[Nicolas] Cooker Baby

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):