Dressed for the Occasion

This week Merrick developed a funny little quirk. It all started on Monday when I was getting ready for preschool and Jeremy was getting Merrick dressed. When he emerged from his room he was dressed in his soccer jersey and soccer shorts. He legitimately looked like he was about to walk on to a soccer field.

While he did look cute, I was not so sure that I wanted him to wear that to preschool. I asked Jeremy if he could dress him in something else and he said he tried, but Merrick was insistent. He told me I was welcome to try and the only thing I could think of to tell Merrick was that his cousins would be playing soccer that weekend and that maybe he would like to save that special soccer outfit for the occasion.

Well, he decided right away that he wanted to change and the idea must have stuck. Each day he asked if the soccer games were that day and when he was told no, he decided he did not want to wear the soccer clothes. Unfortunately, for once in a blue moon, none of the cousins had soccer games this weekend, so the soccer clothes still sit, waiting for the right occasion.

Today I tried to get him to wear the soccer clothes, but he told me that was not right because the cousins did not have a soccer game today. Plus, he had his own agenda today. From pretty much the moment he got up today he was talking about baseball. He found two bats and a ball and started to work on daddy to take him outside. Jeremy said he would, but that Merrick needed to get dressed first.

And so we began the search for a baseball outfit. We had his "power hitter" shirt out and he was happy about that, but he was not so sure about the shorts I had picked out. It took Jeremy convincing him that they were baseball shorts before he would agree.

Eventually, with the baseball outfit on, the boys headed outside. Just don't tell Merrick that his daddy was actually wearing a soccer shirt and basketball shorts.

Family Fun

This weekend was all about family fun in the sun! There are very few days of nice weather left before we head into the long winter months so we decided to take full advantage this weekend.

On Friday we headed downtown for an areal tram ride over the city. While it was cloudy, the clouds were high and the views were amazing. Merrick really enjoyed this. He could not wait to come home and tell his cousins all about it.

After we left the tram we still had a few minutes left on our parking meter and we decided to walk down to the river. We ended up stumbling upon a hidden gem, a dahlia field in the middle of the city. This is something you would only find in Portland and why I love this city so much.

On Saturday the outdoor family fun continued with a 5k in the morning. Jeremy and I had been training for a while. Unfortunately, for reasons I won't get into right now, I was not able to run, but I walked it and Jeremy absolutely killed it. He averaged a 9 minute mile and did the whole 5k in 27 minutes.

The rest of the day was spent soaking up the sun at the Lundberg kids' soccer games.

I don't know how many more sunny days we will have, and if I am being really honest I am actually really looking forward to the crisp fall days ahead, but in the meantime I intend to enjoy the sunshine every time I can.

Preschool Bound

This week Merrick experienced a milestone first. Monday was his first day of preschool. Since he still has three years until kindergarten (due to his late birthday), I had not planned on putting him in preschool until next year. This changed however, when I got the harebrained idea to start my own preschool. Instead he is my little helper in my two classes three days a week.

Here are our first day pictures.

My favorite things about this experience so far are that if you ask Merrick he will tell you he goes to snickerdoodle preschool.com and that after the first day when we were waiting for Nana (my co-teacher) he asked "Where is Ms. Rae?" Man I love that kid!

Birthday and Birth Day

This past week my baby turned three. It seems like every year around this time I end up scratching my head trying to figure out how time has gone so quickly. This year is no exception. The difference this year is that with just returning from our trip to Disneyland, Jeremy starting school, and starting my own business, I did not have the time or energy for a big party. Instead we had several small celebrations and I tried my best to suppress my mommy guilt about the lack of a big party.

As I mentioned last week our first celebration was in California with grandpa, lollie, Bryce, and Jensen. Our next celebration was on Merrick's acutal birthday. It was difficult to really celebrate that day because Jeremy was at school and my "to do" list was a mile long, but I was able to set it aside for a day and focus on Merrick. We started the day at the bounce house, had lunch at McDonald's and then went to the library.

That night when Jeremy got home we had dinner and mini cupcakes for desert. Don't feel too bad for Merrick about how tiny the cupcakes were because he ate three!

We opened a few gifts from nana and papa, great grandparents, and friends. Jeremy and I have one gift for him, but had kind of dropped the ball on the gift front, hence celebration number three.

On Friday night Jeremy and I took Merrick out on a special mommy, daddy date. We went to dinner and to the toy store so he could pick out a special birthday present. After a few missteps we ended up with a Buzz Lightyear Scooter. He has been practicing some special tricks, I promise I will get some pictures soon.

So that was Merrick's birthday in a nutshell. Nothing too over the top, but hopefully he was happy and felt loved.

One other thing that I have to mention, this week Ben and Becca had their baby, Lincoln Nils Brown. Merrick was so cute. He wanted to hold him and and kept saying "he's so tiny". He is going to be a great big brother one day.

Disneyland

Last week I posted about waiting and while we are still waiting for most things on that list, this week our Disneyland vacation came and went.

We got home last night from the perfect week of vacation. We spent Monday and Wednesday at the beach, Tuesday and Thursday at Disneyland and California Adventure and Friday and Saturday relaxing, shopping, and celebrating Merrick's birthday.

I don't know how many times in one post I can say perfect, but there really is not another way to describe our days at Disneyland other than perfect. I had been worried about crowds and that Merrick would be too scared for many of the rides. It turns out I did not need to be worried about either.

The lines were the shortest I have ever seen them. The longest we ever waited for a ride was 30 minutes and we frequently walked straight on to rides. Because of these short lines Merrick was able to ride his favorite ride, Winnie the Pooh, seven times!

Merrick was such a trooper in every sense of the word. I think he whined once in the two LONG days we spent in the parks. He walked, stayed up late, and was happy as could be. He was also so brave on the rides. He is tall enough to go on most rides and he wanted to be big like his uncles so he cheerfully went on most rides. We were so impressed with how brave he was that we even decided to take him on space mountain, which did prove to be too much for him (and daddy who was holding Merrick's head the entire time to prevent it from being whipped all around).

We are so grateful to Grandpa and Lollie for making the trip possible. If it had not been for their incredible generosity, we would never have been able to afford it. It was such a nice escape from reality and a great way to end the summer.

Let me also apologize in advance for the ridiculous number of pictures. Believe it or not this is just a fraction of all the pictures we took.