[Nicolas] Cooker Baby

hi everyone. nicolas will be 3 months old in less than a week. as you can imagine, he's interacting more and more with us - making new sounds and smiling all the time. sure, he still cries and has fussy periods, but the fun times seem to be increasing. we're having a blast. hope you can meet him soon if you haven't already. we also added some new pics that we took this morning to flickr.

hey, nicolas is putting on some weight. check out this chubby leg: more new pics are in the flickr set .

i love being a dad. happy father's day everyone. new pics in the nicolas flickr set .

nicolas loves to hang out with his blue bunny in his bouncy seat. today i turned on some of uncle midnight's music for him and recorded the event. if you've got 3 minutes to kill and like watching babies dance a bit, check it out:

mary got this cool kangaroo sling the other day and nicolas and i tried it out for the first time today. he reminded me of a buddhist monk, meditating, once he stopped crying and got in. we took a nice walk with the cats up and down our street.

due to some fortunate timing, on our return trip home we were able to stop and have lunch with one of our best friends, jason berry, in valdosta, georgia. he bought us lunch and we caught up on what's been happening with him. we were really happy to introduce nicolas to him, and they seemed happy to meet each other as well. here's a little video clip from their time together:

we arrived in charleston later than we'd hoped last night and had to head out early today (but didn't get on the road until after 3). it was much too short of a visit with our cousins and their loved ones. we had such a good time seeing them, and were sad that we had such little time to spend there. we're not really on vacation here, so it was more of just a "stopping by on the way through" kind of thing. we promised to return and spend several days there soon. the night we arrived, nicolas got to meet and hang out with his 3 cousins - noah, eli, and jonah. he loved staring at their faces and they seemed to really dig him too. their home in west ashley had such a nice vibe to it - nicolas (who'd been screaming a good bit of the last 10 hours in the car) mellowed out great once we got inside and really just enjoyed himself there. alex made some delicious shrimp and grits for us, and Melissa bestowed more helpful parenting tips upon us, while taking care of her ...

hi everyone. sorry for the delay in posting. it's been a crazy week. nicolas' aunt jennifer came to visit last weekend while jeremy was in new orleans. we have some nice pics from her visit that we'll try to post in a few days. nicolas is interacting with us more each day - he's starting to smile back at us, which is pretty fun. he's been a bit fussy lately, so we haven't gotten much sleep, these past 2-3 days but we believe (and hope) it's just a temporary growth spurt. we're visiting cousins tomorrow and will update you from the road or when we get back. much love to you all until then.

Nicolas went to the doctor today for his 7-week/2-month checkup. All signs are good - he's growing well - length and weight (and head size) are all right in the middle of normal percentiles. he got his immunizations today. our pediatrician takes a very holistic approach to medicine, and assured us there was no thimerosal (a mercury-containing compound that has been linked to autism) in any of the shots. he did fine - a little crying right after the shots, but not for long, and he enjoyed the ride home too. the big news is that he can now see friends and more relatives and go to public places with us. we're planning a short road trip in a few weeks, so we're open to any advice you might have for us about extended car travel with a two-month old. (what to bring that we might not have thought of, what to expect, etc.)

jeremy's mom and dad are in town this weekend to see nicolas. they've been having a great time with him. a few pics are in the nicolas set on flickr . more to come soon.

hi everyone. sorry for the delay writing. it's been a busy week. Here's the latest: Mary's sister Leslie came to visit over Mother's Day weekend. She and Nicolas really seemed to bond - he brightened up whenever he saw or heard her, and she actually got him to follow her voice and face. We were pretty excited about it all, so Mary tried it on Sunday . We realize that something so simple may sound kind of silly, but we had a blast with it. It's like we're finally starting to see signs of real interaction with Nicolas - he's responding to us in new ways - reacting to our voices and facial expressions, and yes, it's really really fun. Sure, we're still having a rough night now and then, but things are improving a lot (the book our friends Brian and Julie recommended - the Happiest Baby on the Block - has been a great salvation). And the more we begin to connect with him, the less we seem to mind the few bumpy nights that come along. My parents are visit...

mother's day is this weekend, so i thought it fitting to add some nice mother and baby pics to nicolas flickr set. enjoy!

nicolas turned 1 month old last thursday, since i was out of town until late last night we had to wait until today to take some new pictures of him and post them online. many thanks to everyone who offered advice on dealing with his fussiness. the book our friend brian recommended, "happiest baby on the block" is excellent and has also helped a lot. hope everyone is well. we'll post more updates as they happen.

we got nicolas a stroller frame yesterday - cheaper and easier than a whole new stroller, you just put the car sear in, lock it down and go. we took him for a nice walk yesterday and today. it felt so nice to get some exercise and get out of the house, and he seemed to enjoy it as well. we made a little video clip of it too:

This was taken at 3:30 today while i tried to get some work done. He's so fun when he's not screaming at us. Any of our parent friends out there - what is up with this newborn thing of sleeping for most of the day, and then fussing ALL NIGHT LONG? we're trying to adjust/reverse his schedule, but last night he was wide awake and fussy from midnight to 4 a.m. sorry, no pics of that to share here. he only settled down when mary let him lay on top of her to sleep. we got some gripe water for him, and have been changing and feeding him regularly, but still not having much luck. we even took him to our awesome chiropractor here, who thought he looked great. so if you have a tip, we'll listen.

sure he's not even three weeks old, and he's still keeping us up most nights, but nicolas is really enjoying his afternoons. mary took this picture of us on our back porch Saturday. times like these help us get through some of the rougher all-night crying bouts he's had lately.

Mary's sister Elizabeth came down from New York to meet Nicolas this weekend. They seemed to really hit it off.

i really enjoyed yesterday afternoon hanging out with nicolas. see how his eyelashes keep growing? this one and other new pics are in the nicolas set on flickr. His aunt Liz is coming to visit tonight. We'll try to post some pics of their first meeting over the weekend.

more new pics in the nicolas set on flickr. We realize it's just a few days after Easter, but today we're giving thanks. the kindness and love our friends, neighbors and families have shown over the past few weeks is immeasurable, and we're really touched by it all. It's been a little strange for us to be here with the new baby, away from our friends and relatives back home in New Orleans, but we've taken a lot of comfort in all the phone calls, e-mails, cards, and gifts we've received for us and Nicolas - they've helped us deal with the change and made us realize how lucky we are to have such wonderful people in our lives. As we try to get Nicolas and ourselves into some sort of schedule, postings here may be a bit erratic. But we will attempt to update it at least 3 times a week - and more often if warranted. For today, please accept our heartfelt gratitude for helping make this experience so memorable. We miss you and hope to see you soon.

we took some pictures of Nicolas on this beautiful Easter day. Thanks to our friend Cindy for the plush blanket - he really seemed to enjoy it. we're missing our families and friends today but look forward to seeing you soon. the new pics are on flickr, in the nicolas set .