January Family Letter

(In case you didn't see this...)

January 2010

Happy New Year!

It’s been an exciting year at the Cole home. We’ve grown from two to three—parenting, while it reminds me daily of my inadequacies and fallibilities, is the best. We are honored to have Levi in our lives. I often look at him and think, “We really made him?” How can mere humans make such miracles?

The first half of the year blurs together for me now. We schooled, worked, anticipated our baby. We ate a lot of ice cream. (That’s our year-round sport). Our landlord decided to upgrade our apartment by replacing the kitchen floor on my due date. Our baby was very accommodating; I went into medium labor for a few days, then had to be induced—but, behold!, on June 11 Joseph Levi Cole entered our world officially, and quietly. (So quietly that he spent a few hours in the NICU to make sure his lungs were okay; we should have told them, “He’s just a Cole.”)

While waiting for Levi, we passed the time by working, schooling, and helping to type in handwritten-scanned census records, a great way to be productive without really thinking. This inevitably led to my addiction to the new family search system. We’re in progress of taking about fifty family names to the temple: most of these are siblings to those in our direct line—it’s been an exciting and rewarding experience.

Other than his parents, the most familiar and consistent thing in Levi’s life is his car seat. We spent the summer driving to family gatherings, reunions, and other joyous, slightly tiring, occasions. Our reliable 1999 Taurus finally passed away in the middle of Oregon as we drove home from Wesley’s sister’s wedding. Thankfully, his grandparents were not far behind us in their RV—so our six week old baby did not die in the hundred degree weather! Hurray! We tried to revive the periwinkle spacecraft, but alas, the Taurus’s life ended and we invested in Winston, our 2004 Chevy Classic which gets 33 mpg. We are grateful for Winston.

Wesley has been quietly and consistently conquering. He continued working with Dr. Thomas Fletcher, leading a research team that studies and models wildland fire (basically—it’s more complex than that). He presented at three conferences in 2009: one at BYU, one in Michigan, and one in California. He’s working on submitting two papers for review and publication. I’m very proud of him. Wesley has also participated in two intramural Frisbee teams and a doubles tennis team. He loved both. Wes also arranged his schedule so I could finish up my MFA. Watching him with Levi is my favorite thing to do. They adore each other; Levi lights up and jabbers whenever Wes walks into the room. My greatest hope is that Levi takes after his good, good dad.

I love motherhood. I love it so much I’m almost excited to finish school. Even waking up during the night has its perks: my little boy wants to see me. On the side, I just finished teaching my last class of freshmen at BYU; I loved my students, I hope they learned something (or, I hope I didn’t ruin their lives). A few of my essays and poems have been published, which is gratifying (maybe I’m not wasting time pretending my scribbles have purpose after all!. One night, while a little brain fried, we discovered that Googling “Cassie Keller Cole” brings up real results—which makes us laugh). All the family focus eventually spilled over into my thesis, which is a collection of essays thematically linked by family, belonging, and home. I plan on defending it in a few weeks. I’ve really enjoyed revising and seeing the collection come together.

At almost seven months, Levi is frustrated that he can’t take over the world and crawl. He swims on the floor, but coordinating his arms and legs challenges him. We’re hoping he waits until I defend my thesis—after that, he can do whatever he wants! He babbles nonstop (we’re now moving beyond cooing to “blahblahblah” and “gagaga” sounds…I’m afraid he’s mimicking his mother!). He sings with the congregation at church, sings with the radio, sings, sings, sings. He loves music. He also loves the yoga ball, carrots, applesauce, and rolling. One of his new joys is reading. Levi devours books—literally and figuratively—they are some of his favorite toys. He loves tasting his new existence. Wesley and I are delighted by our sweet boy.

Wesley and I just began our last semester at BYU. Who knows what the end of April will bring? For the last few months, Wesley has been applying to graduate schools. Hopefully we’ll find out in mid-February where he’s accepted. He’s applying for internships for the between-school times—so there’s a lot ahead of us!

Overall, we live in awe. We feel abundantly blessed and humbled by our many friends, gifts, and responsibilities. Thank you for being such a wonderful part of our lives.

Love,

Wesley, Cassie, and Joseph Levi Cole

Cassie’s favorite books of the year:

The Wet Collection by Joni Tevis

Gilead and Home by Marilynne Robinson

Backyard Alchemy by Lance Larsen

Look forward to Quotidiana by Patrick Madden

Our family pictures are courtesy of Candice McWhorter. Definitely look her up at capturethephoto.blogspot.com.