Cole Family News....

Jenna loves playing with Nana's stethoscope...maybe a future in medicine?      After working hard, Jenna took some time to have a cup of milk and check out the deals from the Sunday paper... 

When she first wakes up... What a difference 10 minutes makes...:)

I have been listening to John Butler Live at Red Rocks during my workouts this week.  Yes, I know this is an odd choice of workout music, but he inspires me, and the inspiration is motivating. Yesterday, as I was working out, the song below, Losing You, played.  This is the song JP played when he proposed to me.  It's one of "our songs" - and given that Labor Day is our engagement date, I thought it appropriate to write a post to my love, my heart... You don't complete me, as that is God's job...but you do compliment me quite perfectly...even more now than ever before.  Seasoning has been good for us...and I truly don't remember life before you were in it...thank you for being you and for loving me...

Yeah, yeah...a day late and a dollar short, as usual.  Lol. Jenna turned 18 months old on 8/17/12.  A whole year and half has gone by since she entered our world, and I just can't believe it.  Where does the time go? She is doing so many new things and mastering so many skills I couldn't possibly list them all here.  I stopped trying a long time ago.  I do manage to catch some things on video, so when I get a chance I upload them to our You Tube account, so I can refer back to them in the future.  Maybe I'll even get them all put on a CD or thumb drive, back to back, so you can see her growing with each sequence.  Who knows? My skills at recording her milestones notwithstanding...we headed to the pediatrician for her 18 month check-up today and all was well.  Jenna is officially 33.5 inches tall (92nd percentile), 28 pounds and 6 ounces (93rd percentile) and her head circumference is 47.75 cm (80th percentile).  So...she is still tall a...

Have you ever felt so full in your chest - so full of love and emotion - that you think you might just explode?  That is the way I feel every single day about my Boogie. I just felt the need to write that out loud today.  I never thought such limitless and expanding emotion would be possible.  But obviously, it is.  And it's amazing and terrifying, all at the same time. She grows and changes so fast, it has to be faster than the speed of light, but then, in a moment, like when I get to snuggle with her before bed, time just stands still.  In that moment, time stops for just a second, and I get to be with her, just the two of us, and I get to feel the weight of her little body against mine - her love and warmth - and to smell her sweet scent, and to feel her breathing....  And it just takes my breath away that I get to experience that.   And then I lay her down and time starts back up - taking on warp speed all over again.  So many peop...

Ok...here are pictures from the trek... Jenna with Nana B  Staring off in space...just like Daddy does...  Daddy mimicking Jenna's facial expressions  "Dat Mommy"  You can really see here how she looks like us both  I love my little family!  JP & Kimmie with their aunts and cousin from the Cole side  Mom/Nana B with her babies and their babies  *smile*  Jenna with her cousins  What to do when there is a pool and you don't have a bathing suit or ear plugs for the baby? Slap some cotton balls in her ears and let her go naked!  Jenna enjoying a proper Yankee breakfast - Tasty Kakes!  Jenna playing with the cats  If there is a chair, she has to climb in it.  Jenna and Jp with Nana B and Aunt Joan 

This past weekend, JP, Jenna and I made the trek to Bordentown, NJ to lay JP's grandfather to rest.  It was a whirlwind visit, and interesting for us to start making some connections about things with Jenna (we solved the mystery of the source of her blue eyes), confirmed other things (she absolutely looks like the other Jules) and learned a lot of new things. To start things we made connections with: Jenna did not get her blue eyes from me.  Although I added a genetic possibility to the equation, you can see here that she does not have the same blue eyes as me... ...which I have known for a while, but how do you explain that without sounding weird.  While we were up there I noticed that Jenna's blues are more like her cousin, Devynn, as seen here... ...and in further discussion with Linda (JP's mom), it was confirmed that Jenna has his father' eyes - or Cole eyes, which is what I have suspected all along.  Further, I have said since the day o...

Jenna is getting to that age where we need to start implementing a discipline method other than redirection.  Redirection is still the best for her age, but she is getting to a place where she can connect the dots between her behavior and consequences.  A great example of this is her use of the phrase "No-no" when she starts doing something she knows she is not supposed to do.  For example, she has been playing in the dog's water dish over the past week.  As she goes to put her hands in it, she will say "no-no".  And given her effective and appropriate use of the no-no phrase during the day - i.e., no-no night-night - we know she knows what it means.  Which brings me to the event that prompted the title of this post.  Two days ago, Jenna was again getting into the water dish, after being redirected and told no, so I decided that was the day we'll start working on a time out technique.  I know they count down at daycare, so I determined this...