It's a new year~

Just before the new year, we got to visit with some of our friends from the west coast - Bob, Jen and their baby girl Zoe (who is almost 1 1/2 years old and we were just meeting for the first time). We were ALL shameless & kept prodding Mercer and Zoe to hug. She seemed to be more interested in his "big kid" toys, though. Oh well. Hopefully it won't be another 1 1/2 years 'til they see each other again!

Mercer almost made it to midnight on new year's eve... he & his friends were up 'til after 11... we finally heard the last peep come out of their room around 11:45. The following morning, he hit a milestone: he gave up his pacifier. (we prodded him on this too... "throw away your pacifier and you get this big new toy." he really had no choice~) Here he is enjoying his criss-cross matchbox car set & he's been enjoying it ever since. I don't think he regrets his decision. The first few nights, he asked for the pacifier, but we reminded him that HE threw it away in exchange for the car set. He seemed ok with that. So - we're closing in on 2 weeks without it. Woo hoo! Now... to work again on the potty training...

The big news around here -- SNOW -- and lots of it for Atlanta & the metropolitan area. 5" + ice on top. (This picture is taken from a weird angle - the snow is not all the way up to the stop sign!) The snow has pretty much shut down the whole area for quite some time... and 4 days later... there's still most of it around. The city is not equipped to handle it. We went sledding the first day. All was good for awhile 'til he started to bawl "I want to go home I want to go home." Once home - we discovered that his little gloves were not keeping his hands warm & they were bright red and freezing cold to the touch. Poor guy!

The next day, we went out & put 2 sets of gloves on his hands... and this seemed to do the trick. He was out for a couple of hours building a snowman with Todd and helping him to shovel the driveway.

Inside, he got to play with more white stuff... icing! It was the perfect time to make cupcakes and practice icing them. This was his first time practicing this new skill - dipping the knife into the tub & slathering it onto the cupcake. I only had to smooth it out for him - he really did pretty well - until we caught him licking his finger and made him wash his hands.

We saw snow while driving at Christmas, but didn't get to stop & play in it. I'm glad he got to experience snow this season. Now... we are all ready for the next thing!

Home Sweet Home

our travels looked something like this: GA --> NC --> DC --> NJ --> VA --> GA

(all in about a week)

We had a great time at each of our destinations, but packing & unpacking, sleeping in different beds, and riding in the car for 1800 miles is hard on all of us... especially when mother nature throws us a curve ball such as a major snow storm!!

Our trip started in North Carolina - visiting my mother's family. Literally, as soon as we go out of the car & inside, Mercer spotted a "low-rider" car that played music and immediately went into dance. We haven't posted a video in quite awhile - but enjoy this one & notice Mercer's signature moves: a cartwheel... him going into a wind-up with his arm... and a kick over the car! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N4KayeiTo0

Mercer "got it" this year and enjoyed opening presents more than playing with the bows and boxes. We didn't take any group photos at this family gathering. Uncle Eddie's son, Michael, posed for the only picture while others who I won't mention (Uncle Mel) hid behind stuff to avoid the camera. Shout-out to Michael !!

We also got to see my dad's mother, Edith, while in town. Mercer is always a star at her nursing home as the residents and workers there enjoy watching him. He brings energy there and makes lots of people smile. Notice grandma is smiling at Mercer as he is "digging for gold." Ha! Near grandma's nursing home is an interesting development called Fearrington Village. Mercer & I paid a visit there last year and he ran around these sculptures in the field. This year, he was a little more interactive with the sculptures that were decked out for the holidays.

We continued our journey up the road - stopping in D.C. to visit Todd's brother and family. While there, Mercer's cousin, Marley, doted on him and played with him 'til it was time for him to go to sleep. She even read him his bedtime stories! Check out their awesome hats!!

The following morning, we continued our journey up the highway to New Jersey. At one point, we got off of the highway to avoid some holiday traffic. We ended up driving through the town and campus of Princeton - which is really beautiful. This was a nice diversion for us while Mercer was in the back seat napping. The following day, Todd's sister and Mercer's cousins arrived. More arrived on Christmas day & the house was full (9 adults + 9 kids under one roof). Mercer had an absolute blast playing with his cousins. At some point, a full-blown game of Nerf gun war was "on" and everyone was running around the house shooting nerf pellets at one another. Mercer hung right in there with them!!

We got a little bit of a later start on journey southward after Christmas. Overnight, New Jersey was to have gotten hit by snow - so we waited 'til daylight to see what the conditions were. Things were fine & we made it out. Later that day, however, NJ and many other states got buried by the white stuff. We drove through some beautiful postcard-like farms with a dusting of snow covering the rolling hills. Some farms had silos attached to stone farm buildings. Some farms had dilapidated wood structures that added a lot of character to the drive. If not in a hurry, it would've been great to stop and shoot some pictures. (Maybe we can explore that part of the country at some point in the future??)

We had to stop in Virginia to stay the night because as the sun set, the roads were getting slick. We were only a couple of hours from my mom's house in North Carolina, but we called it a night, then drove to her place in the morning - encountering some rough roads. Unfortunately, we lost about 1/2 a day, so we couldn't stay for a visit with my mom. We headed back to our house & when we made it home. When my head finally hit my own pillow that night... it was pure bliss!

Merry Christmas to All

Here are some pics I meant to post before we left town, but didn't have time.

Mercer and I tried making a gingerbread house this year. Unfortunately the little staunches that were to hold up the roof fell right off & the whole thing collapsed. Mercer had fun anyhow. He discovered that red hots are actually hot. He ate one and it took him several drinks from his bottle before his mouth wasn't burning any longer. Also, he discovered that he enjoyed eating gum drops more than sticking them in the icing on the house. Here, he is acting like he's about to put it on his house, then last minute pops it in his mouth. He thinks it's funny to trick us now. (Is this devious or cute?)

A week ago we had a little Christmas celebration at our house. Mercer's grandparents sent an art easel down & he enjoyed playing with this. He ran right to it and drew all over it. Later, he opened a Toy Story toy that we had gotten him and a little nativity set we got him as well. We're now on our trip to NC and NJ. I'll blog about that later, but wanted to get these pre-holiday pictures posted.

Merry Chirstmas to All.......

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We are in the thick of baking, packing, wrapping, and sending cards. Yes - Christmas is upon us. Don't have a lot of time to write, but mainly here to post some seasonal pictures. Enjoy!

We made it to the lighting of the tree up on the square. Santa and Mrs. Claus come to this event every year and stick around for a little while afterwards to talk to little boys & girls. Since we were having a slice of pizza with friends (as seen on the previous blog) the line to see Santa was short by the time we made it to the square. He actually got to spend a little time with him Mercer didn't say anything to him because he was being shy, but did sit with the big guy for a minute.

finally done with the turkey & stuffing

Well, technically, some of our turkey & extra turkey stock is now stored in the freezer, but we are DONE with it for awhile! We had a nice Thanksgiving and we have A LOT to be thankful for. My mom came down for a visit. We had a traditional Thanksgiving meal... shopped on black Friday... and ate left-overs for days on end (even found some creative ways to re-make leftovers). Here, "grandma Gloria" & Mercer pose for a pic before we dive into dinner.

After eating leftovers for a week, we went up to the square to grab a slice of pizza at the local pizza joint and ran into our friends, the Ragan's. Of course, we had to grab chairs and all crowd around a table so that we could all eat together. These are Mercer's best buddies right now, as he always talks about Glady and Jackson. they like him a lot too -- especially Glady!

Mercer is doing some cute things....

I took a trip for work to Chicago the week before Thanksgiving. Mercer hugged me and said, "your my friend mommy." He also likes to pull up his chair at dinner over to sit next to Todd or me... or asks one of us to come sit next to him. He says, "come, play with me." Todd and I feel like he really enjoys our company.

There's another side of him too - as mentioned on previous blog posts - he's also independent. He "demands" sometimes that he does things FIRST. (Don't know why "first" but we know it's a way for him to exhibit control.) He is also adamant about trying to put on his own clothes. Here, he is insisting that this red shirt goes on his legs. The next week, he is insisting that these blue & white striped pajama pants go over his head. (I think on this one, he was actually stalling at bed-time while also trying to be funny.) But, we enjoy it none-the-less.

We're starting to move now into the holiday season. Right after Thanksgiving, we set up a tree and only got the lights on it. The next morning, he was amazed. The following day, I added ribbon and Mercer was amazed that something new appeared on the tree while he was asleep. The following day, he & I hung up shatter-proof ornaments.

Todd put up some lights on the outside of the house & he is amazed / excited by them every time we drive home at night.

This is, indeed, a great age!

We had a really great weekend!

Saturday, we went up to a local farm that turns into a tourist attraction each fall. They have a pumpkin patch (which we visited a couple of years ago for some nice photos of Mercer amongst the orange backdrop)... and they have a corn maze. We didn't realize that they now have "bouncy pillows" -- sort of like a bouncy house, but instead, it's a giant inflated pillow that comes out of the ground.










Mercer needed help to get up on the big bouncy pillow, as it was quite steep (here he's coming off of it as a slide). The small one - Mercer could run up to on his own.

The pumpkin patch was quite small, so we didn't get any good fall pics, but Mercer instead got to play on a tractor next to the pumpkins - which he was much happier about, I'm sure! We set him up on the pumpkin scale. He clocked in at a whopping 35 lbs (with shoes & clothes)!!

We also let him "direct" us through the corn maze. He loves giving directions now when we're driving (he knows alternate routes to his daycare in the morning: "go this way (he points to the left) i want to see the crane." There's a construction site at the hospital near our house. So - he was in his element at the corn maze. We let him go for it. He didn't go too far into the maze before turning around, so we did not get lost.

After leaving the farm, we stopped by a neighborhood arts festival. I did not participate in it this year as an artist with a booth or managing the children's art tent. Instead, a woman who started a business called nerdybaby.com managed the children's tent. She had science experiment stations set up. One was color mixing with dyed waters. Another had soluble materials that would expand upon hitting the water. Another station had a box of dyed water and translucent colored paddles that - when used together to scoop things out of the water - would appear to change colors. Mercer had fun playing at all stations, but when he was "scooping" (or really stirring) the contents of the box of dyed water, he was tagged by the local newspaper photographer. 2 years ago, Mercer was in the newspaper at this same event playing with chalk in the street. There are some of the other kids on the street captured in the article including a feature about an adopted girl whose mother wrote a book about their adoption story. She was selling the book there, but I didn't purchase one as Mercer's adoption story is so different. Maybe it will inspire me to continue working on the coloring book pages I had started years ago and make a series featuring Mercer?? Who knows!!

Here are some additional photos at the farm. Mercer likes to tackle & wrestle now. It's great on a bouncy pillow... but at home on the hardwood floor... that's a different story! He also likes to tumble now & likes for us to tumble with him. (NICE JOB, TODD!!) As you can see, Todd & I had a great time too jumping and playing on the bouncy pillow!!