we were trying to remember when we started soup night. i think it was in Jan 2002. it begun b/c i had read an article in cooking light magazine about a woman who had been doing this for 20 years one night a week for 3 months. and, after 9-11 2001, it was really important for us to connect with friends that year.
i found on one invitation where we were "bringing soup night back" - which means we didn't have it the year before (due to the renovation to the kitchen. our living room was full of boxes with the kitchen cabinets in them -- and the kitchen was gutted / we didn't have a stove.) doing a little bit of math, i think that this soup night was the 8th one we've done. CRAZY that we've been doing it this long! the demographics have changed quite a bit. the volume is a lot louder as kids run around & scream!
these are some pics taken at the very beginning of the year that we haven't posted yet. mercer is sharing his train with mommy's old teddy bear.
here's a few things going on with the little guy:
mercer is not afraid of the crowd of people at soup night. he does really well. he's pretty social.
he's also become quite the entertainer lately. he has pulled todd and me to sit on the step at the kitchen while he dances around the room. we're his audience and sometimes, he has this funny expression that he does when he's trying to figure out his next move.
- he says "ok" a lot. you ask him a yes / no question... his answer is "ok" - as if you've talked him into something.
- he tries to count. it usually goes something like this: 9. 3. 9.
- we have to step up our baby-proofing efforts soon. he's able to open the door to the hall now.... which mean that he can get to the stairs where his train set is.
- we're branching out on new foods again - exposing him to nuts and chocolate in little bits. chocolate chips in his pancakes & some pumpkin bread that a neighbor brought over... and walnuts in some "carrot cake" pancakes that todd made. so far / so good. don't think he's allergic to either, but we're still going with a little caution. if anyone's interested, here's a link to a recipe that looks similar (ours came from cooking light) http://lunchwithloni.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/carrot-cake-pancakes/
- there are some video links that i meant to post in an earlier blog... last year, mercer was into bows on packages. this year, he was into the paper: http://www.youtube.com/user/ToddGroves#p/a/u/1/CBOLEVY3MF4 and into attacking todd's sister, tonia: http://www.youtube.com/user/ToddGroves#p/a/u/0/oenLzBqFBsU
- at the end of the 2nd video - he's pointing at his nose and his ears. he loves doing that - pointing to his eyes, teeth, hair... and your eyes, nose, ears, teeth, etc
- his vocabulary is growing exponentially. it's pretty amazing to watch. one day he walked over to the wall in the kitchen and it sounded like he said "this is the wall." he was hiding behind me and todd asked: where's mercer. sounded like he said "i'm over here." the phrases aren't totally clear, but - cool that he's putting little sentences together
- we caught a glimpse into the future: one night, mercer threw his pacifier out of the crib & we couldn't find it. (actually, almost a week later, we still haven't found it!) we decided to try to make a go without it. oh - it was painful. after almost an hour of off-and-on crying, we just got another one. as soon as we did, he immediately fell asleep. we've been weaning him off of it a little bit and not let him go to daycare with it (he's in the toddler room now / they don't allow it). sometimes it's a struggle, but he does ok -- and takes a nap there without it. oh - we're not looking forward to the total ban of the paci!
- finally - daycare sent artwork home in his bag on friday. i'm really happy about that!! he got to glue stuff onto paper. he got to do some finger-painting. he got to scribble with crayon. yay! so exciting! can't wait to see what he brings home this week.
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