happy new year.

as the title says, happy new year! we're going to take a day or two off to get festive. we'll probably try and sleep in as long as we can on new years day (7AM), maybe take a walk if it's nice, have a good dinner out, and then hit the sack. it sounds rather dull, but any day with mercer is full of excitement.

behold.

mercer looked adorable on christmas morning, didn't he? and look at all those presents he got to tear through. what a lucky young man.

there's a new poll up! what should mercer's resolutions be for the new year?

the eyes have it.

mercer had his first eye checkup today. normally, 8-month old babies don't have their eyes checked, but pop has been paranoid about mercer's left eye for awhile now. it's slightly smaller than the right and during sick spells or tiredness, the eye looks much different than the right. the eyelid droops quite a bit. anyway, pop was worried that if too much of the eyelid drooped, it would cover important parts of the eye, causing laziness (lazy eye).

the office we visited was fantastic - maybe the best pop has ever been in - and the doctor even better. she got mercer to concentrate very easily and was able to examine him long enough to tell us that there's nothing wrong except slight asymmetry in the skin surrounding the left eye, which everyone has if you look hard enough. she was able to see signs that he might need glasses later on like mom and pop, but we kind of expected that. long story short, mercer's eyes are developing perfectly and there's nothing to worry about. we'll confirm that for sure in 4 months when we re-visit.

another interesting thing she confirmed is that mercer's eyes make him look much more mature than he is. his eyes never had that infant "doe-eyed" look; rather, his were almond-shaped right off the bat. it caused many (including us) to think of him as older than he really is! still, he's an old man now! 8 months!

mercerMusic blowOut:
okkervil river - "our life is not a movie or maybe"
jens lekman - "postcard to nina"
the arcade fire - "keep the car running"
feist - "1 2 3 4"

holiday hangover.

mercer is back home after his first successful christmas. team leonowicz is pretty tired on the whole, but they had great fun during the last week. they visited new hope, pa, went to an annual family holiday party (this year hosted by aunt becky and uncle toby), saw lots of friends, new and old, like scott, brian, rachel, greg, and laura, some more family members, and got some great presents from mema, papa, grandma, grandpa, and plenty of others. mercer seemed more interested in the boxes and wrapping paper than the gifts themselves, but he's getting there.

pop used a new toy for bath time tonight: a pig washcloth. mercer has never laughed so hard in the tub before. pop laughed quite a bit, too. every time pop made the pig talk or washed mercer's neck, mercer went berserk! it was an extra long bath time today!

it's almost back to busy life for the gang, but we still have one more holiday to go: celebrating the new year. we'll be blogging nightly anyway, counting down the hours to 2008, a year that will feature tons of new milestones for little mercer: walking, talking, eating more foods, misbehavior, bigger beds, bigger houses? we shall see.

mercerMusic:
the hoosiers: "goodbye, mr. a"

sweet and sour.

mercer had a pretty good day yesterday. we think day care messed up his feeding yesterday, so we had a talk with them this morning. what happened was that they supposedly fed him applesauce and squash. only we never gave them applesauce to feed him. plus, they said they fed him 18 ounces of formula, yet when we got home, he sucked down another 8 ounces, which is very uncharacteristic of a teething baby. something is definitely fishy. his normal daytime caretaker was out yesterday, but she's back in today, so hopefully the ship will be righted.

mercer was in fine spirits despite the mix-up. he was rolling around the house like a tumbleweed, laughing and giggling. we read a story at night and he was all smiles. but for some reason, he woke up twice during the night. mommy was very tired but got up to gently soothe mercer back to sleep. pop slept through everything, basically, proving he is useful only to make mercer laugh. oh well.

also - mercer is now 8 months old!

cliché.

mom and pop have been lucky enough to experience a lot of great things in their young lives.

they have traveled a good deal. in america, they have visited places like seattle, san francisco, portland (maine and oregon), boston, houston, nashville, philadelphia, tampa bay, baltimore, washington dc, chicago, new york, pittsburgh, providence, cape cod, virginia, burlington, and orlando. overseas, they've been to london, berlin, frankfurt, paris, montreal, amsterdam, the dominican republic, edinburgh, oxford, cologne, florence, siena, hamburg, munich, pisa, quebec city, nurenberg, and let's not forget, mannheim. they've seen tony award-winning musicals and have been to the tony awards. they've been to major league baseball games to see barry bonds juice one out of the park and minor league games to see the first base coach ejected to the team bus. they've seen major soccer and tennis tournaments, football games, hockey, civil war reenactments, and maybe even some figure skating. they've eaten great food in some great restaurants on two continents. mom and pop even graduated from high school AND college. pop even has a master's degree! they've marched in parades, volunteered for soup kitchens and other charities, lived in 4 different states, met celebrities and famous musicians, visited theme parks, watched live tapings of late night talk shows, watched great classical music at lincoln center, stayed in great hotels and some not-so-great hostels, hiked mountains, and relaxed on beaches. oh yes, mom and pop also got married and had a great wedding.

none of this beats playing with mercer on the living room floor.

random.

some random things.

-mom and pop went shopping today and thought that their car got stolen when they went back to the parking garage. turns out we were parked on a different level. the things that go through your mind when you think your car got stolen are amazing.

-mom and pop saw ric ocasek of the band the cars, in soho the other day. he was going into the apple computer store on prince street.

-did we miss all the christmas shows? do they show them before thanksgiving now?

-mercer hasn't sat up by himself again since yesterday. we're waiting with the camera.

-mercer is pretty darn cute. he looks very old for his age, too. and big.

-mom and pop can tell exactly what mercer wants/needs with each of his different whines.

-sleep tight...

sit-ups.

mercer sat up by himself for the first time today.

pop was in china star, waiting for an order of kung po, steamed chicken and broccoli, and won ton soup when he called mom at home to see if she wanted a diet dr. pepper.

"he just sat up."

"what?"

"just this minute, right when you called. he sat up by himself."

pop looked at his cell phone. 6:10pm, december 13, 2007. mercer jackson sat up by himself! pop was proud but cursing himself for wanting kung po chicken after watching an episode of seinfeld.

here's how it happened. mercer was in the living room on his hands and knees, as has been commonplace recently, when his butt shifted back a little more onto his foot. then, boom, his foot slipped out from underneath and he was up on his own. smiling. sitting up. all by himself.

we've got a big boy on our hands. and two cans of diet dr. pepper.

sleep tight...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

so, mercer has discovered the joys of sesame street. before we brought him to day care this morning, we flipped on PBS and came upon cookie monster, bert, ernie, and the whole gang. mom and pop don't normally encourage TV watching like this, but in a span of 20 minutes, we learned about paris, french market culture, the letter g, fruits, vegetables, the importance of exercise, the spanish word for "cat," counting to 6, and probably a few other things. mercer was giggling and waving his hands so much every time he saw grover that he fell over! it's really a fantastic show. in the photo here, mercer is watching cookie monster eat (what else?) a giant cookie.

another day, another giggle.

mercer had a good time in day care today. he is still coughing a little bit here and there, but he's toughing it out. we can't imagine how painful new teeth pushing through gums must be, but mercer is being a real trooper. he doesn't have a good appetite, but he's still playing and babbling on.

we bought mercer some special holiday pj's today that might just be the cutest things ever. we can't wait to unveil them when we take some pictures of mercer in front of the christmas tree. he's going to look so cute playing with his wrapping paper and boxes on christmas day. stay tuned for that.

mercer will be in day care tomorrow and the next day because of work and things like that, but everyone loves the little mercerBox, so they'll be glad to see him; who wouldn't?

sleep tight...

mercerMusic:
say hi - "northwestern girls"

manchester orchestra - "wolves at night"

who's the teething baby?

mercer, that's who.

it turns out that mercer's cold-like symptoms are due to teething. at least that's what the doctor says, but what does he know? apparently, mercer has a bunch of upper teeth on the way that could be giving our little creature some trouble. he's still coughing a lot, but we got a humidifier today to try and help that out.

mercer is playing in his toy car/walker right now, honking and beeping away. we're all getting ready for christmas, which is right around the corner! in between the feedings and changings, mom and pop are wrapping gifts and ordering a few last minute gifts online. no one can wait until mercer's first christmas arrives! pop just got a call from santa last night, who said that mercer has been a very good boy this year.

sleep tight..

two front teeth.

two bottom front teeth, that is.

mercer has two bottom teeth coming in fast and furious now. he hasn't really shown any signs of discomfort or drooling. it's funny to see him smile and laugh and catch glimpses of two pearly whites in the midst of all those gums.

mercer had quite the weekend. before visiting the grandparents back in new jersey, the family stopped off for a quick visit with santa, who somehow found enough time to snap a few shots with some snot-covered kids. the result is what you see here. mercer was distracted by all of the people and twirly-gigs around him, but he didn't cry and was somewhat indifferent to the whole thing. still, he's very cute.

then on saturday, after spending a good morning with MeMa and PaPa, he helped grandma and grandpa decorate the family christmas tree. mercer began showing some signs of sickness earlier in the weekend, however, and was coughing quite a bit. then, early sunday morning, pop found that mercer had thrown-up all over his pack and play without even breaking his sleep! how interesting and very dangerous. mercer normally sleeps very well, but you would think that a baby would give a little cry over something like this.

mercer is back at home base now and feeling better. he got a lot of naps in and is getting ready for bedtime. as a precaution, mom will bring mercer to the doctor tomorrow to see if anything is really wrong. but, mercer is smiling, playing, and giggling like usual.

sleep tight...

likes and dislikes.

mercer likes:

squash, green beans, carrots, formula, avocado
peek-a-boo
bath time
being on his belly
toys
slapping people in the face
laptop keyboards
soccer on tv
remote controls
phones
DVDs
magazines
monkeys
dinosaurs*
cold temperatures
pears
nap time
mommy
screen savers
guitars
standing
being bitten on the belly and legs
being tickled under his armpits
chewing on stuffed animal tails
blabbering
new faces
blankets during sleeping
books
hugs

mercer dislikes:

philadelphia


*a lot

mean streak.

we picked up mercer from day care today and we could tell right away that he was very tired. as soon as we got home, mom brought him upstairs to the sleeping chamber so he could get a nap. this kind of annoys us because day care doesn't let him sleep properly. therefore, we have to pay for it at night by not being able to have him awake as much as we'd like for playtime.

so anyway, mom got him sleeping on the master bed while pop prepared some dinner. dinner was had and mercer was still sleeping, but it was approaching his dinner time as well. we decided to wake him up. big mistake. he was fast asleep and did not appreciate the uninvited intruders. we tried to play with him but he started crying and whining. then we tried to feed him a bottle and he swatted it away. then we tried solid food and he was too busy crying to even notice it. finally, mommy picked him up and he calmed down. we tried the bottle again and he drank a good 8 or so ounces of formula. no solid food tonight.

after the bottle it was mercer as usual. lots of smiles, giggles, and fun times. now we're reading "goodnight moon" to him and trying to warm up the bedroom. it's a cold night! sleep tight...

peek-a-baby.

mercer loves playing peek-a-boo. last night, pop was hiding at the foot of the bed, popping his head and up and down. mercer, who was belly-down on the bed, giggled each time he saw dad's head pop up. but he also shuffled his way across half the bed to find daddy. a few months ago, mercer would've just thought that daddy kept disappearing into thin air. now, mercer understands that daddy is simply hiding. that's called object permanence; knowing that objects exist even if they're not visible. congratulations, mercer! you're learning!

all else is well in mercerland. he had a great day in day care, as usual. he's still fascinated by the christmas tree and we're going to be taking pictures of him with the tree soon.

a growing boy needs his shuteye. sleep tight...

girls weekend!

mercer had lots of visitors this weekend. in alpha order, aunt alyssa, azure, katie, and nicole were in town to give mercer some snuggles. aunt erin was able to join in over the phone all the way from the magical land of "oregon." the gang did their annual holiday get-together thing as well as some shopping, eating, and laughing. everyone got a kick out of mercer and thought he was very cuddly.

pop doesn't know too many of the details because he high-tailed it to new jersey to hang out with uncle jon and aunt meredith (mercer has more aunts and uncles than the cosby's had grandparents). they had fun eating, drinking, shopping, and indulging in other various forms of merriment, such as going to a local hockey game. who goes to see hockey when it's freezing outside? crazy people, that's who. it was fun.

in the past few weeks or so, mercer has seen his first snowfall and christmas tree. he is very curious about the tree, and not just because of the lights. he stares at it, puts his hand out to touch a branch, and then immediately pulls his hand back because he's feels prickles. it's very cute.

we also gave mercer his first taste of lemon the other night. all of the effort that goes into raising a baby is worth it when you see their reaction to sour lemon! mercer was so cute. he puckered up a little and cocked his head back. his eyes got a little scrunchy, too. he didn't mind it, though, so we gave him a little bit more. we'll try it again soon.

another week is upon us. time for a rest.