Merrick's Favorite Things

I can't believe Merrick is less than 2 weeks away from turning 1! In some ways I'm so sad about it - I want him to stay my sweet little baby forever. But in other ways I'm so excited to see what else we have to look forward to. Each stage has been so awesome.

As he gets older, he's starting to develop his lists of likes and dislikes. This is where I'm beginning to realize that he really is his own person. Some of the things he loves are 1) WATER - he just LOVES being in the water....whether at the beach, in the pool or even in the bathtub; and so far he doesn't seem to have any fears - I hope it stays that way! 2) Playing ball, 3) 'playing' guitar with Daddy.

Since we've already got plenty of beach pictures, I thought I'd share some pics of his time with Daddy playing guitar, as well as next to his favorite beach ball!

Bye Bye Gas Guzzler

It is with sadness and fond memories that we say goodbye to one of our SUVs. We had 2 in the family, and while they are immensely useful when dragging around dogs, kids, luggage, etc., wow are they gas guzzlers!

Let me step up to my soapbox for a moment...ahem ahem...I just can't stand the thought of me continuing to drive this thing, getting 18 MPG. I need to invest in a hybrid vehicle - I need to step away from my reliability on foreign oil for two reasons - first because I want to try to do my part in leaving a friendly environment for my son's generation. Second, I find it ironic and a little sickening that the very people from whom we're buying oil are the ones terrorizing the western world. I want no part of it! Okay, stepping down from soapbox...and by the way not meant to be a judgment on anyone else because I have NO room to do this - far from perfect in this area - however, we felt strongly enough that we wanted to do something about it.

Soooo...we went out and traded the MDX for a Toyota Prius. We've been averaging about 48 MPG. NICE! It is a little hard getting used to not having so much space available, but I have to say the Prius is quite roomy for a little car. It also got incredible safety ratings, so I don't feel like I'm driving around in a tin can. Merrick gives the thumbs up too. The only thumbs down comes from Dexter...he insists on riding in the other SUV! :) I'm really hoping that by the time Merrick is old enough to drive (God help us), he will think it's just crazy that we actually used gasoline to fuel our vehicles at one point.

Future Maytag Man???

Hmmm....so, what do you do when your son has an obsession with the clothes dryer? I kid you not. Merrick could sit in the clothes dryer for HOURS...I know what you're thinking - NO he's not in there while it's running! If I make any attempt to do laundry while he's awake, he stops whatever he's doing and crawls like mad to get to the laundry room...he likes to "help" me by throwing anything that's in there on the floor, and then he climbs right in there. Silly, silly baby!

Teething Bites!!

Oh my poor little guy. He's had only his two lower teeth since he was 8 months old, and hasn't had anything since. Well now it looks like he's getting 4 uppers in all at once! He has been absolutely miserable the last couple days. It started last night when he was throwing up - scared us to death because he was already asleep when he first started getting sick. He was sick for a while last night and we just kept him in our bed so we could keep a close watch on him. Of course this meant NO sleep for us, but that's just the way it is! Today he ate/drank almost NOTHING. I think it actually hurts for him to try to drink. Then tonight it took me over an hour to get him down...I gave him some Motrin and Orajel (I save the drugs for desperate times, and I thought this was one of those times). He still just could not get comfortable and sleep, so I held him and let him cry until he finally went to sleep. Now I completely understand what it means when you hear parents say they wish they could just take the pain of their child...I'd take it a thousand times over if it meant he didn't have to suffer. The poor little guy can't even tell us what's wrong! :( Anyway, enough of the martyrdom (heh heh)....I just can't wait for him to feel better!

For some better thoughts, here are a couple pictures from his time at the beach last weekend with his cousins. He is such a water baby! It's amazing how comfortable he is in the water. They had a great time destroying sand castles that others had so painstakingly worked to build...shhhhh, it wasn't my son!

Braggin' on my Baby

Okay, I think it is EVERY Mommy's right to brag about their kids - so now it's my turn! Merrick has become quite chatty. He's VERY fluent in....his own language. I don't know his native tongue...from an island far out in the Pacific? An undiscovered iceberg community off Antarctica? Or even perhaps another planet? I don't know yet...but he really has a lot to say!

Oh yes, and by the way, he is also saying a few things in English now! His first word, of no surprise to us, was 'Dexter' (sounds almost like 'da da' when he says it, but there is a difference between 'Dexter' and 'Daddy'). He said this right at 10 months. Toward the end of his 10th month, he is also saying: 'uh-oh' (he likes to use this as he drops all food, drink, etc off the table), 'Dada', 'Mama', 'ball', 'bye-bye' - I don't mark it down as an official word for him until he uses it in the correct context, so I would say he also says 'banana', but he calls a lot of things 'banana' right now. 'Dada' and 'Mama' are used indiscriminately to refer to me and Craig. Right now, for example, he's sitting on his chair trying to get my attention, and calling me 'da da'.

We love our little linguist!

Catching Up...Last Weekend at Busch Gardens

I've been remiss in updating the blog lately. The last couple weeks have just FLOWN by! Let's see....last weekend we all went to Busch Gardens in Tampa for the weekend. Merrick was able to spend the entire weekend with Grammie & Grandpa, Uncle David & Aunt Teri, and Cousins Willow and Wren. Everyone had a BLAST! A weekend just wasn't long enough to explore; Busch Gardens is actually really neat - they had this huge African safari area where you could see all the animals, lots of kid rides and rides for adults too..I've put together a little slide show so check it out!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com