Working way too much these days....

I've been working on powerpoints and travelling way too much these days. I'm taking a little bit of time off today - but according to the hours I worked last week - I realistically could've taken this whole week off!!! More and more often - when I drop Mercer off at daycare before a trip - I get a little emotional. It's getting harder to leave. He has no idea, but I think his teachers can tell. We went to an art festival before I left town for one of my recent trips. And - we checked out the play areas, of course! (as seen in the photos) We probably saw more of the playgrounds than art exhibits. Oh well. It was still fun for all of us. The main point - to spend time together & get outside.

Mercer has a couple of really funny expressions. One of them is a facial expression where he draws his mouth up and makes his eyes real big. The other is something he does with his arms - it almost looks like the chicken dance pose. He'll pulls his arms up high by his side when he seems pleased by something. He's also counting better. One two One two. And - he's recognizing most of the basic colors now. For awhile, everything was red or blue. Now he knows orange. He says yellow and purple too... sometimes when we're even pointing to those colors!

This week, however, I got to do a couple of cool things at work:

One was attend a lecture at our office that the Executive Director of Georgia Organics did. I ended up looking through the Farm-To-School literature she had and decided that I'd love to work towards getting a little garden at Mercer's school. I've been in touch with the fund-raising team to try to get more "meaningful" fund-raisers. I think this is a goal that parents would be willing to work towards.

Yesterday, I met and gave a tour of our office to a "famous" architect in Switzerland. I've never heard of him, but I looked up his work online. He is doing some nice work & has been practicing sustainability there since 1995. It makes me think again about how I need to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. It was inspiring to check out his work / talk to him - he was a really nice guy/ and to think about GOOD design again. hmmm....

If interested: http://www.ramseier-assoc.com/

We also went hiking recently. Well, we were trying to hike. For the most part, Mercer wanted to sit on the trail and play with the pine straw. (Which really blows my mind because he sees a pile of pollen or dirt and he yells EWWW YUCK!) He would get up and walk a bit. Oh wait - there are sticks. Let's pick them up. Oh - here are more sticks. See them? I'll wave them over my head for a bit. It was almost comical at how slow the hike went.

We ended up carrying him a lot of the way and - ultimately - cutting our hike short. It was worth a shot. And - we decided to keep trying, as we bought a state parks pass for the year. Maybe he'll get the hang of it?

This was our first time this season with Mercer out in the woods. What a difference 4 - 5 months makes. What a difference NOT using a carrier makes!!

a busy few weeks...

Right after Easter, Mercer & I took a trip to see my family in NC. As usual, it was too quick, but it was good that we went. My grandpa turned 85 over the weekend that we were there and we got to see most of my mom's side of the family at a party honoring him. Mercer got to play with the big kids at one point during the party. My cousin, Emma, really went out of her way to include him in a game of kick-ball - it was really sweet. Mercer was so pumped-up to be included. It's amazing how early this need for inclusion by peers & older kids is exhibited.

We got to see quite a bit of my dad's side of the family too. We visited my grandma in the nursing home. Mercer did something very interesting while there. During part of our visit, we went outside to the nursing home courtyard. There is a resident there who we've seen in the past, but he's never communicated with us. In fact, my Aunt Becky said that this man hasn't said anything the whole time my grandmother has lived there (4 years?). He was in the courtyard and Mercer ended up playing ball with this man. He'd drop the ball at the man's feet and the man would gingerly bend over and pick it up and throw it back towards Mercer. This happened over and over again. He would sort of mumble "here you go" when he was returning the ball to Mercer. Also, when we left, Mercer yelled "bye" to the man and waved. The man waved several times and said "bye bye" back. We loved seeing that connection he made and how he was able to draw this reclusive person into his world.

After the visit with my grandma, Mercer and I went to a neighboring development called Fearrington Village. Looks like an interesting place with lots of events (a weekly farmer's market / an annual folk art show / holiday events / shopping / dining / etc.) I expect we'll go back to explore it more because it's very close to where my grandmother is staying. http://www.fearrington.com/village/events.asp

Mercer ran right up to these sculptures (as seen in the first pic with the outstretched hand -- "come-on let's check this out" is what i interpreted that to mean). I think that they're stylized sheep? Some of them looked sort of like pigs or cows. Not 100% sure, but it makes for a nice photo!

During this trip, we also visited my aunt Becky & "crazy" Tony. And my dad's brother, David, & sister-in-law, Francis, came over to hang out for awhile & visit Mercer and me. Mercer was quite the entertainer. He RAN all over the place with a wooden horse. His activity level is pretty much "non-stop."

This trip had a lot of running. On the drive up to NC and on the drive back, I stopped at my friend Cindy's in SC. It was good to let little guy out and get rid of some energy and play with her boys Daniel & Trevor. I learned something very valuable while there: if you fill a spray bottle full of water and let the kids loose outside to squirt things... they're entertained for quite awhile! There is the danger, however, that they'll come after the photographer!

I've been very busy with work deadlines and have quite a bit of travel coming up in the next couple of weeks. I'll try to post again sooner than this last time if I can!

Happy Easter

There were a lot of "firsts" for Mercer this week. He decorated an egg-shaped cookie. It didn't take long before he ate the cookie as well as a couple of others that he would run and grab as I was working on them. He tie-dyed a few Easter eggs. (I found a no-mess kit... which was no mess for the kids, but I got really dirty.) We didn't get any pictures of the hard-boiled egg dying because my neighbor, Courtney, and I were trying to do damage control as we were working on this activity (we were out-numbered by kids). Mercer wanted to help with the eggs just a little bit, but he didn't have much of an attention span for it.

Mercer ate his first chocolate bar and his first marshmallow peep this weekend. We've done a great job of holding him off of candy for the first 2 years of his life... but he knows all about it now! I'm hoping we can keep it away from him again / "detox" him from it. (Basically if we don't have it around -- which Todd & I don't -- then we'll hopefully get things back in check again.)

Mercer definitely got his fill of Easter egg hunts:
hunt #1: We went to a hunt last weekend that the young pastor from our church and his wife hosted at their house. Mercer got his first taste of a jelly bean and some sort of gummy candy too. He was clingy and afraid of the other kids at first, but then warmed up. Once he figured out that there was candy in the eggs, he took his bounty and ran and "hid" on a slide so he could take stock of what he had and could eat it. I guess he felt a little more secure here -- and didn't think I could come to take it away from him?

hunt #2: His daycare had an Easter Egg hunt. The teacher said he had a good time -- and -- yes, ate some candy while there. Hmmmm.....

hunts #3 - #12: Yes - there were 10 more hunts!! We hosted our neighborhood's 2nd annual Easter Egg hunt. Last year, 10 families hid eggs in their yards and kids would go from house to house looking for eggs on their own. This year, there were 10 families that hosted egg hunts again, but, the little kiddos in the 'hood went around from house-to-house as a group -- sort of like a "progressive" egg hunt. Here, he and his buddy, Jackson, are cruising together between hunts. On the first whistle, the kids 4 & under went; shortly after on the second whistle, the older kids went. Each house had a golden egg hidden there as well. Mercer (or Todd?) found one. It was a lot of fun to see them all hunt together. I was the host this year and had to "facilitate" each hunt, so Todd actually got to run around with Mercer. I would say that they both had a lot of fun.

The hunt in our back yard was the last egg hunt. Afterwards, the families stayed for egg-shaped cookies (that Mercer did not decorate) and lemonade.

I had to look up WHY there are bunnies and eggs at Easter. From what I could find in pagan tradition, rabbits represent fertility during spring renewal. Eggs were brought out on Easter after Lent & fasting - no meat or poultry or eggs for 40 days - one variation indicated that the eggs were dyed red in celebration of Christ's rising. Interesting!

This morning, we all went to church (see Mercer's new duds?) then came home and had lunch with some neighbors. And - it's officially spring... we planted the first foods in our raised bed garden...romaine and green leaf lettuce sprouts! Also, the trees are budding and the tulips are blooming. (I have NO CLUE why this picture absolutely will not rotate, but I've heard that I'm not on the blog enough. You'll just have to turn your head to the side.) We're SO glad to spend more time outdoors and finally shed this long long winter we've had. And - we're happy to be spending a lot more time outside to hang out in the front yard, by the pond, and at neighbors' houses.

On a side note - Mercer is doing a bunch of new things: he is proud of himself that he knows how to jump. He'll "show off" and hop around a lot. He now shrugs his shoulders now when he says "why?" or "where?" And he shouts "EWWW YUCK" at a lot of things including his diaper changes and anything that looks a little dirty. Aside from the terrible twos reported last week -there are definitely good things in between.

terrible twos hit hard this week

There's been a lot of drama lately with the terrible twos. Mercer's mood changes at the drop of a hat... just one little thing goes against what he wants and he flips out. Screaming... throwing tantrums... this part of parenting is NOT fabulous, but there are good times mixed in, so thus far, we're getting through. We know it's a phase and will (hopefully) have an end in sight. At the same time, Mercer's been more clingy as well. There must be a lot going on in his head these days.

There are good days too - like the day Todd introduced him to tee-ball. Mercer sort of got the hang of it, but would sometimes just hit the ball off the tee with his hand. The tee also converts to a golf club, so Mercer gave that a try as well.

Last weekend, we went to something called "touch-a-truck" day (a free event that 2 municipalities in the metro-Atlanta area have once a year). They basically bring out utility vehicles and let the kids climb in them. They had bulldozers of all sorts, a concrete truck, a school bus, and rescue vehicles. We thought Mercer would be BESIDE himself, but he just seemed somewhat entertained. He didn't get overly excited - as we would've expected. He actually seems to get more excited to see them as we're driving by somewhere. Maybe the association of seeing them (static) in a book is the same as seeing them (static) as we drive by a job site. We're sure that next year, he will be way more into it.

He did get to check out a new playground while we were there. There was a toddler slide but he passed right by that and climbed higher. There was a medium-high slide. He passed right by it and climbed higher. He went right for the 8' tall slide again and again. I think we're going to have a dare-devil on our hands.

To top off touch-a-truck day, we went to a birthday party that afternoon. He had a good time playing in the sand with his buddies Jackson and Brody. Both are just a few months older than Mercer. It's pretty cool that there are kids so close in age all along the street.

He also spent a little time (after jumping in the bouncy house at the party) relaxing on one of the lawn chairs.

Child's Play

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I was out of town (as noted on the last blog). Then Todd had a deadline. Then Todd went to Asheville for golf. Then I had a deadline. Then Mercer had a bad night (a painful ear infection). We're ALL pretty worn down.

But, there's been time for play too.

Mercer and I have checked out a couple of different playgrounds lately as the weather is getting nicer. A dare-devil has emerged - no doubt. Going down BIG slides all by himself (after watching another / older kid doing it) and climbing up metal and rope ladders with a little bit of help on those. Note - this big slide is 10' tall!! This past weekend, it wsa rainy and cold, so we didn't got to an outdoor playground. Instead, we went to the Georgia Aquarium while Todd was out of town... sort-of like an underwater playground with fish! He did really well this trip.

Tonight, we went to another indoor playground -- we went to Chuck-E-Cheeses. His daycare was having a fund-raiser. I haven't been to C-E-C since my 21st birthday down in Savannah. I was really excited to take him for the first time. We think he enjoyed himself, but it's definitely lost some of it's allure for Todd and me since we visited the one in the "low-country." The pics here are taken in the little kid's section. But, he wanted to play some of the games in the big kid's section too. It was pretty amazing how quickly he got the hang of some of the games by watching us or watching other kids. One thing that was cute: how he got excited when he saw his classmates in a non-school setting.

Other things he's picking up on quickly: he knows what a stop sign is and when we get to them, he yells "STOP." He says "this is a floor, this is a wall," pointing to them as he shows off his new phrases. Todd taught him where the ceiling was too, but he'll say that one occasionally. There are other things he's saying -- and it's amazing to watch how rapid his development is.

He put on a shoe by himself (on the wrong foot, of course). He also fed the cat some of his food for the first time... he was sharing. I'm sure that he will do both of these again and again! Good times.

amendment to yesterday's post...

Forgot to mention:
Mercer got the green light to eat anything at his 2 year appointment. The doc suggests no peanuts yet because of a choking hazard, but regarding allergies - we can try any & all foods.

At daycare, he's learning how to trace things. I dropped him off late Friday after his doctor's appointment and got to watch the class trace: Oval, Circle, Triangle.

He's also recognizing adjectives which is pretty cool:
BIG. little.
under. OVER.
HOT. cold.
high.

Today is our 12th anniversary. Todd & I have both been too busy with work to plan a fancy dinner out and schedule babysitting - so we went out as a family. We're glad we did. Mercer was GREAT tonight. (well-behaved. ate well. no tantrums. entertaining and funny.)

Oh - and he had his first calamari tonight. He loved it!

an interesting week we've had

Todd has been working a lot - he has a deadline coming up. On Sunday, he was working - but I was heading out of town - so I decided to do something fun with Mercer for the first half of the day 'til Todd & I swapped.... Mercer and I would visit a new playground. We did that, then went out to lunch. It was a nice afternoon; I decided that we should visit new playgrounds every weekend if possible! I would like to make a "passport" or a formalized list (at the least) of the ones here in our city & county... as well as some cool playgrounds that I've seen or heard of. (One of them is near a small local airport/ kids can watch the airplanes take off.)

I went to Washington DC Sunday afternoon / evening for a speaking gig Monday morning. I had dinner with Todd's cousin, Tina, Sunday night and there was just enough time after speaking to pop into the city to visit the National Building Museum on Monday afternoon. I didn't have much time to visit too many of the exhibits, but visiting the building was reason enough to go. It's a beautiful structure built originally as an office for the US Pension Bureau - and provide space to host social and political events in DC. I didn't know this until I went and was told by the cute little gray-haired volunteers at the info desk, but it is the site of the presidential inaugural balls each year. They showed me some photos of past events and it is STUNNING when dripping with fabric, candles, flowers, etc. Check out this "virtual tour" link for a glimpse of the magnificent space: http://www.nbm.org/about-us/historic-building/360-degree-tour.html

Can you believe that this place was slated to tear down and re-develop? They charge $20,000 to host an event there!

My office was having our annual green building conference this week too. I missed part of it while in DC, but got to go the 2nd day and attend some great sessions. It was snowing most of the day Tuesday and Todd had to pick up little guy from daycare because it snowed AGAIN here / schools closed early. This was our 3rd snow... but also the shortest-lived. They played in it for a little while, but Mercer just wasn't up for it this week. Todd was going to build a big snowman, but only got the lower ball rolled before Mercer called it quits.

He does know "snow" and "snowman" -- rather "nomnan" (there's no S on the beginning and there's an extra N in there!)

Mercer had his 2 year old appointment yesterday. The pediatrician was only in the room for a few minutes and she gave him a new name (from "exhausting" as in his 15 and 18 month appointments to "wild man.") Ah. Yes. He is, indeed. We were in the waiting room for about 20 minutes, but in the exam room for over an hour. Trying to corral him in the 8 x 10 room for that period of time was crazy. The times that the nurse or the doc was trying to take his temp, measure the circumference of his head, his height, looking in his ears, down his throat, inspecting his various body parts, and giving him an immunization... he had to be restrained. I felt like I was wrestling with him... holding his head in a vice-grip at times... pinning his arms or legs down depending on what the task was. I can't imagine the "torture" it must have been for him.

By all accounts, he's extremely healthy. He has had congestion, but there's nothing we can do about it as he won't let us use the nose bulb on him anymore... and he "blows" through his mouth when using a tissue instead of his nose. She said we would just have to deal with boogers! He has some pretty severe eczema, but we talked about controlling it with some natural creams instead of steroid cream. His words are good. His motor skills are good. Problem-solving good. Putting words together in small sentences - good. His stats: almost 35" tall, 29 1/2 lbs in weight, and 19 1/2" head circumference. He's close to 75% on everything... a little on the large side of other kiddos who just turned 2.

Enjoy these pictures scattered throughout. Mercer found a big box upstairs full of "bubbles" (packing peanuts). I want to recycle the peanuts, then turn the big box into a play-house for little guy... another day.