Introducing ...

Maren Mae Platt, born at 10:56 am Wednesday, July 29th. Maren weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. She has a full head of dark hair that is ready for bows!Warner has enjoyed being the center of his grandparents' attention at home while Kevin and I are in the hospital. He met Maren yesterday but I'm not sure he understood what was going on. He gave her a kiss, tried to feed her jello, then moved on to exploring the hospital room.

We're still in the hospital but everything seems to be going well. Maren is eating and sleeping well and I'm feeling much better at day two after the c-section. We'll be home in a few days where I'm sure the real fun will begin.

One in a Thousand

Kevin and my family have always said that I'm special - one in a million even - but apparently I'm one in a thousand.  I've developed a very rare pregnancy complication called cholestasis that occurs in one to two out of every 1000 pregnancies.

I've been overly itchy for the past few weeks and mentioned this to my Dr. at my 36 week appointment last Thursday.  She sent me to the hospital to have blood work done to make sure everything was fine.  Three days of blood tests revealed my liver enzymes were very high - and getting higher each day, which lead to the cholestasis diagnosis.  Apparently pregnancy hormones have caused my gall bladder to not function properly, which then affects my liver, and unfortunately can be deadly for the baby.

So, we're having the baby tomorrow!  I'll be 37 weeks, which feels like no big deal compared to Warner being born at 34 weeks.  We'll be sure to post pictures soon!

Pink

The nursery is finally coming together. Kevin and my dad painted the baby's room a few weekends ago while I supervised - being pregnant does have a few perks. As you can see, it's very pink. I think I'm getting used to it, but I wasn't sure at first.My mom and I searched high and low for fabric that would incorporate the green rocking chair into a pink nursery. She ended up buying the bedding at Pottery Barn Kids (thanks, Mom!) because the "perfect" fabric simply did not exist. Although the greens don't exactly match, I think it works (please don't tell me if you disagree, I've been too stressed over this for too long. I'm just going with it).
Only 3 and 1/2 weeks until we meet our baby girl!

Ring Around the Rosy

We had dinner with our friends the Wamplers last night - their daughter Madison is a few months older than Warner. Each time the kids are together they seem to play better with each other. Kevin got pictures of them playing ring around the rosy:

Booster Seat

We moved Warner into a booster seat at the kitchen table for meals. Honestly I'm not sure why we did this but he seems to like the new arrangement just fine. I was getting into a nasty habit of feeding him meals while he sat on the kitchen counter or while he was on the go so at least we can start to work on table manners again.
Tonight I gave Warner a spoon and a fork to use at dinner. He used the spoon in his right hand for cottage cheese and the fork in his left hand for the rest (and held them both throughout the whole meal). Manners aside, at least he's using utensils now. We'll work on the rest later.

July 4th

We spent the 4th of July at the lake with my parents, grandparents, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Tim, and cousins Katie and Timothy. We kept busy boating, playing golf (I swear I'm playing better golf pregnant - go figure), swimming at the pool, eating, playing on the playground, and taking golf cart rides. We were worn out when we got home Tuesday!Warner "driving" the boat. With the exception of his life jacket he really seems to like the boat. He loved watching Timothy and his friend Dan learn to barefoot as well as my dad skiing and barefooting. I can't wait until Warner is old enough to learn to ski.Swimming with Dad in the lake.
Playing with Grandpa.The best family picture we could get. I look a little scary but my mom and I now have a rule that makeup is not allowed at the lake. It's wonderful.Fireworks for the 4th. Warner wasn't too sure about the sparklers at first ...... but after a few minutes he wanted us to keep lighting more for him.More fun in the golf cart. I'm really not sure what the appeal is with golf carts but Warner can't get enough of them.Dad and his Caddy.
Warner's new preferred way to ride in our golf cart.

Funny

Warner has worn out this tired, pregnant Mama lately. His time-out chair gets plenty of use due to frequent throwing, hitting, and general temper-tantrums. So I'm thankful that he's really cute and really funny to make up for it.We had some of Kevin's Fidelity co-workers over for a cookout a few weeks ago. Kristy brought cupcakes and Warner ate two (surprise). Kevin got this picture in the middle of Warner signing "thank you". At least he's polite.

He loves all things outside, including sidewalk chalk. However, he finds drawing on his feet and arms equally as appealing as the sidewalk.
He frequently pushes things around in his umbrella stroller. On this day he was taking his blue bouncy ball for a ride between dips in the baby pool.Jumping is one of Warner's newest discoveries. He's been "jumping" off the brick on our fireplace for a while (it's about 3 inches off the ground). Recently he's learned how to jump off the ground. He stretches his arms in the air, gets on his tip-toes, and them lifts off the ground about an inch. When he lands, he squats down - I guess so he feels like he's jumped higher. This is my favorite. Kevin has taught Warner a few funny faces and Warner does them all the time now. This picture doesn't really capture the face, but gives you an idea. He'll call my name to get my attention, then make the face until I laugh, and then he'll laugh too. He usually then says "Daddy" since Daddy was the one who taught him the face and does the faces with him. What a crazy kid.

Fun with cousins

We spent the weekend at the lake with Kevin's sister and her family. Warner had a blast and even slept in the bunk bed room with Abby and Ashley like a big kid.
We spent a lot of time at the park ...... and of course on the golf carts. This was taken on our way home from the pool for lunch and nap time. Warner wasn't too happy to be leaving the pool.Warner picking up rings in the baby pool.On his way to get a snack. Swimming makes you very hungry.
We roasted marshmallows on Saturday morning ... it didn't work out to do it at night, but the kids enjoyed them for breakfast just the same. I think Warner ate 6 before we had to cut him off.
Uncle Billy got the fire started while Abby, Ashley, and Warner looked for sticks for roasting.
This was before we left on Thursday - Kevin was sharing his milkshake with Warner (or maybe the other way around). Check out the bear slippers. Warner has been obsessed with them for a few days now - he pulls them out of his closet and asks me to put them on him. He refused to take them off on Thursday so we went to the grocery with them on, and all the way to the lake, too.
I remember wearing slippers to class in college, so I guess he gets it honest. They do look comfy.

Weekend Pictures

A few pictures from our weekend:Warner decided he'd like to wear a hat like Daddy on Saturday. Here he is eating a snack before heading to the zoo. Check out the "atch's" (ouches) on his legs. In case you weren't sure, he's one busy guy.Watching the elephants. I think they might have been his favorite this time because they were very close and easy to see. He also tries to make an elephant sound when he sees them.
Ah, but the ducks are still his favorite. Forget all of the exotic, foreign animals. Warner wanted to stop to see the ducks in every pond at the zoo.
A few months ago I put Warner's socks on my hands to be silly and played puppets with them. Today he got some socks out and wanted me to put them on his hands. He kept them on for hours, including during his nap. It was hilarious.

Big Boy Bed Part 2

I'm afraid I spoke too soon when I proudly announced a successful transition to Warner's big boy bed.

Thursday night we had some of Kevin's coworkers over for dinner. Warner stayed up later than usual and had a bunch of sugar right before bed. About 10 minutes after we put him down, Kevin and I were in the kitchen cleaning up and we heard a noise in the living room. I panicked, thinking someone had broken into the house or perhaps we had an animal inside. We went to investigate and found Warner playing with his popcorn popper toy, in the dark, in the living room. We took him back to his bed and repeated this process about 5 more times until we put a baby gate at his door. That really ticked him off but worked.

Unfortunately this wasn't a one-time occurrence. Each night since he's repeated the getting-out-of-bed-game. So, we've started putting the baby gate up each time we put him down. He checks each night to be sure it's there, screams when he realizes he's stuck in his room (sometimes even slams the door shut), and then crawls back into bed and goes to sleep.

Oh, what fun it is to raise a toddler.

Big boy bed

Warner's move from the crib to his big boy bed has been much easier than I anticipated. He is in the same room, we just moved furniture around. He wasn't upset about the changes in the least.

The first time he slept in the new bed was naptime Monday. He took his regular 2.5+ hour nap then got out the bed, left his room and shut the door behind him, and came to find me. He was so excited he was running and smiling the whole way. He's only crawled out of bed during naptime once, and that was before he went to sleep when he wasn't interested in napping. Other than that it's been smooth sailing. I hope this continues!My mom made all of the bedding and the window treatment, and we painted our old guest room furniture to match. I still have some work to do, including finding a few things for the walls and recovering the lamp shades with leftover bedding fabric. But for the most part it's finished. Now we just have to get the nursery ready ...An action shot from last night. I have bedrails on both sides of the bed since I'm paranoid about him falling out. I've already found him sleeping parallel to the headboard twice so I think they were a good investment. I can't believe how quickly our little boy is growing up.

Hand washing and time-outs

I found Warner here after I asked him to play by himself while I prepared lunch. I generally keep the bathroom door shut to avoid this scenario ...Obviously he's not washing his hands, he's splashing water everywhere. He managed to splash water on nearly every surface of the bathroom, including the walls. Now that Warner has his own step stool the bathroom is a very fun place to play.
I also bought this time-out chair when I got his step stool. Unfortunately we end up using it but not as often as I'd expected. I don't have a picture of him in time-out so you'll just have to imagine him crying, red-faced, totally peeved, and swinging his little legs while sitting in the chair. Priceless.

Woodson Bend

We spent last week at the lake. Well, I say "the lake" but I've only been on the lake once this year. We've kept ourselves busy on land since I can't ski pregnant and riding in a bumpy boat is uncomfortable. I really need to time my pregnancies better - this is the second water skiing season I've missed and it's killing me.

Warner and I arrived last Sunday evening and we were joined by MaNell, Emme, my mom, and her sisters Debbie and Kathy. It's so fun to be at Woodson Bend this year because Warner loves it so much. Each morning we'd take him on a golf cart ride to look for deer, fox, gophers, etc. He was also very interested in all of the mowers (mo's as he says), trucks (ucks), and water. Each time we'd see a deer he'd sign and say the word "more" - as if to say "that was nice Mom, but let's keep going". We also spent our fair share of time at the playground and the pool.Warner was so brave at the pool - he'd "jump" in off the side - sort of fall into my arms - then would have me take him to the ladder to climb out by himself and start all over again.Unfortunately we had a few days of rain so Warner and Emme played with the pool toys on the screened porch. It was almost as fun as the real thing.Emme sharing her toys with Warner.
The girls left Thursday and Kevin arrived later that afternoon. My dad arrived Friday so we had some time with just my parents which was nice. Kevin and I took Warner on a golf cart ride one evening and ended up playing a few holes ourselves. Warner was in charge of the tees (pictured above) and even putted a few times. Each time he'd hit the ball he'd drop the club and start clapping for himself.Saturday we celebrated my birthday and Warner couldn't get enough of the cake. Honestly, I couldn't either.My boys + cake. What could be better?