from the archive: babymoon in providence.

before mercer was born, mom and pop took what is becoming known in glossy magazines and morning shows as a "babymoon." I agree, it's an obnoxious name. basically, the word describes a short vacation for the mom and dad before the madness of parenting begins.

we decided to go to providence, rhode island in february 2007. yes, that's a crazy place to go on vacation in the dead of winter, but we have some roots in providence, having spent a year living there while pop was going to graduate school. anyhow, it was a fun time, but mom spent a lot of time resting in the hotel since she was plenty far along with mercer in her belly. pop took advantage of this downtime by engaging in one of his favorite vacation activities: walking. the colonial streets of providence, rich with old buildings and interesting architecture, are very photogenic.

although not 100% mercer-related, these photos are kind of a part of mercer's life since, at this point, we were waiting for his arrival with such anticipation it seemed natural for us to get out of the house to keep from going crazy.

an old doorway off benefit street near brown university.

357 benefit street. john nicholas brown center.

an old residence on benefit street.

a fantastic building on benefit street.

an old theater still in operation on the west side.

an old plymouth ravaged by bumper stickers on the west side.

downtown providence, with the biltmore hotel in the background.

our trusty, beloved vehicle, charlie charger.

the recently uncovered providence river flowing through downtown.

downtown providence.

brown university main quad.

downtown providence, with the bank of america building in the background (providence's tallest structure)

ye olde history building at brown university.

secondary quad at brown university.

day care journal entry: 2/18/09

Child's Name: Mercer
Group: Toddler Two
Date: 2/18/09
Entered by: Ms. Evans

"Mercer's vocabulary is starting to improve every day. He is starting to repeat some of the words that I say. Mercer loves water play time. We had a classroom water fight last week. Mercer likes to help pass out the trays and cups for snack time. He is a great helper."

Of course he likes to pass out the trays for snack time! Anything to get it into his belly quicker!

pizza and ice cream.

furthering the notion that all we feed mercer is junk food, here are some shots of our young man attacking a slice of pizza and cup of ice cream.

but in all honestly, it's boring to take pictures of mercer eating grilled chicken, carrots, and yogurt at home all the time.

mercer at the supermarket.

we had to pick up a few items at the market today and mercer was nice enough to help out. mercer carried mushrooms, potatoes, and chives in his basket.

mercer and the nuggets.

when mercer was born, we swore we'd never let mercer eat mcdonalds. and yet, here he is eating chicken mcnuggets. we can try and justify it until we turn blue (he is very active, he only eats there about once a month, only in a pinch, he doesn't eat any other fatty foods, etc.) , but it's still mcdonalds. but look how cute he is.

like father like son.

Mercer eats as he sleeps. from mercer jackson on Vimeo.

on the way home from our brooklyn trip, mercer was starting to fall asleep before we even hit the BQE. but he was also snacking on pretzels as he fell asleep. here, then, is what it looked like. 0:36 is probably the cutest part as mercer tries to snag a pretzel with his mouth, but there's nothing there.

a trip to brooklyn.

mercer and company took advantage of the nice weather this past sunday and hung out in brooklyn. we ate burgers, dogs, and shakes at corner burger, played on a big playground with lots of kids, rode kiddie rides in front of a supermarket, went shopping, saw a giant cow, and visited well-stocked toy stores. mercer had a good time and took a nice nap on the way home. more on that soon...

a visit from jon and meredith.

jon and meredith visited yesterday. we hung out, ate cuban sandwiches, and had a fun time playing with mercer. we swung him around in circles, played "where'd it go?" with his blanket, and even let mercer try on jon's shoes. mercer is filled with energy these days and he was upset to have to go to bed; oh well. such is the life of a little boy.

weekend greetings from grover!

from the video vault: mercer wakes up from a nap.

Mercer wakes up from a nap. from mercer jackson on Vimeo.

back in july 2007, pop and mercer took a walk to the local park. along the way, mercer couldn't help but take a nap. pop read a book until mercer woke up. here's what a freshly woken baby looks like.

from the vault: young mercer

mercer gets a haircut, goes to the city; it's a weekend update.

Mercer Gets a Haircut. from mercer jackson on Vimeo.

mercer got his third haircut on saturday and was very well behaved. he didn't even need to sit on mommy's lap this time. good job, little guy! too bad we only had a blackberry to capture the excitement.

today, we went to the city and had some delicious pecorino bread, zucchini pizza, and mushroom pizza for lunch at sullivan street bakery. what an amazing bakery. we also got a loaf of crusty bread to eat with dinner next week. then we walked around NYU and played at the playground (and had a meltdown) at washington square park. after getting some cookies at the odd out of the kitchen shop/restaurant, we headed home to pick up some calzones for the super bowl, which is as boring as watching grass grow.

oh, and mercer may have eaten the most disgusting dinner ever on saturday night: pancakes, corn, and carrots. this was on a night when mom and pop had a very delicious dinner: strip steak, broccoli rabe, sour cream mashed potatoes, and mushrooms with butter and red wine. yum.

sleep tight...