27

John turned 27 on Sunday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN!!! To celebrate, Jack wore this hat all day. You can see how excited he was about it. Actually, we went to dinner at Mi Tierra's to celebrate, and John is the on who donned a sombrero. However, he happened to walk into the room a minute ago and banned that picture from being posted on the web, printed on any form of paper, or seen by anyone in any form whatsoever. John had a fun day: church, friends visiting in town, work out in the afternoon, dinner with friends and family that night, and some really cool gifts! The picture above was taken at Party Town where I was buying some birthday party supplies for Jack. They had a luau section, and somehow this Huck Finn-style hat made it into that department...and onto Jack's head.



The friends who were visiting over the weekend were Charles, Katherine and Caroline Gouch. Charles and Katherine attended UNC with John and me. We had such a great time with them. Their daughter, Caroline, is 6 1/2 months old. Isn't she a beauty? Not only is she beautiful, she's also very active and very advanced for her age. She's crawling, pulling up on things, and cruising. Amazing for such a young baby! She's basically doing everything Jack is doing, minus some of his babble and words. John developed a complex about Jack being delayed, but I think I finally convinced him that Caroline is just way ahead of the game.



Today is Tuesday, so that meant Kim, Shelby, Jack and I had our usual outing to Sippin' Cow Cafe. Yummy as always. I was telling Kim that I take virtually the same pictures of Jack and Shelby sitting in their high-chairs week after week, but they're so cute together that I can't help it. This photo is proof of what a camera hog Jack has become. I was trying to get Shelby by herself in the picture, but look who had to lean in for some camera action. Isn't Shelby such a cutie? It's funny the number of times that Kim and I are asked if they're siblings, or twins even. Makes me wonder what they think we are. Hmmm....



I just got off the phone with my Dad, and I was telling him how clingy Jack has been to me lately. No separation anxiety when he's with other people or anything. It's more when I'm around and trying to do things in the house that he seems to whine and want to be held. This picture was taken today after I finished walking Scout. When I left the house with Scout in tow, Jack immediately crawled to the door and started screaming. I turned around and instantly, he's smiling and okay. We played this back and forth game until I decided it was probably cruel, let Scout do his business, and came back to the door. This is what I saw. Cute little face, smiling, just waiting for me to come through the door. Don't you love it?!? Can you read his shirt? It says "Most Likely To Succeed". Maybe so!

John's packing for his trip as I type. He's taking our camera, so there may not be any postings for a while. Because he's taking the camera, though, he has promised (among many things) that he will post a blog of his own when he returns. Among the other promises were: cleaning out the garage, a trip of mine and Shannon's (Phillip's wife) choice next year, making a video of Jack, and hiring someone to clean the house once a week for 25 years. When he returns and denies that he ever promised the latter, we'll blame it on the persistent lack of oxygen he's experienced. Deal?

Baby Weight

As promised, here's proof that John has been working out with some extra weight strapped to him. Normally he wears his mountain climbing back pack with weights inside, which I'm sure is not the proper title, but this day, he opted for a different challenge. Since John is still smiling and Jack is not yet antsy, you guessed right if you assumed that they had just started their work out. Jack soon came out of his contraption, and the two of us took our interests to the pool while John kept going. John, Phillip and Chuck are leaving this Friday for France. Call and wish them well if you get the chance. That rhymed. Awesome.



The reason our blog has not been updated in a while is because we have been traveling lately. (I had just typed "as of late" instead of "lately" but decided that I would never say that in real life.) We traveled to Chapel Hill last week for a few days. Despite the thrill of returning to our college roots, our reunion was for unfortunate reasons. A friend of ours, Matt Cress, who was the brother of one of my roommates, Abby, passed away July 7th. We attended his memorial service with several other hundreds of close friends and family. People shared funny and inspiring stories about him that made us wish we had more time with him. Please pray for the Cress and Dunn families, friends, and Matt's girlfriend, Emilie, as they are coping with this huge loss. There is such joy, however, in knowing that Matt is in heaven and in the company of the Lord Almighty. He knew Jesus as his Savior, and we thank Him for that!

John and I did love our visit to Chapel Hill! We wished we could have stayed longer. One funny story: We arrived late on Wednesday night. As we pulled into the town, John rolled the windows down so we could smell the air and hear the sounds of our old stomping grounds. We started reminiscing about how this was where we met, started dating, and fell in love. How neat to be bringing our son here to such a special place. Jack must have heard us talking and decided to give us a gift. In his diaper. A big gift. When we parked at our hotel and unbuckled our little guy from his carseat, reality came flooding into our senses when we were hit with the nastiest poop wave we've yet to encounter. John and I were used to being awake at 12:30am in Chapel Hill. That wasn't the problem. It just never occurred to me that instead of studying, eating Gumby's pizza, or just hanging out, we would be bathing our son because of a massive blowout. Life changes, huh? But all for the better. The picture of Jack was taken after his midnight bath. He enjoyed the fluffy bedding. And a clean butt.



John and I also traveled to Atlanta to see Phillip, Shannon, and Carter. Jack enjoyed playing with Carter's toys (almost breaking them). Soon the two of them will be able to play together! We went to the pool, took a walk, took naps, and just hung out. It was so much fun! Shannon and I were promised a trip of our own since the fellas are leaving us for their mountain journey. Our criteria is somewhere warm, somewhere relaxing, and somewhere we don't have to train to go! We also went to see Jeffrey play 2 baseball games. He's so good! Can't wait to see him on the field for Georgia Tech! Again, we wish we could have stayed longer to see everyone!

Jack just woke up. I hear his 'come get me, NOW' noises.

FYLA

You're probably wondering what FYLA stands for, huh? FYLA stands for Future Youth Leaders of America. It's an organization that, as far as I know, is not real. But it was very real on Sunday when we took this picture of Jack in his new bucket hat. Now you're probably wondering how that makes sense in our (mine and John's) heads. See, we have this ongoing joke/story about how the youth leaders who had influence on our lives spent about 80% of their time wearing bucket hats. Probably strange and not at all funny to you, sure. But then the joke/story usually shifts to John's senior trip to the Dominican Republic, where I'm pretty sure he spent at least 80% of his time there wearing a blue bucket hat. At least the pictures I've seen depict this to be accurate. However, we let it slide because he was doped up on narcotics due to an extremely bad shoulder injury that happened on the eve of his Dominican departure. If the youth leader/bucket hat relationship offends any of our future or current youth leading friends, we apologize. Remember, we were in youth group during the 90's. We would be honored as parents if the youth leading shoe (or hat) fit Jack one day.




Maybe now you can see why we bought Jack a bucket hat in the first place. He looks like a devil child in this picture. As soon as the hat came off, WHAMO! He's a wild man. This picture was taken yesterday on Jack's changing table. We have to give him something to hold while we change him, or otherwise his hands end up places they shouldn't. Enough said. Yesterday, Johnson's Baby Lotion was the object of choice to preoccupy Jack.

Today was an unusual morning for us. We woke up to the sounds of a rustling Jack at 6:53. Pretty typical. Then the rustling stopped. Still typical. I fell back asleep, which is what I always do. Rustling starts again. Wake up and look at the clock. 9:00! Jack slept until 9, which John and I agree qualifies as a miracle. We missed our 5K stroller training, which was fine with me! Thanks, Jack! You're the man!



As you can see, Jack has been enjoying his books. He hasn't quite gotten the part about reading front to back instead of back to front, and he missed the part about not eating paper. It's okay though. He's good looking, right?

John's Workout Update: T minus 2 weeks (almost). John, Chuck, and Phil depart for France on the 28th to climb to the summit of Mont Blanc. John continues to train at least 5 days a week. He's still working out one day a week with his backpack of weights on. Sorry. Still haven't made it to the gym to get a picture of that. I'm so proud of him for sticking with it for 6 months now. John is also eating more and drinking more protein than I've ever seen a human ingest over the past few days. Today when I commented that his face looked fuller, you would have thought I had given him a $1,000,000 shopping spree for Patagonia. John's going to take my camera on his trip, so maybe he'll debut his writing skills on the blog with a recap of their journey.

First Fourth

Sorry for not bloggin' since last Sunday. I'm a slacker. Jack has been on the move for the past week. He's perfected the act of pulling up on everything. Furniture, pants, baskets, entertainment centers, you name it. The child will find a way to scale up the side of it and probably pull whatever is in it or on it off. He's a master. Whenever he's not climbing, he's still crawling. He's in a phase where he wants me to pick him up every 5 seconds. This is a picture where he wanted me to pick him up, but somehow, I managed to get a smile and nose crinkle out of him. Adorable, huh?



Here is Jack standing up again. Either he's too tall for this toy, or the toy is too short for him because he now has to bend over to play with the stuff on top of it. Still one of his favorites, though. John and I especially enjoy the "Stir" song. Here goes: "Stir, stir, stir the soup. Stir along with me. We can learn the alphabet, right from A to Z!" I always picture the people who record those songs for Fisher Price and the like, standing with their headsets on in a recording studio. They had dreamed of Nashville, but here they are singing the "Stir" song. I bet that a fifth of the nation's parents know her voice, though, and carry it with them ALL DAY LONG!



The 4th of July was a hit! John was able to take half of the day off, which was such a nice surprise. The three of us went to the Usserys to celebrate with them. This picture was taken after our first boat ride. Jack enjoyed riding fast, but made it known that he couldn't stand his life jacket. We cruised around Calibogue Sound (probably spelled incorrectly). Jeffrey let Jack help him steer the boat (see pic below). After the boat ride, we ate burgers (Jack had a little burger just for him), and John, Jeffrey and Jack went for a swim. There were moments where Great Grandma Catherine got so nervous that I thought she may jump in after him. But she didn't. We cruised near Shelter Cove to watch the fireworks at around 9, and Jack LOVED the fireworks. He wasn't afraid of the noises at all. He just sat there with his eyes and mouth wide open (which is how he often sits). July 4th was such a great day for the Ussery clan.





This picture was taken this morning. I like it because it shows Jack's teeth so well. He now has 4 teeth. 2 up, 2 down.
Happy late July 4th to everyone! We hope you took time to celebrate our freedom and independence with friends or family!