"Baw"

On Sunday June 11th, 2006 at approximately 11:00am, Jack Ussery said his first word: "Ball". John and I went to Walnuts after church, and while we were waiting for our food, Jack was paying special interest to his Dora the Explorer disposable placemat. He kept putting his finger on a picture of a beach ball that's on the mat, so in an effort to teach him what he was pointing too, I started saying "ball" over and over again. Jack started staring at me, specifically at my mouth, and after about five to six times of me saying "ball", he very deliberately said it back to me. It was more of a 'baw' sound. He did not perfectly say the "L" consonant, but he DEFINITELY said ball. John and I freaked out. He has yet to say it since because I don't think he knows what happened. He simply was repeating me, but it made us so happy! And what a great first word!


"Ball" is hands down a better first word than "bail," which is exactly what it took to get jj redick out of jail this morning. A DUI! A stinkin' DUI! Just when jj was out of the duke basketball program, and I had begun training my brain that I don't have to dislike him as much anymore, he goes and does something dumb like this. So I can't like him. Again. And before certain readers who say they are UNC AND duke fans start furiously google-ing "UNC basketball alumni who have been incarcerated", I already know who they are (at least most of them:) and that they, too, have committed terrible acts. But in honor of what this blog stands for (Jack loving and duke disliking), and how previous duke-bashing actually got someone to comment, I couldn't let this mug shot go unnoticed.

Onto a more sobering topic...Jack is not well today, so pray for him. He had a high fever last night and this morning. Dr. Thomas took a peek at his ears this morning for me, but everything looked good. He's got a virus that's been going around with symptoms of high fevers and a sore throat. Poor baby! John and I hate so much that he's not feeling well, but it has been nice to cuddle with Jack without him squirming all over the place. He watched almost half of the Brazil/Croatia matchup (see appropriate soccer themed picture above) with me today, sitting in my lap the whole time. It was sweet.