Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The hulk

We made a gigantic baby! Does he look like a four week old? Having two is crazy! But oh so much fun.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Simon

Simon Mitcheal Cooksey was born march 1 at 4:06 am. 8 lbs 13 oz 21 inches (big boy). Everything went great and we can't wait to get this little guy home!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

New York, New York

After visiting for awhile in Connecticut, we headed into New York City for a little adventure. I have been dying to go to New York, albeit a little apprehensive to go for the first time with busy little Cosette. I was also a little nervous about getting around via taxi/subway, just because I didn't feel like I would know my way around the city. But... we absolutely LOVED it!

We took the train down from CT and arrived in Grand Central Station about two hours later. When we walked out of Grand Central, the first person we saw was a man waiting by the taxi line with rats on his shoulder. Yes, rats... as in multiple rats. Then we took the most terrifying taxi ride of my life. It wouldn't have been that bad if Cosette was safely buckled in her carseat. But, no, i was clutching her in my arms for dear life! I know, it may sound like I am such a terrible mother. However, car seat laws are exempt in New York City (which seems crazy) and people were yelling at us to just get in the cab or back off. "Well, we are only going about 12 blocks", I thought to myself. Who knew it would be twelve blocks of sheer terror! But, we made it alive to our good friends house in Harlem where we stayed. Biggest shocker of all... we love love love the subway! How efficient, how ingenious, how unbelievably flawlessly it runs 24/7, 365 days a year.

We kept our touristy destination goals pretty low key. Because the key to a happy trip with a baby, is a happy baby. We saw the Museum of Natural History, the Central Park Zoo, Time Square, FAO Schwartz, went to the top of the Rockefeller Center and ate lots of amazing food.


The sheer expanse of humanity was absolutely staggering. It was a little overwhelming to the eyes to stand on top of the Rockefeller Center and try to take in the vastness of it. You can see the Statue of Liberty below (very tiny) right in the middle of the photo.

I love the Chrysler Building. Not a great picture, but I couldn't get an unobstructed view. I love the look of it WAY more than the iconic Empire State Building. Such great art deco style.
Of course we had to find a Serbian restaurant (Mitcheal served his mission in Serbia/Bulgaria). And Cosette loves Serbian food... I should have known, why haven't I been feeding her that all along?


Oh how we loved the subway system. It was so wonderful to walk a block and just hop on the train to go anywhere in the city. Cosette was a little overwhelmed by the mass of people everywhere, but a short train ride would lull her to sleep.

Cosette in doggy heaven at FAO Schwartz. So many giant doggies she could hardly contain herself.
Giant piano from the movie BIG. Although, We didn't have the jumping range to play chopsticks.
Mitcheal couldn't help himself but to pretend to feed our baby to the giant T-Rex skeleton. Who could resist?



Wednesday, April 13, 2011

New England

In March we took a little trip to Connecticut to visit some of Mitcheal's family. We had a wonderful time visiting. We ate some great chowder and visited the Yale Law School campus. After spending a few days in Connecticut, we took the train into New York City for a few days. More pictures and details to come.


The Yale campus was much different than I thought it would be. I'm sure it is ivy-covered and beautiful in the summer. However, we toured the campus on an exceptionally rainy, dreary and somewhat creepy day. The campus is intertwined with the downtown area of New Haven. All of the architecture was very gothic and heavy. The interior of the law building was heavily paneled with dark wood and there was detailed ironwork everywhere. As one of the best schools in the country, I imagined it would made up of inspiring architecture and art. While the gothic architecture was beautiful and interesting, it all felt very oppressive. Maybe it was just the dreary New England weather...I just got a vibe.



The above image shows a woman's face in the middle (presumably the victim of a crime), flanked on either side by two depicted criminals, one has a gun over his head. The two men on either end are police officers blowing whistles and holding weapons. The campus was full of this stuff, interesting, but made for the above mentioned creepy, oppressive vibe.



Mitcheal and his Uncle Eddy, a New England native
We went to a local seafood joint and I was set on having the whole 'New England experience'. So, we ordered the lobster dinner and it came on a bed of steamed clams. After dismembering the lobster with our bare hands, it didn't taste quite as good. I don't think we'll be ordering that again. Poor guy looked like he was about to climb right off our plate.

Mitcheal and Cosette with Mithceal's mom, uncle and grandmother.
Cosette made a new best friend in Uncle Eddy. She followed him around the whole three days we were there.
Cosette with her great grandmother. I think I see a little picture of her in the background. Stay tuned for the pictures from our trip to New York.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

home sweet home

About six months before we moved to Logan, I started doing a little online house hunting in Florida. I would scour the listings and compile lists of houses I liked. We had set up a week in April to fly out and find a house. About a month before that, i made a list of a few of my favorite houses and sent my mom, my sister and my brother-in-law(who was our realtor) to go check a few out and rule any off the list. After seeing several dives and possible haunted houses, they called me while they were going through one and said, "This house is so perfect! It's 108 years old and just like a little dollhouse!"
Turns out, the house had only been on the market for 6 days and had about a dozen showings booked for the upcoming weekend. We decided it wouldn't stay on the marked long and took a leap of faith and made an offer without ever seeing the house in person. So, our April house hunting trip turned into a 'let's find out what we bought' and house projects trip! Sounds a little crazy, but it was absolutely the right decision. We love our home and our neighborhood. The house was in really great condition, we just got to do the fun stuff like painting, wallpapering, etc. We have a basement apartment that we rent out, a great tiny little yard, neighbors so close we could high five through our windows and wish we could stay here forever.

Here are a few pictures I took when we had all our Christmas decorations up.



entryway


you can see how close our neighbors are through the window






Cosette's room


It took me about 16 hours online to find just the right wallpaper

Pretty much the extent of our kitchen storage



Our bathtub/shower is tucked away in a tiny little alcove

Hope you enjoyed pictures of our home. I left out pictures of our spare room because it is currently a work in progress. I should have it finished in a few weeks and I'll post some more pictures!