Happy Halloween

This year, Mercer chose what he wanted to dress up for Halloween: a red car. He was not just any ol' red car -- he was Lightning McQueen from the Cars movie. Well, Mercer "gets" trick-or-treating now. After a neighborhood party that we had, Todd took him to some houses along the street. I'm happy to report that when he got to our house & I held out the bowl of candy, pencils, and raisins... he grabbed a box of raisins. ("Good Choice" I told him -- but he had a lot of candy already, so I don't know that the one box of raisins will counter-act the other sugary treats.) Oh well!

These pictures are actually from the week before Halloween. We went to our church's "trunk or treat" event. Mercer tried out the costume for the first time here. He had to take it off to participate in the bouncy-houses & slides, though. (Yes - he's going head first). He got to wear his costume for a few minutes at school at their fall festival. (I took it up to his school during the event, but his teacher asked me to take it off of because he couldn't sit on the floor with the rest of the kids. Oh well!)

He seemed pretty proud of his costume, though. ~Whew~ it took awhile to make, so glad he likes it! And - now that Halloween is over, I hope he plays in it a lot.

Mercer and I decorated a pumpkin with Mr. Potato Head sort of attachments. (He picked out the pieces that he wanted to use & I helped shoving them into the flesh of the pumpkin - so it really was his creativity that pulled it together.) Todd went old-school and carved a pumpkin for a competition at his office. Happy to say that he won. But - we were even happier that Mercer drew Todd's pumpkin (from memory) the next day at school. I'm sure that when Mercer told his teachers that he was drawing a pumpkin & it only had one eye, they were probably thinking, "um... kid... jack-o-lanterns have two eyes." But - Todd & I both were REALLY impressed. Brilliant!

Have to close with this photo. We were snapping a bunch of photos to get some good ones of him & his costume. Maybe we caught him mid-stream doing something?? (or - he was posing) It's definitely a keeper!

Apple picking in the mountains

We went apple picking last weekend. This year, we went to a town called Blue Ridge (about 1/2 an hour north of where we went before in Ellijay). Previously, we went to a small orchard that had a few varieties of apples available for picking. This year, our visit to Mercier Orchards was quite a bit different -- good and bad.

- good: lots of apples to choose from + beautiful grounds + extensive store with apple-related products, toys, and kitchen accessories.
- bad: inside the store, it felt as if 1,000 people were bustling through there -- it was hectic and crazy.

Here's a "souvenir photo" of the visit with our friends Mike, Sara, Aaron, and Alex. Alex is 4 and any time we hang out with these friends, Mercer talks about Alex for days and days.

The variety of apples was broad. We rode in a trailer pulled by a tractor through the orchard and they talk about the varieties of fruit that they have and the various seasons in which you can pick strawberries or blueberries. They also described the different flavors and varieties of apples that are were currently in season. The farm is large (200 acres) and boasts to have 100,000 trees. There were probably a dozen different varieties available for the picking while we were there. Each family picked a couple of different types that we were interested in and set out for lots of tasting and picking. Mercer - in seeing others pick from the tops of trees - wanted to try to climb on Todd's shoulders and pick the apples high on the branches.

We had hoped to spend more time in the north Georgia mountains this year - but after apple picking and grabbing lunch in the cafe on site was about the limit with a 3 year old (and for us as well).

Mercer is saying a lot of things now like "excuse me" when he interrupts mine / Todd's conversations. Of course - we have to stop! He says "bless you" when we sneeze. He does that thing where he repeats what you say right after you say it so that he's sort of talking over you. He gargles now and will talk or sing while doing it. So far, he's learned to swallow what he's gargling when he bursts out laughing (thankfully) but I'm sure the day will come when he can't control his laughter and he'll send the liquid spewing! He also thinks it's funny to burp (but thankfully he'll say "excuse me" afterwards).

He's becoming a big, big boy...
.... riding his tricycle all by himself
.... dressing himself (when he wants to)
.... and even starting to entertain himself by pulling out his toys and playing or even coloring pictures on his own.

We'll end the post on a funny note (sort of). About a year ago we posted a picture of Mercer "sneaking" a juice box and crawling under a table to drink it. He's doing this again with some regularity now -- so we'll have to watch it!

He sneaks his potty treats / fruit snacks (which we've pretty much stopped giving him as he's growing out of it). He has also snuck some candy from a bag that he got at a recent church event. He hides under a different table now while he's savoring his "forbidden" treat. Sometimes we think he wants to get caught... he'll come into the room, cock his head to one side and look at us with a big grin on his face. We ask - what he's doing and he says "nuff-ing" and runs away with his hands behind his back. Most of the time it's something random that he's picked up - but sometimes it's something that he knows he's not supposed to have. This changes some things... can't just leave stuff laying around the house & "trust" that he won't get it without our help. He's figured out how to get what he wants (within reason) by himself~

This is going to be an intersesting phase!

Oh Canada!

I had to travel to Canada for work this past week. A few of my co-workers and I were kicking off a green building project in Toronto + we were attending a large green building conference in the same city (along with about 60 other people from my newly acquired / merged company). It was really pretty crazy as the new company - SCIenergy - was having events a couple of the evenings + there was event that the conference had one evening - a series o speakers followed by a concert in the Air Canada hockey arena. Between the events, the conference, juggling the site visits and kick-off meetings....all told - for 6 days of travel, we had about 4 hours of "free time" so we made the most of it~

There is a system of underground tunnels that connect buildings in Toronto because of the extreme weather in the winter. There is also a network of above-ground enclosed walkways and glass structures between buildings. We stumbled across a structure designed by my favorite architect: Santiago Calatrava. He specializes in bridges, public infrastructure projects, and buildings that have some sort of kinetic (movable) feature to them. He is a very talented architect / engineer. His structures comprise of sinuous lines and are all very elegant. It was refreshing to walk through this project of his! This one in particular connected a couple of more modern buildings as well as one historic building. The differences between the historic and the crisp, clean white metal and glass structure is really quite nice~

Afterwards, we rented bicycles from a bike-share program that has 1000 bikes "locked up" at 80 different stations throughout Toronto. You pay at a kiosk & it unlocks the bike. You ride around however long you want then you return at any of the stations. It made our sight-seeing go much quicker and more fun than hopping on a cable car or open-air bus to get around.

In downtown, there is a mix of modern buildings and preservation of historic structures. The variety makes sight-seeing interesting. We went to an area to the east of the downtown business district was very hip: the Distillery District. This area was comprised of brick warehouse structures that have been converted into a village of trendy restaurants, shops, and galleries. The streets are blocked off from automobiles, they are lined with cobblestones, and public sculpture is scattered throughout -- making it ideal for public gathering and socializing. We spent the majority of our time there rather than the touristy area around the CN tower (which has an observation deck near the top of a spire) in which to see the city from above. That's the first image shown on this blog post - for it's iconic of Toronto.

Toronto is an interesting city -- clean, good infrastructure, diverse & international population, and seems progressive in a number of ways. I liked it as a city. I wish that there was more down-time on the trip in which to have explored more. But it was also great coming home!

This was the first work trip I have taken in close to half a year. I used to take a lot of short 1 - 2 - 3 day trips to places within a drive of Atlanta for my previous job. At this new job (5+ months), the travels are going to be much less frequent but they will all be far away. This is definitely a better arrangement for our little family unit~

When arriving home on Saturday night, Mercer was actually excited to see me. In the past, it doesn't seem that he would care so much - but as he's getting older - he recognizes our absence when we're gone -- even a short absence such as Todd going into work early -- Mercer will inquire about where he is.

There is an entire blog worth of things to write about that Mercer is saying and doing now. That will come shortly. 'Til then, here's some pictures of Mercer at one of our favorite places to hike: Sope Creek and the paper mill ruins that straddle both sides. We took this hike and had a little picnic on the rocks the day before I had to go out of town for the week. It was a beautiful day and it was also the first time that Mercer did this mile +/- hike down to the water all by himself (we helped him navigate over the rocks in the creek - of course). Todd ended up carrying Mercer for only a couple of minutes as we were walking back to the car -- but this is a vast improvement over previous hikes.

Oh, there's nothing "baby" about Mercer anymore! I've had a bit of a hard time this season while changing out summer clothes for bigger fall/winter clothes. Each season is tough, but this season, we put away everything that also deals with potty-training, diapers, etc. It is a great milestone, but also makes us realize that he's not even a toddler anymore. He's a little boy now (or in his firey words - I'm a "big" boy).

Edisto 2011 (Part 2)

We took a different "day trip" this year from Edisto. Last year, we went to Charleston for the day. This year, we stuck to experiencing nature - going on an ecological journey through the ACE Basin. (ACE stands or Ashepoo, Combahee, Edisto Rivers) The ACE Basin is the largest estuary on the east coast - where fresh and salt water come together - supporting a variety of wildlife in a unique habitat.

The boat tour dock was outside of Beaufort, SC and "claims to fame" by being the Bubba Gump Shrimp dock in the movie Forrest Gump. Sorry - we didn't take any pictures of the dock - but we did take a lot of pictures of the various birds that we saw. We saw orange-billed oyster catchers, yellow leg gulls, herons, egrets, ibis, and a pair of mating _____ (something) that we forgot the name of - but was somewhat rare to see. Unfortunately, Mercer started to throw a fit on the boat / screamed / and they flew away. We caught a glimpse of one of those rare birds after it landed just around the bend in the river... thankfully for the others on the boat tour.

We had dolphins playing in front of us and swimming up to meet the boat. Mercer was interested in seeing the dolphins the first few times (but about after seeing them a dozen or more times the excitement faded). He was interested in eating lunch on the boat. He was interested in the (gross) little potty on the boat. He was interested in my hat. The birds - not so much. Oh well. The fresh air was great for all of us.

The next stop that day was to some nearby ruins that Todd and I have been to before of the Old Sheldon Church. Mercer wasn't as impressed as we are by them, but he seemed to have a good time running through the remains of the structure and trying to swing on the tree that was low to the ground.

Another place that we went that was "further afield" from our post at the beach is called Bottany Bay. I blogged about it last year. I went by myself because Mercer was sick & had fallen asleep on Todd's lap on our last day at the beach on our trip in 2010. This year - happy to say - no one fell ill.... so we went out to this former 4000+ acre plantation. The state of SC manages the property now and it is free to visit. There is a variety of wildlife here as well. The marsh didn't seem as fascinating this year as last -- but probably b/c we were immersed in it during our boat tour. The highlight of the visit was the naturalized beach and the shore full of shells.

There's a strange tradition there of placing the conch shells found on the trees. You are not allowed to take shells from the property, so perhaps people wanted to display their finds? Mercer caught right on and joined in with the same tradition.

We decided that next year, we will take a picnic lunch and spend more time on that beach.
Yes - we decided that we would like to go back again. There's not a great deal of things to do there, but that's the allure. And - 'til we have exhausted all interested in this place - we may be calling this "our" beach spot.

Edisto 2011 (part 1)

Our vacation has come and gone - but we have made some fantastic memories. The trip to Edisto Island Beach was very different this year than last. There were things that we discovered by happenstance (such as an inner-island bike trail) and there were things that we sought out that would provide unique experiences.

Instead of being 2 years old, Mercer was 3 on this trip and was able to do additional things such as swim in a pool (with the aid of a Safety Seal swimmer) and he was more interested in building then decorating sand castles. He was also more curious about and active in flying a kite this year. We had to get it up in the air, but once there he wanted to hold it and control it / see if he could make it dance in the sky.

We knew the island much better this trip than last as well. We were in the same complex of buildings, but in a different unit. We were right next to the swimming pool and we had a view of a park with a river beyond - as seen in the previous blog entry. This change actually elevated our experience quite a bit, for it offered additional scenery and ease of access to a couple of amenities. We've discussed going back next year and trying to get the same unit if possible.

I also jumped on a history tour one afternoon while Mercer was napping. It went inland of the island and visited the old churches that line the main road. There is also a history center which we popped into. The island settlers went to grow rice, but instead, ended up growing indigo and became very wealthy because of it. The tour was interesting - however - it didn't paint as complete a picture as I was hoping for. I am interested in learning about the Gullah heritage and traditions. I will have to dig deeper on the next trip for that.

Instead of renting bicycles for a few days like last year, we brought our bikes from home so we had them all week. This is how we travelled on the island except when needing to get groceries from the other side of the island. We rented a "toter" - which it's official use is to transport children - however we used ours like a wagon behind my bike to transport beach gear. Mercer rode in a carrier on Todd's bike - which he is just about grown out of . We can probably cram him in there through this fall... but next spring... we'll have to figure something else out.

One evening after playing on the beach, we ended up riding our bikes past the western tip of the island right around sun set. We hopped off the bikes to take in the colors in the sky. We had hoped to see the beautiful red and orange hues, but to our surprise, we also had a perfect view of the full moon that was rising. Standing in one spot, we could see the sun set AND catch glimpses of dolphins playing and small fish jumping out of the water just under the moonlight that was rippling on top. It was a beautiful spot. All of this was happening at the point where the mouth of the wide marsh-lined creek met the Atlantic.

One morning, we made it to the beach fairly early. Our reward: watching groups of dolphins swim by. Some of them would leap high out of the water. Of course it was impossible to catch on film, although we tried! We were actually lucky, too, in finding a few nice (whole) sea shells as well as quite a number of sharks teeth. Of the three things just mentioned - none of those occurred on our first trip here.

The weather was quite nice for the trip, but took a little turn close to the end of our week. We brought activities to do inside in case of rain - which did not threaten any of our beach-going. It was actually chilly for about 1 1/2 days. We had some board games to play inside, brought some arts & crafts projects to do with Mercer, and baked cookies as well. We also decided to explore the S.C. state park that straddles across the eastern portion of the island as well as a nature / interpretive center that is adjacent to the inland part of the state park. We rode our bikes through the park and sought out a letterbox stamp to add to our book as well.

These pics are actually on a stretch of the beach that borders the state park. The beach where we go (because of the cabana & bathrooms) has not been too busy - although we've gone "after season" both years. This stretch of the beach is quite isolated and the shells seem to be nicer in this area. One thing that we haven't been able to do yet is to complete the 3 mile hike to the end of the park's border and look for shells at the mouth of another creek. Ssupposedly this is the best place on the island to look for the jewels that come from the sea. Maybe next year Mercer will be up for it??

I've got to run for now. Edisto 2011(part 2) will follow shortly. Included will be details of our mid-week day trip to the Beaufort area as well as our quick visit to Bottany Bay.

Early September

Last week, Mercer began wearing his "official" Montessori School uniform -- a shirt with the school's logo + khakis. (This was his idea to take a picture and pose here in the hall just outside of his room.) He has been so proud of this shirt -- so much so that one night when we went out to eat for dinner, he had to show the waiter his shirt. I don't think the guy had any clue what he was talking about "new shirt new shirt" but we thought it was funny. The week before, he was the same way about the new tennis shoes he's wearing in the photo. He said they're fast and would actually be upset if we tried to get him to wear a different pair. He has stopped and showed at least a dozen people those shoes.

Kids are funny that way. However, with the good comes the not-so-good. Mercer has become very whiney when he wants something. He gets frustrated easily and cries a lot if something goes wrong. We're hoping he grows out of this quickly!! We're working on it -- trying to explain that he shouldn't express himself like that. If he drops something.. go pick it up instead of cry about it. Wish us luck as there are ever-changing "tests" on our parenting approach!

On Sept 10, we headed to our friends house (Tana & Charles) in Augusta to stay the night. We visited them last year when we were en route to Edisto Island Beach. 2 years in a row... are we beginning a new tradition? Mercer enjoyed playing with their children -- especially their daughter Phoebe (age 8) and her best friend who also stayed the night. He followed those two girls around all night & did what they did -- including doing cartwheels across the back yard and splashing around in their pool.

The next day was the 10 year anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attack. We were travelling, so we did not get to participate in any memorial services, but it's been very heavy on our heads lately leading up to that date. We have been watching some heart-breaking testimonials that family members would lay out on t.v. The most memorable for us was a series done on the people who were on the 4th plane... where the passengers stormed the terrorists and managed to divert the plane from it's original destination such as hitting another US building or monument. Knowing that they were destined to crash and take down another building and additional lives, taking over the situation was - indeed - heroic. We went to church with our friends in Augusta that morning before we continued down the road and they talked about how much it has changed the world in which we live / the perception of the world. This is true; Mercer will not have as much freedom to explore & be a kid as Todd and I did when we were growing up. (This is part of the allure for our little vacation spot on Edisto. It's much safer than many other vacation destinations and it has a lot of room for exploration... natural exploration.)

We made it to Edisto Island and checked into the condo for the week. Mercer kept saying that his new friends (from Augusta) were coming over to swim in our pool. He was so apprehensive at first to play with them & after 1 day of hanging out... he wanted to then entertain them! We made it onto the beach for a little while that evening.

The following morning, I found the perfect spot in which to hang out early in the AM. From the side porch of the condo is a sliver of a view to the Bay Creek which lies at the mouth of the South Edisto River and the Atlantic Ocean. There have been a variety of birds hanging out in the marsh these past few mornings as well as a few fishers who trawl down the creek wanting to make an early catch. I've been sitting in this spot every morning before anyone else wakes up. Also - in the afternoon - I will sometimes go down to the Bay Creek Park beyond the white fence and sit on a park bench or even the fishing dock just barely visible from our porch view.

One day while Mercer was napping, I went down to the dock to read & a handful of boats passed by. There are no wake signs posted in this area, so they all putted along quietly. There was one boat I was certain had fish or crabs on it, as there were no less than 30 sea gulls squawking and flying in circles around the boat. It was quite a site to coming towards me... passing by at a snail's pace... then continuing on down the otherwise peaceful creek.

There will be another vacation post with lots of photos once we get home. But - for now - we're hanging out, enjoying the time together with our little family unit, and relaxing!

3 years ago today....

Mercer's adoption was finalized!

We had the day off today. Today is the Labor Day holiday. We wanted to go somewhere / do something to have fun with Mercer and honor "his day" but mother nature had different plans. There was a tropical storm in the gulf that moved up to Georgia and rained all day. Instead of travelling today, we stayed in all day. We played with marbles, blocks, games and watched some movies. Mercer seemed to be happy. (especially with this new balance game - ChickyBoom - that we got yesterday when we travelled to Greenville) ~wink~ instead of cancelling our trip, we pushed our trip up a day instead.

We went to Greenville, SC to visit my college roommate + her family and to check out their awesome children's museum. Mercer and I stopped at that museum once on our way home from NC. He was just under 2 years old. At that time, there were only a handful of things that he could do, but it was still a lot of fun then. This time -- it was even more fun because he was into a lot more of the activities. Admittedly, Todd and I had a great time too!!

Last time we went, the majority of time was spent playing in the water area. Mercer got some play time in it this trip, but found many other things to do too. (Note - although wearing a water-proof smock - he still got soaked / had to change. You'll notice he's sporting 2 different looks on this trip. That's why - no other reason!)

There's a sculpture that you can climb that spans the top two floors of the museum. I wanted to climb it the first time we came to the museum, but the kids have to be 3 and up. Mercer was a little apprehensive at first, but he did go back through it a couple of times during our visit. It's constructed mostly of clear Plexiglas shells and cables to hold them up and to create "walls" so you don't fall off of the thing. The way that they're organized, it's like a 3-dimensional maze.

He really enjoyed riding in the Indy race car simulators and playing in the music room - where they had a musical pinball machine that you could customize. He - of course - enjoyed running around and playing with Cindy's kids, Trevor (3) and Daniel (5). I think we have a similar picture to this one with Mercer chasing Trevor (Apr 20, 2010 post). Deja vu~

Quick note: Cindy said that this is the photo (on the steps) that depicts what the boys were doing before they all had to be rushed to the ER. Luckily / amazingly... no one was hurt. There are all sorts of great things to do at the museum, but they'll still climb on things that weren't intended for them to do so!

After the museum, we went in search for a letterbox that was hidden on Main Street in downtown Greenville. This letterbox was based on some micro-sculptures that have been placed throughout town called "Mice on Main." http://www.miceonmain.com/mousehunthints.html Afterwards, we headed south on foot and via a short trolley ride in efforts to make it to Falls Park -- a public space that is graced by one of the most beautiful bridges I've ever seen: Liberty Bridge. http://www.fallspark.com/LibertyBridge.aspx We made our way down to the bottom and crossed (no worries - where we crossed was far away from the falls). If we didn't have the drive home ahead of us, it would've been an excellent day to picnic by the water and explore the greenspace and public art more.

It was a long day and little guy was worn out. He slept pretty much the whole way home (2 hours +), went to bed pretty much straight away when we got home, and slept in today. But, we think he felt special overall & know that he is a MUCH loved member of our family!!