[Nicolas] Cooker Baby

wow, so sorry for taking forever to post an update here. work and travel and more work and more travel has made this month fly by. nicolas is doing great though. his vocabulary is expanding and his adventurous spirit seems to be growing at a rapid pace. he's taking more steps on his own and soaking everything in like a cute little sponge.

nicolas has been taking a few steps on his own each day lately. pretty exciting, for all of us. video soon.

Well, it was his first Jazz Fest. Considering he was only a month old last year, that's pretty good. It was very. very hot but we had a blast. He loved the Kid's Tent, which was cooler and shaded, and had lots of fun music. He walked (holding my hands) up to the stage as close as he could get and started clapping. He truly embraced the essence of the music and fun of the festival. He also had some great food, since we were there for his dinner-time: Catfish, potato salad and red beans & rice! I'm sure we'll be back next year.

hey everyone. sorry for the delay posting. dad's been traveling like crazy for work and we just all made it to new orleans for jazzfest. so far so good. nicolas was an angel on the flight - 2 hours past his bedtime and he was all-smiles. even we couldn't believe it. looking forward to a fun weekend of music, food, and friends like only new orleans can deliver. will post some pics from our trip when we can.

for the past few months we've been spoiled. mary found lindsay - an awesome girl from vanderbilt - to spend time with nicolas during the week. lindsay and nicolas really bonded. he lit up whenever he saw her and the two played together in the afternoons like they were old friends. she changed diapers, sang his crazy little songs over and over with him, and made so many of his days really special. and we were able to work from home and not worry about daycare. this week we say goodbye to lindsay, as she prepares to study abroad in spain for the next year. we're all gonna miss her lots. hopefully she and nicolas will make these last couple days together memorable.

nicolas loves books - not as much as he loves food - but a lot.

new teeth coming in + missed naps = fussiness city. but a chewbacca shirt can always lighten the mood. (thanks Andie and Gus!)

After a big dinner, Nicolas likes to unwind by getting behind his walker and going back into the kitchen to ask for more food. Mom convinced him he wanted his bib this time, but we're not sure how long that will last.

this boy is growing! mary took him to the doctor today for his 1 year check-up. here are the latest stats: weight: 25lbs 9 oz. (85th percentile) height: 30.5 in. (75th percentile) head circumference: 18 in. (40th percentile) (thanks to grandpa phil for the great pic)

nicolas had a great birthday weekend - 3 grandparents, uncle josh were here to help him celebrate, and he got lots of fun new toys. he really liked his first birthday cake too:

On our New Orleans trip we also got to spend some time with web design guru denny juge and his two awesome kids. his little girl, Olive, loved Nicolas. and Jack was happy to meet him too.

on the last day of our visit to new orleans we took nicolas to the audubon zoo. we saw a few animals, but he was really excited about the carousel, as you can tell in this brief photo essay:

We took Nicolas to New Orleans this past weekend and were able to reconnect with so many old friends. This is Nicolas with Irene of Irene's Cuisine - a dear friend for over 14 years now, and founder of one of the most incredible restaurants anywhere.

now that he's learning vowel sounds, songs like Old McDonald are a lot of fun:

okay, so it's not a typical fork - but look! he's feeding himself, sort of: