happy halloween

ollie carved his first pumpkin today. the pumpkin innards almost made him gag.


my mom gave him this police officer costume for his birthday. it was kind of a hit.


nothing makes me happier than the sound (and sight) of this little boy's laugh.


have a fun, safe halloween!

Oh Nine

Holy shit, can you believe it’s 2009?

I asked Gabe out on our first date on NYE 2000. Last night we were tripping out over the fact that we have a BABY. Who would’ve guessed that nine years ago on NYE we were discussing going on our first date and here it is, nine years later and we are married with a baby.

2008 was a big year for us. I got pregnant. We moved house. We traveled to San Diego, Los Angeles, Tahoe and New York. We celebrated our first anniversary as a married couple. We had a baby. The baby was hospitalized for four nights. Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. I had the holidays off for the first time since my sophomore year of college- some 13 odd years ago-and it was so nice!

Last night we celebrated the close of 2008 with three other couples with kids and another couple who are expecting in April. There were toddlers and babies. Toys and bottles (of milk and wine and beer! I went crazy and drank 2 beers last night, which is more than I've consumed in one day in almost a year). There was artichoke dip, crab dip, a homemade cheese ball (with cheddar and bacon), proscuitto, and pumpkin bars.

We were home by 11:00. At precisely midnight Gabe was changing a dirty diaper while I was sterilizing bottles. We were in bed by 12:15, the baby lying between us sleeping as we talked about how crazy and wonderful it is to have Oliver in our lives.



NYE 2004, way before child, G dancing

So what will 2009 bring? Who knows? We have both been throwing around the idea of going back to school. Of maybe moving out of The City. Hopefully there will be trips to New York to see beloved friends. Lots of good times with those we love. And of course, there will be lots of firsts for the baby: words and crawling and walking and a birthday, to name a few.

I’m usually not one to make New Year’s resolution - I just never have been…but, here are goals and hopes I’m aiming for/to do in 2009:

• Exercise regularly. I’m not really thrilled with my post-baby body, in particular, the stomach portion. I weighed myself at my folks on Friday and I weighed 2 pounds less than I did before I got pregnant. Then I weighed myself at G’s folks the very next day and I weighed 3.5 more than I did when I conceived. That’s a 5.5 lb variance. I choose to believe my folk’s scale because it enabled me to eat like shit with less guilt. Anyway, my goal for 2009 is to be more active: to take the baby for more walks and to do sit-ups! Also, I will need to eat less gelato and to make cookies less frequently. So boring.
• Start an Etsy shop
• Travel to Hawaii or Mexico for a warm, sunny vacation
• Enroll Ollie in swim lessons-I’m hoping to do this at 6 months
• Continue Ollie’s baby book
• Finish decorating some of the rooms in our house - the dining room, bathroom and our bedroom all need more work
• Go thrift store shopping more
• Clean out my closet
• Clean our Ollie’s closet (This needs to happen sooner than later)
• Maintain this blog
• Cook and bake more

This is all I can come up with right now. Perhaps I’ll add to this as I go. What about you? What will you do in 2009?

Happy New Year!

Ollie's Winter Break

Ollie just finished celebrating his first Christmas, Chanukah and New Years. Here are some highlights from his six-day grandparentpalooza.

We were very late to Christmas Eve dinner at my folks. I've always had a hard time packing for trips for myself. I put it off until the last possible moment and then I panic and throw everything in sight into my suitcase. Most of what I pack I never wear. Throw a baby into the equation and I'm screwed. I think I brought his entire wardrobe with us for 6 nights out of town. We were late to dinner because I was busy filling a suitcase for my infant son who doesn't wear shoes. Anyway, I guess my dad was bored while he was waiting for us to arrive because when we got to their house, this was hanging from the fan in my old room, where we stayed while we were there:


Both mornings at my folks my mom came in and asked if they could bring the baby into their bed to cuddle. And allow us to go back to sleep?! YES!


Ollie got to meet his great grandmother, Grandma Arlene, who flew in from Las Vegas. She immediately wanted to hold him, which was great:


He also got to meet his great grandfather, Grandpa Max. We chose Maximillian as his middle name after Grandma Max. Cousin Kailey, cousin Spencer and his grandmother Mimi were there, too. Kailey called him "Baby Oliver." (She called me "Uncle Tracey.") Here's a shot of Spencer and Mimi lighting the candles.


Here are four generations of Coan men. Grandpa Max is 91. Papa Carl is 65, Dad is 33 and Ollie is 10.5 weeks. It's very special that we were able to get a picture of all four of the guys:


Here is Ollie in his first yarmulke.

Christmas

I'm on Penicillin because the doctor thought I might have Strep.  Is it normal that my doctor's office doesn't do cultures anymore? If they think you have it you get antibiotics.  Or they think you have heartburn, which is what they told Gabe when he went in for a sore throat a few weeks back.  The doctor tried to tell me that maybe I had heartburn, which was causing the sore throat but I told her I know heartburn, because I had just had it for 9 months while I was pregnant. Simply breathing while I was pregnant would give me heartburn. (Luckily,  I was prepared for the heartburn diagnosis because of G's experience. Makes you wonder if they just saw the pharmaceutical rep who had heartburn medicine samples so it was fresh in their brain?  Maybe the heartburn people have good pens or something.)

Anyway, on my way to my appointment, I saw a car with antlers attached to the hood.  I was at a stop light and right beside the car, and I only had my iPhone, so my picture doesn't quite do it justice but you kind of get the idea.   The antlers seem to be replacing the wreaths from years past.  Wreaths are so out this year-it's all about antlers.  

Yeah!  Antlers on an Eclipse!

And last night, driving home with Gabe and Ollie, I couldn't get over all of the inflatable Christmas decorations.  

Now that I'm looking closely at this, is this a South Park Santa?  It kinda looks like it...

The problem with the inflatable Christmas decorations, besides the fact that they just look cheesy, is that they are deflated during the day and so all you see is, for example, in the photo above, is a flat Santa.  So depressing.  

What I really love though are the houses that have the odd collection of Christmas decorations.  Take for example the house pictured below.  (Again, this is an iPhone photo and it's broad daylight so you don't really get the full effect but you can still get an idea of what I'm talking about.)

We have a few candy canes, a nutcracker, a few Christmas trees, an ice skating polar bear and Mary and Joseph with the Baby Jesus.  

Here's a creepy one.  This house had only this in the window:

Scary!

There are also the people who really like to go big. Gone are the days of a simple strand of lights.  

If you look closely, you can see Santa climbing into the chimney.  And several nutcrackers supervising the yard.  There are also some candles up by the windows, presumably to illuminate the Christmas tree.  And of they even have the animatronic Christmas deer, which really, are so three years ago.

These people have a lot of lights, but at least there's some consistency here.  You have to appreciate that.