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.

Visits, Vermont, and Other Stuff

Hello Everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted. Here's what's been happening:

1. Visit from Dad, Dana, and Lucy. Two weeks ago, Dad, Dana, and Lucy (the dog) came up for a visit. We had fun hanging out at the house, going out for brunch, walking around Harvard Square, barbecuing, and going to see Avatar/out to dinner (just me and Matt). Good times!!
   
2. Trip to VT. We took Cooper on his first overnight trip, up to Vermont. We had some great highs (two nights of sleeping with only wake-ups once, fresh mountain air, fun at the farmer's market), and some stinky lows (constipation followed by a gigantic crap, acting "bad" at flatbreads, first night waking up every hour). We can't wait to bring him back again! It was our first family vacation.
3. Visit from Lou. Matt's dad, Lou, came to visit us for a weekend. We had a wonderful time! We went out to dinner and brunch, had Katie and Manny over for a BBQ, walked around town, made a fun trip to Target, Costco, and Babies 'R Us, and hung out at the house. Cooper got to meet his grandpa and spend some quality time getting to know him.
4. Vocalizing. In the last few weeks Cooper has learned to "vocalize" - he's making interesting sounds. It's very amusing to us and him. It almost sounds like he's trying to talk. Very cute.
5. Update on sleeping. He's learning how to fall asleep on his own. We begin the bedtime routine at 7:30pm and put him in bed in whatever state he's in, sleepy, sleeping, or awake. Even if he's crying we say "Good night, Coopie," and walk away. If he's still crying in 15 minutes we'll go to him and pat him and say it again. He usually falls asleep! However, he's still waking me up about twice a night to nurse which is really annoying. We need to wean him off these night feedings! There have been a few instances where he's only woken me up once and they have been miracle nights of joyous slumber from the Goddess of Sleep.
6. Eating. We're feeding him either rice or oatmeal cereal in the evening. We've also fed him some baby food like squash, carrot, and prune (hello, poop!). It's amazing how quickly he's learned to open his mouth to the spoon.

Click HERE to view recent photos!

Back to Work + Daycare = Oy

Yesterday was my first day back at work (full-time) and Coopie's first day at daycare. It was tough for Matt and I to drop him off - most difficult to walk out the door and to leave him there. But after we did, we went to work and went about our business. We thought about him and had no idea how he'd do. It was nice to focus on work and get back in touch with that part of myself.

I went to pick him up and he was sleeping in his little Pack 'n Play. Sounds like he slept most of the day but took to the bottle which we were worried about (he hasn't been too good at that at home). It was great to see him. We spent some quality time with him that evening and he seemed in such a good mood: smiling, cooing (Ezra!), and not crying like his usually evening witchiness. Maybe he was happy to see us?! We like to think so.

Another breakthrough is that he's been sleeping in his crib at night. It's great to have our bed back! It's more work to get him back to sleep after he wakes up at night, but totally worth it. Who knew he'd go from our bed right to the crib, skipping the nice co-sleeper that Adam and Tanis passed down to us (thanks!). Good thing we didn't go out and buy one. I am still looking forward to sleeping more than 2-3 hours...someday. There have been a few amazing nights of 4-6 hours so I guess I can't complain. I'm still amazed at what the body gets used to.

Anyway, here are some photos from when my dad and Dana came to visit. It's soooo tough to get a good photo with him since he doesn't sit still!

Click HERE for more photos of Coopie in this "photo shoot."