Shells and Cheese

Mercy really likes shells and cheese. Many times we give her a little bowl and by the time we sit down with our own food she is already asking for more. Of course the shells always taste better eaten off of fingers rather than a fork. She sure doesn't like tomatoes though.

Right now I am asking Mercy herself what she wants to tell people about herself.

Chris: Mercy, what would you like to say about yourself?

Mercy: I'm nice.

Chris: What else?

Mercy: I'm good and soft

Chris: What does that mean?

Mercy: It means I'm good and soft.

Chris: Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Mercy: Whatevaza.

There you have it.

New Header

Well I looked through our photos to find some fancy headshot of Mercy for the blog header. This is her perpetual way of smiling for the camera so I figured I would go with it since it represents her personality.

-cs

Last Night's Potty Encounter

Sara: "Can I wipe you now?"

Mercy: "You can. It's happy. My bottom is happy to see the wipe."

Why?

Mercy asked her first "why" question last week: "Why are you doing that?" I was making the bed. (Yeah, really, I don't know why we do when we're just going to sleep in it again.)

Why must be some type of milestone in her cognitive development. I'm not sure if I'm ready, though, for the flood of why questions that are sure to come. It's going to force me to really think about things. Today she asked, "Kitty, why are you being so naughty?" Ha! I'd like to know the answer to that too. (SS)

Random Recent Pics

She's seeming so much more grown-up lately. I'll probably always keep saying that. (SS)

It's Puzzling

Here is something I find fascinating. Mercy enjoys doing puzzles. Sometimes when they get easy for her she puts them together upside down (rotated 180 degrees) or face-down (without the picture showing). Hmm. Very interesting. (SS)

Tiny Dancer

Ballet. When I was a girl I COULD NOT WAIT to grow up and get married and have a daughter so I could take her to ballet class. So today was pretty much the goal of my whole life.* The idea of Mercy in a leotard and tights? So cute it hurts. But it's been a long journey of indoctrination, I mean encouragement, getting her to this point (no pun intended). Let me walk you through the process.

You see, as soon as baby Mercy started standing up I started putting a tutu on her. She would usually get upset and take it off. She refused to wear one for a LONG time, much to my dismay. I kept trying, though, and good thing nobody but her saw ME wearing it around the house hoping she'd want to imitate me. Then we started watching ballet on YouTube once in awhile. Then I hung up a handtowel for her with embroidered ballerinas on it that she dries her hands on several times a day, heh heh heh. Then, this spring, we went to go observe a class so she could see other little girls dancing. So over the course of a year my overt and subliminal schemes worked and she finally came around. Yes! Now she loves to put on tutus (of her own accord!) and dance around the house.

I found an instructor that accepts 2-year-olds and holds classes at a church (they have to be 3 at all the studios). Mercy will be learning worship ballet, because if you're not dancing for Jesus, why are you dancing? There are 6 other 2- and 3-year-old girls in her class and they were all so precious that the other moms and I could barely console each other. A couple of them joined me in making the hair bun effort, which is not that easy with such super-fine hair. Well, after all the monumental build-up and a lifetime of expectation my camera weenied out. So this is it, but don't worry--there will be many, many, many more to come. (SS)

*I do tend toward hyperbole, so relax everybody. My real goal in life is to one day own a laundromat.

Mercy hamming it up during class...

and conked out afterwards.

Half-Day-Trip Mania

Photos from the Children's Garden at the Huntington.

May was a sick month at our house, so when we were all better I had the compulsive urge to GET OUT! In the last two weeks we have been to the Aquarium of the Pacific, Adventure City, Atlantis Play Center, and the Huntington Library. We enjoyed all of them and look forward to more! (SS)

Getting Back to Our Roots

We spent Memorial Day planting flowers. Chris made a pretty redwood planter and matching storage bench. Mercy was a super helper. We have a tiny vegetable garden in the back yard and have enjoyed peas, strawberries, and a bumper crop of lettuce. We're looking forward to seeing if the heirloom tomato plant produces. It's already taller than me and about 3 feet in diameter! (SS)

Funny Things She's Said

My favorite method of Mercy waking me up was kissing me all over my face, but a close second was this boisterous greeting: "Wake up, mama lady!" Also memorable was the time she spoke in perfect syncopation with the alarm: "(beep)...TIME...(beep)...TO...(beep)...WAKE...(beep)...UP!"

Yesterday morning she actually wanted me to STAY in bed and said, "Let me get a much better pillow for you. There you go."

While I was singing her to sleep one night she reached up and patted my cheek and said, "Another song, sweetie pie?"

One day she was having a great time riding on her toy car outside and asked, "Wanna ride, mama? I'm pretty sure it's happiness for you!"

One day on our way home in the car she was asking if daddy would be home from work when we got there. "Can I play with dada? Can I be funny? Can I be crazy? And weird? I like him. He's a nice man. He's a sweetie."

Two!

How did it happen? We blinked and two years went by.

Here are Mercy's current stats:

Height: 35 inches

Weight: 32 pounds

Shoe size: 8 W

Number of teeth: 16

Favorite color: orange

Favorite animal: lion

Favorite letter: Y

Favorite things: babies and dogs

We celebrated on Easter Sunday with family, had a special spaghetti dinner and cake tonight with just the three of us, and we'll have a party with her little friends next weekend. I'm ok with spreading it out--I'm still getting used to the idea of her being two and may or may not have cried my eyes out TWICE today, but I'm not tellin'. (SS)

Carlsbad

We took a little day-and-half spring-break trip to Carlsbad this weekend. It consisted mainly of relaxing, going to the beach, and visiting the flower fields. Sweet time.

Mercy

um...self-explanatory.

Tumbling Take 2

Disclaimer: This is a little bit of bragging on our girl. But it is a whole blog about her, after all. And the people who read it love her and would be proud of her too. Am I right?

Mercy is taking a tumbling class again, but it's FUN this time. Ahem. Last summer, when she was 15 months old, we took it for the first time, and frankly, I was the one getting the workout squatting up and down for 45 minutes trying to help her do all the stuff! And then there was the fact that she would simply refuse to do some things. AND it was really crowded with other 1 - 2 1/2 year olds and their parents, many of them just wandering around (the kids, that is). . . Anyway, I was brave enough to sign up again, and am SO GLAD I did. Mercy is doing great and really enjoys it, too. She's not afraid of the apparatuses (yes, that is the plural. My instinct was apparati, but I guess not), follows directions much better now and is just so much more physically capable. Plus, there are only 4 kids in her class this time (and three teachers!) so it's just better all around. She talks excitedly about tumbling class during the week and practices the things they've taught her. They have pretty high expectations, in my opinion, and each week I think the maneuvers are kind of a stretch, but then she amazes me and gets it by the next class. She is doing forward rolls and eagle rolls (feet apart and hands behind the back) on her own, and wants me to help her do headstands at home, and she is surprisingly good on the balance beam (don't worry--it's hardly above ground-level). The first week her teacher asked her to walk on her tiptoes backward on the beam and she did! I thought, "Wow, Mercy, you have skills I didn't even know about!" So, I'm not saying she's the next Shawn Johnson, but I think this class is so beneficial for her and lots of fun. Of course, getting a stamp on her hand at the end is a major highlight, too. (SS)

Going Forth

I found out that the posts can be back-dated, so I can go ahead with what's happening now and fill in the past at the same time and everything will be in chronological order. So, scroll down once in awhile to check if there's anything you haven't seen. Thanks for your patience everyone! (SS)

We're Still Here!

Apologies to the readers, if anyone is still out there. No, we didn't drop off the face of the planet. Life just got busy and then so much time went by I didn't know if I should jump in months later and leave a big gap of time, or fill in where we left off. I've finally decided to do the latter since this is our only type of ongoing record for posterity, so look for a series of retro-posts coming soon.

(SS)

Mercy's First Haircut

I've been putting barrettes in Mercy's hair for about a year now. She's always been a good sport about having her hair done, even asking for pigtails or a ponytail and sitting still for them. However, we finally reached a point where the front became unruly and I just couldn't stand Mercy peering at me through scraggly clumps of hair anymore, so I took her to get some bangs. She did really well. It may have helped that I went first and got some bangs of my own, and that we talked about what it would be like beforehand. Her favorite part seemed to be seeing herself in the big mirror. At some point we'll need to cut the back, too, but we're just not ready to lose her little waves yet! (SS)

Ice Skating!

Well, it turns out they make ice skates in toddler sizes. Who knew? Mercy and I had a chance to go ice skating and she loved it. I think it would have been WAY more fun for her if I could stand up on skates myself, but oh well. I held both her hands and we teetered our way part way around the rink, and then enjoyed watching the other kids. I wanted her to know what ice skating was so she would have a reference when we watched the Olympics. She loves describing her experience (how COLD it was, how ice skaters go "like this" and imitates them in her socks on the wood floor, and how the Zamboni goes round and round). She's so much more coordinated than I am, though. I bet if I had given her 10 more minutes on the ice she would have figured out how to do a double axle on her own. (SS)