Mercer's 5 month stats - 75% all the way...

Took Mercer to the doc Friday for a couple of immunizations (we're staggering the shots so he doesn't get them all at once and he is now about a month behind on his "4 month old" shots). In the "frogs and fish" photo here you can see that he's sacked out afterwards. Shots always seems to do that to him. We skipped a party at my office in the afternoon and we skipped the Concert on the Square so we could let baby sleep and sleep as much as he wanted.

His stats were as follows:

17 lbs 8 oz.... 26.5" long.... 17 1/4" circumference for his head. All three categories: 75 percentile compared to other 5 month olds which means he's smaller than 25% of 5 month olds nationally and bigger than 75% of them.

Saturday we had a busy, but fun day. Walked to the square for breakfast and to go to the farmer's market (of course). Then walked home and MADE ice-cream. Seriously! 1st time ever! We had 5 adults and 5 children come over for a cookout / picnic that afternoon. It was very hot and muggy, though, so we had the picnic indoors. The adults sat at the dining room table and kids sat on the floor on a blanket. They thought it was an adventure. Later, we went outside to have ice cream (the kids could add their own toppings).... and they blew off some energy afterwards playing in the rain that came pouring down outside. I think they all had a blast. Here's a couple of the boys, Declan and Aaron, enjoying the porch swing after their run in the rain. Mercer slept through most of it amazingly. (Still zonked after those shots the previous day?)

Sunday we went to church to participate in a baptism of Mercer's buddy, Jackson. We stood up beforehand and presented Jackson to the priest, then carried him back from the altar as his God-parents. We liked the priest who led the sermon and performed the baptism. He told the story of St. James (which is the name of the church) and it happened to be St. James' day. He talked about the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (in Spain). Todd and I went there on our honeymoon... it's the final destination of the great pilgrimage in Europe. It was so cool to re-live our part of our travels through the priest's story! Check it out if you want: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Santiago_de_Compostela

Here's a picture of Mercer sitting on his own (with the help of one of those foamy chairs) and some of the kids at the reception after the baptism. It was a big day for Mercer. He received a blessing that day AND he got throw-up on his foot from baby Brody (in navy). Baby Brody and baby Jackson are both the same age -- born in early November. Quite a size-difference in the two! The guest of honor is trying to negotiate to get his foamy chair back. Mercer's the youngest baby there / not 100% able to sit up on his own yet, so he had to borrow it.

Oh yeah - Mercer ate carrots Sunday (mixed into his rice cereal). He could tell something was different, but did a pretty good job eating it. He was especially messy with his food -- and his diaper did some interesting things today b/c of the carrots last night. I think next week we'll experiment with peas. (I've been reading & it's suggested that you only introduce one new food a week as to see if there are any food allergies.) I'm travelling next week, so I'm going to use jars of baby food that I have on hand - but following the peas, I think I'll dive in and make some baby food!

I think that's about it for now. Wanted to post some of these cute pictures we got over the weekend and update his stats. Have a great week!