beach baby

I'm happy that I have a beach baby. Mercy loves everything about the beach--the people, the sand, the water, the seaweed, the waves, the rocks and shells, the breeze, the umbrellas, birds, etc.

Yesterday, we went to the beach with friends from Baltimore who were up for a visit. The rip tides were extremely strong, and we saw someone get rescued by about six life guards. Despite this, of course Tim and Jacob went out boogie boarding. Within minutes, the life guards were out again to save someone else. I couldn't find Tim and Jacob. It was because they were being rescued. ahaha. According to them, they didn't really need the help. I guess it was more of a precaution. Tim said when the one lifeguard reached him, he asked her in which direction they should swim, and she just said, "Man, I'm tired." Anyway, when they came to shore, everyone on the beach clapped and Mercy herself clapped and said 'yay' over and over again. Well, thanks for saving our husbands, Westerly lifeguards. What an adventure. 

Newport Kite Festival

Last weekend, Laura and Nathaniel (Tim's siblings) were here for a visit, so we took a trip to Newport because they were having a kite festival. Mercy got a kite for her birthday and enjoys when Tim flies it, so we thought it would be something fun to do. Despite the 95 degree weather and horrible traffic (never go to Newport on a weekend in the summer--too many people!), we arrived and were quite impressed by the diversity of kites. Never before had we seen such large and three-dimensional ones.

There was a huge octopus:

Mercy indulged herself in a Rhode Island classic, Del's Lemonade, and got spoiled by the attention of Aunt Lo and Uncle Nathaniel.

My favorite kite was a pair of legs. No body-just legs. Quirky.

After the kites, we went down to the cliff walk because Laura and Nathaniel had never been. Siblings shot:

Newport is so beautiful. Rhode Island is so beautiful; I can't think of a better state in which to pass the summer months.

mailmen=police

Tonight we went to the summer concert series held in Watch Hill. Mercy played contentedly on our blanket for a bit, but then, of course, she crawled away to sit in front of a bunch of spectators. She sat there waving to everyone repeatedly and saying hi. Luckily, no one grew tired of her. We let her wave to the same four couples for about ten minutes, and then I had to use her Bert doll to wave her back over to us; otherwise, she probably would have sat there the rest of the evening, waving to her public. The woman behind us in the picture commented that she'd never seen a more perceptive baby. 

There was a young police officer standing behind us the whole time providing event "security." Mercy was obsessed with him, waving to him all night. He waved back a couple times, but he had to pretend to be serious since he was on duty. This playing-hard-to-get only intensified Mercy's fixation. She kept referring to him as 'meh meh' (mailman). We kept telling her to call him 'police,' but the blue uniform convinced her it was our mailman. I told the officer that she was calling him mailman, and he chuckled, but seemed secretly defeated. Perhaps I shouldn't have told him.

one year!

Mercy is one! She has changed so much in her first year. We have seen her as a content newborn for her first week of life, colicky and crying all the time until she turned about four months (a traumatizing time for her mother), generally happy and absolutely adorable during her 5th and 6th months, constantly sick with colds and ear infections from 6 months onward, developing an extremely bright and inquisitive nature around 7 months and impressing us with her mind and charm ever since. We have seen her get really chubby during her second month of life and maintain said chub until around 8 months, when she began moving non-stop. At this age, she is our beautiful, very smart, friendly and charming, curious, energetic, spirited little girl with striking, bright blue eyes and a huge smile. We are so proud that she is ours. She brings light to all those around her.

At her one year birthday, Mercy:

weighed exactly 20 pounds (50%)  and was 30 inches tall (79%). Her head circumference was only in the 37%, which alarmed the doctor enough to measure it again, but when she heard she knew fifteen words, she knew it wasn't a worry. I think both Tim and I have smaller heads anyway.

 seems to be pretty bright. At her one year birthday, she could use 16 words correctly (not just repeating them after they're spoken, but using them spontaneously herself). Those words are: hi, bye bye, ball (bah), baby (bah bah), flower (wowah), pineapple (popple), cheese (eese), banana (nana), more (moh), no (NONONONONONO!!!), bible--which she calls every book--, mama, dada, cigar (gar), mailman (meh meh), yay. As I'm typing this (a couple weeks after her first birthday), she's already saying at least 7 more (moon, duck, cracker, avocado, glasses, pool, bottle (for water bottle), knee, "I did it!" (when she gets to the top of the stairs).

can tell you where many body parts are: head, hair, eyes, mouth, teeth, ear, belly, thigh, knee, foot, hand, arm.

can make the following animal noises when asked, if she's feeling generous: tiger, bird, fish, elephant, dog, cow, sheep, duck.

is not walking yet. She is beginning to be  more interested in it. She'll actually let you hold her hands to walk now.

still only has her two bottom teeth.

started to be called by her middle name. I call her Mercy Bay about half the time now.

is obsessed with climbing the stairs. I really need to get some baby gates. If I set her down in the living room, sometimes she plays, but often she crawls immediately to the stairs and starts climbing. I walk over and say, "what are you doing?" and she flashes a huge, mischievous smile and says "Hi" really loudly, as if her cuteness will supersede not being allowed to climb the stairs.

does lots of tricks. When she hears an airplane  (which is often because there is a tiny airport in Westerly that has small airplanes), she points to the sky and makes an airplane noise. She yodels (I know; it's a weird trick for a baby). If you give her a pen or something similarly shaped, she sticks it in her mouth and takes her hands away like it's a cigar and shakes her head (see below video). And she calls pens "gar" sometimes. When she gets to the top of the stairs after climbing them, she sits down and shakes her fists in the air like she won something. When you ask her what a clock says she waves her finger back and forth and says 'tic, toc.' My sister Kelsie taught her to make this funny monkey face from the movie Dunston Checks In (ever heard of it? ahaha. It's legendary in my family), which involves opening and closing her jaw rapidly and showing her teeth. If you ask her to "do peace," she'll give you the peace sign. Tim sometimes gets her to "do Nixon" and she'll do peace signs with both hands. She holds up random objects to her ear like they're phones and waits for you to do the same and talk to her. The best is when she uses her foot as a phone.

Mercy does "airplane"

cigar trick

yodeling

's new favorite foods she likes are hard boiled eggs (only the white part), fish cakes (like crab cakes but with fish) and ice cream, of course.

is still nursing. I thought she was starting to wean herself a few weeks before she turned one, but it was only a phase. She nurses about 3-4 times a day (and sometimes at night if she's sick).

had another ear infection, bringing her total to eight since Christmas. She also had Roseola.

began going to the nursery during church.

is incredibly social still and loves being around people. Yesterday we were waiting for a friends outside the YMCA for about 20 minutes, and she was perfectly happy standing near the door and greeting everyone with waves, smiles and "Hi's" and then saying "bye bye." She literally says 'hi' to everyone she sees and will say it multiple time to the same person and wave multiple times as well. She's enamored with people (and vice versa).  Tim recently took her out shopping (which doesn't happen often because when he's home, I usually tag along with the two of them), and when he came home, he remarked how much he likes taking her out because she's so adorable in her interaction with the public and he likes hearing all of people's comments about her.

loves guacamole

Loves the beach. She loves playing with the sand, being dipped in the water, the seagulls, the breeze, all the other people to watch and wave to, seaweed. She might be happiest at the beach. It's a good thing we moved here.

favorite pastime: watching the Watch Hill carousel

Photos from her one year birthday:

wowah!

10 months

At ten months, Mercy:

has developed two freckles--one in the corner of her eye and one on her forehead. I had a million freckles as a kid, so I wonder if that's in her future, too.

you can sort of make out the one in the corner of her eye

started to wear some shoes this month. They have pandas on them :) Her foot was measured at Payless as a size three, but it turns out size three is way too big for her. She has tiny feet. Her panda shoes say that they're for babies 0-6 months old.

panda shoes

got her first teeth (bottom two). I'm glad the top teeth are still absent because I just love seeing her gums when she smiles.

in addition to other body parts from last month, she knows where her thigh and head are if you ask her.

she will also dance if you ask her to, which involves clasping her hands in front of her body and moving them back and forth likes she's stirring something.

gives hugs.

knows what an elephant says.

is beginning to tolerate being in a stroller. She didn't like strolling for many months, so I would usually just carry her everywhere or wear her in the ergo. I would try once in a while to put her in the stroller, and as soon as we got to the farthest point we were going to go from the house, she would start wailing, and I would have to take her out and carry her the rest of the way while pushing the stroller, which was exhausting. Now she'll sit in it for a long while before she gets tired.

can say a few words: ball (bah), baby (bah bah), hi (HI!!!!!) and sometimes light (na, sometimes la)

is not napping well anymore. I think it's because she's sick with colds/ear infections all the time combined with teething, but it takes her sometimes 1.5 hours to fall asleep and she fights it hard.

 is starting to get lazy with learning to walk. She has a firetruck toy that she can push to help her learn to walk, and she'll take two steps and then just plop down on her butt to sit down. She doesn't seem as motivated to walk as she did last month.

at the park with Grandma (before she lost motivation to walk)

 's favorite foods are cheese, pizza, pineapples, oranges, avocado, yogurt and hummus. Oh, and ice cream, but that's a rare treat.

still nurses about 4/5 times a day. Sometimes she nurses at night if she's sick and needs comforting (which happens a lot because she's sick often).


tries to feed herself with a spoon. She usually gets most of it in her mouth, but of course, it is a messy endeavor.

takes stuff out of her mouth to inspect it and then puts it back in to finish chewing it.

going down the slide with Grandpa

at the duck race

Mercy loves riding on Daddy's shoulders

 loves to play in the grass.

passionately loves to watch other kids and tries to get their attention by waving and saying 'hi' really loudly. It's so sad when she's not acknowledged because she is trying so hard.


is losing her chubbiness. She's pretty lean these days. Her legs still have a few small rolls on them thankfully, and her cheeks are still squeezable, but she's officially not chubby anymore.

never sits still. She's pretty exhausting and I have to watch her every second. She never, ever, ever relaxes, except if she's sleeping. I don't know how anyone can do that.

started having some stranger anxiety. She often gets upset/scared if I leave the room and sometimes starts screaming.

the usual--mouthful of cheerios

hanging out to dry with her diapers

9 months

9 months was a big month for Mercy. Her mind was especially spongy, soaking up everything and learning lots of new tricks. At 9 months, Mercy:

weighs 18 pounds and 15 ounces and is 28.5 inches tall.


learned to crawl. She was close for a long time, but she finally figured out how to move both legs to propel herself forward.

learned how to pull herself up and started cruising around the furniture, the walls, etc.

takes forever to fall asleep at night because all she wants to do is stand in her crib. She basically just stands and walks around her crib until she collapses from exhaustion.

learned lots of cute tricks. If you ask her where her belly, ear, hand, foot or mouth is, she will touch it. She gives kisses. She claps. If you ask her what a puppy, kitty, cow or fish say, she will make the sound. She does 'so big.' She knows who daddy is and says his name. She only says 'mom mom' when she's angry; I'm not sure if she officially knows my name yet.

 loves to say the word 'bop' all the time. Maybe it's because we call her Mr. Bop sometimes. But she says it non stop.

is mesmerized by animals.

still has no teeth (which I just happen to think is way cuter than teeth, so I'm glad).

still abhors being laid down to have her diaper changed and being put into her car seat.

received a ten dollar tip for being cute. Tim, Mercy and I were grocery shopping at McQuade's, which has its fair share of elderly shoppers for some reason, and an old woman came up to Mercy as she was sitting in the cart and commented on how beautiful and happy she was. Then she pulled out a ten dollar bill, gave it to Tim and told him to put it in her piggy bank. ahaha. We tried to give it back, but she insisted.


took a trip to Baltimore to visit some new babies (and future boyfriends perhaps, Thomas and Dean) and old friends.

"Oh, I don't recognize you without your beard, sir."

A 6 week old baby!

more pictures of Mercy Bay:

Easter dress

new toy for Easter

hiking

hanging out the sun roof

Mystic Irish Parade with Aunt Kelsie