The Mercado Family



Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Erik 4

Erik has been "signing" his name as "Erik 3" this past year whenever his name is required for a birthday card or on a project for preschool. He needs to change that to "4" now. It's hard to believe that my baby is 4! Despite his idiosyncrasies, which we all have, I love that boy!

He has been potty trained now for over two months and it was the smoothest potty training session ever! (That's where potty training your kid just before they turn 4, and no sooner, works in your favor, at least in my case.) He loves to "read". Yesterday we went to the library for story time. When we walked into the children's section, the first thing he did was run to where the Fly Guy and Gerald and Piggy books are. He was totally involved in a book before I got over to him.

He also loves to count objects. Any chance he gets he's counting the items in a row. He's getting really good at it too! A couple of weeks ago he helped me make cookies. As I was putting them on the baking sheet, he started to count. He said, "One, two, three" was quiet as he barely moved his finger, away from where the pan was, then said, " eleven!" I did a double take. I didn't think he had actually counted them all, or at least correctly. I had to count them real quick myself to see that there really were 11 there!

He's an interesting boy when it comes to attention. He wants it on his own terms and in small amounts. He didn't want to go up in the front of the primary to be sung to for his birthday. At his preschool Halloween party at our house, he didn't participate, when he normally does with the smaller group of preschool kids. Today at the fire station for our field trip, he was with the others, trying to be first in the ambulance. A fire man tried to pull him out of the group to make space, which was a big mistake. He cowered in between my legs afterwards. He's getting better at going to different friend's houses so I can volunteer, though.

I believe he is secretly a duck. Not only does he have those webbed toes, but he loves to stand in the pouring rain! Whenever he sees it's raining out, he will go outside and stand there. He also loves to go barefoot. He can't stand having hot feet and always complains about his feet being hot if I make him wear his crocs (or shoes, which he rarely wears). Any chance he gets, his shoes are off and he is running! After trick-or-treating, on a very cold and rainy Halloween, Jason said Erik's feet felt hot to his hands.

He loves Wild Kratts, loves to help, loves to run barefoot, play hide-and-seek, and of course "hot chocolate" (warm milk). Not much progress in the eating. He actually cringes and gets upset when he sees the food on my plate which he thinks looks totally disgusting. Maybe we'll figure something out at his well-child exam...

We went sledding for his birthday yesterday because we could! Karissa was at her after school Best Time Party, but she met up with us at McDonald's afterwards. I had made noodles on Sunday, since Erik will eat them once in a while. We sang to him that evening, but since he does like french fries at Mc D's, I figured that would be a good celebration on the actual day. Of course the play area is a hit too. When we came home, he saw Austin's new books from his school library and Erik had become so involved in the new books. I had to remind him it was time to open presents. He was so happy to get his small pile of inexpensive gifts. Don't fell bad for him, though, he has plenty! He loves his new clothes that I bought him last week since he won't wear Austin's long-sleeved striped shirts or jeans. I needed to get him character shirts and sweats. Long-sleeves since he prefers to go without a sweater or coat!

Snow, the day before his birthday.

Always a face for the camera.

Eating cake, what else would it be?

Reading at the library. He is actually wearing a sweater and socks in this picture, a rare occurrence.

Pulling his own sled up the hill. It was a really good time!

Swinging his new sword!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Improvements

When we bought our camper in August, we decided the place to store it would be on the side of our house where there's always just been firewood, weeds, and dirt piles. So, we've been clearing that out and researched the best way to have access to it. It was behind a chain link fence, so we had to go with a gate so we could have easy access to our camper. Being the finance guy he is, Jason waited until the right time to put the first payment on the gate and have them put it in just before the weather starts getting questionable for digging holes in the ground, and then make the final payment. We had cleared all the brush away from the front of the gate in July, even before we bought the camper. That was the project Jason's dad helped us with and I got a bad case of poison ivy.

This was taken 3/2014 of the area from the back, since I forgot to take any before shots.
This was taken in 9/2014 of the front, again, no before shots. 

Here's our house today, 11/2015, with our new gate!

Here's the front, but I haven't taken one of the back yet. We'll finish clearing it in the spring and bring the camper home then. It gets free storage right now somewhere else.
 While the weather does it's winter thing, before we finish clearing the side yard, we started our indoor project. Our basement. It had some mold on the carpet. No floods, just a little moisture covered up for too long. So, we took out the carpet from the main area and are painting epoxy on the floor. (It's water resistant and pretty too.)
Bare bones after clearing everything out.

Ugly!


Austin helped up suck up the water we used in one of the cleaning processes to prepare the floor.

Erik helped scrub.

What a team!

It's not finished yet, but here's a sneak peek!
We will finish the walls within the next month too. Then, Jason can put up my long-awaited shelving unit!!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

For a Laugh

I don't have much to blog about, but I do remember a funny experience that happened with Erik in June, if you need a laugh.

It was the last week of school and I had taken him to the library. He was playing with the toys and then started to look at some books. I was reading and letting him have some quiet time of his own so I could enjoy mine. I noticed that he was really engrossed in the same book for a long time. He was so involved, that I took these pictures of him.




You can see a slight smile on his face. He had that same look on his face throughout this whole book he was looking at. I could tell the book amused him. When he was done, I wanted to know what book it was that he so enjoyed, so I looked through it. He had me read it to him.

Now I wish I had taken a picture of the actual book, or the title. It was a book about a town of people who lost their butts! Yes, a children's book about people who woke up one day without their butts. All the butts went on a vacation together. You can kind of see the pictures of the people with nothing where their butt is supposed to be, but unfortunately I didn't get any picture of a page with all the butts. They were just like flesh-colored heart-type shapes, crack and all, with clothes on, except when they went to the beach. they had bathing suits on there. It wasn't crude, just really weird. I think a woman wrote the book too. I took the pictures only because I was so proud at how engrossed he was in this book, not knowing that I should have documented this weird book. When I found out it was about a bunch of butts going around on vacation, I couldn't control my amusement with him! I completely forgot to document the title.

So, if you're looking for a children's book to catch the attention of someone, there's one out there!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Too Much Halloween!

Halloween being on a Saturday this year meant that we had many opportunities to participate in Halloween activities. Not only did they get to wear costumes to school the day before Halloween and enjoy their parties in class, but they got to dress up again to trick or treat the next day. Not to mention the week before when Miller hosted its first annual Haunted Hallways after school on a Thursday. The kids got to dress up and experience the "haunted" hallways of Miller, put on by the teachers, including candy given out and cookies at the end. This was a tradition of the previous Gallimore teachers. They want to successfully embrace the traditions from both schools to make everyone feel at home at Miller.

Two days after Haunted Hallways was the church trunk or treat party with our awesome Scooby costumes. Two days after that was Erik's preschool party, held at my house. Phew! There was a lot of Halloween around here!
This was our attempt to get all the kids in the same picture. 
This is what had to happen in order for Erik to cooperate, in turn helping the others too. 

The boys helped clean up the leaves in the front. 

They love our pull-up bar.

Besides parties at school, the day before Halloween which I did not participate in, I got to go to the parades at both schools. Luckily, the kids didn't get much junk at their school parties, just fun experiences in class.
Karissa and her BFF Olivia at the Gallimore parade.

Austin's class.

Evil Cat.
Grumpy old man again at the Miller parade.  Some of her friends didn't know who she was! Notice that Karissa and Austin made a costume change. It was too cold for short-sleeved Shaggy and Karissa didn't want to be Velma without the rest of the "gang".

Halloween morning was the perfect time for us to try out a cider mill called Franklin's that we've wanted to try for a while. It's sort of near the Detroit Temple. They have been reported to have the best cider around here. With dance and ice hockey in the late morning, we had to go first thing to the cider mill. So, the kids got to have donuts and cider for breakfast! Actually, I really enjoyed being there before the crowds and bees. It was cool, crisp, and quiet in the little town of Franklin. The kids enjoyed being outside and watching the ducks. The donuts were a German recipe. They are made with the cinnamon sugar on the inside instead of being covered on the outside, so it made for cleaner donuts that had a more sweet bread feel to them. They were warm and very good. The cider was excellent! I couldn't say if it was the best, since I didn't have any other to compare it with at the moment.
Franklin's Cider Mill





Trick or treating was different for me this year. Erik didn't ride in the stroller up to each step this time. He walked with the big kids the whole 45 minutes and was happy to carry his big heavy bucket at the end, especially if it meant he would get more candy! I got to stroll on the sidewalk the whole way with my friend and neighbor, Cathy, and talk to all the other parents I came across. The weather was chilly and wet, as usual, but it didn't rain too hard on us, thanks goodness! We finished the night at the church on the corner (our neighbor's church). They invited us to their party where the kids played some games and got more junk, including hot dogs. Erik was home with Jason by then, enjoying his loot and a football game.
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Trick or treating with friends. Scooby became a bucket-head for the picture. 

I decided the next day that we had had too much Halloween!