Seth's Early Birthday

Seth's birthday isn't until next Tuesday, but with Grammie visiting, we had to have a little celebration so she could give him his gift from Grammie and Grandpa Mercer and Mom and Dad. Seth really didn't like the cupcake. I think he was kind of afraid of it, but he loved the candle! He's taken lots of rides in the house, and rides around the block outside, in his little sports car. I wish someone would get me a red convertible for my birthday!

Seth Butt-Scooting

Family and Friends

JJ (6), Seth (11mo.), Elise (5), Brook (7), Hope (5), Kara (3)
We had dinner at Karl and Allison's on Saturday and took a few pictures.

I realized when I was updating the blog that the last picture I have of all five of us is from Seth's dedication at church when he was about 1 mo. So Allison took a good one for us! JJ is of course making a silly face. He had that stage when he was 3 and we seem to be entering it again, where he thinks he has to screw up his face to smile. Arg.

Cradle, Diaper-Head, and Literati

Seth at 10 months in the family cradle. Jonathan and all of his brothers slept in this cradle, and some other children from our church. It was lost for a while, but found in time for Seth to use it. Jonathan painted it a nice cream color. I think it had about 10 coats of paint. We found a chocolate brown and a garish, bright green, to name a few. He has slept in the cradle from the day he came home from the hospital, until about 2 weeks ago. We have a picture similar to this of Jonathan in the cradle. I wish I had a scanner so I could put them on here together.

Seth (9 mo.) and his sister Diaper-Head. Elise wanted to model a style she learned from her friend Maddy, who had a similar picture on her blog a while ago. Seth was quick enthused about the whole thing. We had a hard time turning him around for the picture; he just wanted to stare at Elise's headgear.

My little literary fellow. Seth (9 mo.) doesn't normally sit here, as he tumbles right out, but I got him to sit for the picture. He just looked so cute and bookish with his sweater and vest (thanks Abby!) and Charlotte's Web.

Seth Watching Trucks

This is a video from January when the giant snowblower was removing the snow from our street. Seth would get so excited he didn't know what to do. What happens is that the plows push the snow up onto the curb, but after it snows a lot or many times, it gets to be a huge bank. Then the plows come and scrape it to the middle of the street. A large tractor fitted with the world's largest snowblower called a Sno-Go (really) comes and blows it into dump trucks. The dump trucks line up 4-5 deep and just keep catching the snow until full, then pull away and the next moves up. They dump the snow in a "snow lot" at various places in the city (empty lots and such). Seth could recognize the sound of the Sno-Go (an unearthy decibal) and would start kicking and clenching his hands. I'm so glad I caught this on video.

Elise playing her violin for her preschool class. It was letter "V" week and she wanted to play. Mom wasn't so sure about it, but Elise was. She did great, and played all her rhythm sets of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Now she can play Lightly Row and has started learning Song of the Wind. The May recital will be an ensemble recital, so she, JJ and Jonathan are going to play together.

Elise with Rainbow Dash, Macie, Julie and Brownie.