Megown Family Riddle

QUESTION:

How many Megowns does it take to open a garage door?

ANSWER:

One. And her name is Caroline The Fearless.

Ok, the story is that for some weird reason one of the springs or something on the automatic garage door decided to malfunction over the weekend. Not such a major catastrophe, but when the only unlocked door to the house is through the garage - this could be an issue! Keys weren't where they should have been, so Team Megown was pretty much stuck. Then? Caroline yelled out something like, "I will save the day!" and bolted off to save all of us fair maidens from certain death. Next thing we knew she was coming out the front door.

Never underestimate an 8 year old girl!

Fingerprints

One of Cooper's favorite pastimes is to pull himself up to standing position and look out the big windows at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He loved to watch the water, and would bang on the glass and "talk" to it. Thank goodness there is a Sam's Club in Hot Springs now because an industrial-size bottle of Windex is needed ASAP.

Real Men Wear Leather

Turkey Day '09

Thanksgiving

• 2 Grandparents
• 6 Parents
• 9 Grandchildren
• 1 Turkey

Cooper had the opportunity to try several things for the first time: turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, and roasted vegetables. Of course the kid loved every single bit of it! Have any doubt he wouldn't?

Everyone pitched in and made something, and the food was fabulous. We all chopped and stirred and simmered and roasted all day. Hey, who let these guys help out?

Don't trust teenage boys. And especially teenage boys with the last name 'Hart' that are over 6 feet tall. Ever!

Family time.

Wine. Whew!

We knew we invited you to Thanksgiving for a specific reason Mike.

Good job!

Angels? Or is it that these two just haven't been caught yet?

What is Cooper looking at???
Oh yeah, the monsters at the kid's table!

Lonely And Alone

Poor poor Cooper.....

No attention. No love.

Desolate. Companionless.

Forgotten and neglected.

What a dreadful experience.

Voyage Southward

On Wednesday morning we traveled all the way to Arkansas to spend Thanksgiving with Cooper's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Worried about on the front end of the trip because Maria woke up sick on Tuesday morning, but in the classic Maria-fashion she made her way downtown to work.... And then had to bail after less than two hours when she couldn't take it any more. Canceled the rest of her schedule, went to the doctor (diagnosis - VIRUS), and crashed for the rest of the day. Luckily, she felt much better after all that rest! The three of us grabbed all the bags (that Lori had to pack) and headed off on our excursion. Flying first class does make the flight so much more enjoyable!

Whew! Grandma! It has been so long!
Waited and waited for Robyn/Matt/boys and Mike/Jane/kids to arrive on Wednesday night. Volume of the house certainly rose when they all made the scene. Man, those kids are all so tall! Range in ages from 6 to 16 years old. Everyone was disappointed that Cooper hit the hay so early, but the weekend was just beginning!

A Box Is All I Need

Cooper is pulling himself up on anything and everything that he can at this point. The look in his eyes when he realized the potential of this box was priceless. Who needs toys?

Wind In My Hair

Cooper is CRAZY about the hair dryer. As soon as he hears it he squeals in delight and takes off at a sprinter's speed with purpose and determination. He is just so cute. He also knows to sit at a safe distance so he can tolerate it all!

And to our mothers:

Worry not, the air setting is on 'cool'.

(we know you were concerned)

Cooper hoots and cracks up the entire time, and it was hard to take these pictures bec he was moving so much! This is becoming a mini morning ritual for him.

Vigil For Jorge Mercado

Last night there was a vigil held on Christopher Street to honor the memory of Jorge Mercado - a 19 year old man who was brutally BRUTALLY murdered in Puerto Rico because he was gay. Won't get into the horrific details, but you can check out various news articles for more information.All together there were 20 cities gathered all over the country for simultaneous memorials to show support for Jorge's family and friends, as well as unifying as a community to call attention to this tragedy. The government of Puerto Rico has been silent in regards to how they plan to go about prosecuting this case, and it would be a horrible injustice if it was categorized as anything than a hate crime.

An interpreter was needed for the speeches, so Maria did the right thing and donated her time for this very touching vigil. Many many New York City politicians spoke, as well as reps from GLAAD, The Center, Latino Coalition, and others.
A lead investigator in Puerto Rico (who, thankfully, is now off the case) gave an interview to Telemundo about the tragic circumstances, and he stated that people partaking in this kind of "lifestyle" should "know when they go out on the street" that "something like this could happen" to them. Why do people feel the need to blame the victim?

Now, we are out on the streets each and every day.....

So following this official's logic, anything that happens to us is our own fault due to the make up of our family. This means we should we have to actively fear decapitation?

Vera And Roy

Alan and Brian hosted their annual gingerbread house party, and the amount of people were insane - Maria remembers the days when very few were called upon to decorate jillions of the damn things. Now? Barely enough for everyone to get a structure of their very own.

All good though, Alan and Brian (of course) do a fab job with the party's organization. Thrilled when the pizza arrived, and the prizes were just perfect. And? We got to see Mara and Eli and the kids!

Vera is getting to be such a big girl! Can't believe it.

Roy and Cooper were born on the same day at the hospital, and it is so interesting to see the differences in their development. Roy has been standing and walking for months now!
Due to the craziness of the party, we only got to hang out with Mara and Eli a little while. Fun to compare notes on food and whatnot. Talked about sleeping and other stuff. We need them to come over! Have to get a Sunday date on the calendar so the kids can play, and the adults can drink some wine. We are LONG overdue guys!

Cooper Is The Big Winner

Tasting Party

Maria and her friend Debra hosted a party on Friday night at our apartment. Must have been the perfect date to have an event, because the highest count of guests hit 60 at one point. Luckily the apartment in laid out in a way where you can have those numbers without feeling the least bit claustrophobic.

The parties this duo (used to be a trio, we miss Abby!) puts on are more of a focused kind.... There is a central food "theme" that half the guests tote in, and the other half are responsible for a bottle of wine. Past parties had themes of cheese, beer, nuts, bread, etc - and there are rules! You can't bring some cheddar from a grocery store or some Bud from the corner bodega. The point is to take advantage of being in NYC and try and be as creative as possible. Guests have most definitely taken on this challenge!

This party's theme? Vegetarian. Wanted to give everyone broad possibilities as to what concoction they would conjure up. Amazing results! Can't even remember everything that was on the table, and we had so many dishes that the overflow managed to find its way to the coffee table.

Usually the party requires Maria and Debra to provide the "extras" like pizza at the beer party, or like the crackers, sopressata, and etc at the cheese party. But at this party? We were home free. We didn't have to do a thing except clean up at the end. All good! This really allowed a newly-married Debra and a newly-mom'ed Maria to enjoy this party without the stress.

Tune in again in the Spring for news of the next shindig!

Readings By Mel

Mel is in town! Yup, she is here in New York banging out a commercial before heading to hang with her family for the Thanksgiving holiday. She came over for an impromptu dinner and managed to get in a lot of quality Cooper time. He loved it!

A favorite is definitely Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.
And also Mommy Hugs by Karen Katz.
There are a WHOLE LOT of books here Aunt Mel......
So feel free to come back and visit again. And very soon!

End Of The World

Ever Expanding Palette

New foods for this week? Cooper is now a fan of mango, brown rice, tunafish, grilled pork, pear, zucchini, and biscuits.

His palette still craves those Happy Baby poofs-things, and we think he could live on cheddar cheese and apples if given the opportunity. But basically, at this point, the kid will try anything - and we are going to try our damn'est to make sure he stays this open-minded.

Separated At Birth

Everyone thought Alex's twin was Mark, right?

W r o n g .

Alex's twin is apparently Kate Gosselin.

Live and learn.

Rock Band - Beatles

The release of Beatles RockBand was on Sept 9, 2009. Many were really looking forward to this edition, and it absolutely did not disappointing anyone! This game is going to be a hot gift for the holidays.

There is a reason why Cooper is so "invested" in Beatles RockBand. He is listed in the credits! Yup, his name is there. Inside the case, do you know that little instruction booklet? Check the credits in the back. They listed all the babies born to people working on the game during the development period. Cooper is famous.

Please do not let Cooper's renowned shout-out take anything away from Lori's own path to immortality.
Cooper is just starting to pull him up into a standing position this week, and he high-tailed it over to this box as soon as it was in his sights. He is a crawling maniac. And apparently he is quite brilliant as well since Cooper "read" that the box contained a drum set, so he pounded and pounded on it to his heart's content.

We all live in a yellow submarine?

"Oh yeah, I'll tell you something I think you'll understand. When I say that something, I wanna hold your hand. I wanna hold you hand. I wanna hold your hand. Oh, please, say to me you'll let me be your man. And please, say to me you'll let me hold your hand. Now let me hold your hand. I wanna hold your hand."