On the Move

It seems as though Warner will be virtually the same for weeks and then one day he's suddenly hit a milestone, looks so much different, or just seems older to me. That's been happening a lot lately.

He has figured out how to move around. I'm not sure if it qualifies as crawling yet, as he rarely moves around on his hands and knees - it's more of an army crawl or "creeping", but he can move - and fast! He can't pull himself up yet, but he enjoys standing up and holding on to objects for balance while he explores them (the coffee table, sofa, or his exer-saucer from the outside). I've installed some cushion-y bumper-type things around the brick on our hearth as well as outlet covers throughout the house. I'm going to add the door and cabinet locks soon, and I'm sure gates for the stairs will be next.

Warner has also become quite the eater. The book his pediatrician gave us ("Your Child's First Year") has a suggested diet/meal plan for 8-12 month olds that I'm using now (I'm such a book person, I know, I need to just trust my instincts but it's so hard for me). So, he's sort of feeding himself rice cakes and diced fruit and veggies, until he gets tired and then I resort to spoon-feeding again. We've also given him yogurt (loves it) and cottage cheese (not so sure yet). I haven't tried meat yet but probably will soon. He's also taking juice and/or water from a sippy cup (not the spill-proof kind yet, but we'll get there) which is a huge deal since he was a nursing-only kid until very recently.He's also getting more teeth. The top two teeth are peeking through the gums and from the looks of them I'm afraid they're going to be big like his mom's! I'm so thankful for each day I have with Warner and can't believe how quickly my little boy is growing up.

Kevin got a new position at Fidelity so he's now working a "normal" schedule. Praise God! Last night we had dinner together (woah baby, what a treat) and Kevin and Warner got to play a bit before bath and bedtime. We thought we had the best idea when we kept Warner up until 8pm - he's been sleeping from 7/7:30pm until about 5am each night. So we thought we'd keep him up an hour later, in hopes that he'd make it to 6am. No such luck - he was up this morning at 5am ready to go! I think we'll try again tonight, but if he's still up at 5am I'm going back to the 7pm bedtime. Keeping him up until 8pm is brutal, he gets so tired and cranky.

I'm trying to get some good video footage of Warner crawling, so I'll post that soon.

Myrtle Beach

We left last Friday for Myrtle Beach for a vacation with Kevin's parents, his sister, and her family. On Friday we drove to Somerset to pick up Joe and Linda, then drove to Asheville for the night. We finished the drive to the beach Saturday morning. Leslie, Billy, Abby, and Ashley arrived Saturday evening and we all stayed until the following Saturday.
We had the best time playing at the pool and the beach, putt-putting, golfing, eating, shopping, and relaxing. Warner was a hoot in the pool - his feet could touch the bottom of the baby pool while he was in his float, so he was big time going wherever, whenever he pleased. He pretty much went with the flow with the exception of sleeping. We had very long nights as Warner woke up 2, 3, and 4 times a night. Ugh. We're back to letting him cry it out now that we're home and I'm praying he'll get back on his schedule soon.
Here are some pictures from the trip. I of course had a hard time deciding which ones to post so sorry for the quantity!
Warner in the baby pool "cruising" by himself.
Warner in the pool with Nanny.
I figured it would happen - the minute he felt the sand with his hands, they went straight to his mouth. Yum!
I bought the hat and swim trunks together at Target and assumed the hat was for boys since it matched the trunks. But it looks quite girly, I'm afraid. And in this picture it looks like a sombrero.
Myrtle Beach and putt-putt go hand in hand.
Abby got a hole in one!
The best family picture we could capture with Warner.
Warner and Granddaddy in their Hawaiian shirts.
Warner's first carousel ride at Broadway at the Beach. He loved it! He smiled and laughed the whole time.
The cousins at Broadway at the Beach.
Warner's first Build a Bear (actually it's a monkey). Talk about a wild experience! As Kevin's dad says, "only in America".
Warner is trying to get the heck out of the outlet mall. The poor child has done way too much shopping in his seven short months of life.
We all might need a vacation after our vacation to recuperate. We played hard!

Fore!

Warner is pretty pumped about our new golf cart at Woodson Bend.
(He thinks he can drive it himself.)

First Boating Experience

Warner took his first ride on the boat this weekend. All in all it was a good experience, with the exception of the life jacket. You would think they could design life vests that don't squish children's cheeks and touch their ears by now, but apparently they haven't come that far yet.
We tried unfastening the top buckle, but that didn't seem to make a difference.
Uncle Justin thought the handle was pretty neat. He figures we can just dip Warner into the lake when he gets hot using this little device.
"You mean we do this all summer long, Grandpa?"

God's Country

We took advantage of Kevin's day off and the good weather yesterday and went to Oxford (God's Country) for the day. It was Warner's first visit to Miami's campus and I was so excited to show him around! Technically he's been there once before - last fall, in utero. I've included a picture of that trip for the record.Our first stop was Bagel & Deli (of course!) for lunch. I can't WAIT to introduce Warner to their fine cuisine. Although Warner couldn't enjoy a Blonde Bombshell at Bagel & Deli, he is enjoying his new puff cereal bits that he feeds himself. We visited my good friend Kelly while in Chicago last weekend, and her 8 month old son Truman shared a few of his puffs with Warner. I got Warner some of his own the next day and I think he likes them. Next we hit the bookstores for over-priced Miami gear, and then finished with a walk around campus.
Warner has become quite good at showing off his new bottom teeth. I believe this picture captures his feelings regarding my Alma Matter.

Hillarious

Warner gets slap-happy when he gets tired. It's so precious. We got him on video tonight before his bath (that's why he's naked) laughing at Kevin.

Chicago

Warner and I visited Chicago this past weekend. Kevin was in Bowling Green playing golf with his buddies so we decided to make the trip. We left Thursday afternoon and only made one stop in Indy to get gas/use the restroom/nurse which I thought was impressive. It took a little over five hours and Warner was a champ the whole time.

We didn't really do anything that exciting, just spent time with my parents, and then Justin and Jeremy when they arrived Friday. My mom and I drug poor Warner to Shaumberg for a shopping trip on Saturday which was quite successful (= Warner didn't have any meltdowns and I found cute clothes that my mom bought for my Mother's Day present). Saturday night we went to the cutest little Mexican restaurant in downtown Park Ridge, about 2 minutes from my parents house.

This was Warner's first trip to Grammie and Grandpa's house (how terrible is that?) and he enjoyed exploring the new place. Here he's playing with Grammie's spices in the kitchen.

My mom drove back with us on Sunday and unfortunately Warner wasn't as cooperative on the trip home. He started crying/fussing about 2 hours into the trip, so I sat in the back seat with him most of the way, trying to keep him happy. I tried feeding him and realized that wasn't the best idea in the car - it was a complete mess.

He was happy to be out of his car seat when we got home! My mom stayed with us until yesterday afternoon, when she left with her parents to go to the lake. Kevin, Warner, and I (and my dad) will join them on Friday. It has been so fun to have "Grammie" around, especially since she loves to babysit and I can get some things done! She even helped me mulch the yard yesterday - in the rain - so she wins the Mom of the Year Award for that.

I've lost track of how many times I've either called the pediatrician or taken Warner in to their office. I'm afraid I might be known at Primary Pediatrics as "the crazy woman" or something along those lines. The highlight of my neuroticism was back in January when I was convinced Warner had a brain tumor. But that's a whole other story for another day.

Yesterday Warner had a fever, his nose started running like crazy, and he was extremely irritable. I called the pediatrician and the nurse said to keep an eye on his fever and was afraid it might be an ear infection. I knew something was wrong last night when he was up most of the night and wouldn't stop crying. This is very uncharacteristic of our normally over-the-top-happy baby.

So, I took Warner in to see Dr. Harmeling this morning, and to my surprise, he doesn't have an ear infection. What he does have is hand, foot, and mouth. Now that's something I hadn't googled! The good news is it's virtually harmless, but the bad news is it causes mouth sores that are very uncomfortable (=baby that's up all night long crying) and since it's a virus there are no drugs to magically cure it. Bummer.

Since Warner's nose is running so much he's been breathing out of his mouth a lot. The funny part is he sticks his tongue out while he's doing it so he looks pretty funny.

And I had to include these pictures. Kevin's mom got Warner this hat on a recent shopping trip in Gatlinburg. Kevin's dad says baby baseball caps are a waste of material, but I disagree! Warner's so stinking cute in them!

Here he is sitting on the floor of our room while I get ready in the morning.


Warner and I leave for Chicago tomorrow to visit my parents for the weekend. Kevin is heading to Bowling Green for a guy's golf weekend with friends so I thought Warner would enjoy his first trip to the big city. I'll be sure to post pictures when we return.

Friday morning we headed to Somerset and Kevin picked up our two new golf carts (one is my parents', the other is ours) from a guy in town who "tuned them up" for us after we purchased them. The carts are for the golf course at Woodson Bend but also for rides around the complex. I'm not sure why, but most people who have a condo at The Bend own a golf cart too, and they use it instead of a car to get to the pool, lake, etc. And then in the evening, there is generally a parade of carts out for an evening ride. It's so much fun. So Friday night Warner took his first evening golf cart ride with Nanny and Grandaddy in his cart and Kevin and I in the other. He loved it.

Saturday morning we drove up to Lexington for lunch to celebrate Abby's 6th birthday (May 14th), Mother's Day, and to watch Abby and Ashley's dance recital that afternoon.

We had a blast except Warner got zero nap time so the ride back to Somerset that evening got a little loud for the last 30 minutes or so. Warner and I rode back with Joe and Linda to Woodson Bend and Kevin drove north to go home since he had to work Sunday. It was a gorgeous evening, so Linda and I sneaked in four holes of golf (with my dad, Justin, and Jeremy) while Joe watched Warner and my mom ran to the grocery. I stunk at golf (as usual) but Linda did teach me the "7 iron punch" around the green trick so I think I'm going to retire my pitching wedge. I never liked that club anyway.

Sunday we had a relaxing morning at the condo and then headed home with my parents to Burlington in the afternoon. They continued on to Chicago last night. Warner and Kevin got me a new wok for stir fry for Mother's Day which I'm pumped about since we have stir fry about once a week.


Here are a few a pictures of Warner after bath time. He likes to sit on his changing table now and play while I wrestle his diaper on and try to put lotion on him. His two bottom teeth are now visible and look so darn cute. And just yesterday he really started babbling more with consonants - "da da" and "ba ba". I'm afraid he'll say Dada before Mama. Oh well.

6 Month Pictures

I'm a bad mother. I've only had Warner's pictures taken professionally twice now. The first time was at Sears and he was 8 weeks old. They were good (of course because he is the cutest baby ever) but I wasn't overly happy with them. So, this time I feel a bit more on the ball since I had them taken at a normal interval (6 months) and they were done at Portrait Innovations which I liked much better than Sears.

Kevin went with us since today is his day off. This was probably a bad move as it's a general rule that we spend more money when he's making the decisions. But, we did get all the pictures on CD so here are a few of my favorites.

Why buy toys?

I went to Target on Monday and I really blew our new budget. Oops. Kevin and I are trying to follow Dave Ramsey's suggestions for our finances, which includes paying cash for everything - not even using a debit card. We started out pretty well, but the past month has been crazy and the debit card has been used on more than one occasion. For instance, by yours truly at Target.

I love Target. I love everything about the store. I have been on a mission to organize my pantry for quite some time, so I went there Monday with the intention of buying containers for the shelves. I came out of the store with: swim trunks, a swim shirt, and hat for Warner, a coffee maker, filters for the coffee maker, a shopping cart cover for Warner (I'd been looking for one of those and it was only $20 - elsewhere they were $40), running shorts for me, mascara, new toys for Warner, baby food, and a few containers for the blessed pantry.

Warner actually likes the new toys. They aren't anything over the top, just squishy blocks that he primarily chews on and stackable rings.



So I am a creature of habit and my diet is no exception. I generally eat oatmeal every morning, and Warner helps me prepare it. But as he was playing with the oatmeal container yesterday morning (while his toys were also available to him) I wondered why I bought him new toys in the first place.

I'm not quite sure how to start this post. We're finally back home after a wild few weeks. Meredith went to be with Jesus nearly two weeks ago now. Kevin, Warner, and I were there with her until the end, and while I am thankful we were able to be there, the memories of her last days still haunt me.

Meredith's funeral was beautiful (if a funeral can be beautiful). I think she would have been pleased with it. After the service, my parents, Justin, Kevin, Warner and I went to Lake Cumberland to my parents' new condo. We spent the week there and returned yesterday. It was a nice time, and we kept busy decorating the condo, playing golf, and spending time together. We saw Kevin's parents too, since they live in Somerset. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time at the lake this summer with both my family and Kevin's. Warner continues to go with the flow and seemed to like the lake as much as he likes every other place.

As I face the days and weeks to come, I'm so very thankful that Warner is here to keep me busy! I don't have much of a chance to grieve the loss of my sister until quiet moments like these when Warner is asleep and Kevin is at work. But when I am alone and the house is quiet, I am reminded of our loss and feel especially empty. Thus, the blogging. It's quite therapeutic.


This picture instantly puts a smile on my face. Ha! Warner loves being on Kevin's shoulders. This was taken after dinner out in Somerset last week.


My mom, Warner, and I took a trip to Lexington last Tuesday to shop for condo items. Here Warner is enjoying his time at Target.


My friend Sarah Erdmann's mom gave Warner this inflatable duck for the bath. It's so great! Mine and Kevin's bathroom at the condo just has a shower - no tub - so this works perfectly. And Warner of course loves it. He also has light-up ducks for the bath that are terribly interesting to him, so ducks in general have gone over well so far. I'm hoping he'll enjoy the real ducks at the lake this summer.


This was taken at Meredith and Justin's house last month, but it was one of the first times I got a picture of Warner sitting up on his own. He's sitting up great now and I think he likes the new view of the world!