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!

Shaved Cats, July 4th, and Poppy (unrelated)

Happy July!

To view some new photos of Cooper AND our newly shaved cat, click HERE.

We decided to get our cats shaved because they are long-haired and black, so they're always terribly hot in the summer. I took them to a grooming school around the corner from us and was pleasantly surprised that they looked adorable and more comfortable! Matt and I had a good laugh when I brought them home. As you can see from the photos, they left fur around their face, on their feet, and on their tail. Umm, it looks funny but I bet it's better in this intense summer heat! I think we'll do this again next summer (or again in the fall?).

We made a trip up to Vermont with Cooper this July 4th. It was super hot so we spent a lot of time by the swimming pool, and even took Cooper for a dip! He was confused at first. What's this big bathtub, I'm sure he thought. He didn't really laugh but he also didn't cry so I guess he liked it? Or didn't hate it. Matt even dunked him under the water! I suppose it's like amniotic fluid which he's very familiar with, so maybe he was just like oh, this liquid stuff is fun. We ventured back to Flatbreads only to find that he wasn't very agreeable yet again. We tried everything: holding him, putting him in the high chair and feeding him, giving him to the waitstaff, asking him to refill our water glasses - just short of throwing him in the Flatbreads oven (which by the way, made the place a toasty 1049320 degrees).

Matt continues to work hard at his (not so new anymore) job. He's been working a few Saturdays to meet deadlines but finds the train is empty and much more pleasurable than the weekday commute. I've been very busy at work, too. But the good news is that the commute to daycare and then to work has been fabulous because schools are out and people are on vacation. My commute has been cut in half! So I've been getting to work early and taking my time.

New things Cooper is up to:

• He's sleeping for 6-8 hours in a row now! It's a freaking miracle. I put him to bed around 7:30pm so he's getting up super early, but it's still better than before. And I've realized that maybe I need to start doing stuff in the morning, like exercising, reading, etc.
• He's rolling over onto his stomach. He usually can't get back to his back, but oh well! I even found him sleeping on his stomach one morning!
• He can hold objects in both hands. He used to only hold one object at a time.
• He's eating two meals of solid foods a day. He seems to like the savory better than the sweet.
• His hair is getting longer. Oh my god it's so blond and pretty.
  
• He's saying new syllables like "gaga, dada, baba." All of a sudden he's discovering new things to do with his mouth (although he seems to have very little interest in putting stuff in his mouth - fine with us).
• He's become fluent in French. Just kidding!

On a sad note, since my last post my grandfather, Poppy, died. He got sick and worsened quickly. I flew down to Florida for the funeral and it was a very moving ceremony. He was in the army many years ago, so there was a bugle and flag ceremony. I'd never seen this in person before and it was amazing to watch. It was also wonderful to see the rest of my family, some of which I see once a decade. If you're reading this blog, even though it was a sad occasion I am grateful that I was able to visit for short time.

I'll always remember Poppy's quick wit, his sense of humor, and visits to Florida as a child (into my adulthood). I am sad he never got to meet Cooper, but I'm glad he knew he had a great grandchild, and that he'd seen photos of him. I'm sure they would have gotten along well and that Poppy would have gotten a real kick out of him.

Poppy, wherever you are, you will be greatly missed.

He Plays with Toys.

Good Morning,

It definitely feels like summer around here! Today it's supposed to hit 90 and Matt has to put in our new air conditioner for the upstairs. Hot air rises, as you all know, so it's a sauna up there!

Matt's been putting in extra hours at work since it's his busy season. Cooper's been eating solid foods at daycare. I've been attempting to do more stomach exercises. All is good in the Mascolo household!

Mitzie (my mom) bought Cooper some great new toys, like blocks, plastic rings on a stick, a fake telephone, and a fake cell phone that lights up and makes noise. He's practically sitting up himself, occasionally wobbling to one side and appearing to be really drunk. After a while he's had enough, but it's fun to see him "play." We've also been "watching" Sesame Street, which gosh, brings back amazing memories for me. And there's new characters now, and more technology! But even with some new bells and whistles it is still the same old wonderful Sesame Street. I hope Cooper (Andy told me I can't call him Coopie for much longer) learns from it and loves it like I do (I mean, did).

Wanna see some new photos? Click HERE.

Oh, and I encourage you to post comments to this blog! Otherwise, I feel like I'm talking to myself which I do sometimes, but it's just not as fun as interacting with others. Let's get some dialogue going!