I blogged yesterday about something exciting (if you haven't read that yet -- don't forget to read that one). Three posts in the last 4 days!!!
Today - we have videos to add:
Mercer on a swing set (first time -- video from about a month ago)... he looks like he's holding on for dear life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzok7VuLne4
Mercer and Todd singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oStSDxlKCI (this video was also taken about a month ago)
And more video of M in the Johnny Jumper. He's wearing shoes this time -- and we think he was really excited because he had different leverage than he usually does in socks. About 30 seconds into it he's really squealing and jumping high. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiIxZwOKfYQ
Mercer playing catch (and a little bit of clapping in the end). Video taken earlier this month: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7muT4Bks_k
Some high-fives and claps (a couple of weeks ago): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4WmZbTQASQ
And video with Mercer chewing on Sophie the Girraffe -- a (bpa-free) "classic" teething toy. If you watch the last 5 - 10 seconds of the video, you get a clear shot of his two top teeth. (This video was taken Oct 17th. He's popped out another top tooth now, though, so there's even more white in his mouth than what you'll see in the video.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvpaYipVnx4
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Mercer did 3 things that I think "count"
1. This morning, he looked at me and said "ma."
2. He turned a few moments later and looked at Todd and said "da."
3. This afternoon, I said "ma ma" and he repeated me. I did it again. He repeated me again. I tried it a third time and he only said "mmm"
Does that count?!
He's been saying ....da da da... da da dddd... daaaa... da da da... for a long time... just babbling -- we think because he learned how to make his mouth say "d" sounds. He's been saying ....ma ma mmmm..... maaa.... ma ma ma..... mmmm.... for awhile. He had learned how to make "m" sounds. I think we blogged when he did "b" sounds....
But we never claimed that he said a word -- 'til now? (again - don't know if it counts, but I feel like he's sort of communicating with us with his recognition of "ma" and his recognition of "da")
Another thing that he's been doing / I got to see on Thursday -- he waved to me. Todd says that at the daycare he's been doing it some. Sticks his arm in the air and shakes it a little. Oh... it warmed my heart when he did it earlier this week.
And - I dont' think I mentioned that he's got a 5th tooth. It's on the top. (It started pushing out last weekend during the whole "fever" episode... it's pretty visible now.) 3 on the top. 2 on the bottom now (which were the first two teeth and are getting pretty big.)
I'll see if Todd can get those videos on YouTube today or tomorrow. I'll post when they're up. He's good. Happy. Jumping around in his Johnny Jumper right now. He still loves that thing -- and since he hit a weight plateau, he's been able to use it longer than we thought he would.
Candice
2. He turned a few moments later and looked at Todd and said "da."
3. This afternoon, I said "ma ma" and he repeated me. I did it again. He repeated me again. I tried it a third time and he only said "mmm"
Does that count?!
He's been saying ....da da da... da da dddd... daaaa... da da da... for a long time... just babbling -- we think because he learned how to make his mouth say "d" sounds. He's been saying ....ma ma mmmm..... maaa.... ma ma ma..... mmmm.... for awhile. He had learned how to make "m" sounds. I think we blogged when he did "b" sounds....
But we never claimed that he said a word -- 'til now? (again - don't know if it counts, but I feel like he's sort of communicating with us with his recognition of "ma" and his recognition of "da")
Another thing that he's been doing / I got to see on Thursday -- he waved to me. Todd says that at the daycare he's been doing it some. Sticks his arm in the air and shakes it a little. Oh... it warmed my heart when he did it earlier this week.
And - I dont' think I mentioned that he's got a 5th tooth. It's on the top. (It started pushing out last weekend during the whole "fever" episode... it's pretty visible now.) 3 on the top. 2 on the bottom now (which were the first two teeth and are getting pretty big.)
I'll see if Todd can get those videos on YouTube today or tomorrow. I'll post when they're up. He's good. Happy. Jumping around in his Johnny Jumper right now. He still loves that thing -- and since he hit a weight plateau, he's been able to use it longer than we thought he would.
Candice
Thursday, October 23, 2008
8 months old today
I got a text from Danielle today. Had to tell her that Mercer's been sick. (Friday night he had a high fever 102+. We called the 24 hour nurse line / had to take his temp every 4 hours... The fever broke Saturday morning. We went to the square for a Harvest Festival they had / grabbed lunch / then felt that he had a fever again so we went home instead of sticking around. He had it overnight Saturday again... so Sunday morning - back on the phone with the 24 hour phone nurse. They told us to call the pediatrician on Monday morning. They weren't too concerned. (New for us, so we WERE concerned.) The pediatrician said that - if on Monday night - his fever hadn't broke (72 hours) bring him in Tuesday morning. Monday night it was over 103 (we gave him a cool bath promptly which helped a lot). Todd took him in Tuesday morning and found out that he had an ear infection. Mercer never acted like he felt bad. A little crabby sometimes, but not grabbing his ears or anything. So, when / if he gets one again... don't know how we'll tell!
We really haven't been doing much. Partly b/c of economy stuff... partly b/c Mercer was not feeling well. I went to a kid's bday party without him on Sunday. Some of the neighbor kids up the street (3 year old twins and their 1 year old brother, Brody, who's been on the blog before) had a recent birthday / had a party. But I didn't stay long. (It's not as fun without the kid in tow!)
This weekend, we'll probably decorate for Halloween, carve a pumpkin, and stay low-key again. Hope all of you guys are doing great out there. I've been really busy and feel out of touch with a lot of people these days. Take care. Candice
We really haven't been doing much. Partly b/c of economy stuff... partly b/c Mercer was not feeling well. I went to a kid's bday party without him on Sunday. Some of the neighbor kids up the street (3 year old twins and their 1 year old brother, Brody, who's been on the blog before) had a recent birthday / had a party. But I didn't stay long. (It's not as fun without the kid in tow!)
This weekend, we'll probably decorate for Halloween, carve a pumpkin, and stay low-key again. Hope all of you guys are doing great out there. I've been really busy and feel out of touch with a lot of people these days. Take care. Candice
Friday, October 17, 2008
Finally scanned that pic from the birth mother and other...
I've been SUPER busy the past week. Turning my attention from (and recovering from) the trip to SC last week... turning my attention to my big meeting in CO this week. It's ironic that my friend Carla wrote about Girl Scout cookies in her comment to last week's post.... b/c that's who I was meeting with in Colorado! We didn't talk about cookies (but for only a few minutes) but we did talk about sustainability with facilities that they're involved with (with delegates from across the country representing buildings nationwide) and we did have a conversation about greening more than just buildings... so -- I won't say anything more (I shouldn't) but do look for in the next 1 - 2 years (if Bella is still pushing cookies) something more substantive that goes along with the cookie sales!! They did tell me, too, that their packaging was modified to reduce the amount of it -- and that there are 2 cookie manufacturers / the councils in ea state get to choose which manufacturer to use. One of the manufacturers rolled out an enviro-friendly mascot and message. Got to see the literature. It was cute.
(also - a message for my dad's side of the family - unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see my cousin Josh while in Denver. I worked 'til an insane hour at night... and got up at an even more insane hour in the morning to continue working on the PowerPoint. Mercer's birth mother and my step-sister's son are in Colorado Springs 45 minutes south of where I was... and I knew going into this meeting that I wouldn't be able to get down there (no transportation). So, we'll have to plan another trip out there where we can spend some time!)
Thankfully, I did not have as bad a recovery from this trip this week. I wasn't feeling well the day before (probably nerves more than anything b/c I was leading an all-day meeting on something different than what I'm used to!)... felt good that day... and felt pretty decent the day after (yesterday). So, it seems as if my body is healing. (I worked 51 hours last week and was DEAD. I worked 53 so far this week and feel fine. -- NOPE -- that's not part-time, but I may have to go back to full-time anyways. Todd's office had some lay-offs. He still has his job, but each employee still employed was affected with cut-backs in benefits and pay. So -- I "think" I can handle the increase in work if I need to. (I really don't want to, though, because I'm just getting to the point where I can really reconnect with Mercer!) ugh.
I have 1 1/2 weeks to go before I get my "all clear" to pick up the baby / start caring for him again. He got his 4th tooth. 2 on the bottom AND 2 on the top now. He'll be able to eat baby food with chunks of stuff in it soon. He's moving on up! He claps a lot now and has this huge grin on his face when he does it. (I think he's just impressed with the noise he can make!) We've tried to get it on video / we'll see if we can post a link over the weekend of that.
He likes hitting the floor when we put him down to play (and maybe crawl?). Again - impressed with the noise, I think! He's still not crawling, but he does rock back-and-forth... and now he can get his butt in the air and his legs under him a little... but he still scootches backwards mostly.
As promised: here's the photo that I mentioned in last week's blog. The birth mother got her phone fixed and texted me with her new number. I asked her if that was Mercer's first day of life or second. In this pic, he is two days old. He looks SO SO DIFFERENT! He even looks different than when we saw him late that night of his 2nd day! Also, remember, those clothes are Preemie --- and they're too big on him! Crazy how small he was and how much he's changed in these last 7 3/4 months!
Have a good weekend. C
(also - a message for my dad's side of the family - unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see my cousin Josh while in Denver. I worked 'til an insane hour at night... and got up at an even more insane hour in the morning to continue working on the PowerPoint. Mercer's birth mother and my step-sister's son are in Colorado Springs 45 minutes south of where I was... and I knew going into this meeting that I wouldn't be able to get down there (no transportation). So, we'll have to plan another trip out there where we can spend some time!)
Thankfully, I did not have as bad a recovery from this trip this week. I wasn't feeling well the day before (probably nerves more than anything b/c I was leading an all-day meeting on something different than what I'm used to!)... felt good that day... and felt pretty decent the day after (yesterday). So, it seems as if my body is healing. (I worked 51 hours last week and was DEAD. I worked 53 so far this week and feel fine. -- NOPE -- that's not part-time, but I may have to go back to full-time anyways. Todd's office had some lay-offs. He still has his job, but each employee still employed was affected with cut-backs in benefits and pay. So -- I "think" I can handle the increase in work if I need to. (I really don't want to, though, because I'm just getting to the point where I can really reconnect with Mercer!) ugh.
I have 1 1/2 weeks to go before I get my "all clear" to pick up the baby / start caring for him again. He got his 4th tooth. 2 on the bottom AND 2 on the top now. He'll be able to eat baby food with chunks of stuff in it soon. He's moving on up! He claps a lot now and has this huge grin on his face when he does it. (I think he's just impressed with the noise he can make!) We've tried to get it on video / we'll see if we can post a link over the weekend of that.
He likes hitting the floor when we put him down to play (and maybe crawl?). Again - impressed with the noise, I think! He's still not crawling, but he does rock back-and-forth... and now he can get his butt in the air and his legs under him a little... but he still scootches backwards mostly.
As promised: here's the photo that I mentioned in last week's blog. The birth mother got her phone fixed and texted me with her new number. I asked her if that was Mercer's first day of life or second. In this pic, he is two days old. He looks SO SO DIFFERENT! He even looks different than when we saw him late that night of his 2nd day! Also, remember, those clothes are Preemie --- and they're too big on him! Crazy how small he was and how much he's changed in these last 7 3/4 months!Have a good weekend. C
Friday, October 10, 2008
We got a letter from the birthmother
I wanted to post a couple of days ago because we got a letter from the birthmother (but I was REALLY busy this week / preparing to go out of town for a work trip - so it had to wait 'til now).
I'd lost touch with her again for awhile. My cell phone texting was all wonky. I tried customer service a couple of times to fix it, but had to go into an actual store / have them do some things to the phone. It works now, and I texted Danielle several times to let her know that I was back up-and-running, but never heard from her. She emailed last week and said that her phone was on the fritz again and she'll get it fixed soon. WHEW! Todd and I just didn't want her to think that we were not in communicato on our end.
When she emailed she said she dropped a card in the mail. It was really sweet. If I may, I'll share with you what she wrote (and - yes - it did make me a little misty-eyed).
"Hello, I just want to say Hi. I love all of the photos you guys have been sending. He is getting so big. I'm glad he's doing well. I couldn't have found a better home for Mercer than you guys. He means the world to me and I'm thankful that you & Todd are taking great care of Mercer. Please continue to keep me updated. I'm doing well and I hope you, Todd, and Mercer are doing well. Talk to you soon. -- Danielle --"
Even typing it out now (after having read it several times) still "gets me." : - )
I think it's pretty cool.
"P.S. I sent some of his hospital pictures for you."
She did. She included some copies of a photo taken in the hospital. I'm not sure if he's 1 day old or 2 days old in the picture. I'll try to scan it over the weekend & post it -- but he looks SO DIFFERENT!!!
Last weekend, I went all the way back to February's blog posts and copied all of the entries / put them on our computer hard drive to save. Looking back to those early days it's so amazing how little he was, how different he looked, how much he has changed in the past 7 1/2 months!
____
Ok. So you may notice what time this blog post is. Yes - I'm up in the middle of the night. Ugh. I am exhausted, and I desperately need sleep, but I woke up a couple hours after going to bed, put a heating pad on the area where the surgery was, took a couple of Aleeve, but... 3 hours later... no good still.
I guess I over-did it this week? I worked late on Tuesday (I went to an "Earth Faire" for teachers and school principals / sat at a booth telling people about how to save energy and water in their schools to [thankfully] VERY interested attendees - you'll understand this comment if you read the whole blog). I went out of town on Wednesday for work. Worked until about midnight on a powerpoint. Presented it on Thursday with a group of my co-workers at an all-day meeting in South Carolina. Rode home. (I didn't drive at all or lift my luggage or anything. I sat down during the training when I felt tired (which was only about 1 hour off-and-on, honestly) so I'm not sure why I'm feeling some pain tonight?) With the exception of some time yesterday morning (and some Aleeve), I felt great all day. Had a lot of energy. Was up-beat.
I have a speaking engagement (a short one) on Saturday. And one next week in Colorado that's another all-day one. I'm somewhat bummed that the recovery is taking longer than I expected. It's been 3 1/2 weeks... but we were sold on that "2 week recovery" time. I do think that I hit it hard after 2 weeks going back to work (again - mostly from home) but my hours were pretty high last week. They'll be very high this week. And pretty high again next. Higher than my "part-time." I do have a light at the end of this tunnel. I can scale back and take a bit of a break after Colorado!
____
One final thing, then I'll wrap this blog post up.
I'm not too happy about this, but as Todd says: welcome to "school."
Mercer's day care (a Montessori school) sent home a form this week for a Cookie Dough Fundraiser.
[Major Side-track: For my "green-building" work that I do, I went to a PTA leadership conference a couple of years ago (we were given free registration and asked to set up a booth / provide info to the PTA folks across the state on green schools). I was actually excited -- get to to a little outreach... talk to people... get out of the office.. sit in a booth at a trade show (I had never done it / I thought it may be fun?).
My co-worker and I were so turned off by the number of booths there pushing stuff for sale... basically... fund-raisers. There were maybe 80 - 100 vendors at the trade show and only about 5 or 6 of us were there with any substance. The rest - literally - were "bribing" the attendees with cookies, pizza (for dough sales), candy, flashy sparkly light-up toys (ugh), wrapping paper, etc.
We were there ALL DAY, but after the first 1/2 hour, we were both ready to leave because we were so over-run with visual bombardment (and amazed at how the attendees were "trolling" for all of the free stuff they got). It was really traumatic!]
So, with that, I will ask if anyone is at all interested in buying a tub of frozen cookie dough. This will be my only sales pitch (wow - following that paragraph above... I'm really bad at sales)~
There's Chocolate Chunk, Macadamia White Chip, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk, M&M, Oatmeal Raisin, "Monster" which has a combo of chocolate and PNB, Snickerdoodle, and one called "Fun Dough." They show a blue happy face with red hair and smile / yellow & red eyes / green nose. They show a colorful sail boat cookie too. I guess the "Fun Dough" is a colored sugar cookie dough and the kids can make what-ever they want out of it before baking? Price ranges from $13 - $16 a tub. (Cookie orders and $$ are due by the 21st of Oct.) Looks like there's enough dough for 8 dozen bite-size or 4 dozen medium cookies. DON'T FEEL OBLIGED at all. I am just doing my "parental" duty by asking, I suppose.
But... for each kid who sells over 5 tubs... they get to participate in an ice-cream party. (What peer pressure - who wants their kid watching as everyone else eats ice-cream?!)
OH WAIT! MERCER CAN'T EAT ICE-CREAM. HE CAN'T EVEN EAT THESE COOKIES!!
oh - I'm SOOOO not going to enjoy this fund-raising stuff in the coming years, I can tell already!! Maybe I should work on finding a more meaningful fund-raiser for next year for the school?
I'd lost touch with her again for awhile. My cell phone texting was all wonky. I tried customer service a couple of times to fix it, but had to go into an actual store / have them do some things to the phone. It works now, and I texted Danielle several times to let her know that I was back up-and-running, but never heard from her. She emailed last week and said that her phone was on the fritz again and she'll get it fixed soon. WHEW! Todd and I just didn't want her to think that we were not in communicato on our end.
When she emailed she said she dropped a card in the mail. It was really sweet. If I may, I'll share with you what she wrote (and - yes - it did make me a little misty-eyed).
"Hello, I just want to say Hi. I love all of the photos you guys have been sending. He is getting so big. I'm glad he's doing well. I couldn't have found a better home for Mercer than you guys. He means the world to me and I'm thankful that you & Todd are taking great care of Mercer. Please continue to keep me updated. I'm doing well and I hope you, Todd, and Mercer are doing well. Talk to you soon. -- Danielle --"
Even typing it out now (after having read it several times) still "gets me." : - )
I think it's pretty cool.
"P.S. I sent some of his hospital pictures for you."
She did. She included some copies of a photo taken in the hospital. I'm not sure if he's 1 day old or 2 days old in the picture. I'll try to scan it over the weekend & post it -- but he looks SO DIFFERENT!!!
Last weekend, I went all the way back to February's blog posts and copied all of the entries / put them on our computer hard drive to save. Looking back to those early days it's so amazing how little he was, how different he looked, how much he has changed in the past 7 1/2 months!
____
Ok. So you may notice what time this blog post is. Yes - I'm up in the middle of the night. Ugh. I am exhausted, and I desperately need sleep, but I woke up a couple hours after going to bed, put a heating pad on the area where the surgery was, took a couple of Aleeve, but... 3 hours later... no good still.
I guess I over-did it this week? I worked late on Tuesday (I went to an "Earth Faire" for teachers and school principals / sat at a booth telling people about how to save energy and water in their schools to [thankfully] VERY interested attendees - you'll understand this comment if you read the whole blog). I went out of town on Wednesday for work. Worked until about midnight on a powerpoint. Presented it on Thursday with a group of my co-workers at an all-day meeting in South Carolina. Rode home. (I didn't drive at all or lift my luggage or anything. I sat down during the training when I felt tired (which was only about 1 hour off-and-on, honestly) so I'm not sure why I'm feeling some pain tonight?) With the exception of some time yesterday morning (and some Aleeve), I felt great all day. Had a lot of energy. Was up-beat.
I have a speaking engagement (a short one) on Saturday. And one next week in Colorado that's another all-day one. I'm somewhat bummed that the recovery is taking longer than I expected. It's been 3 1/2 weeks... but we were sold on that "2 week recovery" time. I do think that I hit it hard after 2 weeks going back to work (again - mostly from home) but my hours were pretty high last week. They'll be very high this week. And pretty high again next. Higher than my "part-time." I do have a light at the end of this tunnel. I can scale back and take a bit of a break after Colorado!
____
One final thing, then I'll wrap this blog post up.
I'm not too happy about this, but as Todd says: welcome to "school."
Mercer's day care (a Montessori school) sent home a form this week for a Cookie Dough Fundraiser.
[Major Side-track: For my "green-building" work that I do, I went to a PTA leadership conference a couple of years ago (we were given free registration and asked to set up a booth / provide info to the PTA folks across the state on green schools). I was actually excited -- get to to a little outreach... talk to people... get out of the office.. sit in a booth at a trade show (I had never done it / I thought it may be fun?).
My co-worker and I were so turned off by the number of booths there pushing stuff for sale... basically... fund-raisers. There were maybe 80 - 100 vendors at the trade show and only about 5 or 6 of us were there with any substance. The rest - literally - were "bribing" the attendees with cookies, pizza (for dough sales), candy, flashy sparkly light-up toys (ugh), wrapping paper, etc.
We were there ALL DAY, but after the first 1/2 hour, we were both ready to leave because we were so over-run with visual bombardment (and amazed at how the attendees were "trolling" for all of the free stuff they got). It was really traumatic!]
So, with that, I will ask if anyone is at all interested in buying a tub of frozen cookie dough. This will be my only sales pitch (wow - following that paragraph above... I'm really bad at sales)~
There's Chocolate Chunk, Macadamia White Chip, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk, M&M, Oatmeal Raisin, "Monster" which has a combo of chocolate and PNB, Snickerdoodle, and one called "Fun Dough." They show a blue happy face with red hair and smile / yellow & red eyes / green nose. They show a colorful sail boat cookie too. I guess the "Fun Dough" is a colored sugar cookie dough and the kids can make what-ever they want out of it before baking? Price ranges from $13 - $16 a tub. (Cookie orders and $$ are due by the 21st of Oct.) Looks like there's enough dough for 8 dozen bite-size or 4 dozen medium cookies. DON'T FEEL OBLIGED at all. I am just doing my "parental" duty by asking, I suppose.
But... for each kid who sells over 5 tubs... they get to participate in an ice-cream party. (What peer pressure - who wants their kid watching as everyone else eats ice-cream?!)
OH WAIT! MERCER CAN'T EAT ICE-CREAM. HE CAN'T EVEN EAT THESE COOKIES!!
oh - I'm SOOOO not going to enjoy this fund-raising stuff in the coming years, I can tell already!! Maybe I should work on finding a more meaningful fund-raiser for next year for the school?
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Our Little Pumpkin
Mercer got another tooth this week -- this one is on the top. He has 3 now.
I worked a lot... back to a full week (from home -- which I could really get used to!!) I heard that they're starting to pilot a Teleworking policy at my office... I hope that I get to test-drive the program!
This morning, we took a tour of the Kennesaw Gardens - a facility that hosts events. It was a part of a state solar tour that my office was a part of. They have a solar array on their banquet hall, a dual-flush toilet, and "green" catering. We learned that the tax incentives that were set to expire at the end of this year on solar were a part of the bail-out package that was passed and they've been extended 8 years. (Federal - 30% tax credit - (not deduction) and Georgia 35% tax credit. Basically whatever the price is -- it's going to cost about 1/2 in the end. We have talked about a couple of eco-improvements to make to the house, but solar is still expensive. We - if we do something - will need to wait 'til next spring or summer.
This afternoon, we went and picked up a pumpkin to carve. There's a farm about 20 miles away that has a pumpkin patch, a corn maze (maize), farm tours, hay rides, pony rides, and bon-fires. We've done the corn maize one year, but this year, we just went to pick up a pumpkin. 
And - we got a number of good shots of Mercer, although he was very distracted by people walking by. In future years, we'll definitely go back and participate in some of the other events.
The weather is really great these days / we wanted to do some things outdoors. October will be a fun month, as it seems that there are a lot of festivals and things going on!
Enjoy the shots. Candice
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