The Beach Boys

My Grandparents are staying on Hilton Head this week, so yesterday I decided it was a good time to conquer the beach. With the extra sets of hands and eyes, we managed to have an enjoyable afternoon. Jack loved seeing Mema and Deda, and Finn was happy to eat sand by the fistful.


The boys had on their matching swimsuits, which made them the hit of the beach. Everyone passing by would say, "Awww...look! Aren't they cute? They match." What is it about matching, anyway? This picture was one in a million, literally, as it's one of the few times that Jack has shared anything with anyone at anytime ever. I was a beaming mama to have caught it on film.


We realized that Jack's high level energy is not location specific. Yep, he was equally as nutsy on the beach as anywhere else. It was so nice to see him play in the water and sand instead of chase the birds which has been his previously preferred beach activity. Yesterday, he ran back and forth to the wagon, filling his buckets with sand and water and dumping them on me. That was a true "Mom Test" scenario. I would only allow myself to be covered in the gritty nastiness of wet sand for one of my boys. It was a beautiful day, and I'm so glad that we went. Hopefully we can join Mema and Deda for another day at the beach this week. I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

As a side note, to all you mother's out there...do you find that you have a heightened Freak Alert Radar since having children? There was a man on the beach who kept passing us by and I didn't know if he was just a man taking a leisurely stroll, a past stroke victim, a mentally challenged adult, a child molester, or what, but my alert was sounding! It's hard to know these days. We didn't know whether to feel sorry for him, or pray for him, or look at him like "Don't think we're not memorizing what you look like". Am I alone here?


Jack has taken an interest into holding Finn over the past few weeks. He'll get down on the floor with him and say very slowly in his best baby talk, "Comere, Fen...I hold yoooooou." Finn usually tries to roll out of Jack's vice grip, but on this particular morning, he enjoyed being with his big brother.

Now that Finley is crawling, he's discovered the book shelf. In fact, he discovers it at least twice a day, dumping the books into the floor. His favorite book is one called Baby Faces. It's a book where each page has a close up of a baby making a different face, and on the opposite page will be a word describing the face, like "Uh-oh" or "Stinky". He LOVES it. I think it's the only thing he loves anymore. John and I are so confused as to what has happened to our sweet Finn. Over the past week, he's been SO fussy. Very few things elicit the Finn Grin anymore. Like every other parent, we're chalking it up to teething, because we're obviously not capable of having a fussy baby by nature. No way!:) If you happen to be praying for other fussy babies around the globe, add Finn's name to the list.... and add our names to the list of parents who may very well lose their minds at any given point.

Jack's cognitive abilities have apparently been affected by Finn's continual crying, too. The other day Jack wore his mismatched swimmies all morning. I never saw him pretend swimming or pretend zombie walking or anything. He went about his normal business but with flotation devices. Now that I think about it, he was really good that day....Hmmm...Do they make swimmies in adult sizes?

This past weekend I attended a Women of Faith conference with my gal pals in Jacksonville, FL. It was such a fun weekend. We heard from some great speakers who were all hilarious and so clearly doing what they have been gifted to do. Thanks to Leslie for the invitation, and thanks to all of you gals for making it such a fun time. And, as always, a HUGE THANKS to my hubster who kept the boys so I could make the trip.

Day-o-Mama

Mother's Day was the best this year. I've come to realize that for parents of smaller children, Mother's Day is kind of a 'make it' or 'break it' day for the dads, kind of like an anniversary in cognito. My husband clearly knocked it out of the park for 2008. He let me sleep in, gave me beautiful sunflowers, and made an adorable card that included a list of the little things I do for our boys under the title of "Not Unnoticed". John said double negatives were allowed when honoring a mom. He made an afternoon appointment for my mom and I to get massages, and he didn't care when I announced that I was not making dinner that night. (Not that he normally would, but it was still appreciated.) We had a great day as a family, and I felt completely honored as a mama. Thank you, John!!!!

Happy belated Mother's Day out there to all the mommies of the world, especially to our moms who mean the world to both of us. John and I speak often of our newfound appreciation and admiration to our own moms who devoted everything to us when we were small, and have bailed us out more times than we can count now that we're parents ourselves. We love you beyond expression!!! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!


Mother's Day was also special because Finley Matthew had his baby dedication at church that day. Even though the ceremony itself was nothing formal, we were happy to publicly commit to raise our son under the guidance and instruction of the Lord, with the support of our church body and family. What a huge commitment to live out day to day, but it's about the most important one we can make!

Last week was so exciting for Jack because his Aunt Jackie came home from college! He was beside himself when she got to our house. In anticipation of her arrival, he picked out a special cookie for her at the local cookie store. It was so cute, and honestly, very unlike Jack to think of others, especially in a bakery!:) Jack had picked out a cookie for himself, and then he shouted and pointed to this flower smiley face cookie and screamed, "JACKIE!!!". I thought because we sometimes call Jack Jackie that he had realized that the flower smiley face cookie was much larger than his original choice and therefore a better pick for himself. But I was wrong. I picked up the big cookie and he mumbled something about Jackie coming home from school. Of course I bought the thing because it was a selfless act on Jack's part, which is not normal these days. He held the cookie on the way to the car as if it were the arc of the covenant. All day long he'd point to the box and tell me how it was Jackie's 'cake'.


Jack's personality blooms day by day. He's very into hygiene right now, which is good. Other mothers of teenage boys warm me of the 'funk' that will permeate my household one day. So for now, we'll greet each frequent bath and shower request with a smile.

Another one of Jack's favorite things right now is monsters. Yep. Monsters. He has a Sesame Street book where Grover warns us on every page that there's a monster at the end of the book, so don't turn the page. But of course you turn the page and at the end is lovable, furry old Grover who is the anticipated monster, but not the scary thing you were expecting. Anyway, he's started calling all of the golfers that come play behind our house, Monsters. "Good morning, Monsters!" is what he said two days ago when we jogged past a group in golf carts. He seems to like the thrill, but definitely on his own terms. When John or I try to initiate a monster play, he'll look at us like we're stupid and say, "There's no monsters." On this particular day a monster was anyone with a coat on their head.

Unfortunately Scout was not scared, but rather excited by the blue coat on Jack. If you know our dog and his affection for the color blue, then you know what happened next. Needless to say, Jack has not played monster games with Scout since.


***Fungus Among Us Update***
John went to MUSC on Monday for another follow up. They are very pleased with the improvement that they're seeing. The doctors backed off of the eye drop schedule to 4x/day instead of every 2 hours, and the best part is that he doesn't have to do the drops through the night! They reminded him of how 'lucky' he is that they caught this so quickly as all 12 of the other documented cases either lost their vision or their entire eye. Ew. We're not calling it luck, but a blessing from God. Thank you all for your continued prayers.

***Blog Overhaul Update**
The blog needed a new look. As of now, there are 5 people who like it and 2 that don't. We'll see...

The Fungus Pool

Saturday was one of those days that I could relive 100 times. The weather here was incredible, and I just thoroughly enjoyed my job as Mama. It was the kind of day where you just feel overwhelmed with so much joy that you almost choke on it. You don't know if you're going to burst into tears or hysterical laughter. And there seems to be no apparent reason. Jack had a ridiculous tantrum over a lollipop, and I recall a certain fuzzy headed little one pooping on my pajama top that morning. But it didn't bother me at all that day. I was just so happy to be with them.


We celebrated the awesomeness of Saturday by purchasing this mushroom pool. We thought we'd honor John's recent fungal run-in with this inflatable effigy....sort of our Team Ussery 'we're not afraid' rally against Kingdom Fungi. You may have taken our entire 2008 deductible, but you can't damage our spirit!

We would have opted for Hampton Lake, seeing as how it's incredibly amazing for kids of all ages, but Finn had the snots, and we didn't want to infect any innocent swimmerby. We just made a our own little Fungus Pool.

Contrary to what this serious picture would have you believe, Finn had a great time in the pool. He loved chewing on all the toys and chewing on all the toys. No, that sentence was not a mistake. He did not, however, love the occasional face plant that he would take in attempt to reach his next chewing victim.

Jack is so bad to the bone. This is the 'bully response' face we taught him in preparation for preschool. Saturday did confirm two of our suspicions:
1. Jack is a splasher.
2. Swim diapers are a joke. Nuf said.

Mr. (or Miss?) Carebear had it coming to him/her. These were the few toys that Jack didn't have an interest in stealing that day. He's realized that his baby brother isn't a chubby little blob that just lies there anymore. Now he's a chubby little blob that has taken a shine to Jack's toys. Uh oh.

Jack has always loved Scout, but over the past 6 months, his love for him has grown. Whenever we are riding back to the house from somewhere, Jack doesn't say "Let's go home" or "Let's go to my house". He screams, "GO SEE SCOUT!" On Saturday, Jack and Scout played like this. Rather, Scout LET Jack play like this. I think they're buds.

***A Fungus Among Us Update***

John returned from MUSC with good news today. His infection is not growing which is great. Most of what we can see of the infection is actually not the infection, but corneal scarring left over from the infection. The white blood cell build up is retreating, and they want him to see a local opthalmologist for the remainder of the week. He'll follow up in Charleston on Monday. Also...the drops schedule has changed from every hour to every 2 hours and only twice through the night! HOORAY!

Thanks again for everyone's prayers and phone calls and emails and dinners....the list could go on and on. The Lord has blessed us, and continues to bless us, in more ways than we could ever count.

Oh, and for you nerds out there who want to know...the fungus is paecilomyces lilacinus (PIE-seal-oh-MY-sees lie-LACK-in-us). Kind of catchy, huh? I told John if we ever have a daughter one day we've got a good name...:) She could go by Pae or Cilo or Myces. Very Greek chic.