Famous

Last week was so busy and I had so much to blog about in such a short time that I did not get a chance to talk about Merrick's brush with fame. It was a Thursday afternoon a few weeks ago. Merrick and I would typically have gone to the library in the morning, but he had his three year well check that morning and we had not had a chance to make it to the library. When we decided on an unusual afternoon visit, we had no idea what we were heading into...the bear elections.

The library had decided that as their answer to all the election and political hubbub, they would hold their own elections to find out everyone's favorite bear (the candidates being Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Corduroy, and Mama of the Berenstain Bears). When we arrived the local newspaper was there covering the event. They had a photographer taking pictures of all the campaign posters and a reporter was interviewing the library staff and the city mayor.

Despite all the craziness, the one thing that was missing from the library was children. In fact Merrick was the only child in the library. I think they wanted to take pictures of several children as they voted for their favorite bear, but since Merrick was the only child, he was the only potential voter. They told me the story would run in the next week's paper, but what they did not tell me is that since Merrick's picture was their only picture that he would be front and center of the section with a huge (about 9x11) photo and an online article to go with it.

It is funny because when he was little everyone used to tell me that I should get him into modeling and I thought a little bit about it, but never followed through. Who would have guessed that all it would take to become famous was a trip to the library.

Perspective

While I love pouring my heart, soul, and details of my life out into this blog, today is my birthday and I don't really feel like spending what is left of it typing away on the computer, so while I have a lot to say tonight, I will likely be brief for now.

This week I was reminded of the important things in this life: the gospel and my family. On Wednesday we had a scare with the baby and while everything seems to be okay, that feeling that it may all slip away from you will rock you to the core.

We also got to participate in some important events as a family this week. Yesterday Lincoln was blessed and today Maude was baptized.

Over the course of this week I have been reminded time and time again how fortunate I am to have my family, the gospel, and the priesthood in my life. I feel very blessed.

The Calm

This has been a very calm week. We had a short preschool week with a school holiday at the end of the week so we were done with classes by noon on Wednesday. I would like to say that I was very productive with all this extra time, but the truth of the matter is that I did a lot of resting and was able to spend some quality time with Merrick.

The big event of the week was taking Merrick for his three year well check. I don't think that anyone who spends much time with Merrick will be shocked to find out that he is a big boy. The doctor measured him at 40 lbs and 40 inches. I think he must have been slouching though because he was 40 inches when we went to Disneyland over a month ago, but even with bad posture he was still in the 95th percentile in both height and weight. It was funny because this was our first time seeing this doctor and I was filling her in on Merrick's medical history and we were talking about how he was in the 5th percentile for weight for the first year of his life. He sure has come a long way.

Other than the check-up, with some traumatic shots by the way, it was an enjoyably uneventful week. I am trying my best to savor every minute of it as next week will be anything but calm. In the next seven days we will have our ward pumpkin patch activity, my grandma comes to town, Lincoln will be blessed, Maude will have her baptism, and I will have my birthday. Hopefully all the extra rest I got this week will be enough to get me through...only time will tell.

Best Souvenir Ever

A month or so ago I blogged about our trip to California and Disneyland, but I left out one piece of information about the trip. We returned from Disneyland with the best souvenir ever (well in all fairness we actually took this souvenir with us to Disneyland we just did not know it).

I know it is hard to tell exactly what that is on my stomach, but it is a button that says "I'm celebrating" and the reason I/we were celebrating is that we found out in California Adventure that we were expecting. You may be wondering why we would find out in the park that we were expecting and it is a long story, but the short version is that I wanted to take a test just to give myself peace of mind before riding roller coasters all day and there was no time before we entered the park lest we not get tickets for The World of Color. As a compromise we stopped long enough for me to buy the test and I took it in the park.

With all the difficulty we had getting pregnant with Merrick, seeing the positive pregnancy was such a shock, but obviously a happy shock.

This past week I was finally able to have an ultrasound and confirm that everything is going well. I am now 11 weeks and the baby has a strong heartbeat. I am anxiously awaiting the end of the first trimester when I will hopefully start feeling a little better. Now we just have to wait two months to find out if Merrick is getting a brother or sister.

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!