[Nicolas] Cooker Baby

Nicolas is really enjoying his new school. he took two field trips this week - one on the streetcar to City Park to decorate the school's Christmas tree and one to see the new Disney exhibit featuring the new film, the Princess and the Frog, at the New Orleans Museum of Art. i picked him up today from his class and we walked down to the coffee shop on the corner for a snack. he was so excited to show me everything there - the free water, the pastries, etc., drawing a ton of attention and lots of smiles from most of the customers. he was in such high spirits and just seemed to put everyone else that saw him in a good mood. he had some banana bread and water and ran into Phil and Keith Frazier - leaders of the world-famous, awe-inspiring Rebirth Brass Band. they were gracious as we said hi, and then we headed out across the street to get a haircut. he was amazingly patient, managing to sit still for pretty much the entire haircut and entertain the girls in the salon. he said he wante

Uncle Josh stopped by Saturday morning after playing a great show in New Orleans the night before. Nicolas loved seeing him and we even ended up skipping his nap so we could enjoy the visit. An hour after he and the band left, while I struggled to get Nicolas to consider taking a late nap (which was a no-win situation), he asked if Uncle Josh could come back. I said, "right now?" and he said, "yeah. i want him to come back right now."

nicolas had a great halloween school day yesterday. he went to his new school first where they had this thing called Trunk or Treat - volunteers park their cars in the school yard and decorate their candy-filled trunks, and the kids go around to each car: Then they had a pizza party and a haunted house, where nicolas encountered a werewolf and skeleton: Then mary took him over to his old school to see his old friends and say hi and have some cupcakes:

muscle man! , originally uploaded by nolafilm . they're celebrating halloween today at nicolas' school, so he's going as muscle man. he's just making sure he has his mask ready to go before leaving. and he's off:

first day of school , originally uploaded by nolafilm . nicolas started at a new school this week. here he is posing in his new uniform. the week prior he scoped out the new class: . it's a gifted pre-k program at a public school here. mary got him tested a while back and he did really well, so they recommended placement in this program. the class is a lot smaller. there are 6 kids total, including two adorable 4-yr old Japanese twin girls who seem to really like him. He played some music with one of them, Joy, on his initial scoping-out session last week: he'll get a lot more teacher attention and interaction and hopefully have a lot of fun learning at an accelerated pace. overall he seems to have transitioned just fine from his old school (a lot better than we thought he would, and probably better than we did). when we mentioned it to him on Tuesday he said, "yeah, i don't go to that school anymore". though we may go back there for just a bit tomorrow for their

Nicolas has been doing great. I was gone for the first 12 days of October, but he and Mary were totally fine without me. He took a test for potential placement in a gifted program and did really well. And he's been so well behaved and so much fun lately. he stopped by my office earlier this week and enjoyed listening to some music on our cd player there:

IMG_0701 , originally uploaded by nolafilm . we had a great weekend here - nona visited, nicolas cooked, helped us clean up and for the most part was just a perfect little boy. the few mini-tantrums and occasional, but typical 3-yr-old bossiness were overshadowed by his huge smiles and giggles and eagerness to help out whenever and however he could on sunday. it's amazing how much he thinks and how he thinks. we love watching him put things together in his mind and formulate great questions, concepts and theories. we took him to rock n' sake saturday night to celebrate mary's nephew adam's 18th birthday. the sushi there is fantastic, and the music - ear-deafening loud. it's not really my bag, but nicolas had a blast. he loved the beats and the food and was dancing in his chair while stuffing his face with snow crab and other rolls, all with a huge smile on his face. we were worried it would be hard for him to wind down that evening, especially after birthday cake,

nicolas , originally uploaded by nolafilm . On a recent trip to Target with Mary, Nicolas spied this awesome costume for Halloween (and Mardi Gras if it still fits). since then he's tried it on a few times and had a blast being "muscle man".

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nicolas , originally uploaded by nolafilm . nicolas loves to help out in the kitchen. we made a really tasty dinner this weekend and he made sure we had just the right amount of seasoning.

some nights with nicolas can be a little trying (especially if he's tired or not feeling well, or just flat out uncooperative and ornery). others however, border on magical - at least for me. i can't think of a better way to end the day than with something as mundane as a bedtime snack and some honest, peaceful conversation. and of course the chorus from don mclean's american pie adds a nice touch too.

nicolas played some piano for mary early this morning while i made the most of my labor day vacation day and slept in. (warning: i loved this clip, but it's 3 minutes long and a bit avant-garde so feel free to tune out at any time).

nicolas loves to cook - we made some amazing guacamole together last month: guacamole-salsa , originally uploaded by nolafilm .

sorry again for the delay. everything's fine here. nicolas "graduated" to his new class at daycare, and is really enjoying it. too much work, too many other priorities have made updating the blog every week difficult. will try to post something at least every two weeks from now on (setting a calendar reminder). currently uploading some videos we shot in august and will post those here in the next few days.

during his stay with my parents, nicolas made some pizza. check out his tattoo, and note, this was before the new season of Top Chef premiered with all those inked-up chefs.

A crazy work schedule has kept me from updating recently, but all is well here. Nicolas is enjoying school 5 days a week - he read Goodnight Moon to his class today (he actually recited it from memory, but he is showing a huge interest in actually reading - sounding out letters in words, etc.) I got to spend the whole weekend with him and he even helped me out at my office on Saturday. He's been great and lots of fun - pretty much just bursting with all kinds of questions and great ideas about how to solve problems. I'll try to upload some recent pics and videos in the next few days.

last week was crazy for us workwise - mary's producing a jingle for one of her clients in the midwest and i've been pulling 12-14 hour work days during the week to try to meet a really tough early-August deadline. we put nicolas in school the entire week, but it was still a little tough for all of us. his school is closed this week and our projects are kicking into high gear, so to help out a bit (and as an early birthday present for my mom), mary met my parents halfway between oxford and new orleans saturday and let them take nicolas back there for the week. we got this email from my mom tonight about today's activities: From: -------@hotmail.com Subject: He is cracking me up! Date: August 2, 2009 11:03:25 PM CDT He asked me this afternoon if I had any documents. I had NO idea what he was talking about and so he told me he would TYPE them for me if I needed him to!!!! Tonight a sheriff's deputy drove down our driveway because some boys had been racing 4-wheelers arou

during dinner a few weeks ago, nicolas had a brilliant idea: let's grow our own food so we don't have to go to the store all the time. he started rattling off all the different kinds of trees we should plant so i grabbed the camera as fast as possible, and then a common theme emerged and dominated most of the rest of our conversation. can you guess what it was?:

baaing on the rollercoaster from Jeremy Cooker on Vimeo . rollercoaster baaing

he calls it a griddle (with wheels): portable griddle from Jeremy Cooker on Vimeo .

last month we took a short drive down to the French Quarter for Vieux to Do - 3 Festivals in one weekend: the Creole Tomato Fest, Louisiana Seafood Fest, and the Cajun and Zydeco Fest. It was warm, but we still enjoyed some great food: and music: . we even did a little dancing (and zoning out): as we were leaving we stopped in one of my favorite shops from about 15 years ago when i used to live in the quarter - Kruz. they used to have an amazing drum collection - it's dwindled down to a couple shelves now, but that was enough for Nicolas: i'm known as the daddy who always says "no" when we're in stores, but we couldn't resist this time, and ended up leaving with this great little talking drum. he played it the entire way home, including the walk back to the car. like as soon as we stepped out of the store: and then headed up decatur street: and in the car up esplanade: forgive the lyrics - he's obsessed with hurricanes these days.

nothing like a little summer gardening after school: especially when there's a hose and galoshes involved:

nicolas soaking up some rays , originally uploaded by nolafilm . nicolas spent this morning at the pool with mary today. he didn't swim much, but had a great time.

. Happy Summer and 4th of July everyone!

Our dear friend Hazell made this special new friend for Nicolas. Needless to say, he loves it: emma from Jeremy Cooker on Vimeo .

nicolas and sophia at the aquarium , originally uploaded by nolafilm . after spending much of the week with grandma and grandpa, nicolas returned home friday in great health and high spirits. we spent a fun late morning yesterday at the world-class Aquarium of the Americas with, who else? Our good friend Sophia.

nicolas kicked off father's day weekend with a persistent saturday afternoon stomachache that developed into full blown midnight and 1:30 a.m. vomiting. the good news is, in between those icky-feeling moments, he was in high, if not sometimes delirious spirits. hopefully this is something that will pass quickly and isn't contagious. until then, here's a clip of him from earlier today, having some "medicine" (i think it was some soda water and gatorade) while feeling pretty good (or at least not awful):

we had a nice conversation with nicolas before bedtime earlier this week - on the porch, while he enjoyed some peanut butter and jelly: peanut butter and jelly porch talk from Jeremy Cooker on Vimeo .

so, nicolas has recovered from that horrible cold (i've fought a losing battle with it since last weekend) and his follow-up visit with the doctor who put his tubes in was yesterday (Thursday). A+ on his hearing test and NO infection this time - just a little blockage which had to be cleared with a huge, extremely loud needle-like device that scared him tremendously (I wasn't there, but Mary said it was awful, and that he actually turned green - even the nurse seemed a little concerned apparently - his blood pressure dropped, he went limp in Mary's arms, etc.), but he recovered fine after resting there at the doctor's office for a bit. before all that excitement however, we spent a lovely Saturday at the Zoo with Nicolas' friend from school, Sophia. You may remember her from our birthday post back in April. we didn't do a whole lot there - playground, carousel, lunch, then an elephant show (which included some elephant petting), and a visit with the flamingos o

Nicolas was back at school last wed and fri, and this monday and then he got another really nasty cold that kept him (and us) up all night Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and last night. He stayed home from school Wed and today as well. Fortunately, after 4 sleepless nights, he's turned the corner on this one and was in high spirits today despite some lingering congestion, but it's remarkable that he literally can't make it a full week in school (and he only goes 3 days a week) without catching something awful. Or maybe it's just par for the course. I think we both realized he'd be more exposed to germs and bacteria and viruses in that environment, but you'd think the CDC or WHO was running some kind of sick experiment at his school if you didn't know any better. before he got sick though, he did have time to put together a quick lamb costume with some old pull-ups: which apparently inspired him to flip through our wedding album: tomorrow we have a play date

so, finally I have some time to post a few things here for you. a few days before nicolas had surgery, we spent some really nice moments together: I took him to his primary doctor for a follow-up visit about his ear infection: then we rode over to his gymnastics class. this is how he likes to roll: I took him to the doctor and gymnastics class that day so Mary could work on a tv commercial with some Saints players and Coach Payton (and Jon Gruden) for Madden 2010. She said it was fun, but then again, she didn't get to witness this in person either: that weekend we did some gardening: karaoke / rock and roll practice: actually it was more like mardi gras indian practice - remember "handa wanda" from previous posts? and we even had some time for a little plate walking: then he had his surgery: and now seems to be doing great. we spent a beautiful Friday evening on the bayou last weekend at Bayou Boogaloo: he loved dancing to an amazing B3 Summit set which featur

sorry for the brief hiatus blog readers. it's been 10 days since Nicolas had tubes put in and his adenoids taken out. yesterday was his first day back at school in about 2 weeks (he spent the week prior to his operation with his grandparents in Oxford), and despite some initial resistance, he had a great time and can't wait to go back. he's kept us so entertained this past week and a half, and his ear pain seems all but gone. pics and movie clips coming soon. just wanted to let you know all is well and he seems to be feeling much better.

Fwd: , originally uploaded by nolafilm . I'm at work wondering how Nicolas is feeling and Mary sends me this pic right around lunch time.

we're home from surgery - he did great. and now that the codeine is kicking in, he's feeling fine. he wanted to say good-bye to me as I headed in to work so he and mary came over to my car and i snapped this pic with my phone: more pre- and post- surgery pics are on the camera at home - the battery is charging, so i'll update things tonight.

we got up at 5:15 this morning and waited til almost 6 to wake nicolas. he was a little groggy, but totally fine and actually pretty entertaining in the car on the ride over. when we got to the hospital he was dancing and playing. once we got into the pre-op room, he put on his gown: and played with the stickers and magnets the nurses brought for him. he's being operated on right now, but Oschner has been great so far. the staff made him feel comfortable, and they even had a cool little car for him to drive: after they gave him an anesthesia cocktail, we told him he might feel a little sleepy in a few minutes. it actually took 10-15 minutes, but he thought it might be kicking in a lot sooner than that: I only wish I'd filmed him driving back for the operation - his anesthesia had kicked in and he was smiling and waving to everyone like he was riding in a parade. Camera battery is dying and I couldn't find the charger this a.m., so we may just have text updates from

after numerous consultations with doctors, friends and family, and even more numerous ear infections and ear pain for nicolas, we've decided to move forward with tubes and an adenoidectomy for him. we go in tomorrow at 6 am. today, he took a tour of the hospital with his mom and nona so he could get oriented and be prepared for everything that's going to happen with the operation. we'll keep you posted on how everything comes out.

makin groceries , originally uploaded by nolafilm . nicolas loves to go grocery shopping, or as they say down here in new orleans, "make groceries". he also likes pretending he's groceries.

wow. crazy week - tons going on. lots of new pics and stuff to share, but before it becomes a distant memory, I really want to wrap up our jazzfest experience here. bottom line: it's one of the greatest things in the world - something everyone should experience at least once (everyone that likes food, music and crowds), and I'm happy to say Nicolas has been 3 years in a row now - not bad for a just-turned 3 year old. we saw mardi gras indians: and danced to them before collapsing for a brief nap (that's herbal tea he's sipping): we even got up close: he was a bit sleepy there, but oddly enough, he wants that same song (ho na nae) on in his room now every time he goes to bed. a little while later, we enjoyed Third World right outside the Congo Square stage (and almost got run over by a few people): we bonded with mom: cousin mandy: and each other: as well as total strangers: but when you've got moves like this, is it that surprising? and amazingly, Ni