April Ohio Weekend

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Mercer with Seth

Grandpa and Grammie Mercer with JJ, Elise and Seth

Seth and his Grandpa enjoying the nice day!

All Spiffed Up

Here is a photo of Jonathan and his dad and brothers. They were all dressed up to go out to celebrate Josh's graduation.
From left to right: Joel, Al (Dad), Josh, Bruce, Jeremy, Jonathan

Seth Turns 1!

Here are pictures of Seth all throughout the day of his first birthday.
First, here is a picture of Seth when he woke up in the morning. Elise, JJ and I sang Happy Birthday to him, which made him smile and jump. We sang to him often throughout the day and he just loved being the center of attention and hearing his name in the song.

Here is Seth eating his breakfast of a doughnut. I really only let him have a few bites, then a bunch of grapes, his favorite fruit. Notice how much
JJ and Seth look alike! Especially those eyebrows.

In the morning Seth and I went to his friend Drew's house for a playgroup. Seth and Thomas (turning 3) had a birthday, so we had cupcakes and sang to them. Thanks to Kelli's mom Joan for making the cute mini cupcakes and making the day special!

Here's some of the group at the table enjoying the cupcakes. Starting from the left are Grant, Grace, Seth, Drew, Connor, Will, and Anden (OK, the last three are my best guesses..I can't really tell them apart in this picture!).

Here are Elise and Seth at lunchtime. Seth was enjoying peas, his current favorite veggie, and Cheerios with peanut butter. I've been waiting for him to turn 1 so he can have peanut butter with lunch. So much easier for Mom! And he loved it. I made little sandwiches with two Cheerios and peanut butter in the middle. Seth was intrigued by how two Cheerios stuck together. It is so easy to be an amazing Mom to a baby!

Ok, on to supper time. While we were eating hot dogs, Elise pulled out a tooth! This is her second one to come out, and she made sure I got a picture for the blog. She especially wants Grammie to notice! This makes Elise feel very grown up because JJ has only lost two teeth also. For some reason JJ was excited about this. Elise woke up to $1 under her pillow, which she is saving for something, but I forget what. JJ and Elise are both little savers.

After supper Seth opened his presents from Elise and JJ. Elise got him a Jack-In-The-Box. Seth loved it! He can't figure out yet how to turn the handle by himself, but Eesie helps him. I think part of why he loves this toy is that it plays Pop Goes The Weasel when you turn the handle. That is his favorite song that I always had to sing to him to get him in his car seat without throwing a fit, and changing his diaper. Then I have to "pop" him on the belly at the right point in the song. It makes him laugh and stop throwing a fit about whatever it is he doesn't like at the moment. Thank goodness he is growing out of that stage already, but he still loves the song.

JJ got Seth the little wooden hammer and nails set. JJ had to demonstrate, of course. Seth caught on right away, although his aim needs work!

Admittedly not a wonderful picture of me, but I'm using it anyway because there are always so few pictures of me with Seth because I'm usually behind the camera. Seth was enjoying watching Elise and JJ "test drive" his new toys.

It is a tradition in our family to do a "ride on" toy at Wal-Mart on the 1st birthday. JJ and Elise both rode the pony for the first time at the Wal-Mart in Ashland on their first birthdays. Shawano's Wal-Mart doesn't have a pony, but they do have a JayJay the JetPlane, which is just as good! Seth wasn't so sure about it at first, but then got right into it and was pushing the buttons and grinning. We gave him a second ride because he was loving it so much!

I didn't catch his big smile, but you can see he was liking it.

Wednesday, JJ took Seth in for show and tell since it was close to his birthday. JJ had been planning this for a long time. The kids were all excited to see him, since I had been bringing him with me once a week to help out in the classroom when he was very small. I had to stop when Seth stopped sleeping in his car seat when I was there. Seth was happy to see the kids, too! They asked JJ questions about Seth, and then took turns rolling him a globe bouncy ball. Seth showed off his butt-scooting and crawling for them. Thanks to Miss Stuber for allowing JJ to show off his little brother!

From left to right top row: Haven, Santy, Mikayla, Caitlin, Riley, Dawson, Thor
bottom row: Maya, Cameron, Seth, JJ, Karissa (in the corner)

Seth's 11th Month

Seth learned to do so many things in his 11th month. Yes, today is his birthday and he's now 12 months, and I will put up a post and pictures tomorrow with birthday stuff. But first I wanted to let you all know what he's been up to. In about 2 weeks he learned to do all these new things. Jonathan was gone for a week to Arizona, then my mom was here for a week, and in those two weeks he learn to crawl properly. He had been butt-scooting, as you've all seen, and could army crawl. He also learned to stand up to things without forgetting to hold on, or falling back. Then the next day he figured out how to pull up to things on his own so he could stand. Then the next day he learned how to cruise along the coffee table, walking from end to end holding on to the side. Amazing! I don't know how he learned all that in a matter of days. Maybe he'll even walk soon! JJ and Elise both walked at 14 mo. and it would be funny if he walked before that, because he has been behind them in all other physical milestones. He's still so little that he looks funny standing up. People still think he's 7 mo. old.
One area Seth is ahead of the game is verbally. He can say several things already that we understand. He first said "uh-oh," but now says mey-mey (mama), na-na (nurse), di-di (kitty), dah-dah (daddy), dah-der (tractor), day-day (JJ), and this wee-wee thing he says all the time and we can't figure out what he means. It may be as close as he can get to saying Elise. That's a lot of words for an 11 mo. old. I'm so proud!
Seth still has a pretty laid-back personality. I guess he's about middle of the road. He loves interaction, but really keeps himself occupied a lot of the day. He just crawls around looking for things to play with (ususally not his toys). He loves to play with Elise's little metal pots and pans (good noise!), the CD cases in the CD rack (a no-no), and he likes to stand up and play the piano. He can just reach the keys.
Read more tomorrow on how his birthday went!

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.