First BBQ in the new house

We had our first barbeque in our new house this Sunday evening and it was so much fun! We used to barbeque in the old house but the barbeque sat out in our back driveway off the alley and any random stranger driving by or walking past would say "Smells like you're havin' a barbeque!" or "Grillin?" or some other genius comment like that. And also anytime a car plummeted down the dusty back alleyway it would kick up so much dust we'd hurry to shut the lid on our little Weber so we didn't end up with dirt burgers! So you can understand the sheer bliss David, Lochie and I experienced grilling for the first time in our own backyard tonight! Now a Merrick barbeque wouldn't be the same without David making King of the Hill references to "Sweet Lady Propane" versus charcoal (David is a charcoal man all the way!), and me with my required sliced beetroot (pickled beets for you yanks!). In Australia we put beets on burgers and a burger just ain't the same without 'em for me! So here is a BBQ hamburger Merrick style: Charbroiled all beef lean patty on a fresh white sesame seed bun, thousand island dressing (only Kraft because it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup and it has little pickle pieces in it), melted provalone cheese on the patty, sliced tomato, romaine lettuce, grilled pineapple ring, slices of onion, three small slices of beetroot - squish together and enjoy (omit the beetroot if you're a yank). I was so proud of Lachlan as he had beetroot on his burger tonight - what a little Aussie boy! I didn't put any on at first but he requested them - knows how to melt his Mum's heart! As you can see we're saving up for patio furniture and that's going to be our next big purchase! It was great fun and we plan on grilling Alaskan salmon burgers in a few days, and maybe turkey burgers next weekend - yum! We also grilled Hebrew National Kosher franks (the best hotdogs in the world bar none! - except maybe sausage sizzle sausages!) and they were awesome - I was so full from my burger though I couldn't have much of a dog but the boys finished off mine no problem! We've noticed a huge increase in Lochie's appetite since we've been in the new house - all that running around the backyard makes a growing boy hungry!

Adventure Island @ Settlers Park, Meridian

By the way Lochie is not screaming/squealing in this video - it appears like it but it's some random little girl in the background.

Exploring our new area

For the first time in many, many years we have had a full weekend together at home - Saturday and Sunday off! When he was working at Alaska Airlines, David's schedule gave him Mondays & Tuesdays off and working from 4pm to 1:30am - with me working the weekdays so we were like two ships that passed in the night. We had a few random weekends off together when David paid other people to work his shifts so we could fly down for a visit to California, but this weekend was our first real, unplanned weekend off together we've probably had since about a year and a half. It was AWESOME!! I worked a full day on Friday and Lochie (still recovering from his frenectomy) fell asleep really early around 6:30pm - so David and I went out in our new backyard and played lawn darts with a set we got him for Fathers Day! It was so nice just to spend time together alone (something we'd almost forgotten!) and he beat me 6-2 (grr - rematch!). He only won because he had the "lucky" orange darts though and I had the puke green coloured darts which jinxed me! On Saturday we continued to unpack moving boxes - but it was fun to have so much storage space to decide where to put everything! And, in Lochie's words, we spent a lot of time "brr-laxing". Lochie who is still forbidden from jumping on the trampoline or running around too much spent a lazy Saturday morning befriending all of the worms in the yard. He spent hours both yesterday and today gathering, naming and talking to his new "friends". After lunch we took a drive around our new town of Meridian and came across a small local festival called Meridian Dairy Days. We wandered around looking at different booths set up and Lochie had his face painted and got some free candy, but it was near the closing of the festival and there wasn't much action going on there so we drove into Boise around our old haunt (shudder) and visited the Bench Commission to see if we could find a cheap but nice second-hand desk - no luck, better deals on Craigslist I reckon. After that we drove back to Meridian and took a photo of an old barn which is on the corner of Ustick & Linder right near our new subdivision. I drive past this cool old barn every day and wanted a snapshot of it because it looks like one big gust of wind would send it over! We had driven past this huge, cool baseball complex on Ustick and Meridian Rd a few times and had noticed from a distance there looked like a lot of activity and families at this playground with a jungle gym that looked like a pirate ship so we decided to inspect closer - it turned out to be a cool park called Settlers Park which has a fishing pond, concession building, a huge playground, and the "pirate ship" turned out to be a cute free mini-water park for kids! It was so awesome and Lochie's eyes bugged out when he saw it so of course it was hard to say no to him. He was supposed to take it easy still a bit because he still has the sutures from his frenectomy but we figured it wasn't like he was going down waterslides or splashing around in a pool or anything so we let him go play in the water in his clothes and he loved it! It had a whale with a squirting spout and a pirate ship mast that filled up and splashed all over the kids standing under it when it became heavy with water. It also had many other small sprinklers and sprays and the flooring was a soft textured cushioned foam material with a pebbletex like non-slip grip. It is only a few blocks from our house so I can tell Settlers Park is going to be our new favourite hang-out this Summer! Also, there are two new features going in that look to open soon - one David & I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be - the other looked like a music park as it had an array of chimes, drums with tethered drumsticks etc and music pipes etc so that will be really fun for him as well! We plan to have a barbeque on Sunday afternoon and continue unpacking - and I'm challenging David to a lawn darts tournament and this time I'm playing with the lucky orange darts!
**Update** I saw our friend Brent at Winco tonight and he told me that Settlers Park hosts a free family movie night every Friday night throughout the Summer - last Friday night they showed Charlotte's Web. They set up a big outdoor movie screen apparently - we'll check it out next Friday night!**
Click here for more info on the Settlers Park Adventure Island Park

I got worms!

It's hard to know what you're going to get when your 4 year old all-boy boy tells you that!

Darth Lochie

Lochie filmed today in our new backyard in his new Darth Vader costume. As you can see he has quickly made a full recovery!
Also, I can't believe how much like a yank I sound in this video! I was super tired as I didn't sleep much last night worried we'd sleep through our alarm since we were up late unpacking still last night. I find when I am really tired my accent goes haywire. I need to get a bunch of Kath n Kim videos or something an immerse myself in Aussie language again!

Ropey before and after

Lachlan had his "ropey" (lingual frenum) surgically removed under IV sedation by Dr Kempers at Boise OMS today. He did so well and was such a brave boy - the nurses said they had no problems putting the IV in - the whole procedure including recovery took only one hour and Lochie was a little sleepy but very excited about his prize for being such a brave boy - a Darth Vader costume he had been oggling at Target for months now!



The doctor cauterized the incisions and only had to do a few sutures where he had to cut deeper to remove muscle attachment both sides of the midline. I was surprised that the nurses didn't set a follow-up appointment - they said if there is no sign of infection or problems etc Lochie is all finished with them and his sutures should come out by themselves in 5-10 days!



We came home and watched a Scooby-Doo DVD and I gave him the pain meds they had given me and am keeping him on them every 4 hours for today and tomorrow. Lochie played with some moon sand outside and of course tried on his costume and stalked around the backyard in character for a while too! The picture here in his new costume was taken only about 2 hours after his procedure! He is back to his old self already - keeping him quiet is proving to be a challenge but it's a good sign he is unfazed by the whole experience! Thanks for your prayers! xoxo Bi

The new house!

We're all moved in to our new house! If you need our new address just email me at biancamerrick@msn.com!

I have most of my pictures I took during our walkthrough pasted on over at facebook and you can click this link to view them (without having to be a member or sign up or anything):

David & Bi's New House Pictures Link

Lochie's New Bedroom!

We just moved in late last week and I have been working very hard to get us all settled and I started on Lochie's room because it's the most fun! Here is Lachlan setting down for the night in his new big boy bed - got a steal at Ethan Allen on clearance for $50 for a brand new floor model twin mattress & box base!! He;s very happy for his big boy room & bed!

If you could keep Lochie in your prayers, he is having oral surgery tomorrow morning to have a lingual frenectomy - he has muscle attachment that adheres his tongue to the base of his mouth but unlike most frenectomys where they can do a little local anesthetic and snip the ligament attachment, his oral surgeon Dr Kempers will have to go along each underside of the tongue and separate the muscle attachment running from the back to the front. He'll have sutures for 5-10 days and I have to keep him quiet for a few days after the surgery - soft diet etc so please pray for me as well!! We have lots of DVDs, Jello, pudding cups and colouring in books all set up so maybe Mummy will also get a chance to recover from having HER wisdom teeth extracted LAST week in the middle of our crazy week where I worked 3 full days AND we moved house! I kind of pushed myself and got an infection and a lot of pain so it'll be nice to have an excuse to lay around in bed for a few days and maybe both of us can make a nice recovery together!


I'll also post some pictures of our new house when we did the walkthrough before we moved all our boxes in.
Love, Bi.

Favourite Memories of Lochie

This will be an ongoing list I'll contribute to as I remember. I am not the sort of person who keeps a journal or baby book (sorry Lochie!) and these are some special memories I don't want to forget over time as he gets bigger and bigger. Some are recent memories, some older:

* Lying on cuddly blankets and pillows in our very dark bedroom listening to Rosemary Clooney sing "Mambo Italiano" and 4 1/2 yr old Lochie laughing and using glowsticks to put on a light show (which was actually pretty good!) then the mp3 player randomly turned to Alvin & the Chipmunks singing "Christmas Don't Be Late" and Lachlan collapsing in giggles at the chipmunks singing.

* 4 1/2 yr old Lochie interrupting my time in the shower to use the toilet and after taking a long time, asking impatiently why he was taking so long and him responding with "Look Mum I was just drawing love hearts for you in the mirror!" - seeing many wonky love hearts drawn in the steam in the bathroom mirror and a sweet smile on his face.

* Looking into his big brown doe eyes and hearing him say "Mum your face is so pretty, Mum your hair is so pretty" me savouring the sweet moment before he said "Mum your mustache is so pretty" WHAT?!?! Time to get the waxing kit out! LOL.

* The time we were shopping at Shopko and he was only 2 1/2 and wanted to sit on the bikes. I lifted him up on a 12" bike and got a bike helmet and put it on his head - accidentally pinching his skin under his neck when I strapped it on - it pinched so hard it bled a little and took a little chunk of skin. The scream of pain and the look of hurt and betrayal in his eyes as he looked up at me and said "Why did you do that to me, Mama?" and how sick I felt in my stomach that for the first time he knew I was not immune from hurting him.

* Miscalculating the time and getting us stuck in rush hour human traffic on a subway in Tokyo. He was only 4 but I looked in his eyes and told him there would be a lot of people squishing us but that I would never let go of his hand and to step off onto the platform ahead of me. I held his hand above his head and with one hand on his little back, gently guided him through the crush of businessmen and uniformed school children as the crowd of hundreds moved en masse towards the elevators. Hearing his little voice ringing out above the drone of the crowds "Sumimasen! Sumimasen!" (excuse me, excuse me). How courageous and unfazed he was and still managed to remember his newly acquired Japanese language skilled!

* Taking 2 trains and walking back to the hotel in Ginza at midnight with Mum & Dad and Lochie, scared we may have missed the last train for the night - how Lochie crashed out asleep on the train and how Dad carried him so far back - Lochie practically a dead weight! How it didn't faze his Poppa to do that for his only grandson. Looking ahead at my Dad carrying my son through the streets of Tokyo, and my Mum reaching up to wrap her own scarf around his little hands and neck to protect him from the wind chill - just knowing at that moment that this was an image, a memory I would be recounting to my son in many years to come.

* Flying over Boise late at night in a fog, hardly making out the city lights - a sleeping little one year old Lachlan leaning on my arm. Then wondering why the plane was turning around - we had to go back to Seattle because we couldn't land. Letting tears fall unchecked as we flew back knowing David was a thousand feet below me waiting excitedly at the airport to greet us after a week apart and not knowing where I would stay that night, what I would do and feeling very scared and grown up all of a sudden. I had planned the trip months previously and I was full time in dental hygiene school, feeling like I was missing out on my little boy so wanted a special Christmas vacation with him. I had prepaid it many months previous and by the time we traveled we were having a very tight week financially. The fear of not knowing where my baby and I would sleep that night and how we would get there at that late hour. The kindness shown to me by a random Alaska airlines worker who gave me a voucher to stay in a Holiday Inn for free after watching several fellow passengers get turned away and refused free accommodation - and I hadn't even thought of requesting it from them! The amazement I felt at kindness of strangers and answered prayers as Lachlan was showered and curled up in a crib in a warm, comfortable hotel room that night.

* The first time I ever said "You're my best boy, Lachlan" and he responded with "You're my best girl, Mama"... and it's been our "thing" to say to each other ever since. And when he says it he says it with such tenderness it melts my heart every time. Lochie knows how to melt a girls heart that's for sure - other sweet sayings he has said to me include "I want to love you forever, Mum" and "You make me happy in here" (indicating his chest area). Sigh - such a little love-bug!