Friday, July 11, 2014

pre-vacation post

before I forget to jot down these things the kids are doing....

- Mercer started to become embarrassed by me (when dropping him off at camp this week, he didn't want to give his mom a kiss or a hug bye).  The "adult" in charge there told Mercer that he's 21 and he still gives his mom a kiss.  
- Also, when talking to Mercer sometimes, he is sarcastic and rolls his eyes a little.  He does it trying to be goofy.... not being disrespectful.  
- Isabella LOVES putting on layers and layers of clothes.  Mostly on her legs and arms.  Here in this series, she's "helping" me (un)fold laundry.  Pants / shirts / PJs / socks / hats / etc.  (There's a red sweater on one foot and she's working on putting a pair of Mercer's underwear over another!)


- Mercer will carry an arm-full of stuffed animals (including froggy) downstairs when he comes down from bed.  He still has a tender side to him!
- Isabella gets so giddy when bigger kids run past her or actually play with her.  Recently, Mercer was chasing her (over and over again) and she clamored to Todd each time for him to protect her -- the whole time giggling.  It's adorable.    
- She is starting to say a handful of words.  "Happy." "Apple." "Boppy." (what daycare calls a pacifier)  If you mention a word followed by the word "say" -- she will try to say it!  She knows she's supposed to repeat whatever word is spoken!  It's pretty cool.  Seems that her vocabulary has taken a huge jump in the past week or so.

Mercer lost his other front tooth.  I'm sure we'll snap a picture of him at some point soon with his toothless grin!  



Here are some shots of Mercer in front of "our" corn at the community garden.  He and I planted 3 rows in a section of the garden that's been converted to larger-scale farming plots.  It has been astounding watching the tiny seeds emerge from the ground.  Then it growing knee-high.  Then surpassing Mercer's height and now ours.  The last photo was taken on July 4th.  Here are a couple of other photos from the garden on the 4th (ring around the hub-cap flowers!)
 














We went to the parade on the square.  It was the typical small-town affair with a bunch of politicians, beauty queens, and "little miss" beauty queens.  There was only 1 marching band.  The corvette club rode.  So did the mustang club.  City vehicles (even some historic ones).  

There was a "lawn-chair brigade" which was entertaining (this was an odd juxtaposition of some antebellum parade participants walking back up the route in front of the lawn-chair guys in their tuxedo t-shirts.)  


We ended up at a friend-of-a-friend's house for a party later that evening.  It was at the same house that we were at many years ago for an Easter egg hunt.  (Pictures of Mercer learning how to walk / holding plastic eggs.)  The family had just put in a pool with hot tub and waterfall among the terraced walls. Mercer barely got out of the pool long enough to eat dinner.  We left in the nick of time to catch fireworks back on our side of the square with neighbors.

Isabella wasn't afraid of them.  She watched for a little bit, then after awhile seemed bored and wanted to go through her diaper bag!  Todd and I watched fireflies in the back yard for awhile while and caught glimpses of the neighbors shooting off fireworks behind our house.  After everything was cancelled last year at the 4th, it was wonderful having perfect weather to celebrate this great nation!!



Forgot to add this picture earlier when talking about the butterfly exhibit.  The butterflies were ordered from hatcheries and shipped via FedEX in a styrofoam cooler on a block of ice.  They come flat in wax envelopes and basically sleeping on the journey to our tent.  To release them, they need to warm up a little so the blood gets pumping through their wings.  Then they can be released to fly!  (This is the first shipment that we're inventorying before the exhibit opened.)  There were some photos posted earlier with Todd and Isabella in the butterfly exhibit.  

On a recent day at work there, a great southern white butterfly hung out with me for awhile and I was able to snap a photo.   The exhibit closes in a couple of days.  

It's been an interesting experience working at the nature center.  I did realize, however, on the 4th of July that I have missed being with the family on the weekends.  I really look forward closing this chapter and moving onto the next one! 

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