At the last minute, we got the chance to come down to Ocean Isle Beach for the weekend, and it has been great. The weather was beautiful, and we got to sit out on the sand and play in the water- the week before Halloween even!
Mercy and Rosie played so well together. They are such different kids- but NO ONE makes Mercy smile like her big sister does. They played on the sand and just laughed, and got along so well. It was a great weekend, and their relationship just brings me so much joy.
Honestly, there isnt much new to post this week. We are just excited about going to Mexico in 12 days, and trying to lock ourselves down so no one tests positive for Coronavirus, and derails our trip.
The past few weeks have been busy with good things.
Mercy is closer to walking
Taylor did a retreat last night
went to Waco, TX to see Grandma Sue
Looking forward to Mexico in less than 2 weeks
Mercy is (almost) walking
Its wild how two siblings can be so incredibly different. Rosie, at 1 year old, was all smiles and excited about people. Some could argue that she still is that way. Mercy is a bit more reserved. If you are not mom, dad, or her sister- she might have an eye of suspicion about you until she warms up. She is almost 13 months, and just this week started walking with her toy walker. (Rosie was walking at about 11 months?). Here is a quick video from yesterday, she is so proud of herself!
Visit to Grandma Sue’s house
Grandma Sue has always been healthy. She grew up in the countryside, has always been active, and never had many health issues (at least, no health issues I have been made aware of). Almost three years ago she moved to Texas after her third husband died. She was living in Myrtle Beach at the time, and decided that she didn’t have any reason to stay there, so she looked at her options: Move to Greensboro to be closer to our family, move to MO to be closer with Sherry, or move to Waco to be closer to Margie. She opted for the third choice since Margie is a hospice nurse, and now that Grandma Sue is 88, that kinda of thing is important. Earlier this year, Grandma Sue had a big fall. It wasn’t noticed until Sherry called her one morning, and did not get a response from her usual daily check-ins. So, Sherry reached out to Margie, and told her something wasn’t right, she needed to go check on Grandma. Margie rushed over, and saw the most horrible site: Grandma slipped in the bathroom, hit her head, and there was blood everywhere. In the fall, she also suffered from a broken femur. The past several months have been in rehab, learning to walk and manage around the house again. After getting mostly better from that incident, she had a stroke that affected the right side of her body, and this is where I stepped up to make the trip to visit her. Not sure of what to expect, I found her fully capable and in great spirits. My job at Levvel is remote, so I found a direct flight from Greensboro, and visited from lunchtime on Monday until lunchtime on Thursday. During the trip, my mom had the idea to get a video of Grandma Sue sharing some of her life story. So I did: I prepared by buying a cheap tripod for my phone, and found a set of questions from a website that is all about this kind of thing. I am not a great film maker, and the video starts and stops at the wrong places, but here is the final result:
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What else?
Also, I passed my AWS certificate. This is a useful certificate stating that I know how to build web applications using Amazon’s web services (or, the Amazon cloud).
Taylor stayed the night st St. Francis retreat last night and is taking the day off of work today to do a personal retreat (along with a few ladies from her Bible study at work).
In less than 3 weeks, Taylor and I will be going to Mexico! We are beyond excited, as this will be our longest trip since our honeymoon. This is our delayed, 10 year anniversary trip- because our real 10 year anniversary trip was less than ideal: it was in the midst of a Covid lockdown, Taylor was VERY pregnant with Mercy, and we went to Blowing Rock for only 2 days.
We will be going to Mexico with two other couples- my best friends and their wives, who Taylor sees regularly.
Its hard to believe its been a year. And as Mercy gets older, it is so evident to see how much different she is than Rosie. One example was their 1 year checkup at their pediatrician (they both go to the same pediatrician). When Rosie went to her 1 year checkup, she was an ideal patient- all smiles, happy to see the doctor, and waited patiently on my lap in the waiting room. When the doctor came in, Rosie was all smiles- until he brought the needle out for her shots, to which she DID have this in common with Mercy- she only cried for a brief minute. When Mercy goes to see the doctor for her 1 year checkup, she was not content to sit on Mom’s lap- she wanted to tear up the paper coating the exam table. Then, when the doctor approached with the stethoscope- she batted it away. Again, not sure how to read the tea leaves here about what this will mean as they get older, but they sure are different, and man I love them both.
Mercy Highlights.
One of my favorite things about Mercy is this: her response to worship music in church. Ever since she was REAL small, and we were allowed to get back into church as a congregation and worship together, Mercy has REALLY responded to the music. I love to hold her during these times- and she wiggles her legs, tries to sing along- and she just gets happy in a way she rarely does.
She loves her older sister. I know this blog is filled with that statement, but it is a source of great joy to see how she follows her sister with her eyes wherever she goes. My favorite thing is when they are in the backseat together, and I can look in the rearview mirror and see Mercy’s eyes as she is staring at her older sister- and giggling.
Birthday
One thing I love about Taylor is how she is content with who she is. She had a simple party for Mercy- without any undue stress of trying to have things a certain way to be insta-perfect. No, we just had a simple party with family to honor our girl. No need to get crazy with decorations. And it was sweet. Mercy- in true form- didnt smile hardly once through the whole night. The party was filled with her favorite things- her sister, balloons, pizza- and thats about it. Here are some pics of the night:
Mercy w her Grandmas
Opening presents with her cousins
Mercy and her new car- and her big cousin and uncle D
Mercy and Aunt Mallory
Mercy and her big cousin Everly
I love our small fam.
Time lapse of getting the leaves.
Because I am a nerd, here is a time-lapse video of getting a few of the leaves up before the party. We have several large oaks, so getting the leaves during this season is a weekly process if you want to stay ahead of it. r
Thats it for now. Currently I am at the airport in Greensboro flying out to see Grandma Sue for a few days as she recovers from her stroke last month.
