"I want a Christmas Tree!" Being 2, and Jewish, on Christmas...

What a wild month the Cooperstein's have just had. The unlucky illness string which began before Thanksgiving with a family case of strep continued to include 2 more antibiotics for Remy to fight the uncurable double ear infection, and then the lovely stomach bug hit our house. It hit us all like a locomotive! Luckily it was a fast moving locomotive, but it was not fun! Lots of ginger ale, gatorade, jello, saltines, etc, etc etc. It was a bland diet for all! This is a great time to remind everyone about hand washing, and as they say in preschool -- Save your hugs for home!!


We again find ourselves extremely thankful for modern medicine this month. The man who we refer to as Zayda, Frank Cooperstein, had a minimally invasive heart surgery to repair a rusty valve and some faulty electrical wiring. He has been researching this surgery for almost 10 years and we are so happy that one of the leading surgeons of this incredible procedure resides at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Although he didnt enjoy the hospital food, Zayda is doing remarkably well, recovering at home, and looks forward to running marathons in the near future!!!


Hanukkah surprised us at the beginning of the month. It only took 6 of the 8 nights to convince Remy that it wasnt a birthday party. The candles can be confusing. Remy received lots of goodies and had a hard time adjusting to the idea that some of the goodies were for Shane, not her. We celebrated Hanukkah with many friends and family including Bubbie and Papa, Uncle Steve and Cheryl, Uncle Michael and Aunt Sarah, the Wolfson/Wallensteins, and Garfinkle/Schlossenberg cousins. We made it to 50% of our birthday parties (Happy Birthday Maggie and Sammy W). We welcomed a new friend Jack Spiegel, which also gave us a great opportunity to spend time with our good friends Marcel and Galit. Had a great Mexican Fiesta with the Siegels, a wonderful visit with our friends Diana and Aaron in Philly, and spent a lovely Christmas Eve with the Dwoskin cousins. On top of all of that, and in the words of Bruce Boudreau, we send a special f'in birthday wish to Sam (Schmoogie) Schlossenberg who turned 18. Look out world... he's legal!!!



In the words of Destiny's Child, Remy has become Miss Independent! She is so proud of her ability to get completely undressed for the bath, and putting on her coat and shoes. We had a holiday celebration with her classmates, parents, and teachers at school. We were able to learn some of the words to the songs that she sings and expects us to know. Remy's new thing is she wants to know "What time is it?" We of course tell her the time and then ponder what she is going to do with the information. Does she have a meeting or appointment to get to?

And not to forget the second child... Shane turned 6 months! The happiest baby on the block continues to be such a wonderful baby (except when we tried to take 6 month bday pics). Shane rang in 6 months by rolling over from his belly to his back, and taking off his sock and eating it! Wild child! He now has 2 teeth and can sit up for a quick second before toppling over. Every day he falls more in love with his rough and tumble older sister. The more physical she plays, the louder he laughs.

T-shirts pretty much say it all....

We are thinking of getting this shirt for our darling princess Remy...

Gobble Gobble Gobble

What a weekend. The Cooperstein family traveled to Lancaster PA to renew an old tradition. We had a fun few days with the family celebrating Thanksgiving and enjoying the Amish Country. We then traveled to Newark New Jersey to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of cousin Liam Kaplan. He did an incredible job and the party was beautiful. It is always nice seeing all of the Cooperstein cousins.

We also welcomed a new friend! Our good friends Dave and Carrie Yonenson welcomed their son Seth to the world on Saturday. Remy loves hanging out with his big sister Leah, so we know that Shane and Seth will be causing trouble soon too!

Remy in the News!

As we approach Thanksgiving, we give thanks for everything that we have. In a pre-school project where Remy's friend Tyler was thankful for his parents, and Joshua for his house, Remy was thankful for Purple. We dont know what that means either!

On a serious note, we are thankful for our health, and most important the health and development of our children. As Shane is now laughing, starting the rolling process, and grabbing everything in sight, and Remy is amazing us daily with her new ways of being independent, we are reminded to give thanks to the modern medicine that has gotten us this far.

Please enjoy some recent postings on Remy's cooling blanket procedure.

http://www.adventisthealthcare.com/SGAH/giving/foundation/stories/2009/newborns-cool-journey-to-healing.aspx


http://www.adventisthealthcare.com/SGAH/about/news/2009/nicu-celebrates-10th-annual-reunion.aspx


http://www.gazette.net/stories/10212009/damanew225622_32531.shtml

Boo!! Trick or Treat!!

This weekend was Halloween! Remy dressed up as a princess and Shane as peas! At first Remy wasn't so into dressing up, but once her friends Leah and Sammy showed up she was more excited. We did a neighborhood Halloween parade and then went Trick or Treating. Remy's favorite part of the night was opening the door and giving out candy to kids that came to our house. Remy LOVES candy!! We look forward to doing it again next year!

Shane had his 4 month doctors visit. He is now 14lbs and 12oz. This puts him at the 50th percentile for weight. He is 26 and 3/4 inches which makes him in the 95th percentile. He is very healthy and we can now start trying solid foods. Oh boy!!

(See some Cooperstein videos)!

When the Leaves are Red and Yellow in the Fall!

Hi!

The Fall is very much underway, and we have been a very busy family. Shane is now 4 months old. He loves to giggle and babble. He is starting to lift his butt up in the air like he is going to roll, but goes nowhere. His room is now fully furnished and he is sleeping through the night in his sleep sack. No more swaddle. He also has a new nickname!! Remy calls him the Shane Train. Looks like it may stick!

Remy has been super busy. On top of going to school 5 days a week, she has also been to the pumpkin patch twice, gymnastics weekly, and celebrated the birthday of her friend Madeline. Bubbie and Papa came over and helped Remy carve a pumpkin. She knew it was called a Jack o lantern!!! In the upcoming weeks we look forward to Halloween and the Wiggles concert.

Danny and Lisa had a very nice visit from our friends Kevin and Erica. They live in NC now, so we always look forward the time that we get to hang out. On October 9th, we participated in the Leukemia Lymphoma Light the Night Walk. We walk every year in memory of Lisa's Aunt Anne Schlossenberg. This year Remy really got into it and had a great time dancing with her friend Sammy and her cousins. It was a wonderful night.

Most recently, Danny and Lisa have started a 90 day workout called P90X. It is intense, and we look forward to the results, but the journey so far has been fun. Our neighbor Germain joins us for the workouts and keeps us motivated throughout.

Settling in!!

Its been a little too long since we have updated, but the Coopersteins have been very busy!! Shane turned 3 months. He LOVES to talk and smile. He is an amazingly good baby and is just happy and content in every situation! He loves to babble and sleeps from 9pm-6am. A dream!

Remy LOVES school!! She loves her teachers, and her friends. Every day before we leave school we have to hug everyone. She is also doing gymnastics. Her teacher has remarked many times on her strength. Now we just need to work on her coordination. We also just went to the NICU reunion. Its always wonderful to go back to Shady Grove and see our nurses and doctors. This year we ran into our NICU friends. Their son was being operated on when Remy was on the cooling blanket. It was wonderful to see him running around and healthy.

Lisa and Danny have been running around too!!! Work is going well for Lisa and Danny is as busy as ever. We celebrated our friend Dave's 30th birthday at a big bowling bash, and we look forward to the next few week of Fall!! Enjoy our pictures!

New Beginnings

August was a fun month! We went to Philly to see friends Jeff, Jamie, and Shiloh and to see Diana and Aaron get married! We went to the MoCo fair with our friends Lex, Matt and Madeline. We also did a lot of getting ready for the fall.

As summer comes to a close the Cooperstein family is getting ready for a bunch of new beginnings. Come Monday Remy will be starting her first day of Pre-School! Remy will be attending Rockville Nursery School with her cousins Jordyn and Alex, and her friends Tyler and Livi. (Bubbie also goes there too!). We are so excited for Remy's new experiences and meeting new friends. We are praying for Remy's teachers!! Remy is a very independent girl with a bit of a bossy streak. In addition, Remy is turning into a daredevil. We have already been to the orthopedist with a finger injury and she continues to climb and jump off of everything in her path. We start gymnastics in September!

Shane will start daycare with our second family at Sue and Mike's house on Monday!! Shane just turned 2 months on 8/24. He is weighing in at 12lbs and 10oz and is 25.5 inches long. His height is off the growth charts and his pediatrician called him a string bean!! He is a pleasant baby that loves to be held! He coos at anybody who will talk to him, but you have to work a little harder and get him pretty early in the morning for a big smile. He is settling into a nice schedule and only wakes mom up 1x at night between 2-3am. We look forward to those feedings going away!

Lisa starts a new job on Monday with Montgomery County Public Schools! It will be slightly challenging to get the entire family out the door in the morning, but we know that we will settle into a routine shortly. Danny continues to successfully grow the print program and won his championship in the La Liga JCC soccer. Go Danny!

With that, we look forward to real and fantasy football, cooler weather, the jewish holidays and halloween coming up! Stay tuned for what happens next.....

Shane is 1 month old!

The Cooperstein family survived Month #1 with 2 kids! Although we did this with little sleep, we are thriving!! Remy loves her little brother SO much!! She has been a very big help and has been listening as well as any 2 year old could. She enjoys pushing Shane's stroller, holding his bottle while he is feeding, and waking him up even though Mommy BEGS her not to! Shane is a good baby, although a good baby who doesn't like a schedule. Luckily we get two stretches of 3 hours of sleep at night. The rest is up in the air. He is starting to coo and likes to lie on the play mat and look/swat at the rings and toys. We can't wait until he sleeps through the night!!! =)

Lisa got a job!! Lisa will be the new Wellness Coordinator for MCPS. This is a brand new position within the county and we are very thankful and happy that this opportunity came to us! As we said in March, "When a door closes, a window opens!" Its been an interesting few months on unemployment, but the Cooperstein family has been able to learn and grow, and feel closer because of this experience. Lisa starts back to work on August 30th. This is also Remy's first day of pre-school! Remy is "excited" (clueless) about going to Bubbie's school. She will be attending with her cousin Jordyn and friend Tyler. We know she will do great even if all she wants to do is stay at home all day in her jammies!!

Danny is having a killer few months at work and has been invited to speak at a conference in Chicago! He has been in his new position as Print Manager for about 5 months and is the talk of the company (in a good way!)! We are all very proud of Danny and we know that all of his running around is for the good of our family! Go Daddy Go!

REMY'S BROTHER SHANE ASTON'S BIRTHDAY

At 5:00am this morning, Lisa and Danny got up to start a big day! While getting ready, it was agreed that it felt like we were leaving for a vacation; luggage in hand, off to catch an early flight. Obviously, this was not the case.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 to begin pre-operation preparation for the caesarian section scheduled for 8:30. (This is where we let the people who participated in the poll know that we made it to the 24th!)

They started the pre-op about 40 minutes behind schedule, and were told that all of the beds are full; no room at the Inn. Good thing we had a reservation! At 8:45am, Lisa was taken to the Operating Room so they could get her set up and nicely drugged. At about 9:00, they brought Danny back to the Operating Room, and sat him on a stool next to Lisa's head. Lisa reminded the doctors not to let Danny look over the curtain barrier, for fear that he would pass out. Danny insists that he could have done the surgery.

At 9:13am, Dr. Dickman lifted Shane Aston out of Lisa, above he curtain, and into our view. He weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs 5oz, and measured 20 inches! He cried right away, which was the music to our ears that we did not get to hear when Remy was born. It was so wonderful to hear, it brought tears to our eyes.

Mommy and baby are AWESOME! Lisa will stay at Shady Grove Hospital until Sunday.

Dear Baby Boy Cooperstein

Dear Baby Boy Cooperstein,

We can't believe that we get to meet you tomorrow! Although sometimes it seems that this pregnancy took forever, it also seems like it flew by! We didn't have much time to reflect before the birth of your big sister Remy. She surprised everyone with an early entry into this world and we are so thankful and blessed that 2+ years later, she is as happy and as healthy as any toddler. With you we have taken every precaution, and to our surprise you made it to the big c-section date!! I am assuming that you will be our patient child, and Remy our impulsive one. All that we know, is that you will be active. Daddy and I love watching and feeling your intense kicks. Our favorite game is putting something on my belly (cell phone, remote, etc) and watching it bounce around to your punches and kicks.

We are so excited to meet you tomorrow morning. We are eager and nervous, as all parents, to just hear you cry. It will be a beautiful sound that we didn't get to experience with Remy. But, for the record, she is making up for it now by talking non stop, and telling people what to do.

So enjoy the last few hours in Mommy's belly. Sometimes its a big scary world, but we promise to do everything to protect you and teach you right from wrong. Not to mention that Mommy is ready to have you out! The pain, heartburn, etc etc etc is not fun, but being a parent is the best thing in the world. We are so excited to have you join our family.

Love,

Mommy, Daddy, Remy, Sammie and Coconut

Water Water Everywhere!!!

This weekend Remy had a few milestone accomplishments!! The first was making pee pee on the potty! It took a few weeks of bribery but nothing was cuter than the huge smile on her face after realizing the big accomplishment!!! She gets so excited to get her Dora potty out of the closet, perch herself on top, sing a song or 2, do what she has to do, and collect her sticker! We hope to continue with the success, but don't expect a lot when her brother makes an appearance!!!

Remy also put her fears of the pool behind her today! Remy was invited to her friend Livi's 2nd birthday party at the Germantown Splash Park. Knowing very well how Remy disliked the pool last year, we weren't expecting much. Remy tore the park up!!! Running through the Sprinklers, taking out smaller children in the process!! Even losing Daddy for awhile in the maze, she was happy to get soaking wet and run through the walls of water (without losing the hot pink sunglasses!!!). It was wonderful to watch her excitement!

Now we wait!

Yesterday we visited the OBGYN for our 36 week appointment. After a quick sonogram, we were told that the baby is probably about 7.5lbs. With another 3 weeks of growing, we are probably looking at a 9ish pound baby. Remy wasn't super impressed with the sonogram and was only concerned that she get a sticker or a lollipop at the end of the visit. Minus some lovely contractions, and feeling huge, Lisa isn't having any out of the ordinary symptoms. Looks like this kid will make it a little longer. At this point, we are entering unchartered waters with being pregnant and cant wait to see what the next 3 weeks bring us.

The picture is a profile of the chubby baby. (I know... almost impossible to see!) Hope you can make it out!!

Remy continues to fascinate us!!! Last night as we offered her juice she said "How about some chocolate milk?" What??

And the count down begins!

Tomorrow starts week 36 of pregnancy. This is the week that we welcomed Remy into the world. We are working very closely with the doctors to ensure that this child waits a bit. We have scheduled the c-section for this little man for June 24th. Thank goodness!

We were invited to participate with Adventist Healthcare to tell our story about Remy at the Adventist Healthcare annual conference. We were interviewed and a brief video presentation was put together sharing our story. It was pretty incredible to relive the event, but very emotional since we are about to go through another delivery. Our story was shown in front of hundreds of Adventist HC employees and Remy talked her way through the entire thing. We got a pretty nice ovation when it was done. Shady Grove will be getting us a copy of the video. We look forward to sharing it with you.

The Terrible Twos Begin!!

We celebrated Remy's birthday in grand style! Remy had a party at Romp n Roll in Germantown with all of her friends. Following her party and nap, we continued the celebrate at Bubbie and Papa's house for cake with the family.

We also had Remy's 2 year wellness checkup. Remy weighs 30.8 lbs, is 36.75 inches tall and is now allowed to try peanut butter!! We also discussed potty training!

Welcome 2010!