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.