a big weekend. a big post!

what a busy weekend mercer had. even though he's been carrying a sort of cold around since thursday, mercer has been in good spirits. he whines when he's tired (who doesn't?) and he's got a raspy throat, but fresh air does a mercer good, so we had lots of activities planned. also, yesterday was grandpop's birthday, so mercer wishes him a very happy birthday. he helped daddy and mommy pick out a nice present for him, too.



uncle jon and aunt meredith came up to visit on saturday to do some spooky halloween things. first, mercer and the gang bundled up to visit the old sleepy hollow dutch church cemetery, which has a lot of old gravestones; some date back to the 1600's. we even saw washington irving's stone, which was very cool. it was a very big cemetery with lots of interesting names, stones, and family histories. the actual dutch church was very nice, too, also dating back to the 1600's. we came home, had some snacks, and ate a delicious supper of sour cream and swiss cheese noodles with pot roast. delicious!

after dinner, we headed over to the great jack o'lantern blaze that has been held up here for the past three years. it's a huge event these days, with thousands of visitors each halloween season. the blaze is held at an historic site, but decorated with lighted carved pumpkins at night for a high spook factor. they have different themes of pumpkins like dinosaurs, ocean creatures, snakes, spiders, and a lot more. it's a lot of fun walking around seeing the different kinds of carved pumpkins. mercer spent most of the time snoozing, but he woke up occasionally to take a look at the orange lights and commotion going on around him. it's a fun event to help everyone get in the mood for halloween; what better place to do it than the headless horseman's backyard? we returned home again and had some delicious cookies for dessert with cappuccinos and espresso. uncle jon and aunt meredith bid us farewell and the leonowicz family promptly fell asleep. mercer had a decent sleep last night, but he's still finding it difficult to breathe because of his congestion.

today, mercer, pop, and mommy piled into Charlie Charger to visit some sites in northern manhattan. first up, we visited the house where wes anderson shot much of his film, the royal tenenbaums. the house sits at 144th and convent, an area mom and pop had never been to before and probably never will be again, but it's good to see parts of the city that you've never seen before. it's so different than what most people think of when they think of what manhattan looks like. the house is in beautiful condition (not so when anderson found it) and very unique. pop isn't sure he's ever seen a house quite like this one in all of manhattan, which is probably why anderson chose it to house his tenenbaums. in the photo to the left, you can see mom and mercer in front, walking the same ground that gene hackman walked!

the next stop was columbia university. mom and pop had never been in this area even though it's a major ivy league university. pop likes visiting ivy league schools and it doesn't hurt to get mercer used to these kinds of surroundings. mom and pop have visited harvard, brown, princeton, columbia, and yale (still to go: cornell, dartmouth, UPenn) so far, and we have to say that columbia's campus is quite stunning. the main quad area is closed off from broadway and amsterdam and the buildings are just gorgeous. you feel smarter just from walking around the campus. by the way, yale was probably the worst campus we've seen. as a brown grad, pop had to throw that in there.

actually, now that pop thinks about it, he and mom had been to this area a few years back during christmas time to visit grant's tomb (very cool) and the cathedral of st. john the devine (breathtaking, yes, but it's no Cologne cathedral!). still, we had never been to columbia university until today. mercer liked it, so that's promising.

beautiful riverside park is just a hop/skip/jump away from columbia which is where these next four photos were taken (some with the handy timer feature). what a good-looking family! mercer raises the bar quite a bit, we must admit. pop is the weak link, but at least he tries hard. anyway, mercer loves to stand and here you can see him giggling as mommy helps him stand on a stone wall. we think mercer is going to walk before he crawls, but we'll see. his fantastic white hat was hand-knitted by one of my co-workers and is beautiful! mercer is adorable in it. what a perfect day! not too cold, not too warm. plus, the fresh air helped clear mercer's congestion a bit.

we're home eating leftovers now; relaxing and playing mercer games! make sure you remember to vote. the poll closes soon. where is mercer most ticklish? also, pop will be sending out a new ofoto photo album when mercer turns six months next week.



new feature! mercer music picks! we'll try to pick a new song each night and every 11 or 12 days you'll have yourself a great little mix playlist. today's selection:

matt and kim - "yea yeah"

sleep tight...