Home sweet Home

Mercer and I had a good trip -- but it's so nice to be back at home.... I think Todd missed us - although I know he enjoyed a relaxing weekend with the house to himself.

I snuck little M out of the house at 5:30 am on Saturday morning & drove to a family reunion in NC (for a luncheon). We pulled up at 11:57 amazingly. Mercer was awake for the first 1/2 hour of the drive, then fell asleep. He slept 'til 8 / I fed & changed him / he played and slept most of the way to NC. He only had a melt-down about 15 minutes before I arrived at the reunion. I was SO thankful the meltdown didn't occur earlier! The reunion went well. A lot of people knew Mercer from the blog. (It was kinda like cheers where everyone yelled "Norm" when walking in. It seemed like he got a similar reception when we arrived!)

It was nice seeing family members who we haven't seen in awhile and catch up on what extended family is up to. Aunts / Uncles / and my grandmother (Mercer's great-grandmother). It may take us awhile (for those family members checking the blog who weren't able to make the reunion) for us to get some of the videos posted. (Todd downloads them from the camera / edits them / adds graphics / uploads them to YouTube.) I'll add links to some clips once that process happens.

Sunday - my mom had family over. Cousins / an aunt / an uncle / my grandma & grandpa (Mercer's great-grandma & great-grandpa) came over. My grandma was in a rehabilitation center last month for a broken leg and recently came home. SO GOOD to see her!! Here's a shot of Mercer playing with my grandpa's beard. He was fascinated with it. Lots and lots of people held Mercer and played with him over the two days. He did great during the day, but poor little guy got tired each afternoon. Don't know if he was tired from the handling or from teething & not sleeping at night. (Mercer's been sleeping through the night pretty well for awhile... but not for the past week.) Although, he did put himself to sleep one night by watching a light show / listening to lullabies from this little music box that someone sent him. That was pretty cool. We WILL be trying this again.

We finished our trip with a visit to the great-grandparents again on Monday, then headed home today. We left at a reasonable time today - and Mercer was perfect. He talked and played and slept 'til we got to Greenville. We had lunch with my friend Cindy, her son Daniel, and youngest son Trevor. Mercer was good enough to get back in the car seat... play / talk / sleep 'til we got home. I was so glad it went as well as it did! (Doesn't he look comfortable here?)

We'll have some video of various events of the long weekend on here soon. Check back later!