Mercer's 7.25 month stats...

We're a bit stunned. We feel like Mercer's getting bigger, however, he weighs only 20 lbs (we thought for sure 23 - 24.) At his 5 month visit he was just over 17 lbs... so he's really only gained 2 1/2 lbs in the past 2 months. The doc says that everything looks good and that he's consistently been following the 75% curve in weight and height. He's growing normally... and, truth be told, the curve is steep to begin with then somewhat flattens out if you look at it on the chart.

Mercer's now 28 1/2" long. 20 lbs even.

We did an unofficial weight a month or so ago and he was 20 lbs so we changed out the car seat. Kind of hard to imagine that he's tapering off because he looks so much bigger now.

Last weekend, we took a trip north of where we live. I bought this cute "walking wagon" off of Craig's List for 1/4 the price (literally) as a new one. That's significant when you consider that I saved over 60 bucks on this thing buying "slightly used" wagon!! It was worth the 1 gallon of gas to go pick it up (yes - even during our gas crisis!) And - better yet - it's a nice (heirloom) quality that we can save for Mercer's kids... and it didn't end up in a landfill. A win-win-win. I "may" have been able to buy a big bulky plastic walker used for the same price -- so I was THRILLED with this purchase!!

We went to a pond store north of our house too, then headed home. We didn't stay on our road-trip long because I wasn't feeling too well over the weekend. The only "non-errand" stop we made was in a town called Ballground, GA. We wandered around for about 10-15 minutes on their main street and through an antique store and also fed Mercer in the park. There were people hanging up balloons -- so we asked what the celebration was for? Ballground was celebrating it's 125th birthday.

Todd was in Asheville yesterday and today for work. This posed a couple of challenges.

1 - gas crisis. When he got a rental car, would it have gas in it? If not, where would he get it? (Well, we found gas on our trip north & filled up the car while there -- and Todd scoped out stations for his drive to Asheville.) If he could just make it back to where we were over the weekend -- he would make it to Asheville and part way back. He filled up there... then found more gas outside of Asheville to top off / make sure that he could definitely get back home. Yay! Last week, that mountain town in NC didn't have gas -- and his boss almost got stuck up there. But, it all worked out well / Todd's home now.

2 - I couldn't pick up Mercer. But -- I had a neighbor come over and go with me to daycare to pick Mercer up. She also stuck around to feed him. A co-worker of mine had a little bit of overlap and helped out with the feeding / gave him a bath / changed him / helped me get him to bed. She stayed the night & helped out this morning too getting him ready and dropping him off at daycare. A different neighbor came over to help me pick him up today, feed him, put him down for a nap, then get him in the stroller so we could go for a walk. That's when Todd pulled in the driveway.

So - we both "survived" his trip away... and I had fun catching up with some girls I don't get to spend much time with.

I go to the doc tomorrow for my post-op appointment. I'll find out if I'm allowed to drive and go back to work. (Although - since I've been off the pain meds all week (Sunday was the last I've taken) I did drive to & from daycare Monday / Tuesday... drove slow... took surface roads. I think it's ok!)

I need to crash, but wanted to share Mercer's new stats and the cute pic of his wagon. We're going to have lots of fun with it!