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A couple of weekends ago, we went to Tennessee to visit a close friend & her family. My childhood "sister," Susan just moved to Arkansas and we are really grateful to have spent some time with the whole gang before they moved.
We hung out with Susan, Chad, Hunter, Caeli, Rune, and Saber. My best memory of the entire weekend is the feeling of inclusiveness from their family. Everyone from the oldest (Hunter) to the youngest (Saber) were so great with Mercer. He felt like they were his brothers and sister by the end of the weekend (after the obligatory "shy period" was over). Above is a shot of some of the kids holding up their "masterpieces" of birds on a limb after spending a couple of hours at a painting place.
We got the chance to hang out with their family a few weeks prior as well -- at an event where Susan was honored: she was inducted into the Gwinnett County Schools Sports Hall of Fame. Susan was an amazing athlete in school -- excelling at tennis, softball and basketball. She went to Duke on a full scholarship for basketball, in fact. The coach who nominated her talked about how well-rounded an athlete she was, how she excelled in her studies and how she had such a strong character. Here are some pictures from that event (her giving a speech at the event beforehand as well as accepting the award publicly down on the field with her children during a Gwinnett Braves game). It was really special being able to share this with her parents, brothers, uncle, and friends.
Another recent trip was one I took for work to San Francisco. Todd and I have been before, but on this trip, I felt like I really got to know the city. I walked along the piers along the water with a former co-worker, Kelly, before we had dinner and dessert at another downtown spot. The following morning, I was able to go on a very very very long walk (thanks to still being on east coast time) before having to go to my first building analysis.
I walked along the Embarcadero past Alcatraz and the Sea Lion platforms. In the distance is the Bay Bridge beyond all of these boats. Then, I headed inland and walked by the iconic Transamerica building and got to notice some interesting textures and building juxtapositions.
My first project site visit ended early afternoon and I had enough time to rent a bike -- to try to ride to the other side of the city to the Golden Gate bridge. My goal was to reach it / cross it / and come back. I was bit naive, however, as trying to do this ride through the city during rush hour up and down the ridiculously steep hills... it was not the best idea! I made it to Golden Gate park (which is enormous), but not to the bridge. Oh well... next time... but I will NOT be going through downtown again to get there! Picked up a tip from locals afterwards suggesting taking the Embarcadero all the way around to the city over to the bridge -- not through the city.)
The next day, I went through another building, then had plenty of time to spend with other friends, Bob & Jen, and their daughter Zoe. Back at home, Todd and Mercer got to spend a lot of quality time together hanging out; they attended their first soapbox race where handmade cars are taken for a spin -- fueled by gravity and human power.
The best thing about going on this trip: the enormous welcome that I got when I came back home. Mercer saw me, ran across a room with arms outstretched, and lept into my arms. He pressed his cheek into mine and kept telling me "mommy you're home" "I missed you mommy" "I love you mommy." Throughout the rest of the evening (and even the next day) he just wanted to be by my side. OK... is that just the best??!!
We are about to head out as a family for some more travel. We will be taking our "family vacation" to Washington DC this year instead of Edisto Island (although we know we're going to miss the beach this year). There will - undoubtedly - be a post upon our return about that trip.
Here are a couple of additional photos from the night at the Gwinnett Braves games that were funny. Our son is "hamming it up."
Have a great weekend. - Candice
I created another blog site in which to jot down ideas for doing art projects with Mercer or gardening / earthy-related things. I put a post on there about making Mother's Day cards: http://www.earth-and-crafts.blogspot.com/ There haven't been very many art projects that Mercer has warmed up to, but he really did LOVE doing the marble-painting project. Mercer has been drawing a lot at school, however, and it's pretty amazing to see the progression in these examples:
About 2 months ago, he drew these people. The ones with the pink on them is "daddy" "mommy" and "me"
Mercer "progressed" to adding eyes the following month. Not sure what the big one in the middle is (looks like fangs) but the ones on the bottom are our family. Todd at the right, Mercer next to him -- both with purple eyes. I'm the brown with orange eyes and he says the little one with orange eyes is his baby sister. The ones in green at the left are his friends.
Most recently - he's been drawing a lot of these people with facial characteristics. I'm the purple one. Todd is the blue one. He hasn't drawn a recent self-portrait in this new drawing style, but we'll ask him to draw one and post it as soon as he does.
Mercer is also writing "on demand." If he wants to write something, we tell him what letters to write - but he can pretty much do it on his own. I bet how this is how he made the mother's day card shown here. If you read it carefully -- I'm not actually taking him to "swing" -- at the time they made the card, we were taking him to "swim." The teacher probably mistook what he said when asked to describe what his mom does! ~ha~ it's perfect. : - )
It poured rain on mother's day, so we postponed a visit to a new botanical garden 'til the following weekend. The garden was designed by a local landscaper and was a project that he has been working on for 20 years. It is pretty -as seen in many of these photos.
We haven't made any adoption progress, per se. Mostly, we're getting the word out that we're looking for a baby girl / fundraising / and trying to figure out (still) the direction that we're going to pursue:
1 -Will we be lucky enough to find a private adoption?
2 - Will we use the same adoption consultant we used previously who has all of the opportunities across the country?
3 - Will we go the traditional route and apply at ONE adoption agency and wait?
We don't have the answers, so we just keep pushing the word-of-mouth while fundraising... so if option 1 doesn't pan out, we can afford option 2 (preferable) or 3. I'll be honest... it's tough. Because we've been putting ourselves "out there" & letting people know what we're hoping to do... lots of people ask about progress made. No "major" progress to report, unfortunately.
We had another sale to raise funds towards the adoption. We don't really have enough stuff to hold a yard sale, so we sold plants from the yard, baked goods, & fresh-squeezed lemonade. It was a lot of work for me (several weekends of prep digging up / thinning out plants) + Todd (squeezing 8 lbs of lemons). Most of the "customers" were neighbors and friends. There were a few people who stopped by because of the signs at the top of the street. There was even someone who stopped by because she was lost and bought a cup of lemonade for directions (we would've given her directions without buying lemonade, though)! My favorite memory of the day was two 12-year-old girls from the neighborhood who were laying in a shady spot under our tree "hanging out" while they were waiting on a new batch of lemonade to be made. They were talking to two 6 year-old-girls who were laying - both propped on their elbows hanging on every word the older girls were saying. The younger girls were on cloud nine hanging out with the older girls ~ it was priceless.
Mercer "pushed" lemonade on ANYONE who came up to the sale... if someone stopped because they were interested in plants -- he would bring them some even if they didn't ask for it. We had borrowed a dispenser - which M could use - so he would get a cup, put in a little dribble of lemonade in it, and bring it over. It wouldn't be enough to quench a thirst, but how could you turn that down?? Oh yeah -- and for the record -- fresh lemonade is very labor-intensive, but oh-so-good & worth every penny that the seller asks!!
We're going to hold another pancake breakfast soon - now that Mercer's Soccer Skills class has ended.
He really did improve quite a bit from that first lesson he took where he "gave up" before the end of the class. Yes - he's only 4 - so it's understandable that he thought the first class was hard. But we are especially proud that he stuck with it each weekend and even played in the rain on his last class. He remembered some of the things that his coach taught about how to kick the ball with the top of your foot or inside of the foot instead of with the toe. He also can "dribble" (kicking the ball lightly -- passing between feet) while running. The league in which he played also handed out some very nice medals of completion. All-in-all, we are happy that he finished and completed the class. He learned some skills on listening and practice and the kids even played as a team a few times too. We were thinking about trying T-ball this fall to see how it goes, but maybe pick up soccer again next spring? Who knows?
Another nice thing that happened this month: we were hanging out in a neighbor's front yard one evening. This neighbor has some raised beds there and while we were standing around / talking, she tugged on some leaves that were standing up out of the dirt. Out came a carrot from seed she had sprinkled in during the winter. She asked Mercer to help and he was elated and would even squeal - look what I got!! This generous neighbor grabbed a handful of these leaves and sent us home with a bunch of carrots. After we washed them up, Mercer happily ate one as a snack (and we ended up cooking with the rest). But - he kept talking about how he got the carrot from Mrs Barbara's yard! This, after all, is why we are participating in the community garden & why we raise tomatoes / herbs in our back yard. It was the perfect example of how kids will eat something they grew and harvested! ~yay~
Speaking of which - we also picked strawberries and harvested mulberries from the tree in the back. I've been making jam with the two, as it makes a nice blend.
I'll write about Mother's Day in the next post & will try to get it out much sooner!
Have a great week, Candice
I would say that Earth Day has taken over any personal time as of late - hence the lapse in blog posts. At my previous job, we did not draw attention to Earth Day. Since it was a sustainability-focused company they said "every day was Earth Day." At my new(ish) company, we had a week's worth of activities and emails / tips that went out to the company. We showed a movie about a visionary focused on sustainability in industry. There were also "street clean" events at the three offices across the country. Each evening that week + all day Saturday, attention was focused on a project for the city: coordinating a community garden project.
Several weeks ago, Todd went to lend a hand in the garden in building some of the 22 raised beds that are there now. Recently, soil was delivered & put into each raised bed. Since then, several dump-trucks of mulch from the city was also delivered as well as city workers bush-hogging down the weeks & brush in one area of the garden. My contribution to the garden this past weekend was to coordinate a team of 50+ volunteers from local colleges, neighbors, master gardeners, and other interested people from the city who had signed up to help out our little project -- one of hundreds of projects happening nation-wide for the "Great American Clean-up Day." This nation-wide event is in honor of Earth Day, of course.
And... on Monday (yesterday)... was the last of the Earth Day events our family was involved in. Mercer's school buddy, Gabriel, has a parent who is also in the sustainability industry. She and I planned a water conservation event to present to Mercer's "primary" class, the Pre-K class, and the Montessori Kindergarten class. M wasn't so well behaved (he wouldn't sit down), but it was cute... he wanted to help out the whole time we were in his class... holding my hand while talking to the students, holding one end of a poster we were using as a visual, and handing out coloring pages we made for them. When he got home that night, Todd asked him what he learned about: "water." Did you learn to keep it clean and to save water? "no" he replied. Oh well! We tried to make an impact!
It was very interesting seeing the 3 different classes and their levels / abilities. Mercer will be old enough to enter into the Pre-K class in the fall... but... the Montessori K class was SO IMPRESSIVE! He could go into that class as well, however, it would be like entering private school, in a way. Pre-K is paid for by the state & the other is not. hmmmmm.... it's an interesting option, however, we're trying to save for another adoption.
What a tough decision!
Enclosed is a school picture from his current class. (click on the photo to enlarge & see the whole gang)
In his class, Mercer is learning to count by 10's: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc.
He's learning continents: "we live in North America." (and he'll ask about a neighbor -- "where do they live?" We Reply: "North America" "And what about grandma and grandpa?" "They live in North America too." ) It's definitely time to get a map out and put everyone's photos on it relative to where they live!
Some other cute things he's been saying lately:
"it takes the sun a long time to go down."
"God made it." He says this about any type of object after reading Bible passages day after day around Easter about creation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. It's sort of hard to tell him that God did not make the toilet or the fence that's across the street from his daycare, rather he made the people with the brain-power who invented the technology to make these items. Oh well. Maybe one day we'll step up the explanations a bit.
Mercer saw his first Star Wars movie this weekend. He & Todd watched movie 4 and part of movie 5.... the way that we were all introduced to the films. But he's also very into gentle, innocent cartoons & characters such as on Mickey Mouse club.
Our rough-and-tumble boy still has his sweet side! *yay*
I'll close this (long) blog post with a poem written to the "visionary" mentioned above by one of his employees. The visionary's name is Ray Anderson; before he passed away last year, he has changed the face of sustainability in the building industry.
Tomorrow’s Child Without a name; an unseen face
and knowing not your time nor place
Tomorrow’s Child, though yet unborn,
I met you first last Tuesday morn.
A wise friend introduced us two,
... and through his sobering point of view
I saw a day that you would see;
a day for you, but not for me
Knowing you has changed my thinking,
for I never had an inkling
That perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow, threaten you
Tomorrow’s Child, my daughter-son
I’m afraid I’ve just begun
To think of you and of your good,
Though always having known I should.
Begin I will to weigh the cost
of what I squander; what is lost
If ever I forget that you
will someday come to live here too.
Spring has sprung. As seen in this photo... our neighborhood is sprouting babies, toddlers, and children. Last weekend was the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It is unbelievable how many kids have been born / moved in the past several years.
At this event, only a fraction of the "children of the 'hood" are in attendance. You have to admit -- the babies stole the show during the shooting of these photos! How sweet are they?!
Mercer has definitely got the hang of how the egg hunt works... Looks like he worked his way to the front of the pack so he's first in the final hunt which is located in the hosts' back yard. Last year, he was just discovering that there was candy inside of some of the plastic eggs. This year, he cracked open all of the plastic eggs before he left each of the 6 houses to see what was inside. Most of the time, he'd polish off the candy inside before moving onto the next house. Sometimes, he would share his prize inside, however, with Todd, me, or another kid. He has been pretty good about sharing lately.
Another thing he's been good at -- doling out compliments. "Mom - I like that shirt." "Daddy - I like your shoes." "I told ____ today at school that I liked their lunchbox." The compliments are passed out randomly, but it's funny / cute when it happens.
We got to recently hang out with our friends, Chad & Susan last night plus their 4 children: Hunter, Caeli, Rune, and "baby" Saber as they're in town during their spring break. We spent the entire evening in the back yard hanging out. The kids played bocce (Mercer's newest favorite past-time), played basket ball, frisbee (which ended up in the pond sometimes), and played in/around the stream.
The adults grilled out, prepped food, and caught up since our last visit together. We're going to try to spend as much time with them as we can before they move to Arkansas!
We did not get a chance to send out Easter cards. For our family and friends who read the blog, we are sending you our warmest wishes for a happy, blessed Easter.
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.)
We have been absolutely bowled over by the kindness of our neighbors, friends, and even the friend-of-a-friend.... a complete stranger! It is so amazing how enthusiastically people support our desire to bring home a baby girl this year and place her in our loving home.
A couple of weekends ago, we went to Tennessee to visit a close friend & her family. My childhood "sister," Susan just moved to Arkansas and we are really grateful to have spent some time with the whole gang before they moved. 
I walked along the Embarcadero past Alcatraz and the Sea Lion platforms. In the distance is the Bay Bridge beyond all of these boats. Then, I headed inland and walked by the iconic Transamerica building and got to notice some interesting textures and building juxtapositions. 
My first project site visit ended early afternoon and I had enough time to rent a bike -- to try to ride to the other side of the city to the Golden Gate bridge. My goal was to reach it / cross it / and come back. I was bit naive, however, as trying to do this ride through the city during rush hour up and down the ridiculously steep hills... it was not the best idea! I made it to Golden Gate park (which is enormous), but not to the bridge. Oh well... next time... but I will NOT be going through downtown again to get there! Picked up a tip from locals afterwards suggesting taking the Embarcadero all the way around to the city over to the bridge -- not through the city.)
The next day, I went through another building, then had plenty of time to spend with other friends, Bob & Jen, and their daughter Zoe. Back at home, Todd and Mercer got to spend a lot of quality time together hanging out; they attended their first soapbox race where handmade cars are taken for a spin -- fueled by gravity and human power. 
