Some updates on Mercer

Last weekend, we went to a fundraiser for Mercer's daycare.  There was a glitch in the arrangements, but several of the families from the school showed up at Chuck-e-Cheese's on the designated night.  At that point you cannot leave -- telling your kid that there was a mistake in the coordination.  We had to stick it out.  Actually, the restaurant wasn't as gross as it seemed last year for the same fundraiser.  AND on a positive note, I got to spend some time with the mother of one of Mercer's friends (Gabriel) that I have been wanting to get to know better, for we are in a similar industry.  Stacy and I had a bit of time to talk while the boys and the dads played games at the restaurant.  (Um.  not quite sure what is going on in this picture, but it was one caught at an impromptu moment.  And - yes - they're both wearing green on purpose.  They had a St. Patrick's day party that day at school.)    


Updates on Mercer:

• Mercer had a dentist appointment last week.  ALL GOOD. 
• He had a pediatrician appointment last week.  ALL GOOD.  Mercer is almost 43" tall (91% of other 4 year olds) and is 41 lbs (83% of others).  They took Mercer's blood pressure, had him pee in a cup (which actually went much better than initially thought), did a hearing & vision test, and asked about things that he is capable of such as riding a tricycle, cutting paper with scissors, and using his imagination. 
• Todd & I had a parent-teacher conference today with Mercer's teacher... and we are happy to say that it was ALL GOOD too!  The teacher said that he is much better behaved than he was in the fall when she started working with him.  He is kind and considerate.  He is excelling in his numbers and sounds.  He doesn't seem to want to color, but he does well with coloring when it is associated with counting and color in the images that have "words that start with the letter....."  She actually said that he likes to do his school work now -- he WANTS to do the activities.  whew~  He has learned his days of the week / the months / they're learning continents / counting "in the teens" still needs a little work (he always skips 16) and has mastered all of the letters of the alphabet.  On our end - we notice he likes to do letters / numbers / days of the week / etc in "order."  He gets frustrated when going out of order, but she said that's normal -- all kids learn that way.  Needless to say, we were pretty pleased.

We're switching Mercer's extracurricular sports activity from Tuesdays after school to a soccer skills class on Saturday mornings at a county-run soccer complex.  We like the class at his school because of the exposure to a lot of different sports.  We wanted, however, to focus on one activity and go ahead / throw our hat in the ring of organized sports and playing on a team.   

He had his first soccer lesson this past Saturday.  Each child got a ball.  They started out touching the ball with their foot in different ways so they can stretch out different muscles + experience how the ball feels on the top and bottom of the foot.  They did some lateral "ladder" drills too.... all fundamentals that the coach says will build skills.   The lesson was followed by a little free-for-all where the kids just ran kicking a ball and getting it in either goal.  Mercer did not participate very much because he was upset that he could not use HIS ball... all of the kids had to kick around the ONE ball on the field.  Interestingly, most of the kids wanted to do these things while holding a parent's hand. We are very interested to see his progress in this towards the end of the season... much like the noted improvement in his schooling over time.  We're sure he'll become more independent and more confident in this.

There are a couple of things that he's saying now that's funny: 
     - "ink worm" is inch worm.  (They're all around and we've been having lots of fun with them)
     - "cinnamon car" is M and M car.  (There's a game that he and Todd has been playing and there's an animated M and M car in it.)