Jim is 59! No wonder he’s crotchety.

Seriously – Happy birthday, Jim. Hope it was a good one.

Cooper laughs. Teddy licks.

We were lucky enough to have our camera nearby to capture Cooper’s first real laughs. He’s smiled and cooed for us, but this was the first time he just laughed and laughed. And of course Teddy became interested at the new baby noises and joined the party. 

This was by far the most entertaining thing we’ve watched in a while. Perhaps it’s time for us to get out more. Or perhaps this is home movie gold.

Snow Day.

(if you listen closely you can hear someone enjoying watching his puppy in the snow)

(not his best photo — more to come later once we bust out his maggie simpson style snow outfit)

*update: Sandy deleted this pic because she says it’s awful and he looks weird. She’ll post some good snow pics soon!

Shocked.

Tonight I discovered something shocking – and equally appalling. Cooper’s feet smell! I took his socks off, and to my utter astonishment, my tiny two month old baby had sweaty stinky feet!

Wow.

More revelations to come, I’m sure.

Cooper Photos!

Happy Birthday, Judith – from Coop.

…no, Coop doesn’t have a giant potbelly – it’s just the way the sweater is laying!

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Monthday.

In honor of Cooper’s monthday [thanks for that little nugget, Judith] – which was on January 7th – we bring you 30 Days of Coop in Pictures.  Yep – one pic for each day of his first month.  Recognize the background music?  We used it in our wedding video, too – perfect.

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Judith gets credit for this find.  The toy itself is great, but the reviews are absolutely amazing.  Prepare to spend the next couple minutes (hours?) in hilarity.

http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-3172-Security-Check-Point/dp/B0002CYTL2

Like Adam, Like Cooper.

On New Year’s Day, Coop wore his special sweater – a baby blue knit sweater that his grandma, Phyllis, made for his daddy to wear when he was eight days old. Can you believe that Adam was ever tiny enough to fit into this little outfit? It took Cooper a little while to grow into it, but we’re sure glad he did. Handsome devil, huh?

Help us choose!

So TurboTax is giving away $5,000 to the parents of “America’s Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction.” And, obviously, Coop is the cutest thing ever, so we have to enter him.  But we can’t pick a photo!

So we leave it in your trusty hands. Below are 9 pictures for your voting pleasure. You can click on each image to enlarge them and then vote in the poll just below.  And, if you’re feeling feisty, you can check out Coop’s competition here.

Videos Page.

We’re going to try to have a subpage on the old blog where we’ll post videos. Sometimes we’ll write about the videos and sometimes we’ll just post them. On the top of the page will be a link to the video page. Who knows if it will work. We’ve posted a video there to get things going.

Where Cooper Benjamin Zissman Happens.

Cooper and I are watching our first Magic game together tonight. The Magic started off playing poorly, but then I took him out of his swing and held him in my lap and the Magic went on a run and are now up 15 at halftime. I know that you think it is just a coincidence, but it isn’t. Cooper has good basketball karma.

And during the first quarter a new “Where Amazing Happens” NBA commercial came on and it was just perfect for the moment (and let me dream about what my lanky boy will one day do). 

Cooper > eTrade Baby.

Since I came into the office today to start to dig out, it was my first day away from Cooper and Sandy. Thanks to technology, however, Cooper and I had our first web-chat today via Skype and it seemed to go well (I did most of the talking). 

I kept thinking about those eTrade commercials, though.  I think Cooper is ready for his close up.

 

Adam & Cooper survive first ‘adventure’.

Well that didn’t take long. Less than a week into his life, I managed to lock Cooper in his nursery. Fortunately, I was locked in there with him. Here’s what happened:

We live in a 80 year old town home. That means lots of stuff is old or needs to be updated or replaced. This includes the handle to the door to the nursery. Last night I asked Jim to fix it so it would be easier to open and close. He was happy to and removed the door knob completely and gave about 15 warnings that if we close the door we won’t be able to open it back up.

Fast forward to 6 am or so this morning. I took Cooper into his nursery to change him and as he always does when he is being changed, he started screaming his head off. Not wanting to wake Sandy, I did what any sleep deprived father would do and swung the door shut. And just like Jim said, without a door knob, doors are tough to open. Diapered and dressed, Cooper went right back to sleep and I was able to set him in his crib to sleep while I began to brainstorm our escape. I tried all sorts of things from strings to hangers, but because we aren’t completely horrible parents, there weren’t any tools or sharp objects which would have been quite useful in this situation.

Fortunately, about 35 minutes later (after I had gotten desperate and was trying to mangle baby hangers), Sandy woke up to find her husband and baby were both missing. She gently called out for us and she was able to bring a wire hanger which I was able to use to free us.

And that is the story of how Adam and Cooper survived their first ‘adventure’. Lame, I know, but as I recover from the traumatic experience, I find that sharing my story is helpful. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.