Boys, Girls, and Pumpkins

Jack, Finley, Jen, Gracen and I headed to a pumpkin patch in Beaufort this morning. Both of our husbands are working today so we decided to enjoy the crisp (as in burnt to a crisp) October morning outdoors. The pumpkin patch was great. There were goats to feed, pigs to smell, pumpkins to run around and bales of hay to climb on. They also had a little country store where you could buy any pickled item of your choice or buy a normal lunch like PB and J. Jack and Gracen had a great time. Isn't the picture above a great action shot? I took a lot of pictures today and all of them looked like this...Jack mid-run. His constant state is motion!

I wish I could say this was Jack finding the perfect pumpkin, but it's really just one of a hundred that he attempted to pick up and drop on his feet. We did end up leaving with a smaller pumpkin that we plan on painting. I thought we'd paint until he learns that pumpkins can be carved. Way too messy.


Here's Jack and Gracen. Gracen calls Jack "Jack Boy" because one of her dogs is named Jack. He's "Jack Dog" now. Jack and Gracen met at StrollerFit and are now in CBS and MOPS together. They're great friends.

And here is the difference between boys and girls. Jack threw dirt at the goats, which he called cows, and would also throw dirt into the air and let it fall on him. He also nearly fell into a pit of sewage. This was the best picture I could get of him. And then there's Gracen. Look at the little angel holding her pumpkin next to her clean, little face. The poor girl started crying in the parking lot because dirt got in her shoe. By the end of the trip, Jack ended up going home wearing nothing but his diaper and some new bruises. With two boys, I'm gonna have to learn to embrace the filth!


Here is the little hay maze that the kids could run through or climb on or try to destroy by unstacking the bales of hay.

And here's what Finn did at the pumpkin patch! He stayed in his stroller most of the time. To all of you public schoolers, don't the red straps holding his carseat onto the stroller remind you of safety patrol belts? They were actually neon orange and made of plastic, but at first glimpse of this photo, that's what came to mind. I was a safety patroller at Rankin Elementary. I also lost the student council presidential election the following year. Somehow, I think the two went hand in hand.

This was Finntastic last night watching me make his bottles for the next day. Hands folded, paci in place. He's such a good baby! He slept from 10:30 until 4:30 last night! That's great for a 5 week old!

Some of you have asked me to post a picture of myself with the boys. I didn't get them in the photo, but here ya go:)

Baby Einstein

Here's Finley on the left and Jack on the right. I think they look alike, don't you? The picture of Finn was taken this afternoon (his 5 week birthday), and the picture of Jack was taken when he was 2 and a half months old. I couldn't find a great picture of Jack at 5 weeks. There were only 200 to choose from.

Check out Finn's hair though! It's insane! I bathed him this afternoon and used some Neutrogena T Gel, a dandruff shampoo, because Finn's entire body is peeling and the T Gel came highly recommended. Since Jack was mainly a Q Ball at this age, it was easy to pick out the normal newborn peely skin, but with all this hair...we're having some trouble. Apparently the T Gel added a little bit of body to his hair as well because this is how it dried. Finn looks like a little baby Einstein or baby Beethoven or baby version of someone else really smart with terrible hair. Speaking of that... wonder why there seems to be that connection with brains and bad hair. Is it that they're too consumed with knowledge and learning that they don't have time to style? Is it because they feel intellect overpowers ugliness? If there is no reason, and it just seems that they go hand in hand just so people will blog about it's meaninglessness, then I must say, based on hair alone, that my smartest years were spent between the ages of 9-11, also known as the 'bad perm' era. But has there ever, in the history of perms all over the world, been a good one? I've never heard anyone say, "Remember at that Wham concert when I was rocking that awesome perm and everyone was hitting on me?" I'm just saying.

Aside: Revisiting the hair/brains argument...John's smartest years were his Jr. and Sr. years of high school. Think mushroom. Sorry babe.

Anyway, here are our precious boys getting ready for Jack's naptime. He's into asking the family to join him in bed. No matter who puts him down for nap or nighttime, Jack asks them to get in bed with him. "Daddy, bed. Mommy bed. Finn bed." His favorite person to ask is his Daddy I do believe. Then when it comes around to naptime and I'm thinking it's my chance for a bedtime invitation, he says "Finn bed. Mommy go." Talk about rejection.


Jack was looking too cute not to photograph with his ducks in tow today. To the left is 'Big Duckie' (pronounded 'Boon Duckie' for some reason) and on the right we have his all time favorite duck that goes everywhere with him. He's not allowed to take it out of the house unless we're going to Gigi and Papa's, mainly because of their awesome front loader that washes Duckie's filth away! But a day later, Duckie already is dirty and smelling like a mix of spit and syrup. It's gross.

Finn Smiles!!!

Finley smiled this morning. Three times! And it seemed to be deliberate, which is the best:) Here is the 3rd smile. He was just bathed and had eaten. Optimal smiling opportunity! Isn't he adorable????? ISN'T HE!?!?!?! jk



Did I also mention that Finley is in a baby gang? Here he is throwing us some secret gang signs.


And best of all...Jackie has been in town this weekend for Fall Break. We all couldn't be happier to have her back for a few days, but Jack was beside himself. He kept talking about Jackie whenever he wasn't around her. We spent today on the island at the Usserys house. It was a beautiful day! We celebrated the awesome weather by watching football and taking naps, ironically! We applauded the Heels on their valiant effort against the South Carolina and Jack wore his 'football shirt' (UNC jersey) again. He loves that thing. It was a great day!!! Here's a picture of Jack, Gigi, Papa, John and Jackie at Hampton Lake on Thursday night. Jack was in heaven: boats AND Aunt Jackie. Could it get any better?

Last and obviously least, here is the actual bug that crawled into John's ear. EW!

It Gets Worse....

Yesterday morning I woke up to my husband writhing in bed and swatting at himself. It was because one of these bugs pictured above (a Galeritula beetle) had crawled into his right ear while he was sleeping. I would be writhing too.

So...there we are. Asleep. And with a 1 month old, we sleep deeply. I awake to the bed shaking. Look over and there's John moving all over the place. And John's quick, but not at 6am. He bolts to the bathroom and goes straight to the sink. My thought? He's gonna vomit. In the sink. Which makes for one heck of a mess. I scream, "Go to the toilet!!!" (what compassion, right?) But then John yells, "THERE'S A BUG IN MY EAR!!!!!....to which I reply "Can I help?" "Of course you can help....There's a bug in my ear! Get a Q Tip!" Not wanting him to cram that sucker in there any further I don't want to hand him the Q Tip, but I do, because I don't want his current fury to be redirected at me. Then...John starts screaming, "It's biting me! It's biting me!!!" After several attempts to blow the bug out of his ear by holding his nose and applying pressure to his inner ears, he realizes that, indeed, he is not a dragon and no built up steam is going to shoot the bug out of the ear. So he tries hitting the left side of his head, thinking that the bug would feel the jolt and fall out of the other side. And he's yelling, "It's gonna go to my brain!!!!" Finally, several freak outs and bites later, John announces that he thinks the bug is trying to get out. Then I panic. Because I now play the role of the Swatter. Fortunately the bug does come out and I have an easy flick opportunity. The bug falls out and we wash it down the sink. He finally gets to use the Q Tips to get the blood out. Yes, there was blood.

It gets worse.....

John goes to work that day and is having a normal day. A day with an achy ear, but normal nonetheless. After attempting yet another dragon move to 'clear his ears' (You know that thing you can go with your ears when you feel them popping on an airplane or driving through the mountains? That.), John feels the appropriate and expected 'pop' in his left ear, but feels air coming through his right ear.

To the doctor he goes. He learns that the Galeritula beetle not only contributed to one heck of a wake up call that morning, but that he/she also perforated his ear drum. It will heal itself, but as a preventative measure, he's on antibiotic ear drops.

(All during the day I'm googling "insect identification" but was unable to find anything that looked like our friend.)

It gets worse.....

Tonight I come home from the store. John's bathing Jack. Finn's sleeping in his swing. I go to pick up some dirty laundry in our closet and notice as I walk by John's sink this black speck sitting there. He's back!!!!! Which is obviously not cool on so many levels, but good that we were able to trap him. Jack came in there as I was taking pictures and he says "Ewww...bug." Which reminds us again of those nights ago when Jack would say after waking up: bugs in bed. We thought it was a dream, but now? Not so sure. John asked to have some alone time with the bug and specifically said that Jack was not supposed to hear what he had to say to the bug. We gave him his space. It was well deserved.

So this concludes (hopefully) another eventful evening for the Ussery, Jrs.

*The above picture was taken from a website, not from our bathroom sink:)

Birth Control

The following blog is written by my husband, the best daddy around. I do regret to inform you, however, that there are no pictures to serve as evidence for the following events.



It’s come to my attention that Erin’s witty banter and cute photography of our boys may have an unintended result – baby envy. If “the truth will set you free” then I feel compelled to free you up from any misconceptions that we may have created via this blog.

Just beneath the surface of those cute little smiles and big blue eyes is a crazy world of diapers, formula vomits, unexplained freak-outs, and frequent obsessions with stuffed ducks. It’s true. Our case study for “the truth about kids” could be tonight (or any other evening on a given week, or weekend). After a routine dinner of food tossing and multi-tasking for mom and dad, we determined to divide and conquer: dad takes the crazy blonde one, mom grabs little crazy-in-training. The following events are real and unimbellished. For those of you considering parenthood, consider this a warning shot across the bow.

Raw butt syndrome may not be on WebMD but dad discovered that when your little boy has “the syndrome” you can’t use baby wipes. Nope, that logic doesn’t hold. Baby wipes apparently sting and your kid just may freak out and wind up with poop (I’m sorry, couldn’t come up with an acceptible or alternative word that did the situation justice) on his hands.

Once panic sets in… you find yourself in the bathroom w/a screaming 2 year old and a general paranoia that maybe you have poop on yourself too. Just then Jack announces “pee pee” and takes a leak on the floor. Mom to the rescue… “Grab a wet hand towel and wipe him down before you put him in the tub.” All good advice, until little crazy-in-training (Finn) keeps mom humble with a shot of his own and mom gets peed on. I’m 100% convinced that they plan this stuff.

It’s a bit like Dancing with the Stars, only you’re not dancing and your partner is insanity. That’s not to say that insanity is necessarily bad. It has its perks. You’ll fall madly in love with kids that pee on you… and the floor. They’ll captivate your heart and you’ll never be the same, in a crazy fantastic sort of way. Right now, we’re just hoping we get 4 hours of uninterupted sleep tonight. (and by “we” I mean Erin)

Out and About

This past week we shed the clothes of post baby hibernation and have made multiple appearances outdoors!!!! And...to top it off, we've even made it into other townships! I have to say that we had one of the best weekends I've ever had here in the lowcountry. The weather this time of year is generally so nice and Saturday and Sunday were examples of that. Sunny, warm breezes, but not so warm that you have a sweat-stash at any point during the day. (Nevermind that the rest of the week has been raining buckets, but...even that has it's perks sometimes.) Here's the usual photo display of what we've been up to!

Last Friday we made it to the TGI 3rd Friday Street Party in downtown Bluffton. They close off the streets to cars and the little shops are open, there's vendors on the streets selling anything from jewelry to ice cream. We managed to purchase some local art for Jack's room which is really cute. And we bought some painted buoys to go with his 'water/fish/beachy' themed room. Jack and Finley took their first stroll together in their new stroller. As you can see, Jack can ride backwards on the back, or he can stand on a platform and ride facing forward. He LOVED it! Finley just slept! It was a great evening. Jack behaved, and smiled at everyone passing by, and a few people lied and told me they couldn't tell I'd just had a baby. That's the best!!!!

On Saturday we headed to Beaufort. There's a great waterside park that they've recently designed. Jack loves the playground! There are swings and open yards, picnic tables and restaurants to choose from. If you ever come this way, you gotta go to Beaufort. (The shopping is good too!) This picture is so cute of Jack and John. He loves the view from up top.

Finn took advantage of the views as you can see....

I decided to post this picture so I could tell a funny Jack story. See that he's dipping his food in ketchup? We've figured out that he's more likely to eat something if we put an action to it, like dipping. I guess he's heard us say "dip" or "dip it" so much that he refers to all condiments as "dip it." Syrup, mustard, ketchup, you name it. It's all "dip it."

Like I said earlier, it's been raining here. A lot! Starting Tuesday at some point, it hasn't stopped raining since well...now! And it's supposed to rain some more today and tomorrow. I know we need the rain, so I should be happy, but it's hard to get too excited when you have to entertain a 2 year old all day indoors. Any advice is welcome! I've thought about building another fort, but I wouldn't be able to put the precision, thought, and let's face it...perfection into it like I would want right now:) (Please see previous blog titled Fort Wars to gain some understanding on this subject.) Anyway...Jack has enjoyed his finger paints and sponge paints. He really likes to say the word "pink" and be super annunciating of the 'k' at the end.

Jack finally had enough of the picture taking so he hid from me.

Another funny Jack thing. He is constantly taking his pointer finger and feeling the little divot above his upper lip. Whenever he's playing or watching TV or generally paying attention to something, he's usually got his finger sitting on his upper lip. He also does it when he's tired or being punished. So that pretty much makes it a frequent thing. He was actually eating something in this picture, but it's close to what he looks like most of the time.

Of all the daddy duties, John really enjoys this one. He loved it when Jack was small enough to sleep on his chest, and not he has another son to do the same! Finley doesn't like this position when he's awake, but when he's drowsy, it puts him right out.

Here's John reading to the boys in the nursery. You're probably wondering what he's lying on...it's an air mattress that we've rotated ourselves on. If you want to get sleep, this is where you go because Finn has been in our room up until last night. Jack loves being read to. He'll bring books to us and say 'Open! Read it!" And we obey. Hopefully Finley will be the bookworm that his brother has turned out to be.

This picture was taken in a effort to catch the only wavy hair in this extention of the Ussery family. When Finley's hair is wet, it actually has some curl to it! Seriously, this is exciting to those whose hair looks the same rain or shine, even if they spent an hour with the curling iron. John had a little bit of curl in his hair when he was a toddler. Maybe it will stay for Finley!

Tummy time for Finley!!! He's already grown so much!

This was taken this morning after Finley's best night ever! He ate at 9:45pm, went to sleep around 11:15 and I had to wake him up at 4am to feed him. Last night was his first night in the nursery. I was sad about moving him, but we did get a video baby monitor which makes me feel better. Whenever I wake up worried about him, I can just hit the button on the monitor and there he is! It's got pretty good quality images so I can even see his little chest moving up and down. And it's got audio so we can hear him at all times, whether we're looking at him or not. It's pretty neat! Isn't he cute?????



Hope everyone is having a great Friday! Have a super weekend!!!

Brothers Don't Shake Hands...

Brothers gotta HUG! Isn't that what the late Chris Farley suggested? Well, that's what is going on in our home. Jack is 100% interested in his little brother, what he's doing, when he's eating, when he pees, when he poops. It's absolutely adorable, and we pray the positivity continues!

I'm sad to report that I'm already the typical mother of a 2nd child. I'm taking about a tenth of the amount of pictures that we took when we had Jack. However, here are a few from this past week:

Here's Finley sleeping in the swing. He spends a good portion of his day here. I would, too, if I could fit!

This is the toy that brought us through many hours of play time with Jack. He loved it, and so far, Finn has enjoyed it. Oh, and lil' Finn is already advanced. He's rolled from his tummy to his back several times. It's probably something he has no idea he's doing, but it's fun to say that he's way ahead of the game.

These next two were taken yesterday. Jack stood on his step stool to watch me give Finley his bath, but after a few seconds, Jack said "I help." and began pouring water all over him. Finley already hates his bath anyway, so what could some extra splashes hurt? Jack was so proud when he finished. He was running around yelling "Finn bath, Finn bath!!!"




Everyone is doing well. Just a little sleep deprived! John is busy with work as always, but he enjoys it! He's been a huge help with the boys. He got to feed Finley for the first time this morning, which I think was good for all of us!

Hope everyone is doing well. Stay tuned for more from the Usserys!

He's Here!!!

Finley Matthew Ussery was born on Wednesday, September 12th at 3:41am. He weighed 7lb 4 oz, was 19.5 inches and had a head full of dirty blond hair! Here are a few of the many pictures we have taken since his arrival. We'll post more later. Finley is such a sweet baby! We're both doing very well. Jack is taking very nicely to him. After a few rough encounters in the hospital, he's really come around to him since we've been home. He likes putting the pacifier in Finn's mouth and he keeps running to wherever Finley is and screams "Here he is!" as if he's been looking for him all of his life. We're so excited to have our 2nd son home with us! Thanks to everyone who prayed for a safe and healthy baby!

At home on Friday:



First Family Photo:



Leaving the hospital!

The Waiting Game

The Ussery, Jr. household is waiting in anticipation of the baby's arrival. He's due on the 22nd of this month, but may come any day! We're so excited to see who he looks like and to see what Jack thinks about him. That could get interesting....

My last day of work was last Friday, the 31st, so Jack and I had the whole week to ourselves, which was fun and entertaining. He's saying so much now! This morning when he woke up, I picked him up out of bed and he said "BUZZ!", which is his way of saying 'bugs!'. So, I searched the bed for this bug he was talking about, and luckily never found one. Maybe he dreamed it or maybe there really was a bug. We'll never know. But then this afternoon, he woke up again screaming "BUZZ! BUZZ IN BED MOMMY!" Still no bugs to be found. Maybe he's just wised up and found a way that I'll let him out of bed before his naptime should be over.

The picture below was taken last week. This is the look Jack has on his face half of the time...the look that says he's either just done something he's not supposed to or that he's about to do something he's not supposed to. A few days after this picture was taken, Jack did make a pretty terrible choice where this look would have been applicable. While I was painting some centerpieces for a church activity with Jen (my friend), we noticed that Jack and Gracen (my friend's daughter. see previous post) were awfully quiet for a few minutes. I looked under the table and saw why they were quiet. I'd be quiet too if I had opened a bottle of orange acrillic paint all over myself and was smearing it onto floor tiles! Those two were a mess! Jen bathed them, I cleaned up the mess, one of them peed on the floor after their bath....it was a circus. And again...I didn't get a picture!!!! What is wrong with me? I've got to get on the ball with these things, especially with #2 on the way!



This is what Jack does when we ask where the baby is. We don't really think he has a clue about an actual baby being in there. We think he's just confused that 'baby' equals big belly. He will kiss my stomach and poke at my belly button, which he thinks is hilarious. He enjoys his big brother books that discuss how mommy will be in the hospital and that there will be a little baby too small to play with for a while, etc. But...we know he doesn't really get it. I'm sure it won't take very long for it to sink in though!



And this is what John and I refer to as the Mickey Gaze. Jack has 2 main loves in his life right now. His duckie and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. And this is the face he has whenever he's got both of them. He actually stole a Mickey Mouse video from Target the other week. I had him in the big part of the push cart and couldn't see around a box I had placed in the small part. When we walked through the door to leave, the alarm goes off and I realize that sometime in our Target stroll, he took a Mickey Mouse dvd off of the shelf. So, he's a thief at the tender age of 2! No worries, I went back and paid for it, though. I didn't really want to get the DVD, but thought I would look less guilty if I went ahead and purchased it.



And this?....This is just Happy Jack! He's quite the crazy kiddo these days, running everywhere, climbing everything and screaming when he doesn't get his way. Right now I hear him playing with his stacking blocks, building them and tearing them down and then he'll yell "POP!" Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that head of his!


Hey...make sure you check out the new website for Colleton River, which is where John is now working. He's worked really hard on it for a long time, and his efforts have definitely paid off! It's really awesome. www.colletonriver.com

Hope to have some exciting news next time I post a blog!!!

Jack's 2nd Birthday Party

Jack celebrated his 2nd birthday, which isn't actually until the 23rd, this past Friday at Hampton Lake. He enjoyed swimming with his buddies and mostly enjoyed his cake. Go back in the blog history and take a look at his first birthday party. We've come a long way!


Here is a picture of Jack eating icing off of his birthday cake candle. He kept sticking his fingers in the cake and saying, "Wow!" His party was a Cars party, but since Hampton Lake provides so much fun already with the pool and wet deck, the Cars theme basically meant that I brought Light'ning McQueen plates and napkins. As usual, I didn't take hardly any pictures of the event. Most of the pictures I do take come from around the house activity that isn't even that exciting! Both grandparents got some pictures, so hopefully I'll have some good ones to choose from there. Jack got some great gifts, but his favorite was the Lightning McQueen Power Wheels that his grandparents, aunts and uncles got for him. I do have video of that, so maybe I can figure out how to post it soon.



On Sunday we went to Gigi and Papa Johnny's pool. Unfortunately they weren't there because they were taking Jackie to NCState! We miss you, Jackie!!!! Jack kept looking up at the upstairs windows looking for Jackie. When he couldn't find her, he kept saying, "Uh-oh!" My parents were in town for the party, and they hung out for a few days. Thanks to them, our crib is ready for baby #2. They washed and ironed all the linens and moved the mattress back up into baby position:) Thank you!!! Jack had fun at the pool on Sunday, but he hated these arm floats. We've yet to find anything that he truly trusts other than having his arms and legs wrapped completely around another person! A healthy fear is better than none at all, right?



Jack and Gracen had a pool date on Monday morning back at Gigi and Papa's house. Here they are snacking on PB & Js and Teddy Grahams. Sounds good to me!



Jack has started trying to say his ABCs. He doesn't sing the song, but he'll repeat the letters after you. Our favorite is "W", which comes out "duba-doo" and "Z" which comes out "yay!" because he knows it's the last letter and that's when we cheer. Today he started saying them on his own. He'll do a few in a row and then need a little prompting. He's getting there! We can't believe he'll be 2 on Thursday!!!

Hose Pipes and Popcicles

It doesn't get much better than your dad letting you help wash the car (i.e. letting you soak yourself with the hose) and a firecracker popcicle. Jack had such a great time the other night playing outside and finishing with his icy snack. Here's a look:



"Am I doing it right, Daddy?"

Jack makes this face whenever he gets water on himself. Even if we're washing his feet off, he's so afraid that he's going to get his face wet. It's like the face women make when applying eyeliner or mascara. Why do we do that?

This is another one of Jack's famous faces. He keeps his upper lip smashed up against his nose all the time. It's really strange, but it's funny.

It was really hot out, and the popcicle melted pretty quickly. Jack couldn't figure out where the drips were coming from that would land an inch in front of him. It was like watching a child run from his shadow. He finally gave up, sat down and let it drip all over him.


Friday and Saturday were rainy days here in Bluffton. Since Jack spent most of Friday cooped up inside, I decided we had to get out of the house on Saturday. So we went to The Sandbox, which is a children's museum on Hilton Head. Jack loved it. There was a tool station, sand pit, airplane cockpit, kitchen, climbing wall and pirate ship....all kid sized.

Of all the stations, Jack liked the kitchen the best. John and I are not good cooks, so maybe there's hope yet for Jack. At least he's showing an interest! He enjoyed taking the tops off of all the fake condiments and putting them back on. Then he'd shake 'salt' into a cup and stir it up. It's funny that knows what do to with a salt shaker because we rarely use one at home.

Jack wore the pilot outfit for about as long as it took me to snap this picture, but then I was glad because I got worried some lice infested kid had put it on before him. I checked the hat. No lice:)

Here's the cockpit where Jack could play. He liked standing on the chair and pushing all of the buttons overhead. Maybe he'll be a pilot...who can cook. Sounds like a good mix to me!

Enjoy the heat, blog readers!