Big Guy

It's official. Jack is huge. I took him by the office yesterday and measured him.

Here are the stats:

Length: 29in = 95 %ile
Weight: 21lb 8 oz (with a wet diaper on) = 75-90%ile
Head circ.: 18.25% = 90%ile

So, he's a boy and it's fun that he's big, but let me tell you...it just does something to a mother's heart to pack up clothes that her baby has outgrown so quickly and have to buy new ones in bigger sizes. All mom's go through it, right? It's just my first time, and I'm bummed about it! However, the clothes are still very cute. Even in the huge sizes! The only alarming thing about his growth is that, since Jack's six month visit (2 months ago), his head measurement has jumped from the 25%ile to the 90%ile. What happened?!?!?! We're explaining it with exponential brain growth and rapid brain development. Of course:)

Sorry we haven't posted a blog in a while. Life has been busy. But busy with good things. Jack is continuing to do more things, play harder, and he's even made one little crawl movement. Usually he just rocks on his hands and knees, but two nights ago he made actual progress across the floor. Apparently the whole crawling thing proved to be slightly overrated to Jack, so he hasn't made any efforts to do it again.

Speaking of efforts, John and I are trying to be more of an outdoorsy/athletic family. We've both been exercising on our own, but have included evening family time mixed with something to increase the heart rate a little. Last night's activity started with a jogging stroller jog down the beach. We made it about 50 yards because the tide was in and didn't leave much room for running. Plan B was running the bike path through Port Royal. Jack was in the jogging stroller. John was pushing Jack, and I was just trying to breathe. Other than the sprinting and shorter amounts of running we do at StrollerFit, this was the first time I have actually jogged since giving birth. Holy toledo. I think when the baby is born, all of your endurance, athleticism and heart health is birthed as well. John kept looking back at me giving me the thumbs up sign, which at the time I interpreted as, "Way to go, Erin. I'm proud of you." But when we finished and I saw what I looked like and heard how loud my breathing was, I think the thumbs up was to initiate any sort of response from me because John probably thought I was dying. To be honest, there was one point during the run where I wanted to die. However, we all finished the path, Jack seemed to enjoy himself, and John was relieved to feel like he hadn't even exercised because of the great cardio shape that he's in. (Still training. Still motivated. Still proud of him!)


Jack is eating more foods than he was last week. We've successfully tried deli meats, which he loves. He's had chicken pie, real sweet potatoes, Nutra Grain bars, cheese, and pizza. He will eat anything. Including his toes, which are his new favorite sucking toy. At least they're available. Here's a photo of Jack at the Fresh Market. Jack, Gigi and I took a trip there on Monday. He loves riding in the cart. Unfortunately, the Fresh Market carts are smaller than normal grocery store carts, so half of the time was spent making sure he didn't manage to flip out of the thing! Even if he had, I'm sure his 90%ile head could have taken the spill. But we won't test that theory.

My Buddy, Carter

Jack met his buddy, Carter, for the first time this weekend. Carter is the son of Phillip and Shannon Galbreath. John grew up with Phill, so it's an awesome experience to raise our children together. It's really cool, too, that they're both boys! I imagine they'll spend lots of time together in the future...probably getting into trouble with one another. Phill, Shannon, and Carter were here for Easter. We were able to hang out with them on Saturday at the Usserys. Thanks for coming down here to meet us, Carter! What a great picture of the Galbreath and Ussery boys, huh? Lots of blue!

Here's a funny one of Jack and Carter. Jack is being rude and blowing bubbles, which is probably not the best first impression a kid can give, but....that's Jack. Carter looks like he's thinking, "Who's this crazy lady taking the picture. That's not my mom." We look forward to spending time with you all in the future (hopefully near future!).




Okay, so this picture just had to go on the blog. Aren't baby yawns the cutest things ever? This was about as out of hand as Carter was for our visit with him. What a good baby! See you soon!!!


My parents were also here for the weekend which is always a blessing. It's great for them to be able to spend time with Jack, of course, but I'd be lying if I said the two extra pairs of hands weren't a huge help! Thanks, Mimi and Pops/Grandad, for all the changed diapers, meals fed, and time you entertained Jack. We know you didn't mind. Unfortunately, I was a lazy camera taker and didn't get any pictures! What a dodo.

Jack's newest thing this week is getting on all fours and rocking back and forth. Maybe he'll crawl soon. I find myself saying, "I don't think he'll ever crawl." Not because he should be by this age or anything, but it gives me this cushion so that if he really doesn't ever crawl, I can say that I knew it. That's dumb. Maybe he will crawl. Who knows? Either way, he's WILD. This lil' man doesn't stop except for naps, even though he fights those for a while. He is constantly flipping over, scratching everything (which is how he explores with his hands), and babbling. Today I left the room for a second while he was on his changing table (STRAPPED IN). When I came back, he was on his side with his head propped up with his hand, like a model. Funniest thing I've ever seen. But apparently not as funny as his clothes are to him. That's right. Jack thinks his clothes are funny. Everytime I stand in front of his closet with him, he smiles and laughs at his clothes. At first I thought it was from the doors opening and the unusual sound that they make. I've tried it since with the doors already being open, and he still laughs. What a funny boy!

Sorry it's been a while, blog readers. I left my camera at the Usserys since Saturday, and have been lost without it. Hopefully, my new camera is being fixed at the Canon shop. It was supposed to be here today, but...no camera! Oh, the agony! Bye, everyone!

First Loss

We lost the Easter bonnet contest by one vote. DAGUMMIT! But it was hilarious to see the kids in their hats. The winner (Max) had a really unique bonnet covered entirely with Easter basket grass, and unlike Jack, he wore the hat the whole time without fussing. Jack's hat lasted about 10 seconds, and that's being generous. As we were leaving StrollerFit, I gave Jack the "your product is only as good as its promotion" talk and taught him a little lesson. Simply put, Jack did not work it, but isn't this picture SO FUNNY? This was taken at StrollerFit. The other picture was the trial run last night in his high chair. I may be wrong, but I think he hated it both times.




Jack is getting to be a little prankster these days. Last night while I was cooking supper, he kept fake coughing and pretending that he was choking. Whenever I would look at him, he'd grin and laugh. It is pretty funny when he does it, but I can't get used to his jokes and quit checking on him. He may be really choking one day!!! He's very close to crawling, I think. Jack will get his butt up in the air and kind of rock on his knees. His latest discovery is that he can pull the bumper pad off of his crib and chew on it.

John is continuing to train for Mont Blanc. He's up to 5 days a week of cardio instead of 4 days. He's working hard selling real estate as always. Check out their website: www.usseryrealestategroup.com. The newest community is Hampton Lake. (www.hamptonlake.com) Make sure you check it out cause it's going to be incredible. Maybe it will get more visitors to come down and see us???? Speaking of which, as the weather gets warmer and more beautiful, wouldn't you like to come see it for yourself? Just want you all, family and friends, to know you're welcome to come for a visit anytime! We'd love to see you!

Too Cool for School

Here is the latest form of child abuse: Baby Bandz. Jack received his pair in the mail today. What was supposed to be an online purchase of a stroller bug net turned into an additional purchase of sunglasses. Isn't he STYLIN?!?!?! Surprisingly, Jack seemed to get used to them on his head and didn't mess with them. We'll see how long that lasts. We also put the bug net to use tonight on our evening family stroll. Seeing him in the stroller with the cage netting reminded John and me of that John Travolta movie where he had some immunodeficiency that forced him to live in a germ-free bubble. But when Jack started screaming about five minutes into our walk only to continue screaming throughout the entire walk, we realized that maybe his netting should be sound proof as well. By the way, teething is not fun. At least tending to babies who are teething is not fun. Pray for Jack's gums. They're killing him.

Jack had his first kiss today. That's right. Seven and a half months, and he's already flirting and being flirted with. Kim Reed and I took Jack and Shelby to lunch today and out of nowhere Shelby leaned over, grabbed Jack's hand, and kissed it. Cutest scene ever. But for once in my life, or Jack's life, rather, I didn't have the camera. So, you'll just have to picture it in your mind. Oh, and Shelby also said "Jack." It came out like "Jaaa", but we knew what she meant.

Hope you're all doing well! Tune in soon for more pictures of Jack. He's entering his first contest tomorrow: "Best Baby Bonnet" with our StrollerFit group. We're having the regular class and then an Easter party afterwards. Cross your fingers that he'll win!

Peeps and Hobos

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you are all doing well and are gearing up for Easter. Not in the Peeps candy and Easter basket sort of way, but in the way that Christ died and rose from His death! Indeed, Peeps are yummy and Easter candy is by far the best of all seasonal candies, but I think overcoming death takes the win. Especially when it was for us. Unfortunately, Jesus dolls are hard to come by, so here is Jack with his bunny that Mema and Deda gave to him. I'm not sure if you've seen the Hallmark commercials with these bunnies on them, but they're so cute. There's a little chick that pops out of the egg and sings a song. Thank you, Mema and Deda, for the bunny! Jack LOVES it! (This paragraph is showing up in blue and underlined. Not sure why and I can't seem to change it!)



John, Jack, Scout and I took a long walk this evening, which was part fun and part disaster. The fun part was that it was 6 o'clock PM and still light outside. I think the springing forward idea is swell. The Ussery family believes that God inspired whoever makes that decision to do so just for us because He knows we freak out whenever we get to be outside together. Another fun part was just being together as a family! Here comes the disaster part. (I'm being dramatic when I say disaster.) See Scout in this picture? He's lying down. In the road. Halfway through our walk. That's because he still hasn't learned what a choke collar is and how it works. John held Scout on about 6 inches of leash thinking after a couple of miles that he would catch on. Nope! He panted the entire way, and also never completely got used to the stroller being with us. He's scared of the stroller like he is of every other piece of machinery, equipment, living, non-living, and movable thing. So here we are trying to include Scout in our evening stroll, but to him it was a 2 mile death march on a trail of horrors. By the way, pray for Scout. We think he's depressed. We're afraid that the 7 months of diverted attention to Jack have finally caught up with him and he's sad.



After the stroll, I thought it would be a good time to bathe Jack. Not because of the bugspray from our walk, but because of the rice cereal, carrot and blueberry food build-up on his face. Jack is already to the age where he HATES getting his face wiped off. So, after several wipes and many screams, I usually give up and say, "That's good enough." But the remnants that don't get caught in those semi-wipes eventually add up until Jack looks like a hobo. Today was a hobo kind of day. So he got some bath time and loved it!

Gators and Ice Water

Remember the "Bracket" blog where I wrote something obscure about Florida winning the championship? Well...there you have it. But...the irony of it all, is that I didn't even have Florida winning. I just thought I did. Transposed the tiebraker score on ESPN and had Texas beating FL by 4. In my heart, I thought it was FL all the way and told everyone embarrassingly that I chose them to win, so that's what counts, right???? Unfortunately not. I even stayed up to watch the game, cheering my heart out for the Gators....all to see this morning online that I had TX winning. GEEZ!!!!!

Today was a busy one for the Usserys. John worked out this morning and worked hard all day at his job. (Workout update: Five days a week of 45 min cardio and wt. training.) Jack and I had StrollerFit this morning. The class was close to my work, so I swung by to see how much Jack weighs. He's about 21 pounds (with clothes on and a wet diaper) and he's 27 3/4 in long! What a big'n! We went to lunch with Kim and Shelby, and most of the time we were there, Jack stared at Shelby like he was amazed by her beauty. He also ate her food. (See picture).

This afternoon, John and I took Jack to Berkeley Hall to take some pictures. We noticed how beautiful the flowers were while driving through the other day and thought we'd take advantage of the backdrop. To our dismay, they dug all the flowers up to replace them! Wouldn't you know it? And we couldn't figure out why, because the flowers were perfect. Almost Giada perfect. So, we carried Jack out to the lawn in front of the big pond along with props and different wardrobe options. However, after 78 pictures, we only got a handful of him smiling and about 100 bug bites to boot. The picture at the top is one of the cute ones from this afternoon.

Then.....we went to dinner. Out to dinner because someone conveniently forgot to put supper in the oven. Oopsie. Picture a young family with a cute, little baby sitting happily in his high chair. Then picture the helpful dad reaching over to clean the baby's face and instead, knocking a large cup of ice water all over the baby. Hear the baby screaming so loudly everyone turns and gives dirty stares. Guess what family that was tonight? The Usserys!!!! John felt so badly about it, but the upside was that we had the wardrobe changes that never got used at the dug-up flower garden photo shoot. After the ice water mishap and a dry change of clothes, Jack was all smiles. The picture is too bright, but check out his crazy face! That's our boy!

Family Weekend

Uncle Matt and Aunt Melissa came for a visit this weekend! Jack was thrilled to have some other faces to look at and respond to other than ours. He woke Matt and Melissa up each morning with squeals and grunting, and we're pretty sure they had fun playing with him. How great it was to have two extra sets of hands around as well! Thank you for visiting! We had so much fun while you were here.


This picture is of John and Jack making faces in Jack's new tent. We pitched the tent at Berkeley Hall and had an afternoon of fun in the sun with Uncle Matt and Aunt Melissa. Jack enjoyed his tent except for the 15 minute screaming fit he had while fighting his nap. The nap eventually won and Jack slept for a couple of hours. He swam in the indoor pool again and loved it.






Saturday night, the Usserys had us over for dinner. Thank you, Gigi, for having us and for the yummy food! Great Grandma Catherine was there and had fun feeding Jack his food. She said she couldn't keep up with him, but she did just fine. Jack seemed to really enjoy his time with her.


The only downer of the weekend was saying goodbye to Jordan. Aunt Jordan left today to return to South Africa. We miss you already! Can't wait to see you and Uncle Trevor in two months! Have fun in Kenya and write when you can. This picture was taken at the Usserys and it pretty much sums up the fun that Jack and Jordan had with one another. Two nights after this picture was taken, Jack fell asleep in Jordan's arms. It was sweet. I would post a picture, but the red eye reduction didn't work and makes Jordan look like a demon. Which she's not. The opposite, really.


Sunday evening concluded with a sunset cruise with our small group from church. We took the boat from the Usserys house to Shelter Cove in search of ice cream, but there was none. However, we improvised and drove to the ice cream store after the boat ride. And...I fully recommend the "Birthday Cake" ice cream from Brusters. The best. Ever.

So, we had a busy weekend. I'm about to fall asleep as I type. It's a mix of springing forward, sleeping less and a little bit of depression from the Lady Heels losing in the semis to Maryland. Congrats, Heels, on an incredible season.