Mee-see and Mar-ree

Mercy loves to spend time with her BFF Amara. They're really cute together, especially when they hug and hold hands. Mercy pronounces her own name like "Mee-see" and calls Amara "Mar-ree" (rhymes with starry). Mercy always wants us to tell her a story about the adventures of Mercy and Amara and we made up a song about them, too. In November Mercy and Amara and their mommies took a trip to the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center (a museum) in L.A. They were a little scared at first, but then had fun playing with everything. The whole exhibit is interactive and has all kinds of stuff for kids to do. We'll take them again when they're a little bit older and they might enjoy it even more. Mee-see and Mar-ree have many more fun adventures ahead of them. (SS)

Knott's

Mercy took her first trip to Knott's Berry Farm with Mommy, Grandma, Grandpa, and cousin Ben. She wasn't sure what to think about such a big Snoopy!

Grandma was a good sport to go on the rides with her.

She finally gave in to her nap, but was too stubborn to lie down and fell asleep like this:

The Apple of My Eye

We went on a family outing to Oak Glen and visited some apple orchards.

A man at one of the apple stands gave Mercy a little bitty apple just her size. We brought home a bag of King Davids. Delicious!

Off To The Races

On Saturday we had a fun outing and extended-family get-together at the Santa Anita Race Track. Mercy enjoyed watching the horses, eating ice cream, and playing with cousins. Great day! (SS)

Saying Grace

Every night at the dinner table we say a prayer to thank God for supplying our needs and some other things. Sometimes we forget but mid way through the meal Mercy reminds us by reaching out for both of our hands. In either case we close our prayer with an "Amen" which Mercy echoes with a sincere "Elmo". Sometimes she likes to pray two or three times a meal. I think I'm learning that there is more to pray for than just your food and what comes to mind in 30 seconds.

Aquarium of the Pacific

On Thursday we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. Mercy loved looking at all the different fish and sea creatures, and she got to touch a small nurse shark! Eww! (SS)

L.A. County Fair

We enjoyed taking Mercy to the L.A. County Fair on Labor Day. I'd say her favorite thing was watching the Splash Dogs. Mercy is very into dogs, so seeing them run and jump in the water was the best. We went early and left when it got too hot and crowded and Mercy had a well-deserved car-nap on the way home. (SS)

Thunderbirds

I came across this shirt as I was cleaning out my tragically jumbled closet tonight, stuffed behind a drawer. It's a piece of my own childhood and so I thought I should immortalize it in blog since it is so threadbare now that you can see through it. I must have been ten or so when my dad took me to an airshow at March Air Force Base. Maybe I was older, but the point is that this shirt was my souveneir. For the first nine or ten years I owned it I didn't even wear it because I liked how it looked but not how it looked on me. After those ten years, retro shirts came back into fashion and I ran across that shirt again in my closet in mint condition. So I pulled it out, had fond memories of that day with my dad at the airshow and started wearing it. Eventually it started to wear out so it became a work shirt because I refused to part with it. As you can see now it is time for it to go but now I'll have this blog post instead. Pretty sappy eh?

So the moral of the story is that I thought my dad was really great and now I am trying to be a great dad to Mercy. So I hope some day she'll find some old crumpled up thing and remember the fun times we had when she was little. Boy I am way ahead of myself!

Penn Park

Mercy having lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. 

Love

Could there be anything better than your child spontaneously hugging and kissing you?  I think not.

(SS)

New Yard Sale Toys

We found this rocking horse at a yard sale down the street yesterday.  We bought some Childcraft books for a steal of a price but the real deal was Mercy getting two stuffed dogs, a doll, and the slightly broken rocking horse for free because the ladies all thought she was so cute. (I should rent her out for people wanting to make large purchases.) We went right to the hardware store and with 52 cents and a few turns of a screwdriver it was good to ride. 

Uh-po

This summer we've been enjoying Mercy's growing vocabulary.  Certain words are very clear, others are close approximations, and some are indistinct or made-up.  For example, when she hands something to you like "here you go," or "here, I don't want to hold this anymore," she says "meh."  Not sure where that came from.  Anyway, right now we are loving how she says open: "UH-po."  We were going into a store the other day and she pressed her hands and face against the glass door and said "uh-po, uh-po, uh-po."  We want to remember things like this since it goes by so fast.  

Fun with Box

What can I say?  I ran out of ideas and still had two hours until mommy was coming come.

Santa Barbara

Taking in the sights and cool weather in SB with Mercy.

Swimming

Mercy took a dip with me on Father's Day in my brother's Jacuzzi. I think she thought it was just a large bath with bigger toys and more people. She loved it.  I'm not surprised since she is a little daredevil with everything else. We just need to strap on a helmet and a life jacket and then she'll be set up for pretty much anything.

The Joy of Leaf Stomping

(from Sara)  I heard Mercy in hysterical belly laughter the other day and this is what I found.  I'm not sure if she got self-conscious when she looked at the camera, or if she was trying to tell me, "This is a private joke, Mommy."  Anyway, Mercy loves her Daddy and they have A LOT of fun together.  Happy Father's Day, Chris!

Going Somewhere?

I'll Show You Mine

(From Sara)

While I  was chatting with the teller at the bank yesterday I started to hear giggling from the people in line behind me.  I looked down at Mercy in her stroller, and there she was with her shirt lifted up pointing at her bellybutton and grinning at everyone.  Waiting in line can be dull, so I'm glad she could provide a little entertainment!  Her red-faced mom, however, had to restrain herself from bolting out the door...

Black and Blue and Smiley All Over

(From Sara)

Mercy is not normally accident prone, but she's had a lot of doozies lately.  

Mercy's current afflictions:

1) bruise on bridge of nose from bonking into the computer desk

2) large scrape on left cheek and nose from falling on her face on rough sand

3) mystery red bruise on chin??

4) nearly healed shallow cat scratch on right arm when kitty did NOT want to be pet and batted her arm away (again)

5) white line on fingernail almost grown out now from pinching finger in a drawer

6) various bruises on knees and shins from being an active toddler

7) mystery scrapes on right heel??

8) large bruise on top of left foot from PULLING THE PIANO BENCH DOWN ON HERSELF AND NARROWLY ESCAPING A WORSE DISASTER

It seems to bother me more than it bothers her, though.  She carries on with her happy-go-lucky self!  

Things Dads Hear When It's the Weekend and they Planned the Day Trip Themselves

"These tickets won't work on this train.  You're going to have to get off in Santa Ana.  Or I can sell you tickets for this train, but they're going to be REALLY expensive."  --train conductor

"What happened?" --wife

"Aw, dang it!  I just stepped in gum.  Irresponsible people!" --muttering to self

Anyways, after some delays, we made our way down to San Juan Capistrano today for Mercy's first train ride.  We walked around, shopped, and ate.  We went to a petting zoo where she got to see some animals she's only seen in books so far.  Her favorite, of course, being the cow.  When we returned home, she had her first successful bath in a LONG time.  It was great having all of her clean at the same time and knowing she got over her fear and isn't scarred for life.  Changing locations to the kitchen sink seemed to finally do the trick.  Long, fun, tiring day.

Books Are Not For Eating

Especially LIBRARY books!

Mercy and Friend

Mercy is just getting over some sort of virus and ear infection. During the time she was sick she developed a special affinity for her stuffed bear (the one in the pic above and that we talked about in the last blog). Today was a pretty clear indicator that she is feeling well because after a long post-church nap she went on a rampage where she had to get into everything she could possibly think of. I commented to Sara that somehow without my noticing in the last month she has become quite a handful (mostly in a good way). I took her set of little blocks and stacked them as tall as I could, taller than her. She walked over to them with a sly grin and carefully pushed them with just one finger until they fell over and crashed all over the living room. Did I mention that she kisses everything and everyone. I better start preparing for her teenage years soon (by which, of course, I mean saving for that shotgun I've been talking about).

Breakfast with Mercy

This morning Mercy brought her bear with her to the breakfast table and sat him in the highchair beside her.  He's been wearing one of her pajama tops that Daddy put on him a couple days ago.  While I was busy eating my cereal, Mercy was up to some entertaining antics.  She grabbed the thermometer that I had left in arm's reach, and started pretending to take her own temperature (under the arm).  Then I started hearing her corn puffs dropping on the floor and when I looked over and she signed "where" and "cracker" (we say cracker for anything small and crunchy).  I said, "I don't know, Mercy, where's the cracker?"  And she looked inside the bear's sleeve where she thought she was storing them, but they had all been falling out the bottom of the shirt onto the ground!  She is quite the silly girl.  

More, Please!

Here's Mercy signing "more" (which apparently looks like hand clapping to her when I model it, so that's what she does), and "please."  Yes, she was combining them for a two-word sentence for awhile.  Nowadays she dropped the sign and says "mah?" (more) when she's hungry, even if she hasn't had anything yet, and just signs "please" for another bite.  So "more" means "I'm hungry" and "please" means "more".  Make sense?  She also sometimes signs "thank you," which looks the same as the way she blows kisses--smacking herself on the lips with her hand, then pulling it away.  Let's see, what else... Oh, everyone is dada right now.  Including mama and strange men at the store.   Can't wait till she decides to call me mama again.   (SS)

First Easter

Mercy enjoyed playing with cousin Ben at Uncle Frank and Aunt Sylvia's house on Easter.  It was her first Sunday attending the toddler class at church instead of being in the nursery, and she loved it.  She definitely enjoys being around other kids.  On a side note, I was remembering Maundy Thursday a year ago, when I was about 8 and a half months pregnant.  A friend came over to help me paint some side tables and then she was going to ride with me to church for the evening service.  Well, my car ran out of gas about a block from our house and we had to walk the rest of the way (or waddle in my case).  Good thing our church is super close!  Ahhhh, memories.

Birthday Extravaganza #2

Thank you to everyone who helped us through Mercy's first year!  Special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, who are also superheroes for working hard to make the party happen!  We had a fun day and missed those of you who couldn't be with us.   Our girl is one year old.  Where did the time go?

Birthday Extravaganza #1

Here's our first installment of footage from Mercy's big birthday bash. More to come.

Looking good there Mercy!

I Think I'll Walk Now

As you may know Mercy has been taking 3-5 steps at a time but no more than this.  Yesterday she decided that she could walk across the room with or without our help.  I guess she wants to beat the one year mark.

Chris

Disc Golf Practice

Mercy has joined me in my putting practice in our front yard as you can see below. She can hit a putt anywhere from 0-2 inches away which is not bad considering she is just learning to walk on her own. Of course by the time she is old enough to compete our cars will all be hovercrafts and the discs will have some sort of anti-matter propulsion system and there will be courses on Mars. But I digress...

Chris

Outside Fun