Blocks.

Mercer running on the big piano at FAO Schwarz

Mercer visits Central Park Zoo and FAO Schwarz

Pop sacrificed his fever-stricken body to accompany Mercer and Mom to the Central Park zoo today. It was such a beautiful day that it was hard to let something like a 102 degree fever stand in the way. We chugged down to Manhattan, avoiding Memorial Day parade street closures and parked in an overpriced garage after failing to find street parking.
We waited on line for tickets and Mercer thought it was a good idea to slip on some shades.
We saw some Snow Monkeys, which Mercer really liked. He wanted to jump over the railing, but after taking a look at the water, Mom and Pop didn't think that was such a great idea.

The Polar Bear was a huge hit. We got to see him swimming, which was a treat because when we saw him later on, he was just sunning himself on some rocks.
We also saw some Penguins and Puffins, which Mercer loved, but they moved too fast to get any decent pictures. We did see the seal feeding, which was a lot of fun. The seals climbed to the top of their rocks, and Mercer was yelling "Careful! Careful!" The seals did backflips into the water and caught sardines in their mouths, which Mercer giggled at.

Once we were done at the zoo, we decided to take a walk to FAO Schwarz, the world-famous toy store. Mercer was a very good boy while inside and he went crazy investigating all of the specialty toys. We wound up getting him a car (of course), but the highlight of the visit was Mercer playing on the giant piano made famous by the 1988 movie Big, starring John Heard and Robert Loggia.

UPDATED with Video: An afternoon at Lake Compounce.

Mercer and the gang headed northeast for an afternoon at Lake Compounce, apparently the oldest continuously-run amusement park in the country. It was about an hour and a half trip to Bristol, CT, which is also the home of ESPN, a cable television channel that used to show sporting events.

We were hoping Mercer would take a nap on the drive up, but it didn't happen. We knew it was a only matter of time before he cranked himself out, so we had to hit the children's rides as soon as possible. Luckily, the park was empty and rides were virtually wait-free.

We weren't sure how Mercer would do with the rides. We went to Rye Playland (a theme park near us in NY that also, I think, claims to be the oldest amusement park in the country) last year and Mercer was so-so with the rides. He didn't really care either way. Yesterday, Mercer was a bit nervous, hanging on as tightly as possible, trying to figure the whole deal out. Mercer refused to go on some rides (mini-roller coaster, a rotating drum thing), but loved others. We tried to get him to go on a train ride, but he was more interested in the giant bug and apple props all around the tracks.

He did manage to go on a bike ride....
a balloon ride that went way up high (you can see Mom and Mercer in the orange car in the bottom-center of the photo)...

the kiddie swings...


a swinging pirate ship...
and lastly, a 50's-themed car ride, which he screamed and screamed about while waiting on line because it was his first experience with waiting on line for a ride. It was brutal. He was in bad shape at this point and sorely needed a nap. He loved it once he was in the ride, though.

After a hot dog and Doritos, you could tell by the look on Mercer's face that he was done. He promptly fell asleep in his stroller, something he never does.
Daddy went on one last roller coaster (Lake Compounce has 2 great wooden coasters, one of which - Boulder Dash - is highly rated by coaster enthusiasts and built into the side of a mountain!) and we headed for home. We'll be back, though. The water rides for kids look amazing and it will surely be an all-day activity to beat the heat.

UPDATED - Videos:

Freefall.

Mercer and Daddy play a game at bedtime where Daddy lifts Mercer off the bed while he is still laying straight and wrapped up in his bath towel. Daddy holds him up from underneath near the ceiling and Mercer makes a buzzing "ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." sound just like the one before the big drop on the ride Stuntman's Freefall from Great Adventure. Daddy then drops Mercer down to the soft bed in one quick motion.

Mercer always follows with a "More???" With a trip to the amusement park planned for this weekend, let's hope Mercer maintains his interest in thrill rides.

Video: drying racks and dancing

Mercer and the drying racks, part 2. from mercer jackson on Vimeo.

Here's some video of Mercer dancing to the band Franz Ferdinand. He also set up some drying racks to act as a kind of fort, which he loves.

I'm realizing now how poor the quality of this video is. Might be time to get an actual video camera.

Supermercer.

Mercer knows who Superman is, but we have no idea how that happened. He must have learned about him in school because we've never watched the cartoons, mentioned him, or played like Superman. Not only does Mercer know how to say "Superman," but he enjoys running around with makeshift capes tied around his neck. Of course, we had to buy him an action figure.

And I already know what our costumes for Halloween will be this year (from left, Mom, Dad, Mercer):

From the archive: Mercer's first steps

Here's a real treat: video from one of the first days Mercer started walking. His laughter was the same then as it is today.

Some first steps. from mercer jackson on Vimeo.

Some more first steps. from mercer jackson on Vimeo.

Our playground monkey.

Non-Mercer related: driving cat.

Mom and Dad saw a guy driving with a cat in his lap this morning. Kind of hard to make out in the photo, but note the distinctive pointy ears. The cat was staring right at us.

Cleaning out the cell phone.

Pop's cell phone is pretty terrible when it comes to quality, but here we go anyway. Here's Mercer running down the hall at day care.
On a horsey ride in the mall. And yes, his shirt says "MERCER." Found it at Ralph Lauren, of course.
Dancing with his sunglasses outside of a restaurant.

Napping toddler.

For the first time in maybe a year, Mercer executed a solid 3-hour nap today.

The Jumparounds

The Jumparounds are a group of 4 kids - Shout, Marina, Twist, and Kiki - thrown together by Nickelodeon to entertain toddlers with singing and dancing. I STRONGLY urge you to check our their website (it's the only place to get any information since they're brand new and not YouTube friendly): The Jumparounds. It's chock full of squeaky clean videos, songs, and the most hilarious band bios ever. For example, here's Twist's bio:

------
Twist is a DJ, a skilled rapper, and a beat boxer. His instruments of choice are his super cool mix-tables and his voice. Twist is really imaginative and a natural jokester. Even when his outrageous ideas don't come about, he doesn't get into a twist; he just goes with the flow!

Favorite Colors:
Yellow and Blue

Favorite Expression:
"Sweet"
------

I love Twist. He's my favorite. The "favorite colors" part is funny when you're looking at Twist's bio photo alongside the text. My other favorite is Kiki. Shout and Marina...I could do without.

In my head, I picture these four kids growing up together in an American inner city, meeting in a back alley somewhere instead of going to school and rehearsing songs with titles like "Go Go a Go Go," "Great Day," and "Loco Legs." They score a few gigs and catch the eye of a Nick executive (somehow). He thinks they could be huge, but they need something...but what is it? I know! The MOST COLORFUL CLOTHING ON EARTH. That'll do it. Now they're getting their big shot with toddlers across the USA on Nick Jr. But will the band survive the strain of Shout and Marina's past relationship? Or what about Twist's Zyrtec addiction?

That would be a cool story, but the truth is, these 4 kids probably met 3 weeks ago on a sound stage in Orlando.

"No, Mercer. Later."

One of the best forms of deflecting Mercer's interest in something that either may not be good for him or not in our plans for the day, is to say "No, Mercer. Later." It kind of works for everything, and after all, he can't eat candy all day, drive our car, or go on horsey rides every time he sees one. Who has the time? Mercer will usually respond with a puzzled "Oh!" and go about his business. We realize that this won't last forever (we're talking precious months here), but we especially hope that he doesn't cash in on his "No Mercer. Later."'s. To date, we've probably promised Mercer:

* 15,897 horsey rides
* 1,090,987 bags of M+M's
* 65 tubes of toothpaste and/or suntan lotion
* 5,000 hours of driving our car
* 90 pounds of pretzels
* 500 gallons worth of ice cubes
* 300 additional hours on the playground
* 20 knitting needles and 15 sewing needles
* 95 hours in front of our computers
* 178 hours of couch/bed jumping
* 15 pounds of stuffed animal stuffing
* 976 puppies on city streets that "are just around the corner"
* 10 pounds of dirt from cars that are not ours
* 30 pounds of free cookie samples from Stop and Shop
* 1 set of steak knives

These are just rough estimates, of course. I've looked through all of Mercer's journals and I can't find an official running tally, so I think we're safe. Wait, he's asking to pound on the laptop again. No, Mercer! You can do that later!

The Best Nighttime Book Ever.

The first baby item that Pop bought as news of Mercer's impending arrival spread was a book called Polar Bear Night. The book had caught Pop's eye awhile back mostly because of the art, by Stephen Savage, who also does a lot of work for the New York Times. The tones are so cool and textures so rich, you just want to jump into the polar bear's world.

The story, by Lauren Thompson, is no slouch, either. Miles from the nonsensical ramblings of perennial favorite Goodnight Moon, Polar Bear Night tells the story of a baby polar bear's journey into the "keen, clear night," away from her warm mother and den to witness the sleeping habits of seals and whales. The baby watches a star shower and discovers how the moon "lights up everything the little polar bear loves."

As an infant, Mercer was uninterested in Pop's favorite book. It was too long and wordy and the artwork too complex. These days, Pop is proud to report that Mercer is in love with Polar Bear Night. He requests it every night as "bear" and as Mom reads, you can see Mercer drifting away. One of the pages has an illustration of a yawning polar bear for crying out loud! Some nights, Mercer likes to read the book to us: "seals...sleeping," "whales...sleeping," "warm, soft, mommy," "star shower."

Purchase the book here.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Before: 4 mini waffles, 3 slices of bacon, 4 apple wedges

After: 1 mini waffle, 4 apple wedges, 1 dirty napkin

umbrella.

the mercer process, explained

we get hundreds of e-mails every day, thanking us for the content put forth on this site. 90% of those e-mails include a note at the end asking us how we came up with the name of the blog.

well, it's time we explained, isn't it?

it's pretty simple, really. "the mercer process" is a phrase mom and pop used to use to describe the procedure of putting mercer to bed each night. it was (and still is) the same every night: turn on the bath water, get mercer undressed, get mercer in the bath, dry off, brush his teeth, carry the boy upstairs, rub him down with lotion and creams, get him dressed, read him a book or two, turn on the white noise, put mercer in bed, put on the quilt, creep away.

give or take a couple of days because of fever or some other circumstance, this is the process mom and pop have been putting mercer through every single night for 2 years. when it came close to his bedtime, we would ask one another: "time to start the process?" for the most part, mercer loves it. during one of his phases, any time mercer heard bath water running, he'd start grabbing at his clothing, wanting to rip it off and jump into the tub. now that he's a little older, he sometimes fights it, but only because he thinks he wants to play some more.

mercer has been sleeping through the night for a good while, and part of that might be because of the process, or maybe he's just a good kid. we'll never know.

well, we know he's a good kid.