Happy Birthday, Cass!

Cass Spencer Cooley, born at 6:40pm after what we'll briefly sum up as a very trying day. The details: 7 pounds, 11 ounces; 21 inches.

Named after Mama Cass, you ask? Try my brother Colin's cabbage patch kid, Cassius Alistair, circa 1986. Over brunch one day last winter, Colin and I decided the baby would need a strong family name, and my good brother, with much consideration and genorisity, offered up the sacred name, Cassius, which he had been quietly saving for his own offspring one day. The problem: not everyone loved it as much as we did. Ryan and I burned through vowel-heavy names like Owen, Elliot, Ewan and Oliver, finally settling a derivative of the famous boxer's birthname. I was able to resist the urge to write Cassius on his birth certificate when no one was looking, and his name is officially Cass. Spencer is my father's middle name and ryan's father's father's middle name (following me?). It's absolutely perfect.

Which is pretty much how we feel about our new son. I have never felt happier in my life than on this day.