the eye surgery).
4. Back to School...UNFORTUNATELY. I say unfortunately because I'm not looking forward to it. Why? Doesn't Mer love to learn? Doesn't she want her beloved master's degree? She's halfway done, how's a little more learning gonna hurt? She's a good student! I'm just not into going back. Balancing my life as a wife, mother, and worker is hard enough. To add student to it...well, I'm not sure I want my life to be that busy! Seeing that I'm already heading up to bed at a "wild" 9:30pm every night (Groundhog Day style) I bet I won't have one second to watch any General Hospital. And go ahead, laugh, poor Mer won't have her GH...well that's what keeps her sane, my friends! Without it, she may fall off the deep end. We will see.
5. Cooper Turns One. While I still can't get over the fact that as a person he's already reached one, I celebrated his birthday by thinking about the day of my C-section and how crazy it was. The experience of bringing him out of my body and into this world was surreal. But amazing! I remember lots of small things: the ice at the hospital, the shock I felt when the nurse kept bringing him into my hospital room over and over again to nurse (c'mon! you need to eat AGAIN!?!), the nervousness I felt at changing my first diaper, the smell of the hospital food (actually quite good). I love my new life with Cooper and I can't believe there was a time that he wasn't around. Happy Birthday, sweetpea!

Click HERE for a bevy of fabulous recent photos.

PS: I deleted a bunch of old photo albums to make space for new ones. If there are any photos you need that aren't posted, just let me know.

Rocktober! Rockin' it out, Mascolo style.

Hi Everyone,

It's been way too long since I've posted - I apologize! Life has been busy:

• Fun trip to NJ to visit dad and Dana, Helen and Medvedovskys
• Visit from Katrina, filled with lots of fun activities and Cooper's first time in a bar
• Swim class began! Cooper loves to splash in the water. A bunch of our friends and their kids are in the class so it's extra fun.
• Trip to VT with Katie and Manny. Amazing foliage and flatbreads! And our four-year anniversary.
• Matty and Krista's wedding on Martha's Vineyard. AMAZING. And great to be away from Cooper for two nights while Mom took care of him. (Thank you!!)
• Visit from Bryan. Yay! It had been too long. Also, quick visit with Kathy (thanks for the photos). Great to see old friends!

And this brings us to now. Halloween weekend! We're dressing Cooper up as a professor in a little suit and tie.

Click HERE to view the latest photos. A bunch that Kathy took along with VT photos and random ones along the way.

A Lovely Visit with Tanya...

I don't have a lot of time to write, but HERE are some amazing photos that my friend, Tanya, took while visiting. She's a wonderful photographer and friend! Mitchell and her friend, Diane, were visiting so we caught a couple of cute snapshots of them, too.

I've also included some photos of our newly painted house in the above photos. Cool!

We miss our friends, Beno and Tanya + kids. It was great to see Tanya and introduce her to Cooper. We're hoping to make a trip out to visit them in the spring!

What the heck is a "Black Buggie??"

Hello,

It's been a few weeks since my last post. Here's an update on what's been shakin' in our world:

• Cooper is sleeping the night (sometimes)! Ok, so it's not every night. But it's been a few in the last week. He can go from about 7:30pm to 6am. Umm, it's amazing. And seeing that I'm in bed with lights out at 10pm...well that's just a nice amount of sleep! But of course I wake up in the middle of the night expecting him to cry and since I'm still nursing him, my boobs need to "adjust."
• We got our house painted! It's been a long time coming. After much struggle with deciding on colors (we tend to choose daring bright colors - sometimes this turns out great and other times, whoa), we finally chose a blue/gray body, dark purple trim, and red/brown foundation/deck. It's very "San Fran" with lots of personality and color. The painters did an amazing job. I'll post some photos very soon!
  
• Cooper had an ear ache. He had a really bad cold so we happened to take him to the doctor (um, it's great to go to the doctor on Saturdays because they are fast, and also we had the first appointment of the day so we didn't wait). The doctor looked in his ear (after clearing out a lot of cute little wax) and was like whoa, there's a huge infection in there! He's been on amoxicilin for ten days. I think it's better.
  * On a side note, we found a "Black Buggie" in his nose. Maybe he's a smoker? That thing was incredible. Took two days to get out.
• The Mascolos are working hard this summer. Matt's busy with his job since summer is the busy season. I'm busy with various events on the weekends and stuff. Needless to say, we haven't had as much "fun" time as we would have liked...and now that August is here we are hoping to squeeze in more fun time. For two people who work in the education field, summer seems to be the busiest time for both of us. Oh well.

Click HERE to view photos!

More New Photos!

My camera didn't load them all yesterday. Click HERE to view more!