A Quick Laugh...

I am probably a horrible mother for thinking this is a funny story but I will share anyways. This morning on the way to drop Alex off at my aunt's I heard him fussing just a little. Nothing major, just "talking" a bit. I had his paci on the console by me in case he got really upset and I could reach it back to him at a stop light. He never got that loud before I got to a stop so I didn't try and give it to him. I figured he had just fallen asleep, which it turns out he had. The funny part is that this morning I had tossed a little blanket type thing with a stuffed monkey head on it in the carrier with him because he has really started playing with his hands and I thought he might like to mess with it. Turns out, I totally confused him and apparently he thought the monkey was his paci. When I got him out at my aunt's he had the monkey soaking wet where he had been sucking on it. I felt bad for him but had to laugh! I can only imagine what he looked like back there trying to suck on that monkey...

Soccer is back but so very different...

A little history...

Spring and Fall takes the Coles out to the WYSA soccer fields. My first year watching Reagan play and Matt coaching was the fall of 2008 when she was just a little 5 year old in a lime green t-shirt playing for the Gators. Matt had warned me that at that age it was pretty much the "fly on poop" mentality and all 6 of the kids on the field would just stick right to the ball and keep kicking until it popped loose. This is exactly what happened but it was still all kinds of fun to watch. I am pretty sure the kids enjoyed the parent tunnel that they ran through at the end of the game and snack more than actually playing at this point.

The next fall brought us to U8 and a new team - the Mustangs. The unfortunate part of this was that the mustangs wore red with black lettering and we played a game on just about every Saturday - the same days as UK football. I pretty much never supported the Mustangs by color, just in spirit. :) We were mustangs for 2 sessions, fall '09 and spring '10.

Spring 2010 Mustangs

Fall '10 brought yet another change as Reagan decided it was time to move to an all girls team. We were given the Ladybugs. You can guess what colors we were - once again red and black and once again I failed at supporting the team by color but had lots of fun with the girls. At this point I had slowly become Matt's assistant coach. I would help run drills at practice and mainly took care of keeping the team under control on the bench and helping keep up with who needed to sub and making sure all the players got equal playing time. We had lots of players that wanted as much playing time as possible and always felt like they weren't getting as much as the other team mates. With the ladybugs we had 7 players. With 4 on the field at a time, this made it impossible to sub out all at the same time. So every player got extra time. One of my buddies - Anna Beth always wanted to make sure she got her extra time. I finally put together a list on my phone each game so she could see when everyone was getting their extra time and wouldn't worry about missing out. We stayed with the Ladybugs for the Spring of 2011 and had the same team with the exception of Sammie Jo taking the place of Olivia.


Fall 2010 Ladybugs

 The 2011 Fall Session - the Stingers

This brings me to this session. This year we moved up to U10 and with that came more changes than I will probably be able to remember. We have a new team - the Stingers. New colors - Royal blue and white (yay!). New team mates - only Caylee is a previous Ladybug. New assistant coaches - with my hands a little more full, Andy (Matt's brother) and one of the team dads, Brian, has graciously stepped up to help Matt coach. Which is good since we are now playing 6 vs. 6 and one of those is a goalie. The girls have never played with a goalie, which means they have never played the position of goalie. After 4 years of preaching to them not to touch the ball with their hands, I am sure it is hard to get them to reach down and pick it up during a game. They are also faced with the daunting task of figuring out off sides. I have trouble with this concept so I can't imagine how they are figuring it out.

We had our first game this past weekend. We got beat pretty badly but our team is young with a lot of new girls to U10. They have a lot to learn but I think overall they will be okay. I just hope they all have a great time out there. I know I really enjoy watching them play and watching Matt coach. Alex can't say the same since he slept through the entire game Saturday. But mommy was thankful to be able to really watch the game and enjoy it.

Baby Robot...

Just a quick little post and picture of some fun we had yesterday. I am pretty sure mommy and daddy had more fun than Alex. Props to daddy for finding the costume on eBay and providing us the laughs and the great picture!

The new toy

Two weeks ago today we became the owners of our latest toy - a Jeep Wrangler. We had been shopping around for one for a while now and got pretty lucky with this one. I can easily describe it as the good, the bad and the ugly...

The Good...
There are several "good" aspects to this Jeep. It is a 2003 with a little over 35,000 miles on it. None of those miles are off-roading, hard miles, just everyday road miles. The owner is a good friend of my family and took it to the Jeep dealership for everything, oil changes, any maintenance and had them fix the smallest squeak. So mechanically it is pretty much perfect. Oh, and the price...let's just say Matt didn't believe me when I first told him the price and we didn't haggle him at all on it since it was pretty much a steal.

The Bad...
When we go to look at it we notice the dirt, stickers, trash, etc. right off the bat. I have never seen a vehicle as dirty as this. That's when Jim informs us, "I drove it off the lot in 2003 brand new and it has never been washed since." 8 years old and never washed!! I don't know if I should be amazed or disgusted. Which leads us to the ugly...

The Ugly...
A 2003 Jeep Wrangler that has never been washed!

Not so Ugly Anymore...
After a lot of hard work by Matt we are starting to really get a beauty. Matt also ordered some new rims which came in last week and just need some new tires to go with them. Considering how extremely busy we have been the past 2 weeks I am totally amazed and proud of how much work my husband has done and how great the Jeep looks. I think the Coles are going to have a lot of fun with this new toy.

All my worldly possessions...

Apparently Alex was hearing too much on the news about Irene on Saturday and heard them advising people to take their most prized possessions with them upon evacuation. So when we made a quick run to Lexington, he decided to take all his prized possesions with him as well...

Smiles and sleep...

One of my purposes for thsi blog is to keep a "journal" of the many milestones that Alex is going through so I can go back and look at them. There is no way I will be able to remember all the details during this fast, hectic and crazy time in our life.

The past 2 weeks have brought us a lot of fun with a happy, smiling boy. He is really starting to react to you and smile back at you. We have even gotten him to coo and talk to us on several occasions. This is so much fun, I could sit and talk to him for hours.

He has also gotten very reactive to his surroundings and is enjoying his play mat a lot more these days. Just this morning I saw his first temper tantrum when I picked him up off the mat to go to Mimi's house. He was not ready to quit playing and made that very clear for about 10 minutes. Here is a quick video of him playing last Friday. You can't see his face of hear him very well but he was smiling and just talking away...

Glorious sleep...

Just in time for mommy to head back to work Alex has gotten into a nice sleeping pattern. Hopefully this won't jinx us but he goes to bed around 9:30 or 10 and will sleep until about 3. Matt and I will take turns getting up for this feeding unless Alex is unusually talkative and decides he wants to see us both. Once we get him fed and changed he typically goes right back to sleep. He will then wake back up around 6 and wants a bottle and snuggle time on the couch. He will sleep in his crib with no problem all night until this wake up but then will not go back in there. However if either of us will lay with him on the couch, he will go right back to sleep which makes it nice for us to get ready for work. I am hoping this continues because I have enjoyed those nice long chunks of sleep!

Mommy's 1st Week Back to Work...

Well today is Thursday so that means I am 1 day away from surviving my first week back to work. Coming back to work was bittersweet. Would I rather stay home with the kids? Absolutely. Do I have that option. Not a chance. So with that in mind I knew I had to put on my big girl panties and get back to the grind. I was very lucky to be in a position at work that let me stay home for 8 weeks even though I had just over 4 weeks of sick and vacation time. I was able to do this thanks to the wonders of modern technology - a laptop, internet connection and cell phone. I worked from home over 20 hours most weeks. I appreciate this to no end but as Alex got older and more alert, it was becoming harder and harder to get work done during the day so that left me working in the evenings and on the weekend when I would have much rather been spending time with Matt and Reagan. So I now look at the positive that I may be away from the little man during the day but at night I get to be free to enjoy the whole family.

My first day back started out with Alex crying all the way from Versailles to Frankfort. Not the most fun way to start a Monday. However my day got much better when the beautiful bouquet of flowers was delivered from my amazing husband.

Oh and I should mention that I got lucky and came back to work on the 22nd, then had o be off for the day on the 23rd for Alex's 2 month checkup. Watching your baby scream in pain from shots was not fun at all but I enjoyed spending the day with him besides that.


This was right after his shots at the doctor's office.


Last week I only worked a few hours so I could enjoy my last week off before I went back full time so I think that helped me prepare for going back as well.

In case you are wondering, Alex is being spoiled every day by my Aunt Kathy. She has graciously offered to keep him for us to help with our crazy work schedules. So far they both seem to be loving it. And I can't complain about the glass of tea she sends me to work with every morning or the breakfast she cooked for me yesterday. :) I may be the one that ends up getting spoiled!

Goodbye Friend

This past Saturday we said goodbye to a member of the family - Abigail. Although she was not a big fan of mine, I will miss her and I know Matt will more than anyone since he was the only person in the world that she liked. I hope you are happy up there in Kitty heaven Abby!

A Short Getaway

Well we attempted our first weekend getaway as a family of 4 this past weekend. We went to French Lick Resort for 2 nights and it went surprisingly well. Friday was a bit hectic as we tried to get packed and get out of town but we made it finally. It is amazing how much stuff you have to pack when traveling with an infant. Our jeep looked like we were going away for several weeks and not just 2 nights. We stopped in Louisville for dinner and what should have been bottle time for Alex but he slept right through it. So we were on borrowed time from then on and had still an hour left to go. At 9 miles out he decided it was time to eat and there was no appeasing him. So I rode leaning over his car seat from the front feeding him a bottle. Once we got there, he finished the bottle as we unloaded the car, checked in and walked to our room.

We had a great time while we were there. Alex was great and that allowed us to have a great time with Reagan. She enjoyed a treasure hunt with the kids program on Saturday morning. After that we headed over to Big Splash Adventure Indoor Waterpark. Matt and I took turns going down the slides with Reagan while the other one hung out with a sleeping baby. Alex finally woke up and mommy decided it was time to try out the baby pool. The water was pretty cool so I expected him not to like it at all but he loved it. All I did was stick his feet in but he really seemed to enjoy it. There was a great area for the babies so I can't wait to take him back next year when he can really enjoy it.

We also went bowling, tried renting a surrey which proved to be work than fun and stopped by Kart Kountry in Shepherdsville on our way home on Sunday for some go karts, putt putt and some batting cages. Reagan got to drive a go kart by herself for the first time and loved every minute of it. I think it will be disappointing for her when we go back to gatlinburg and she has to ride in a double kart with one of us again.

It was a wonderful family trip. Hopefully we can get away again soon!

Here is a family picture at the resort with our tye-dyed shirts that we did together one night last week. Goofy I know but it was a lot of fun. Even Alex has a tye-dyed onesie that we made for him.

A little bit about us...

Matt and Laura

On our wedding day.

Matt and I met in 2008 thanks to the wonders of technology and eHarmony, and for me my mother nagging me to try internet dating. It is amazing that 2 people with as much in common as us would have never have met if not for a couple of computers, the internet and a nagging mother. After meeting we discovered we have sat in the same section of Commonwealth Stadium, climbed over the same wall to get to the field after beating #1 LSU and had stayed in the same Doubletree in Atlanta during the 2007 SEC tournament.

We had a first date on February 28th, 2008. Matt proposed at the Castle in Versailles during a Christmas party on December 19th. We tied the knot on April 25th, 2009 and time has flown by ever since. I feel like I have known him my entire life and not just the past 3 1/2 years. He is truly my best friend and I love him more than I honestly knew was possible.

Our one fun fact about meeting is that we both set our eHarmony profiles to not match us with anyone more than 10 years older (me) or younger (Matt) than us. Well my birthday is September 15 and his is the 16th. We are 9 years, 364 days apart in age. If our birthdays had been switched we would have never have met. Talk about close call!

Matt

Matt is the rock of our family. He works at ACS and just started there at the beginning of July. He was offered the job the day after the birth of our son. Talk about an exciting week. He had been married prior to us and has a beautiful little girl thanks to that marriage. He will disagree but he is a great soccer player and plays in a summer league in Versailles and occasionally in the indoor leagues in the winter in Lexington.

Laura

I currently work for the Kentucky Retail Federation and am the associate director of the AgriBusiness Association of Kentucky and the Kentucky Propane Gas Association. With this position I am responsible for planning meetings, handling communications and many other odds and ends for the associations. I have attempted to play indoor soccer with Matt but am not very good. It is fun and great exercise though.

Reagan

A very excited big sister!

Reagan is Matt's daughter from his first marriage and is 8 years old. She is a beautiful and very smart little girl and she is my step-daughter only by title and could only be more my own if I had birthed her. She is full of life and scared of nothing. Just today she informed us she was only 1 inch away from riding diamondback at Kings Island and hoped she would grow that inch before she got there on September 3rd. We told her it was unlikely but that we would take her for sure next year to ride it. I know her daddy would love to be there for her first ride on such an exciting coaster.

Alex



Alex is the newest addition to the Cole family. We welcomed him into the world on June 23rd. He weighted 7 lbs 8 3/4 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. My pregnancy went really great and I am thankful. Labor and delivery was just as good and I am even more thankful for that! We checked into the hospital on Wednesday night for Cervadil and the Pitocin was started the next morning at 7. My water was broken by Dr. Hall at 8:15 and Alex was in our arms at noon. Dr. Hall had Matt deliver him which was amazing and I was able to take pictures through the whole thing. It was a day I will never forget.

He is a wonderful little guy and we all are madly in love with him. Reagan loves being a big sister.

Alex was 1 of at least 10 (it is hard to keep count) babies born in May and June of friends of mine. We recently got 6 of them together for a play date. I will post a blog about that separately one day.

The Fur Babies



Juno

 We have 2 fur babies running around the house as well - Abby and Juno. Abby is a very pretty gray cat that has the most beautiful fur that you immediately want to pet, until she hisses at you and let's you know that you "do not touch the queen's fur". I had a hard time leaving her alone so to help us both out, Matt took me to pick out a second cat in hopes this one would be friendly. We found Juno about a year ago and she fits the bill perfectly. She is as friendly as they come but isn't the smartest cat we have ever seen. I am sure we will post funny Juno stories every once in a while.