Mercer's personality is coming through

Mercer did something that was SO funny the other day:

We were grabbing a slice of pizza up on the square & someone we knew stopped by our table to talk. The woman, Joan, asked Mercer a question, but he had just shoved a piece of pizza in his mouth, so that when he replied he let out an un-interpretable mumble. She asked him the question again and he replied with the same mumble. I told him not to talk with his mouth full -- intending for him to finish chewing and THEN reply with his answer. Instead, he grabbed the chewed up pizza out of his mouth & stuck it in my hand, then answered the question!!

Todd, Joan, and I BUSTED out in laughter. I don't even remember what the question or the answer was because I was in shock! He resolved the problem in a much different way than we had intended, but... he DID resolve it!

Mercer's also starting to think and reason for things he wants -- even things that are not tangibly in front of him. We were watching some neighbor kids one day after work / after school. I wanted him to behave well / not be cranky, so I brought a cheese stick so he could eat it on the way home & carry him through 'til he ate dinner later that evening. He's eating the cheese stick -- and after awhile he says "this is not a treat, mommy" "this is not a treat, ok?" I suppose he was afraid he wouldn't get a goodie at some point later if he gobbled up the cheese stick?!

Hmmm..... smart!

This past weekend, we went for a bike ride on a converted "Rails-to-Trails" path called the Silver Comet. We had a nice ride & even stopped at one of the pull-off areas to hike a little bit. We knew there was a nature preserve and walking trails that backed up to the Silver Comet, but. little did we know that there were some old ruins on a creek at the end of the trail. The ruins were supported by a steel sub-structre which added even more interest to the site from our perspective.

We were so pleasantly surprised -- as ruins and water are 2 of the things Todd & I like to see along our hikes, in fact we sometimes plan trips to specific places because of them!! For us, this was a hidden treasure & we will definitely be back!

Todd took some photos of Mercer in front of the ruins while Mercer was climbing up an elevated manhole structure not too far from the stone ruins. At first, he needed our help climbing up the 2' tall structure, but after a few times, he was able to do it himself. He was also a little apprehensive of jumping off the structure, but quickly got over his fear and did it over and over again all by himself. He's definitely becoming more independent.

Speaking of independence, we've enrolled him again into semi-private swim lessons. They're more expensive & further away from where we live, but we really didn't think he was getting life-safety skills at the place he's been going for the past year. He's no longer afraid of the water, but we want him to roll over & float on his back - most importantly - when he does get in the water. Hopefully these new lessons will provide these fundamentals & others. He had one lesson last week & the instructor said he needed to move up to the next level. This new level is the first class where the kids are in the water on their own with the instructor.... none of the parents go in the water with the kids.

He was the youngest kid in the class and was clingy & apprehensive, but we passed him to the instructor. She carried him into the water & set him on the step where the other few kids were waiting. Mercer actually sat in one place on the step for the most part. He went to her when she came to get him for his one-on-one instruction. He got his head & ears wet. He floated on his back with her. He kicked. He (sort-of) blew bubbles. And - he jumped into the pool upon her instruction where she caught him. He kept looking over to us to make sure we were there -- or to see if we were watching & applauding him on his achievements. All night long he kept saying "I did it." He was definitely proud. I was a little sad -- this is a new step for him, but we were both proud of him too.

Finally, Mercer has begun a couple of new things that ALL kids do / we knew to expect at some point. He does the constant "Mommy, mommy, mommy...." "Daddy, daddy, daddy...." until you look at him. Just acknowledging him doesn't work to cease this constant name-calling. He's also began the continuous "Why?" He hasn't done this too often, but several times he's asked when I wake him up in the morning: "Where's Daddy?" I reply, "he's at work." "Why?" "Because he has to pay for the house and the groceries." "Why?" So that we have a place to live and food to eat." Why? I think at that point, I distracted him with something so it ended!! I know that there will be ever more and more "why's" added to the end of the string.

Good times!

2 years ago today, we celebrated Mercer's adoption

It was his official adoption day. We went to court in the morning for the judge's review of our paperwork, social worker's recommendation, and and ruling. We had a big party that evening. Two years has passed quickly in one sense when thinking about his development and growth. But, it feels like "forever" that we've had Mercer -- it feels like he's always been a part of our family.

Today, we hung out as a family -- going out to breakfast, playing here at the house, then going to an annual picnic that our church was having. It was at a historic "meeting camp" site nearby. (It's a place where many denominations of churches gathered starting in the 1800s. There's a large open-air heavy-timber church which is pretty cool.) After eating, Mercer was drawn a few times to the open-air structure where there was singing, but the highlight was definitely the playground. Here's a pic... this is something I started & still think is sort of funny... but I know one day will haunt me -- him opening his mouth & showing me what's inside. He ate a blue cookie & wanted to show me.

Now - things may seem a little confusing if looking at hair style. In the pics above (from this weekend) Mercer's hair is shorter. He got a haircut a couple of days ago. The pics below are from last week. There's one pic that has an adorable long curl going right down his forehead. oh... I hated to see those long curls go!!

Last weekend, we went for a hike at a spot that Todd & I like (there is water and building ruins along the way). Mercer actually did a great job on the hike. Todd & I had to carry him a little bit, but he moved along the trail for the most part. Well, until he'd get distracted by a tiny worm.... or river viewing platforms that he would have to dance around and explore every inch of. The thing that kept him moving the most, however, was logs buried in the ground. He would see one and run to it. Then, he would jump off of it. He'd see another & take off again. We took a number of breaks along the way -- once for a picnic lunch, once to explore the rocks in the water, and once to get another stamp in Mercer's letterboxing book (someone had buried a box in the park & left description enough for us to find it).

Mercer has had some "eating" firsts this week. He ate his first hotdog (well, really it was a veggie dog) at a Braves / Mets baseball game earlier this week. He ate his first piece of fried chicken at the church picnic earlier tonight. He had his first "kids meal" at a fast-food restaurant... ate 2 chicken bites from chick-fil-a, a few fries, and an apple juice (this one, I'm not proud of, but we were on the run & were both getting cranky because we hadn't eaten lunch). And, he had his first piece of bacon at breakfast today. It was turkey bacon and to him this flat piece of meat looked odd. Once he tasted it, he gobbled it up quickly, though.

Mercer has picked up a new habit - not a good one - where he's grabbing and scratching when he dosen't get his way. Todd & I are trying to work on nipping this in the bud and hopefully this is a short-lived phase that he's going through. He's been getting frustrated really easily too. And he also squeals "stoooooppppp" when we're trying to help him do things. Very independent... and doesn't want our help! (He kind of sounds like a whiny teenager when he does this.) It's a little bit funny -- for now.

Another picture from our hike... This is the face he makes when he wants a treat. I can't imagine what he wanted while we were out there, but had to post. We're SO onto him, although he thinks he's being cute & sweet.

One final thing, Mercer is starting to show that he's scared of things. He'll put his hand over his mouth & gasp or he'll cover his eyes. One thing that is interesting, though, is that he's not afraid of the dark. He likes to run into his closet in his room & shut the door. In the bathroom, he'll cut off the light and say dark. You ask him to turn the light on and he doesn't want to.

He's always keeping things lively here!

big news...

We think that Mercer is on his way to being potty-trained!

I've been out of town for work a lot lately... in West Virginia last week and in Alabama this week. While I was gone most recently, Todd was giving Mercer a bath & he pooped in the tub. Todd drained the tub / put Mercer on the toilet / and told him that this is where he is supposed to poop. And... Mercer did! Todd said he made a big deal about it, let him flush & wash it down, and gave him a fruit juice popsicle afterward to encourage him to poop in the toilet more often.

The next day, Mercer had to stay home sick (croup-y cough & wheezing). Todd stayed home with him and Mercer said he had to go to the potty. Todd put him on the toilet... and he pooped in there again! Woo hoo!

A couple of weekends ago, we took a trip to middle Georgia where we hopped on a train. We thought that Mercer would like the experience. He wasn't terribly excited about riding the train - rather - related activities like handing the attendant his ticket and getting a train sticker in return... or seeing the other trains that we would pass along the way. The train took us to a small historic town called Americus (with the BEAUTIFUL historic Windsor Hotel in the center of town). Just outside of town is Habitat for Humanity's corporate office and their Global Village - with examples of houses, huts, and shacks from around the world. The next stop was in Plains, GA where former President Jimmy Carter now lives. There, we stopped for peanut butter ice cream and a "smiling peanut" stamp to put in Mercer's letterboxing book. This pic is of our train and Carter's presidential campaign HQ -- a pretty small building! You can't go to Carter's home, as it's supposedly a heavily guarded compound. We passed through some industrial areas, farms, a Georgia DNR park, and over a large body of water where these really weird bugs with wings and long tails attached themselves to the train (here Mercer is trying to blow it off the window). Our final stop in Archery, GA where Jimmy Carter grew up. His family's house and farm are now run as a National Park Service site. Behind Mercer is a windmill that powers a water pump. I was really amazed -- looking at his roots -- that he made it as far as he did. Pretty impressive! After this stop, we took the slow (and thus long) train ride back to the city where we started. EVERYONE else's kids on the train fell asleep... but not Mercer! He remained wide awake - that is 'til we got off the train & loaded back up into the car. Within 2 minutes, he was fast asleep for the 2 hour ride back home!

A couple of other things to note - Mercer is counting now very well to 5. He's also becoming interested in letters. While scribbling one day he kept saying "T" "letter T." (but it was just scribbles). He picked up a puzzle piece in the shape of a "d" and identified the correct letter, amazingly. (He also said "d" when we picked up other letters too, so we're not quite sure what he's getting / what he's not... but it's still interesting.)

Finally - we were having some people over to the house for a pizza party. Before the party, Mercer saw the juice boxes that we had out for the children of the guests. We let him have one. During the party, he "snuck" a drink box and went to hide under the chair to drink it without us seeing (or so he thought). He "snuck" another one, but we were able to grab it before he got it open. He did not need 3 juice boxes in one night!! It cracked us up!

Mercer is 2 1/2 years old today!

I don't have time to post a blog with pics tonight (that will come later in the week), but there are some interesting things that we're noticing about him and his personality.

- First of all, he is a pistol. He is a very active kid -- constantly on the go.
- He is a very loving kid. He likes to hug us and the cat. He now likes to give me big slobbery kisses and sometimes he likes to cuddle.
- He is a daredevil (climbing to the top of an inflatable slide that's 20' tall over and over again.
- At the same time, he is a little apprehensive of doing things... after successfully sliding 5 or 6 times on his own... he then "needed" to have his daddy go down the 20' slide with him.
- He is extremely independent. "I do it" he says all the time.
- He likes to have us around (he wants us to play with him & be in the same room as he is most of the time)
- He doesn't listen to us (he thinks it's a game when we tell him to stop running from us in public places.
- He listens to every word we say -- he is extremely perceptive and repeats things -- even really big words.
- He loves to be the center of attention
- He gets shy sometimes

It's been an amazing 2 1/2 years. Exhausting, but at the same time... wonderful!

This past weekend, I had another mini-reunion with some girls I grew up with & went to church with. All three of us girls (and sometimes husbands) get together maybe once a year? Amy is someone who I didn't think was going to have children, but she has a cute baby girl now! (the one in the middle with the chubby little cheeks). Our friend Allison's girl with bright red hair is adorable too. Mercer liked looking at and talking about the babies, but they're too young for much interaction at this point.

The next day Todd, Mercer, and I went to the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA. Bank of America has free museum admission days for some museums in our area (www.bankofamerica.com/museums). Mercer is honestly too young at this point for the science museum - but at least we didn't have to pay anything to find this out. He wanted to run around the exhibits, but didn't even look at many them. Several of the exhibits that he did like, however, were interactive. One was panning for minerals in water and an excavation play area where kids get to find things by brushing away small rocks. He also liked the kids discovery zone as well. Overall, it was a pretty cool place. I'm sure we'll be back. They have dinosaur exhibits, a zero-energy house, a big minerals exhibit, and a planetarium. Also, outside, they have a HUGE dump truck on site as well as other utility vehicles.

A final photo of little guy for the week: Mercer decided to put on his fireman boots and life vest one night before going to bed & march around. He's pretty proud that he can put these boots on by himself. Thankfully, he was content with taking both the boots and the life vest off before laying down for the night.

Reunions

This past week, some of us girls from college had a mini-reunion. It's been 8 years since my friend Cindy, Ali, and I have gotten together. Since we've all been together, Ali had her second son, Cindy has had 2 sons, and we - of course - have one. There was lots of talk about boys. Sounds like Mercer's going to be wound up for another 5 or 6 years!!!!!!! (We're all exhausted, but having a blast.)

I had a high school reunion this week as well. There was a group of people that I didn't recognize, as we had a large graduating class. There are only a few people that I regularly keep in touch with -- two of which were there. Todd knew them and their spouses at least, so he had someone to talk to while I was catching up with others who I haven't seen since graduation. A few good connections were made from some of my classmates who I've lost touch with - one who lives very close to us, one who is interested in adoption, and one who seems to have similar values on living lightly on the earth. All-in-all, I'm glad we went.

Mercer stayed with his friends Glady & Jackson while we had a night out. All afternoon, he talked about seeing Glady. So cute. Other cute stuff he's doing is being really sweet lately. He will often run back into the house to give me a hug before Todd takes him to daycare in the morning. Oftentimes, too, when I am putting him to bed - he will "order" me to lay down on the floor & he drapes a blanket over me then pats me (really hard, actually) and tries to put me to sleep. Then the sweetness fades and he jumps on me and yells "Got you!" He's started to banter back-and forth with us. If he does something funny, we tell him he's silly - he'll retort "no, you're silly." This usually goes on and on 'til we stop the banter.

The above picture is of Mercer eating his first ice cream sundae / first banana split complete with whipped cream and sprinkles. He seems to be enjoying it very much. And - the next couple of pictures are of Mercer at a pool party. A 5-year old boy at his daycare was having a birthday party & his younger brother, Cameron, is in Mercer's class. Cameron asked his mom if Mercer could come -- that he's his best friend. When we asked Mercer, he said no - Cameron is not his friend. He doesn't have any friends. Another boy from Mercer's class was there - George. George was biting a couple of months ago & got Mercer twice. Since then, Mercer is constantly saying "George bites. He's BAD!" They were buddies at the pool party, though. Oh.... I guess daycare parties are just beginning. Good bye weekends~!

Speaking of loss of weekend... this is how Todd spent a couple of days off from work & all day Saturday / all day Sunday last weekend. The contractors who built the addition to the back of the house 7 years ago failed to close up a connection of the sheathing at the roof and the wall. Water had been slowly migrating in / getting between the exterior siding and the interior wall until it came rushing INSIDE the house. Unfortunately, there are other spots around the house that Todd is planning to tackle that look like they can be potential problems - but hopefully when it's not 95 degrees +/- outside. It's been a scorcher of a summer this year!

Stay cool ~ Candice & Todd

mr. independent

My mom came down for a visit, but we were so busy doing stuff that we didn't get any photos!

Possibly the highlight of the visit was the three of us (Todd, mom, and me) going to the beautiful, historic Fox Theater to see the Phantom of the Opera. It was an excellent performance & we are all glad we saw it / got a little culture in our lives.

While mom was in town, we all went to a pancake breakfast fund-raiser for a "friend-of-a-friend" who is in the process of adopting two girls from Latvia. We took an adoption class earlier this spring to learn more about additional avenues for adoption. It was there that we even learned that people did fund-raising for adoption. We're not sure the direction we're pursuing / if we would need to go down that road, but it was interesting to meet this family (who already has 5 or 6 kids, two of which are adopted) and talk about ideas with them.

Also, we provided mom & Mercer some one-on-one time while Todd and I were "forced" to go out to a movie. : - ) I think we wore her out, but we know she enjoyed seeing the little guy.

A couple of pics just before & just after the weekend capture two things that Mercer LOVES doing now. He likes to "drive" my car and play with the buttons on the dash, the mirror, the overhead light, the seat belts, opening the console, etc. There's also a sunglass holder above the driver's seat. His glasses were in it, so he put them on - upside down - but he's pretty cool with his shades on. (Oh yeah - I take the keys inside the house because I have a proximity sensor for my car & don't want him to accidentally turn the car on while he's playing!)

The other thing he is really into: playing with cars. He recently got a pack of matchbox vehicles (thanks grandma & grandpa groves). He is so enamored with them that he takes them to daycare with him... rushes to the car-park as soon as he gets home so he can play with them... and even takes them to bed with him. I can't recall if I've written about this, but Mercer is becoming quite demanding. He wants Todd or myself to come play cars with him. He'll run & grab us, "come" "come" as he's pulling on our hand. "Play" "sit" "sit on bottom" (if you're squatting or not really sitting down he can tell).

He's also becoming very independent. Most anything he says "I do it" (sometimes screaming and wailing 'til we un-do what we did so that HE can do it). He doesn't want to sit in his booster seat anymore. He takes his dishes to the sink sometimes. He carries his (almost as big as he) daycare bag into school. He's starting to TRY to pull his shirt over his head. Take off his own shoes. He is becoming very independent about most things - but still wants us around to play with (which is ok, as we like playing with him!)

His speech is really pretty good for his age (we think). He seems to try to repeat almost anything we tell him. Recently, he tried to repeat ridiculous / he slowly said "re-dic-us" with a slight inflection at the end - as he's a little unsure. That's a big word for a little kid. There are dozens of others like that which he at least takes a stab at saying. The development is AMAZING to watch.

We heard from his birthmother, Danielle, last night via email. It's been maybe 4 or 5 months since we've heard from her? We don't know too much about what she's up to because there's not much in the email - mostly how is Mercer doing? We gave her a full update right away & hope she is doing well. We'll send a scrapbook page in the coming month as Mercer will be turning 2 1/2. YIKES!

Have a great weekend.