Farewell, but not goodbye.

After four-and-a-half years and 740 posts, we're closing up shop here at The Mercer Process.

The Mercer Process started as a Word document Mom and Dad kept during Mercer's early days. It was sort of a rudimentary journal about what he was eating, how much he weighed, etc. Then we started getting requests from friends and family for photos of our little guy. That's when we decided to start this blog. We can't believe how long we've kept this up, but we're certainly glad we did. It's been amazing to chronicle Mercer's progress and some nights we'll find ourselves jumping back and forth in the archives, reminiscing about our summer vacations, first trips to the dentist, or just a simple trip to Mercer's favorite park. Go ahead and check it out for yourself in the archives to your right. And if you forget what "The Mercer Process" means, take a refresher course: The Mercer Process, explained

Mercer isn't really aware of the blog so much; he's seen us working on it, but he's too young to know what it means. We hope as he gets older he'll enjoy looking at it himself. And when he gets to high school, he'll hate us for it. Until then we intend to keep the site up as an archive; it certainly will be odd not to add to it anymore. It's become an enjoyable habit for Dad.

But the good news is - it isn't goodbye. As many of you now know, we're expecting a second child in August. Instead of updating two blogs, we decided to combine our efforts into one new site: Little Hurricanes. We hope you visit, bookmark, and keep checking back because it's going to be quite an adventure.

Mercer on Hudson

Dad had a great meeting with Mercer's teacher yesterday. She said Mercer was doing great and is ready for kindergarten. She also said he'll be reading by the middle of next school year. Mercer has always loved books, letters, writing, and stories. Way to go, Mercer!

Look at this guy. Who else can make this much green look good?

Happy birthday, Shaina!

Happy birthday, Shaina! I can't believe you're 5 already. Thanks for being such a great friend to Mercer.

Construction site

The town is doing some serious construction work on our beloved Sparta Park, adding a little playground, clearing massive amounts of brush, and paving footpaths. Mercer wanted to help out.

Before the construction and brush-clearing, you couldn't see the river, Sing Sing Prison in the distance, or this southbound Metro-North train.





Daddy decided Mercer needed some scooping.

NMR: Grand Central Terminal is an amazing place

It just is.

Beautiful boy

Mercer with headphones

Dropkicked your jacket

In 25 years, I don't want to forget that Mercer found this song hilarious.

Mercer visits the Bronx Zoo

Today was a beautiful day to go to the zoo. Mercer and Dad set out early to make the most of it. Mercer had been to the Bronx Zoo before, but it was so long ago (before he turned 2) that he doesn't remember anything. Which is cool, because there's nothing better than the look of discovery on a child's face (or a cubano sandwich).

Anyway, many of the animals were inside because of the cold weather, but we saw so many creatures. In addition to everything we photographed below, we saw alligators, lemurs, bison, pelicans, toucans, mice, mongooses, seals, sea lions, all kinds of fish, giant beetles, and a huge, fat snake. The Bronx Zoo is just a gorgeous place to walk around. It's clean, amazingly marked, and kept relatively up-to-date in terms of design and hands-on exhibits.


Mercer takes in some birds.


Tiger!


The rhinos were kept inside the Zoo Center and stunk up the place something awful.


There was an excellent 4-D short movie involving Diego and Dora. There was the 3-D part, which was cool, and the "4" meant things involving your other senses. We felt water mist, smelled ripe bananas, touched bubbles, and felt our seat vibrate, etc. Great show.


This peacock seemed to follow us everywhere.


Pink flamingos braved the cold temperatures.


An all-too-common Coca-Colacus Bottilicus creature. Stop being so gross, people.


This is a real gorilla. He was beating everyone in a staring contest. Amazing to watch these animals.


The rhinos stunk, but the giraffe house was even worse. Beautiful creatures.


Mercer getting friendly with the peacock, showing a feather.


A big brown grizzly.



Mercer's favorite, the polar bear. He got pretty close to us.

Mercer climbs Bald Mountain (almost).

The weather was gorgeous today so we took to the outdoors this afternoon before running some errands. The site was Bald Mountain, a "mountain" just northeast of us near Teatown Lake. It was not a strenuous climb, more of a challenging walk, slightly uphill. It wasn't a terribly interesting walk, either; no rivers, streams, wildlife, or old buildings. Just lots of trees, rock walls, and the promise of some nice views at the summit. We almost made it to the top, but Mercer wanted to head back because he was getting hungry and tired. No big deal. He is a great explorer and we learned a lot of things like how to tell how old a tree is.

Mercer visits Sparta Cemetery

On a chilly Sunday afternoon, with the sun beginning to fade, Mercer decided he wanted to see some gravestones. He promised to protect Dad from the arms that might pop out of the ground. Luckily, we live near a great old cemetery, with stones dating back to the 1760's. We spent as much time as we could there before the cold became too biting, investigating the names on the stones and feeling the soft ground underfoot, presumably where zombies had recently unearthed themselves.