This is the 200th blog! Mercer is 23 months old tomorrow.

Wow. 200 blog posts (according to the blogger dashboard!)

Mercer has changed so much over the course of these posts. He's not a baby anymore. He's not yet two, however, he's got "terrible twos" nailed down! He's mastered tantrums. He can go bone-less in a second and drop to the floor. Oh - it's been such a trying week for Todd and me as Mercer has now added biting to his repertoire. So far we've been able to avoid damage.

I think part of why it's been such a tough week, too, is because we're more in tune with what all is going on in Haiti after the earthquake. Watching it unfold has been heart-wrenching... especially seeing the children coping with the disaster. Don't know if it's because now I'm a mother that I think about the children... and the stories of mothers digging through the rubble searching for their babies. It's incomprehensible. I feel helpless here - but I can't imagine what it's like there on-the-ground. Obviously there are ways to give... I just learned about one that was interesting: providing solar cookers and water pasteurization systems for families. http://solarcookers.org/

Speaking of cooking... Mercer has taken a real interest in activities in the kitchen. We've rigged a booster seat in the bar stool so that he can sit up high and watch me cook (a safe distance from the stove or the counter where I'm chopping veggies). Here, he's helping out with pancakes (he pats them with the turner after we flip them).

We got him a little set of wooden vegetables that he can chop himself. He seems into it. He's always saying "I do it."

Mercer jumped on the bed for the first time this week. Last week, I saw him picking his nose! (But I didn't make a big deal about it / haven't seen him do it again). He drew on the wall for the first time this week. He keeps pointing to it and saying "Daddy." Is this the first time he's blaming someone for something? We're trying to teach him to say I love you. Sometimes he whispers back to me something that sounds like I know. He's taking an interest in potty-training. So far, he's just sitting on the little potty in his diaper. He also keeps putting toys in the pot. We'll have to make sure he stops doing this once he's sitting on it without his diaper!

Here, he and some of his friends have jumped on Todd at a soup night. It's been tough wrangling with the little guy, but he's definitely a lot of fun. It's hard work, but great at the same time! We'll see what adventure awaits us in the coming weeks. - candice