The past few days...

Wanted to post this shot Todd took of Mercer doing some Tummy Time. He's really holding up his head so well when on his belly... normally, he'd flop back down after a few seconds, but I think those days have passed.

We had a somewhat "normal" (for us) weekend... we went downtown to a social thing at my office -- in honor of a co-worker who is leaving that I like a lot : - ( Afterwards, we attended a photography exhibit that a former colleague of ours was in. We grabbed dinner afterwards and brought home a really tired baby. I guess being carried around in the sling while gallery-hopping and eating his bottle at a mexican cantina wore the little guy out? It was nice to do what we liked to do -- but we just had extra stuff to carry around (the diaper bag & the sling / sling accessories). It will make going out a little tougher for us, for sure, but it's good to know we can still do it.

We do go out some -- but it's either singly (I went to girl's night last week w/o Mercer while Todd watched him) or as family events with other couples w/ children. We have had some people offer to watch lil' M if we want to go out, but I don't think we've felt deprived / haven't "needed" to get away yet.

Saturday night, we had some folks over for a cookout. Due to the downpour, the cookout was done on the George Foreman grill indoors! The people who were over were former co-workers and they came to celebrate / hang out with us and little M. Don't you just love people's reactions / the attention paid to our baby boy? Even this guy, Dave -- who makes known that he doesn't like kids / babies -- wanted to hold Mercer and interact with him!

Todd watched Mercer basically ALL weekend. I thought they could use some time together since he & I were in NC last week... and b/c Todd is in Asheville right now for work. The NFL draft was this weekend & they watched it together.... and sacked out later as seen here! It allowed me to clean the house / work on some renovation drawings for a neighbor on Saturday... bake / cook / nap on Sunday. Exciting, huh?!

It's all good, actually. Oh --- you know what's REALLY GOOD? Mercer's social smiling and his coo-ing / gurgling. Ahhhhh... it's the best! We're looking at video cams so that we can capture some of this (now that he's doing "stuff"). I think you can post little videos to the blog. We'll try to capture it and post some point soon.

Candice

Blog about Thursday afternoon

My grandmother, Inez, fell on Thursday and broke her leg. She had surgery Friday afternoon and had a plate and pins put in to hold the bones back in place... she will definitely have to do some physical therapy to get to walking again on it. It's so hard to imagine, as we just saw her up & about. Oh I feel so bad that she had to go through that -- but those of you reading, please pass along good vibes / prayers / thoughts so that she heals quickly. I am glad we saw her earlier this week, but I wish we could be there to cheer her up. She really enjoyed rocking Mercer and singing to him. It was so sweet! Grandma - when you read this... know Mercer is having sweet dreams of those moments & he wishes you a speedy recovery!

Probably about the same time as that happened, I was up the street at a neighbor's house for a play date. Mercer can't really play with anyone yet -- it was an excuse, really, to hang out with some of the moms on the street and to let another one of our neighbors get her baby fix for the day. Here are a few pics of that. I took this one of Mercer and Brody on the blanket (for comparison, really, to my friend Cindy's son - Trevor from the April 18th blog entry). I think they're around the same age and around the same size?! Maybe Trevor is a little bit longer? Both Brody and Trevor drool a lot. Maybe it's that age? Mercer doesn't do it so much -- but he's starting to blow bubbles.

Here's another cutie that Mercer may have a crush on at some point... Mary Peyton. Her twin brother, Luke, will be keeping the boys away, I'm sure!

It seems that there are a TON of babies on the street. There were 2 other houses on our street with blue ribbons/ "it's a boy" balloons on their door when we came home from Colorado. I'm planning to bake something and just go knock on their doors / meet them. Crazy if we have 3 little boys all born in February here! There was just a baby girl born last week on our street and another couple who's expecting next month. Suppose we should change the name of our street to Baby Lane?

ok - one more shot of baby Brody.... had to get a pic of all of the leg chub and him eating his toes. So scrumptious!

2 months old and 12 lbs later....

yup. weighed him again. he's around 12 lbs +/-

yikes! but, Mercer turned 2 months old today (Wednesday the 23rd) so I thought I should weigh him.

just wanted to post a quick blog to tell you to scroll down to the previous 2 posts to check out the photos added to the entries. (found the photo thing)

Home Sweet Home!

Mercer & I made it home pretty late last night. We would've been home a little sooner, but I wanted to stop by Babies R Us on the way home to attend an Earth Day presentation they were doing on green babies. It was just an "ok" presentation -- as we're doing most of the things they suggested. But there was one area which I hadn't thought about: indoor air quality as it pertains to pet dander / dust mites / HEPA filtration. (I've thought of air quality as it pertains to low-VOC paints, cleaners, and finishes in the furnishings -- but this other one is a housekeeping issue.) We'll have to work on that one a bit more!!

We do have a HEPA filter in our room where the cradle is located now, but we should probably get one for the nursery too. Todd worked on the nursery a bit while we were gone... the main thing he did was to caulk the crown moulding. I need to do some work on the paint over the next week or so and it will be shaping up.

The woman presenting on the green babies also talked about cleanliness issues -- especially as it pertains to handling of the baby. She warned against letting people handle the baby b/c you just don't know how clean they are. (She shared a scary / gross story about how her own 2 month old daughter picked up Chlamydia (an STD!) from someone who apparently didn't wash their hands prior to touching the baby. She knows it wasn't her or her husband... the hospital required both of them be tested / it sounded like they were potentially going to get into trouble b/c of it). She told us to not be afraid to ask people to wash their hands before handling the baby -- or just not letting people touch the baby at all. Ick!

I was reading yesterday in the day-by-day journal that babies have "super immunity" for the first couple of months of their lives (supplied by the pregnant mother) and that this immunity is starting to taper off. We should try to be a little more protective of the little guy now.

On a brighter note:

Mercer was adored by all of his relatives in NC this past week. Mercer & I went to the NC Zoo Saturday morning. Mom works there / there's a new Africa exhibit with Elephants and Rhinos that Mercer went to check out. He slept through most of it. It was a nice exhibit, though and we know that he'll enjoy his next visit much more!

We had my mom's family stop by on Saturday (folks dropped in throughout the afternoon) to visit... and had my dad's family stop by on Sunday. Mercer met his 3 GREAT grandparents over the course of the week. He also met (great) aunts, uncles, and 2nd (or 3rd?) cousins. Monday, we visited 2 nursing homes to visit family members... and Tuesday on the way out of town, met a bunch of mom's co-workers who have been following along Mercer's journey in the blog.

Below: My mom with little M ... My mom's mother, Inez and father, Melvin ... My mom's sister, Sandra ... My mom's brother, Eddie and his family. Mercer met my mom's other brother & his fam, but I don't have a picture with him (Mel)). He also met some of my cousins as well (not pictured either).

Below: My dad's brother, David, and his family ... My dad's sister, Becky, and her husband Tony ... and my dad's mother, Edith

We'll post pics later today or tomorrow in this blog entry and the previous blog entry too. (I still need to find that photo thing that connects the camera to the computer! Ahhhh - technology!)

We enjoyed all of our family visits (to NJ and to NC)... We're just glad to be home and Todd is glad to have us back too!

On the road again

On Wednesday, we were visited by an ol' college friend, Carla, and her 6 year old daughter Bella. They came through Atlanta on a road trip and stayed overnight in Marietta / paid little M a visit. We took some photos -- but -- I'm on a road trip myself and didn't bring the device in which to download pics to the internet. All of us went up to the square so Bella could play on the train and grabbed a bite to eat. While in the restaurant, a complete stranger walked up to us and had heard about Mercer, the adoption, etc. It surprised us / how did he recognize us? From the blog? Lil' M is locally famous! : - )

Mercer and I drove to North Carolina the following morning. (Well, I drove -- Mercer (thankfully) slept most of the way.) We stopped in Greenville for a few hours to visit another college buddy, Cindy. She was my roommate for a number of years and I got to know her family pretty well. We met at her mom's house and hung out with her 5 month old, Trevor. Her 2 year old, Daniel, was asleep taking a nap most of the time. The two boys became fast friends. Ok - they really just stared at each other - but at this age, that counts, right?!

We made it into Liberty really late. Unpacked the car / set up the play yard (with bassinet) / unpacked the luggage and set up a clothing area... a bottle area... and a blanket / burp cloth area... and of course the diaper changing area. Setting up a home away from home is a bit of work. Mercer was reunited with Grandma Gloria and got to meet two of his GREAT Grandparents today. We visited with Great Grandma Inez... and Great Grandpa Melvin. Tomorrow (Saturday), mom is having a drop in for our family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, etc will be popping in to visit the little fella. Sunday - something similar will be happening for my dad's side of the family. His mother (Mercer's other GREAT Grandmother (Edith)), sister, brother, and families will stop by after lunch to pay him a visit.

It's really cool to see how excited everyone is for us by welcoming little M into the family ... FINALLY - right?!

Post more after this weekend... and will see if we can get pictures on the blog somehow.

c

In memory of Kitty

Kitty passed today. Her kidneys had failed and she was not taking well to the flush -- in fact she was reacting opposite of how the vet thought she would. Other animals get more energy after a flush... she was declining. The vet decided to do an ultrasound on her and look inside / see what was going on. They found a big tumor in the area of one of her kidneys. He said she wouldn't make it through the night (her temp was about 10 degrees lower than what it should have been & she still wasn't eating and was extremely weak). We had to make the decision to put her to sleep. I went up there and spent the last few moments with her before she was put under.

Sad day. It was so sudden. Sunday (early in the day) she seemed pretty normal. The vet said that her body just couldn't take any more and sometimes it just gives up suddenly.

She's buried in the back yard next to Frogg. She always liked being next to him. She was always one of those cats who acted like a princess "look at me but don't touch me." But, when Frogg passed a couple of years ago, she became much more affectionate with us... hanging out with us on the couch... loved belly rubs and eating grass.

Mercer didn't really get to know Kitty, but she loved him - we think. She'd rub on him when he was crying. We'll tell him about her when he gets older, though, and show him a picture or two of them both together.

Spit Happens

Well, we can no longer say that Mercer doesn't really spit up. (He had only done it 4 times in the first month and a half of his life.) But - Sunday - he spit up twice with his dad... and today - he spit up twice with me. Oh well. A good thing comes to an end. People we know ALWAYS have extra outfits for their babies... lots of burp cloths... maybe even an extra shirt for themselves. We were hoping that we wouldn't have to pack & lug all of this extra stuff around - but I guess we are not immune.

Kitty (the multi-colored cat shown in the March 20th blog entry) has taken a really bad turn over the weekend. Last week she had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and I mopped the floors multiple times b/c of it. Sunday afternoon - she started having a hard time walking and became extremely lethargic. She suddenly lost a lot of weight too -- maybe because she was not eating, but most likely because she had lost so much fluid. I was up with her much of the night giving her pedialyte (the stuff for kids to replenish electrolytes) and water. I would feed it to her in a dropper so that she could drink a sip or two of something every hour or so... keeping her hydrated 'til this morning. I took her to the vet and they think she has kidney failure and are keeping her for a few days to flush the kidneys / see if it helps. If she takes well to the flush -- we will be required to give her weekly shots of fluid under her skin to maintain a somewhat better life than what she has now. If she doesn't take to the flush, well... we'll have to talk about that later.

Kitty is 14 years old. Let's hope for the best.

I worked a little on the nursery today. Todd picked up the dresser (and put the changing pad on top so it's now a changing table) over the weekend. He also picked up the crib which converts later to a full-sized bed; both pieces of furniture will grow with Mercer.

In the meantime, we have to completely re-arrange the stuff that's in there now & put a lot of things away. We did not have time to clean out all of the non-baby stuff from that room; it's still a mix of objects in there. We still need to caulk the crown moulding, do a little bit of work at the ceiling (this may wait!), and I want to paint the walls some with bubbles and fish to match the bedding and curtains. Once the room looks decent, we'll post some pics to the blog of that. Hope the paint job doesn't look cheesy!

Here's a pic of Mercer with his cowaffe (looks sort of like a giraffe that needs to be milked (with udders on the front!) It's really an elongated cow -- so Todd calls it cowaffe.) Mercer likes it & stares at it / bats at it a little bit.

He's starting to talk to things: the cowaffe, the ceiling fans, his mobile. He says a few vowels at this point -- but that's about it. Sometimes, it sounds like he says "Hi" too.

Early April

Since we've been back from NJ, it's been a busy pretty week.

Monday -- unpacked / cleaned / mopped floors several times (b/c of sick Kitty) / and then cleaned some more preparing for the social worker's first post-placement visit Tuesday.

Her visit went well... she didn't stay long -- just asked some questions about our meetings with the birth mother, our doctor's visits, and how Mercer has changed and developed over the past month and a half. She will have another post-placement meeting with us in early May and a final one in early June. Following all of her visits, the paperwork is filed with the state and we can expect to have Mercer's court hearing -- his official "adoption day" -- sometime in July.

I do have to mention this as an aside... the social worker LOVED Mercer and kept staring at him. She kept saying how beautiful he was (that she's seen lots of babies & always says.... oh your baby is cute (even if they're not) but she thinks he's a stunner -- as do we!) ; - ) She's curious if he has some Native American in him? She's not the first person to ask this (in fact -- she's about the 10th person to ask) WHO KNOWS?! The birth mother doesn't know too much about the birth father -- and certainly doesn't have his background. I don't think we'll ever find out for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did.

Later that evening, Mercer went to a "couples" shower that was thrown in our honor for the little guy. The folks who threw it were a couple of girls from our "Girls in the Hood" group. Spouses and Sig. Others were invited too. Even though we live near some of these folks... it's hard to spend a lot of time really catching up with them -- so it was a great opportunity to do so. Here's a pic of the two hosts (minus their husbands), Courtney & Karen as well as one of the guests -- oh yeah -- and the guest of honor in Karen's arms. At some point in the evening, Mercer and his buddy Jackson needed to take a break with their dads to eat. (If you click on this picture to enlarge it... you can see how intently Mercer is looking at his daddy!)

Wednesday was spent (by me) recovering, honestly... I was pretty worn down & not feeling well from all of the travel, cleaning, and activity of the previous few days. But - Thursday (after visiting the day care with Todd and running some errands) I talked to the folks at work and am SO RELIEVED that they are willing to work with me on my return to work in late May and coming back slowly. Also - I was slated originally to do a couple of trainings out of town & I found out that I'm off the hook for those as well. WHEW. I apologize to anyone who I was in a grumpy mood with earlier in the week. I was tired and stressed out. I was a new person on Thursday!

A few shots for your enjoyment. A shot of Mercer in a cute striped outfit that I picked up at a consignment sale (above)... a shot of the little guy in a sweater that our friend Cecilia knitted for him... and a shot of Todd with M in the back yard checking out the stream (had to get a spring picture in there as the tulips were all in bloom in the back yard).

Have a great rest of the week.

Candice

our big BIG boy....

Guess who just weighed in at 10 lbs?! 10 POUNDS! wow.

I thought that Todd & I would've gained weight while travelling to NJ last week (b/c there's always food there that we try to stay away from, but inevitably can't).... but, thankfully we kept the damage to a minimum. We're a little confused: Mercer's meals comes in a bottle -- so why the weight gain? Maybe some of his cousins pureed some Easter candy into his formula so he'd gain some lbs?! I checked 3 times. On the scale with him / on the scale without him. Yup. It's true.

Ahhh... 10 lbs. He JUST got into the newborn clothes a couple of weeks ago which are earmarked for 7 - 12 lb babies. (He was around 8 or 8 1/2 lbs when he started filling them in a bit.) So, maybe we've got a little more time on the newborn-sized clothes?

Enclosed are pics of Todd's nieces, nephews, sister, mom, cousin, etc. We got pictures with everyone with the exception of one cousin, Tara; when Todd's sister emails it to us - we'll post it... but, Mercer met 6 of his 8 cousins on this trip... his NJ grandma and grandpa... an uncle... and an aunt.

+Top left: Mercer's cousins Meagan & Zach and Uncle Bobby.

+Top right: Meagan and cousin Ryan are subject to some bad gas that Mercer had. They loaned him their brother's Gas Pass. (Click on the photo to enlarge & read the card)

+ at right: Todd's cousin, Tina is teaching Mercer new tricks... she'd stick out her tongue at him / he'd do the same. She'd open her mouth real wide and he'd imitate that as well.

+ at left: Todd's sister, Tonia is rocking Mercer... she pulled much of the overnight shifts and gave us a break / allowed us to get 9 hours of sleep Friday night. yay!

Below:

+Rory Jr and Rory Sr hanging out with lil' M

+Todd's mom (Grandma Groves "GG" or "GiGi") getting in some last-minute Mercer Time. Same for Tonia and Tina (at right).

Home Sweet Home.

We made it home last night from the trip to NJ. THANKFULLY this leg of the trip went without a hitch. Our flight was on time. No luggage was lost. We got the seats that we reserved so we could sit next to one another. (The leg of the trip where Todd's mom flew down -- the flight was cancelled / she was re-routed on a much later flight on a different airline. The leg of the trip where she & I flew to NJ -- it was post-poned 3 times, then I didn't have a seat and when I got one -- it wasn't next to her as we had reserved. The leg of the trip where Todd came to NJ -- his flight was cancelled, so he took another (much later flight) and to boot, the airlines couldn't get his luggage on the plane in that 4 hours where Todd was sitting at the airport.) BOY... glad we don't have to do this again for a long time!

The social worker comes tomorrow morning for her first post-placement visit. We also have a "girls night" party for Mercer tomorrow night (sig. others / children are invited as well). It should be a big day for the not-so-little guy.

Candice

On the go go again....

We're on our way to South Jersey to go to Todd's sister's house. Mercer will meet 5 of his 8 cousins. A couple of days ago, he met one of them - Sam.

Here's a picture of Mercer & Sam, Mercer & his uncle Bobby, and Mercer with his grandpa, Bob.

Post more later.

c

Thesis on Mercer's poo.... April fools!

There's a new color and consistency. I'll spare you the details, but thought it was a grabber of a title.

Mercer & I are in NJ right now. It feels weird being at Todd's parent's house w/out him. Also, usually, all of his neices and nephews are here too... so it's more quiet than normal as well! Yesterday's flight wasn't bad w/ him... he was a bit fussier than he was on his first flight from Denver, but not horrible. We had to post-pone his feeding b/c the flight was delayed 3 times due to bad weather at Newark airport. We were trying to time it out so he'd be sucking on a bottle when we took off and also when we landed so that he wouldn't hurt his ears b/c of the pressure change. We'd feed him a little then take it away to prolong it. It almost turned into a game to see how else we could keep him distracted.

I'll write more about our NJ visit in another blog... I need to see if I can upload pics here on their computer. Meanwhile, here are some photos that were emailed / I have access to.

Here's a picture of Mercer that we are undoubtedly holding onto / showing his prom date! We had some pics taken of him & the photographer put the ears on him. Unfortunately, we got the pics back after Easter & only had a few of these -- so posting on the blog will share with more folks. (you can click on the picture and it should enlarge on your computer.)

I had to include these two pics of guests at the party Saturday night.... look at how they are looking at Mercer. gorgeous smiles! he is loved... and that warms my heart! The hosts took shots of the guests w/ him & are putting it into some sort of little book for us. It's similar, I think, to what we did at our wedding -- polaroids of guests getting onto the boat & asked each to write a sentence or two. It's pretty cool to look through still -- 10 years later. I'm sure we'll feel the same about this book as well.

Goodnight for now.