it's official: mercer loves the beach.

Todd and I haven't ever really been beach people (except for that trip to Cumberland Island a few years ago which was more about camping & hiking than playing in the sun). But... it looks like we need to learn to love the beach too because Mercer is really REALLY into it!

We went up in honor of Todd's parents 50th wedding anniversary. His siblings and cousins all rented a beach house for the week at Sea Isle City beach - about 1/2 an hour from Atlantic City. I stayed for a few days (because of the new job) but Todd and Mercer stayed all week. Mercer grew more and more comfortable each day and by the end of the week was wanting to go deeper and deeper into the water. He followed his cousin Marley around & doing what she did when on the beach. Most of the time spent at the beach, however, was spent digging in the sand, throwing a (soft) Frisbee, kicking a soccer ball, playing paddle ball, and "riding" the waves.

We would generally spend only a few hours in the late morning on the beach and Mercer would take an afternoon nap after coming in for lunch... however... close to the end of the trip - the group "ordered" lunch on the beach - as they have pizza delivery there - and he stayed out all day with the rest of the family.

When Todd and Mercer came home, they were both exhausted. I was actually exhausted too. As it turned out, I had plans each day after work with different friends. I did a lot of socializing in the evenings and tried to tackle (mini) projects here at the house while the boys were away. I did pack away everything related to diapers / cleared out the potty seat / took down the changing table / got rid of the diaper bag. It was actually a little sad -- not becuase we don't have to change diapers anymore -- but because he's not a baby anymore. He's a 3 1/2 year old "big boy." *sniff sniff* I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but were - of course - so glad when they both came home.

Mercer kept saying something about going back "our other house." I figured out that he was saying that he liked the other house better (the one on the N.J. shore). Yeah - the beach was steps away. He got to stay up late, watch a lot of cartoons on his DVD player, and eat junk food. He had lots of older playmates (his cousins, aunt and uncles). What's not to like? (Here, his uncle Jim is tossing him around. Thanks for all of the pictures, Becki!)

It was hard for him to go back to school on Monday.

Have to mention one thing he's doing that is cracking us up: he's very into "favorite" colors. Todd's is green. Mine is blue. Mercer's favorite is red. SO... he walks around saying "that's YOUR color!" "that's MY color!" pointing at various objects as we walk along. Todd said that his walk through the airport terminal on their way back home was color overload and he kept on and on and on with his observations.

Mr. Daredevil

oh.... we are going to be in trouble. It was completely evident this past weekend that Mercer has no fear. We went to a birthday party for a neighbor who was just turning 4. They had a big inflatable water slide that was in the front yard during the party. The guest of honor went down a few times, but mostly played in the pool at the bottom of the slide. Some other children - a little bit older than Mercer too went down once, but hung out in the pool.

Not Mercer. He kept going down over and over again. He was completely exhilarated. He was definitely keeping up with the 7 and 8 year old kids. He had a blast. We had fun watching him. But..... we realized then that we are going to have to keep an eye on him and speed!

There are a couple of videos that Todd snagged:

http://youtu.be/vAbnpHU2Agk friends "Jacken" (Jackson) and Glady are in this one playing in the pool.

http://youtu.be/hd8vMZFl_5c the birthday boy, Graham, is in this one... the one Mercer plows into. oops!

Some cute things that he's doing:

at night when we are singing songs before bed, he will change his voice to a really deep voice. He starts laughing so hard that he can no longer sing. He tries to sing again, then busts out laughing again.

As mentioned before, he's really into his ABC's. Anytime he sees the letter M he blurts out "M is for Mercer." (He even says this about the golden arches... another funny thing thing he says about the golden arches, is "that food is sick. that food is sick.") whoops - guess we over-did that one telling him that the food there doesn't make people feel good.

He plays a little game now too but he's not very good at it yet.... "I spy with my little eye" he says while he's looking directly at the object he's describing. I've spied them playing this game at school. It's funny to watch & his current teacher, Ms. Tiffany gets a kick out of it too.

We've officially found out that Mercer is moving up to the next grade... he's moving to Mrs. Roya's class soon. (Main reason - his age + he's officially potty trained - YAY!) He has had 3 accidents in the past 3 weeks, but none at school yet. He's doing really well overall! We are thrilled. And - we are happy he's moving to the next class. It will be interesting to see how he grows and develops, as Mrs. Roya is the Montessori Directress of the school. This is her school. She's strict but she's really gentle and loving to the children as well.

Before signing off - I have to mention these activities that they're doing at the school. They have numbers dotted out on pieces of paper (I think Mrs. Roya has her teenage daughters who have been there this summer hand draw pages and pages of these dotted numbers). Mercer is supposedly "writing" his numbers. He's tracing - with pretty good accuracy - over the dots. I don't know about what's good for his age or not, but I am really impressed with the tracings. It really looks like he's writing!

had a "brag."

Here's a photo that Todd & I just received yesterday. We went to a Cars 2 movie event where the hosts provided balloons, pop corn, and family photos. (No idea what Mercer & I are looking at, but Todd's photo-ready.)

We're going to be packing & flying up to NJ a little later today. There is a family gathering at a shore house in honor of Todd's parents 50th anniversary. Way to go, Bob & Rose Marie! Congratulations!

One week and going strong...

Mercer has been going to the potty exclusively for a solid week now! We "upped" the ante.

On this - our third and hopefully final attempt - we have been giving him stickers on a calendar and more lately also giving him "fruit candy" (fruit juice chews). It had been working and getting him in the habit of going, but not all the time.

Todd thought - since a wrapped present worked in getting rid of the pacifier earlier this year - that another one might work to seal the deal on potty-training. The deal on this one: make it 5 straight days without "going" in his diaper and he would get a present.

He made it 4 1/2 days last week.

Happy to say that he made it 5 days straight as of this past Friday... and that he's been wearing thick cotton training pants ever since! And - he's been enjoying his prize...a Cars 2 video game. (Todd's having fun with this gift more so than the matchbox car prize from earlier in the year!)

Because of the potty training, we decided to stay home this weekend. I ended up cooking a lot of our seasonal / local fruits & veggies. Earlier this week -- making several different kinds of veggie lasagnas & later in the week -- canning Georgia peach & local strawberry jam as well as canning three pepper jelly (one of the three varieties from our own garden). It's SO much work canning... but I've really enjoyed "researching" unique recipes on foodie blogs.

Mercer asked if I was making the peach & strawberry jam for him. Yes. "Thank you mommy." He's been saying that phrase a lot lately to Todd and me both... (Well, for him it's "thank you daddy." WE LOVE IT!

We'll have a more eventful post next time, as there are already a couple of things on the calendar for next weekend.

the past two weekends, we didn't have plans but...

...we ended up doing some great stuff!

Last weekend, my friend Susan was passing through town and gave us a call. She and her kids stopped by the house for awhile then we all went bowling. We have been wanting to give this a try. We thought -- rolling a ball & crashing things -- Mercer would love it!

And - he did enjoy it for the most part. The hardest thing for him, however, was waiting his turn. But - all of the kids did great... and Todd bowled a really good game too (probably because the gutters were blocked by the bumpers!)

This weekend, we had an impromptu offer to go for a boat ride... which we gladly accepted. Our neighbors Pam & Orie have a pontoon boat which is perfect for cruising around the lake just north of where we all live. We tooled around the lake for a couple of hours 'til the sun set. Orie let Mercer "drive" the boat a couple of times -- adjusting the throttle, steering the wheel, and honking the boat's horn. He's giving the experience a thumbs up!

Mercer enjoyed it so much that this morning, he put on that coy smile... squinted his eyes and said "I have to tell you something, Mommy." Usually he wants something... a treat. Well, this time he wanted a different sort of treat: "I want to drive Orie's boat again!"

Mercer's language is really pretty good for a 3 year old. There are a couple of things that he says that are really adorable, though, that I don't want to forget. "Shosslate" translated is chocolate. "Lellow" is yellow. We'll have to take a video of him singing his ABC's and singing You are my Sunshine. Kids have the most adorable high-pitched voices that make these songs absolutely priceless. We'll see about trying to post some video of that sometime soon.

We don't have plans next weekend either. Who knows what we'll end up doing?! Have a great week.

Some things don't go so well... some do.

Meant to post these Father's Day pics in the last post. I changed that blog post title and put in this title that some things don't go so well:

We went for a hike, however, Mercer didn't do too much walking on his own. He seems too distracted to stay on the trail and move forward. Much of the walk, Todd ended up having to carry Mercer. We reached a new bridge that was recently built that was under construction (with a big crane) the last time we went hiking on that trail.

Better than making it to the new bridge -- was watching Todd teach Mercer how to skip rocks under the bridge. Little guy was more interested in throwing rocks in an making big splashes, however.

It was hard to pull him away from the water, but it was late and time for lunch / a nap for Mercer when we got done with the hike. One problem with trying to get a tired & hungry toddler to walk back is that tiredness and hunger override listening & moving. Once again - Todd ended up carrying Mercer almost the whole way back. It was a tough hike on father's day, but we did see a deer along the way which was pretty cool. Amazingly, he was not that afraid of us and took his time eating leaves.

On a more positive note, this weekend, we camped out in the back yard -- and -- Mercer slept in the tent all night!! Yay.... it went really well!

When Mercer was 1 - we went to a friend's mountain house. He was too distracted by all of the noises to sleep, so we moved him inside (in his pack-and-play) under the watchful eye of our friends who were inside.

When Mercer was 2 - we tried to camp in the back yard of one of our neighbors. It didn't go so well because there was still a lot of activity around the camp fire and a lot of noise -- he cried and cried so I brought him home not to distract the others trying to sleep in the tents around us.

But now that Mercer is 3 - he did it! It probably helped that we have the white noise from the pond to drown out most noises... but also that his friends who came to camp out with us also went to bed around the same time.

I think the kids wore each other out... Jumping on the air mattresses (although they kept saying that they weren't jumping)... catching fire flies (and each other)... and running around. Earlier in the evening, they also participated in a little artistic project -- which I borrowed the idea of doing from the lady who has the company Nerdy Baby. We weren't sure if the kids would like it... THEY LOVED IT. (basically mixing primary colors of water in ice cube trays with other primary colors to make greens, oranges, purples, and browns) it was messy - but perfect activity for outdoors.

I think that we're going to give "real" camping a try soon. (It would - of course - be fabulous if he were 100% potty trained. We'll keep working on that!) He is very concerned that we are happy. If he goes poop in the potty - he asks "are you happy mommy?" Yes I am. "Is daddy happy?" Yes, Mercer, he is happy. "Is everyone happy?"

Another phrase: Mercer will do something bad so we get onto him. Next he'll say "sorry. I not mean to." or "sorry. I not do it again." Which - unfortunately - we know that he did "mean to" do that thing... and he will do it again. But it is funny that he thinks this is what we want to hear.

One final anecdote: Mercer is very into his ABC's now. Loves singing ABC song, but really loves reading books (over and over) about ABC's. We've bought a few, but have also checked out ABC counting books, ABC car books, ABC alligator & animal books, ABC spider books. Interesting what a voracious learner he is!

And - we'll wrap with a post about something that took place this week: Mercer took an "intensive" series of swim lessons. Over the past couple of years, we've been taking him to group swim lessons. We thought things were going well... he became unafraid of the water when he was young... he learned to blow bubbles... he can climb out of a pool... he can pretty much float on his back by himself. He would sometimes jump in the water unassisted, but mostly not. He was progressing, however, he was still not swimming.

This "intensive" series taught by a woman with a pool in her back yard was half-hour lessons 4 days in a row. It was basically one-on-one (sometimes she had a helper so it was two instructors for the one kid). After his 1st half-hour lesson, Mercer jumped in by himself into the arms of the helper. Then he swam from that guy over to the woman unassisted... about 8-10 feet. WHAT? after 1 half-hour lesson?! By the end of day 4, he can jump into the pool and start swimming... and can swim across the short end of the pool!

She recommends that he come back next year for a refresher and to learn some more skills. SOLD! We liked the other place, but he was so distracted and not getting that personal attention -- which he apparently needed & thrived from! Cool~~

Tomorrow - for the 4th of July - we're going to watch some fireworks up at Marietta Square with a group from church. If there are some good pics / good stories to share, we'll post again soon. Have a safe & happy holiday! (No blowing off any fingers!)

Happy Anniversary... Happy Birthday

This past week has been full of milestones: on June 10th, Todd's parents rang in their 50th wedding anniversary. Two days later, Todd welcomed his 40th year of life. We will celebrate his parents anniversary later this summer when the whole family gets together in NJ, but we did go ahead and celebrate Todd's birthday in a unique way this past weekend.

We rented a 3 bedroom timber-frame house up in the NC mountains and invited some friends and their kids to join us. We ate and drank a lot of good food and wine including several of Todd's favorite foods. We went to the nearby downtown of Bryson City to see what it was all about. We were there on a Sunday and most everything was closed. But - the area around the train station was hopping... and apparently this is a big thing for Bryson City - train rides for kids and adults through the Smoky Mountains.

We went for a hike in the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On this relatively short hike (1 mile +/- each way), we came across two waterfalls - including a spot in front of one of them where there was a shallow pool. The kids - Lily, Mercer, Alex, and Aaron - had a great time dipping their toes in the cool mountain water. This particular area was very populated with a lot of people walking up the trail with inner tubes and floating down the river. Perhaps one day we will partake in this, as it looked like a lot of fun. The kids also spotted different kinds of bugs along the way - interestingly - there were a lot of little purple butterflies there.

The following day, as everyone was leaving the rental house, Todd and I were preparing for another adventure to tackle on our way home: to go on a hunt for a letterbox hidden in the nearby Nantahala Village. (Here, Mercer is sporting his letterbox bag, hat, and sunglasses in hand. The sunscreen & bug spray have been applied.) He is officially ready for "the hunt" which led us through a complex of cabins and by an old working farm-turned day spa. Then we continued toward some horse stables and into the woods. It was a nice walk at first, but as the hike continued, we started to wonder how much longer the journey would take. The trails were walking / horse trails. Unfortunately, we never got to see any horses - but we saw lots and lots... and lots of horse poop along the way. Because of that, Todd carried Mercer for much of the hike so he would not hit any of the targets. Finally (after 1 1/2 hours of walking) we followed the last clue to the hidden letterbox. After so many paces... there is a large vine-covered tree on the left. Look across the path from the tree to a group of rocks knee-high and the box is under the rock on top. Well, there were several vine-covered trees and groupings of rocks, but we did it... we found it! It was pretty rewarding because we weren't even sure if it was there -- it had been several years since anyone else had logged its find. Mercer had fun exchanging stamps in the stamp book.

The clue also said there was a nice picnic spot, so bring a lunch. Well, it wasn't obvious at first. We were surrounded by tall trees, lots of foliage, lots of vines climbing ever upward. It was actually dark in the woods, but about 20 yards further down the path we could see a clearing... and... it was gorgeous. We had our own little private picnic spot in a cove off of the beautiful blue-green waters of Lake Fontana. We watched little fish swim by at the clear waters beneath us and dragon flies playing and flitting around us. There were some spiders on the rock where we perched, but Mercer didn't notice those thankfully. In the distance, we could hear a woodpecker. Above us, a hawk was flying. It was absolutely stunning. It made up for the dark, damp, horse-poop-filled trail!

Once we were finished eating our lunch and taking it all in, we decided to make our way back to the car. Thankfully, the directions to get back took us a different way -- a much shorter route to the lodge where we parked. And - as a bonus, it took us by this beautiful weeping tree and stone ruins.

It was a tough hike. It was one of our most challenging letterbox adventures, but perhaps our most rewarding? We persevered. We didn't give up. We found the stamp, a gorgeous picnic spot, the tree and stone ruin... as well as a part of the NC mountains that we want to go back and explore more!

Reflecting on how rich our lives are...

It's been awhile since posting. We've spent a lot of really really good time together as a family. In fact, I was just reflecting on how rich our lives are.... all 3 of our lives.

Since posting, we've attended our annual neighborhood putt-putt golf tournament and had a great time with our friends; luckily, they have children that Mercer adores. It's a win-win for all of us. We spent Memorial day weekend together as a family. Intentionally, we stayed at home so that we could complete a project: build a sandbox for Mercer. We love our back yard... it's a wonderful space for the three of us to play in, to entertain friends, and to relax. Mercer has learned to enjoy the things that we do back there - tinkering in the garden, interacting with the fish in the pond, watching the water move through the stream, and the stone wall (he climbs & jumps off of it). Likewise, we have learned to enjoy the thing that he does back there - playing chase, hide and seek, and kicking a ball around.

But, the sandbox is the first "fixture" that we've incorporated into our back yard specifically for him. He knows that it is HIS space.

And with that in mind, he was thrilled when we suggested that we host a play date in the back yard. For days before hand, he kept saying "friends coming over? to play in my sandbox?" He would go through a list of friends that he wanted to have over. (This list started with some neighborhood kids, then went into a list of kids from daycare, but we "cut it off" at just the neighborhood gang... which he was still really excited about.) The same group of neighborhood friends we played with at the putt-putt golf outing were back at our house in order for Mercer to host & entertain. After several of the kids played in the sandbox, they all cooled off on a water slide we set up in the back yard. Then, they moved onto playing with sidewalk chalk and sidewalk paint (mostly by jumping on the bottle of paint & seeing how far it would squirt out). It was a fun evening for all of us - adults and children alike.

This sandbox is a unique one, of course. It is made of cedar and has a lid that keeps neighborhood cats out, but the lid folds to form benches on either side of the box. We saw one online that was smaller, so decided to build here instead - and make some modifications to the design. Overall, we're very happy with it... and seeing that Mercer has played in it almost every day since we built it last week... he seems happy with it too.

Later Memorial Day weekend, we went to the Chattahoochee Nature Center for some hiking, exploring, and a picnic. I was most fascinated by our happening upon a group of geese eating flowers and leaves off of some tall grassy plants. For awhile, we lurked behind some bushes in order to watch, then Mercer's attention was turned elsewhere, so we moved on. The geese munched from the tops of the flora... and eventually we walked right past them. They did not move. Apparently, they are used to people.

After eating our picnic lunch, we played a little frisbee out in an open field. We thought this was Mercer's favorite part because he got to run and throw something... but when asking him about what the highlight of his day was, he said he liked hiding in the bushes. And eating blueberries (we had just finished some angel food cake and berries).


I think he must really love blueberries. Earlier in the week - we were praying. He goes through his normal "thank you for mommy... daddy... and Mercer" then he names a friend or a family member. One night, he said thank you for blueberries and strawberries. CUTE!

Some other cute things he's doing: he seems to be very concerned with our happiness and pleasing us. We're still working on his potty training... and when / if he goes, he immediately asks "are you happy?" Sometimes randomly he'll ask if we're happy too. When we say yes, and hug him, he smiles really big. LOVE that!

He's been able to count in order to 20 (with a little bit of help around 13, 14, 15, 16). Just like his ABC's... it's memorization of how things go in order. But - he's starting to recognize objects and groups of objects and associate a number with them. There are 4 geese. There are 2 motorcycles. I have no idea if that's normal at this age -- he's moved past rattling off numbers in order, but we're fascinated by his comprehension and development. Seems simple, but I love how he is relating things with others by a similar trait. "Mommy, the sky is blue like your car and daddy's car is the same color as the trees."

It's a cool thing to watch. Yes, indeed, our lives are rich!