Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we stayed home and had dinner with the Usserys and Smiths. John and I were happy that we still qualified to sit at the kid table! WHOO HOO!!! We had a lot of fun catching up with everybody and trying to force feed Jack all of his food since he hates food now. He would only eat the cranberry salad, which is mostly Jello and fruit. Thanks for the recipe, Grandmom!!! On Thanksgiving night, my parents came down for the weekend which was fun.


This is Trevor, Jack's uncle. I wanted to put a picture of him on the site because he's a devoted blog comment writer. Thanks for noticing us, Trev! He got the task of carving the turkey this year. We were both surprised to see how much meat is on those birds! Amazing, really. Kind of makes me respect turkeys a little more than I used to. Which was none.


This picture was taken Thanksgiving Day. Jack wanted to tell everyone that he's thankful for his wagon, remote controls and Cheerios.



It's been a while since I posted the last butt shot. This is a butt shot in action. Jack can get into his housework a little more when he's 'free.' He's vacuuming the house with his Cookie Monster/Elmo vacuum cleaner that either says, "Ah! Me love to vacuum with you" or "Cleaning crew coming through!" Fortunately this is one toy that Jack has not found the ON button to yet.



On Saturday after Thanksgiving, my mom and I decorated the house. John and I went back and forth on do we get a tree, do we not get a tree. We're going to be out of town for Christmas and didn't want the fire hazard of a real tree being in our home over our vacation...and with having a 15 month old running around pulling all of the ornaments off it would be tough...and with Scout trying to drink the water from the bottom...etc. So, we decided on a prelit fake tree that we can use in the future in Jack's room. John and I both love real trees, but it just wasn't worth the trouble this year. (You can tell I'm still trying to convince myself we did the right thing.) Well, if you're used to only having real trees, a prelit fake one just doesn't cut it. No matter how I try to look at it, it always reminds me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree but sadder. Not only is it pretty ugly, but we can't even decorate the bottom half because of Jack's curious hands. I would put a picture of it on here, but it depresses me. So, here's Jack being tempted to yank the candles out of the window, which he's already done a few time. He'll grab the candle and stand there saying, "hot, hot, hot...."

Hope y'all are doing well!

The Tarheels play Ohio St. tonight at 9 on ESPN. GO HEELS!!!!

MIMI TURNS FIFTY!!!

On November 10th, Jack's Mimi turned 50! Can you believe it? She doesn't look that OLD, does she? Jack and I were able to make it to Greensboro to celebrate with her. We went to her surprise party with lots of our relatives. Everything went perfectly, and Mom was surprised 100%.

After the party, Mom, Dad, Matthew, Melissa, Jack and I headed to the mountains for the 2nd surprise of the weekend. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and ATV rides (as you can see). Mom even wore a helmet and risked messing her perfect hair up! Incredible! Happy Birthday, Mimi! We were thrilled to spend your big day with you!

John, Jack and I took a trip two weekends ago to Atlanta. We went to the aquarium, which was awesome. Jack loved looking at the fish, pointing to them and saying "fith" which is his version of fish. He picked out a stuffed penguin, which he originally referred to as "Bubby", but now calls "bir" for bird. I'm considering taking him to see Happy Feet, the new animated movie out. I think he'd like it, but he wouldn't be the most quiet movie goer. The above picture was taken in Jeffrey's dorm room at Georgia Tech. Jack liked sitting on his bed and throwing the whiffle ball at Jeff. Jack attempted to say 'baseball' for the first time, which came out like "bay-baw." Close. We got to see Jeffrey several times while we were there, which was great. John and I reminisced about our first dorm rooms and what we missed about college, but again...Jack brought us back to earth and reality with another blowout. I guess a college dorm is about the best place to disguise a blowout. They both stink.

Jack learned in Atlanta how to hold the phone to his head and 'talk.' He walked around most of the time with his Clifford backpack and the phone. I want to apologize if you get any strange phone calls from our home. Jack has already managed to call Gigi on speaker phone by himself, and some random lady in Delaware! AHH!!! The phone bill may come out of his piggy bank this month.

This picture was taken this morning at the beach. After StrollerFit, we headed down to Follyfield Beach with some of the gang from class. Despite the cooler temperatures, it was beautiful. The tide was out and the beach wasn't crowded except for one girl who was apparently from the north and thought 55 degrees was warm enough for her swimsuit. Jack chased the birds talking in Jackese, which is this new language he walks around speaking in. Hilarious!

Jack's New Tricks:
-Words include: Mama, Daddy, dog(gie), hi!, bird, fish, cookie, please, ball, ear, no!, keys....I'm sure there's more, but I can't remember
-Dancing. Anytime you turn on music, Jack either starts turning in circles, waving his hands, or bending his knees. He's definitely a white boy.
-Putting the phone to his ear and pretending to talk to someone.
-Pointing to his ear, hair or tongue on demand.
-Mommy: "What do you think about duke?" Jack will stick out his tongue and blow. We're working on a cheer for the Tarheels.
-Eating books. That's right! Eating them. Requires talent!
-Picking up stuffed animals, blankets, anything soft putting his face in it and saying, "Awww"
-Eating a bite of food and saying "Mmmmm!!!"

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!!

Little Shark of Horrors

This shark outfit is how we chose to torture our son this year for Halloween. The tights are how I chose to torture John. So Halloween was fun yesterday. Jack and I went to a party with StrollerFit friends. He hated wearing his costume there, probably because it was 80 degrees out. Everyone who arrived at the party when Jack did knew that he was a shark, but everyone who came after Jack had shed his shark skin wondered why he was walking around in white tights. It was pretty freaky. He had been reduced to just a boy in tights. This picture above was taken last night when Gigi and Papa Johnny came over to do the trick-or-treat thing with us. The costume lasted longer with the distraction of his glowing pumpkin and his red wagon.



We found out that either all of our neighbors love their candy or don't like children because there were only 4-5 houses (including ours) that had their lights on. We went to all of the lit houses where Jack collected candy for John and me. But he did enjoy a Milky Way or at least the wrapper!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween! Enjoy laughing at these pictures!

Contagious

This picture was taken last Tuesday night after John and I awoke to a strange sound coming from the baby monitor. It was the sound of puking. To spare you some detail, I'll just say that the amount and level of disgust was not small. This picture was taken around midnight, and we stayed this way until 4:30 am. You can see here that Jack was none too happy about his circumstances, and he clutched his Clifford backpack like it was carrying the cure to the nasty virus. However, Jack is now well. He awoke Wednesday morning with a smile and has been okay since. John and I had the misfortune of getting the same virus 2 days later. And then Jack's Gigi and Aunt Jackie caught the same virus 2 days after us. To say that the virus, which has been titled "Baby Jack" by Trevor, is a little contagious is an understatement. In fact, just by merely reading this blog, you may get it. Baby Jack may be traveling through cyber space as well. One can never be too cautious. Go disinfect yourself!


Other than puking, Jack has been up to some hair-raising tricks. Here he's at the playground. We're not sure exactly how it all started, but whenever Jack got near the slides, his hair would stand up! Static in the air or something. Maybe someone slid down the slide in a some nylon/polyester mix or something. Like I know materials (or physics for that matter). But something strange was going on.

On a side note, but still relating to clothing materials and strange happenings, a child came to work the other day and her name was Nylon. No lie. But I made the mistake of pronouncing it like it's spelled. You know, like the patented material that is Nylon. As Dwight would say, "False." And buddy, believe me I was corrected. It's Nuh-LON'. Dumb.


Now here's an outfit to remark on. This was given to Jack by Uncle Trev and Aunt Jordan shortly after Jack was born, and John and I were as happy as kids in a candy shop when we realized that it still fit him this season. We tried to complete the ensemble with the tennis racket, but all Jack wanted to to was eat it.

John, Jack and I took a trip to Barnes & Nobles last week. We were excited to find the Clifford backpack there for him, but John was a little disappointed when Jack took interest in the Disney Princess display. It's like Jack realized that this was not a natural move for him to make and he promptly went to the train set and tried to bite Choo Choo Thomas' head/smoke stack off. Atta boy.


Jack's Mimi and Pops came to visit last weekend! We all had so much fun. This picture was taken on Monday when we went to Savannah. I thought we would be clever in beating the crowd to 'Lady and Sons' (Paula Deen's restaurant) for lunch. Again, false. There was a 3 hour wait when we got there just 15 minutes after they opened! But it didn't matter. We walked River St. and the City Market and made a day of it. Thanks for visiting! See you back at Thanksgiving!

And last but not least....Jack had his first slumber party last Saturday night! Shelby spent the night while her parents cheered Clemson on at homecoming. We all had so much fun! We went to Jim and Nicks where they both played hide-n-seek behind their hands and napkins, they took a bath, they played, they had a blast! Everyone thought they were twins...again! It was so much fun.

"He's Got a New Doggy 'Do!"

...And not the 'do' you're probably thinking about. Scout has a new hair cut! Well, it's really the same style, just trimmed around the edges a bit, which makes him look like the handsome dog that he truly is. When I picked him up from the groomers the other day, the guy said he's one of the most beautiful goldens he has ever seen. He says that to all the dogs probably, but it made Scout feel good. I could tell. John and I found a fun pet boutique store here in Bluffton the other night. Sure, Scout really isn't a 'boutique-y' kind of dog, but they did have these tough chew toys for the bigger breeds, and so far...he hasn't destroyed it! If you know Scout or have ever seen him with a toy of any sort, you know what a huge accomplishment this is for all of us. Scout has been such a great companion for Jack. He'll just sit there when Jack decides to use his face as a step ladder to hoist himself onto the couch. No whimper, no growl, nothing. Scout is the man.......dog. By the way, if you didn't think the title to today's blog was fun or catchy, please sing the words to the tune of "He's got a new attitude" and maybe it will be as thrilling to you as it was to me.)



Nothing like a good butt shot. As you can see, Jack's hiney has lost some of the golf ball-ish qualities that it once had. Jack gets so excited about his bath that he screams from the time you turn the water on until the second his feet hit the water. Here I got him naked in advance because it's such a struggle to do so whenever he's squirming and flipping all over the place because of the running water. Pre nakedness is a mistake. See the glisten on the floor in the bathroom? I think the warm water and the sound of it hitting the tub made Jack's bladder a little weak if you know what I mean. And look who's on the scene to help with the clean up. Gross.





Jack is walking so well now! He's mastered the knee bend, which is huge. Now if he drops something, he can pick it up and keep going without having to fall!

Have a great day! We're off to play outside, Jack's favorite!

Dirt and Bruises

We're on a Wednesday blog kick. Just noticed that. No reason, really.

Jack is walking so well now! (The huge goose egg he got today from a cement planter in our driveway would say otherwise.) He's got some Nikes that are serving him well. Still a little unsteady when he's wearing his sneakers, but he's improving by the day. Sometimes he'll even do a power walk, you know, where it's not quite a jog. Jack is currently saying: "uh-oh", dog, doggie, cookie, please (although not in context), dada, mama, and cup. He's so much fun right now!

This past weekend, Jack and I took a trip to Greensboro. My parents kept Jack while I traveled to Winston Salem for a girl's weekend with some of my college roommates. The trip was very fun and relaxing. I managed to see most of my family in a few short days which made for a busy time. Jack traveled fairly well this time. On the way, we didn't stop at all. We blitzed it through each town and made it in 5 hours. That's a record for Jack and my bladder.

John stayed back to work. He and Scout manned the house. When I returned home, the frozen pizza stash had diminished by a sizeable amount, and the house smelled a bit like loneliness. It was good to come home and rescue them both.

Here's a photo shoot of what Jack has recently been doing:



Jack didn't seem to notice that he was a good 2 feet shorter than all of the other children playing. Nor did he seem to care that he was only wearing socks that ended up grass stained and soaked. It was our first of many million grass stains for sure. If the first haircut didn't confirm it, Jack is now a real boy. He's had grass stains!



This was just a cute picture of Jack at Sippin' Cow Cafe on the Reed/Ussery Women/Children's Luncheon that's held every Tuesday. Aren't his cheeks cute? It's like you could draw circles around them, they're so chunky!



This is Jack after a good nap. Meaning one where he doesn't wake up screaming. John and I can't figure out why, but Jack wakes up from most of his naps screaming bloody murder. Not a 'get me out, I'm bored' cry, but a "GET ME OUT BEFORE I CLAW THIS CRIB TO PIECES!!!!" cry. Any advice/tips on that one would be appreciated.



This picture was taken the day after UNC was brutally defeated by clemson. After this quick lesson here in our driveway, John and I agreed that he had enough talent to actually play for the Tarheels this year. We're certain of it. Oh, heck, GO TARHEELS!!!! You're still our #1 team! FOREVER!!!



This isn't Jack's best side, but this particular night, it was his funny side. We went to eat with the Alberts at Crazy Crab, and they conveniently have a playground at the restaurant. After dinner, Jack and Neely played while we were all talking. I noticed a little too late where Jack was throwing all of the sand. He was putting handful after handful of sand down the back of his shirt. It wasn't the beach sand that you can brush off. It was more of the dirt/sand that leaves a nice dusty, orange film on your body after trying to brush it off. We've discovered boys and dirt just go together.

Hope you're all doing well!

Tree Frogs are Silly

Rumor has it that several of the faithful blog readers have been logging in daily to see if there's a picture of Jack's new do from the front. So here are several! He looks stellar from every angle, eh? This picture was taken at Dolphin Head park, which is in Hilton Head Plantation. This park makes most parks look silly. (By the way, 'silly' is my new substitute for 'stupid.' As much as we try to get Jack to say new things, I'd hate for him to burst out with that word.) Dolphin Head has about the best view from a park that I've ever seen. There are swings, which Jack loves, and there are slides, which Jack is petrified of. Go figure.


Here is Jack trying to bail from my grasp. I'm trying my best to keep his hands out of the bird poop that is splattered all over the fence. I know, I know...overprotective mom.:)

Little does Jack know that there is a big, bad, scary, slide behind him! Otherwise, he would not be looking has happy as he looks here. If you look closely, you can see the cluster of mosquito bites on the right side of Jack's head. For whatever reason, they all decided to gang up on his forehead. No, Mr. Chavez, you silly head, mosquitoes are the devil. Not George Bush!

I have come to really enjoy living here in the 'lowcountry', but the wildlife and insects are getting to be ridiculous. Jack and I daily battle the nature! We can't play in the yard because of the 5 deadliest snakes in the UNIVERSE who potentially are sharing our lawn (but mostly because of a certain golden retriever's excrement). We can't throw rocks in the water because of the 19 foot alligator that may be lurking beneath (or because the Property Owner's Association will fine us). Forget walking at anytime when the temperature is not above 85 because we may die of malaria from the silly mosquitoes that live here. Not to mention we just had the 3rd episode of a tree frog being in our HOME. Tree frogs are calculating creatures! They stick to your windows until you let your dog out to walk, and just when you think you've dodged one from landing on your head (or FACE!!!) they fling their gooey bodies into your home, hopping frantically around like they own the place. If you're lucky, you catch them then. If not....they probably hang out, mate in your bathtub, and then watch you in your sleep. Imagine going about your own housework, lifting the lid to the guest bath toilet and finding a TREE FROG staring you in the face. Or ask Jordan how she felt when she was shampooing her hair and the next thing she knows there's a tree frog in the shower with her.

I hate tree frogs.



On to why you SHOULD move to the beautiful state of South Carolina and purchase a lovely home from my husband....Jack, John and I enjoyed an awesome afternoon on the beach last Saturday. The weather was perfect, the sky was blue, and despite nap refusal, Jack was in an incredible mood. He loved playing in the sand and water. He's getting more daring by crawling or walking straight into the ocean.

Jack and Shelby went on a date last Friday to the TGI3rd Friday festival in downtown Bluffton. They have food vendors, bands, skits, and all sorts of fun stuff for the families of Bluffton. Several folks passed by the two kiddos and were saying, "Look at the twins!" So, yes, despite the bugs and critters, Bluffton is a cool place to live.

Sorry it's been a week since the last post. The Blogger website is on my bad list these days. I'm having trouble posting pictures, so bear with us! Hope you're all doing well!

Cut the Mullet

As you can see, Jack thoroughly enjoyed his first visit to the hair salon today. That's right...a salon, not a barber shop. I'm not sure where to find one around here. We finally decided to cut the nasty mullet that had naturally grown onto his cute little head. When we walked into Tara's (the salon), one of the sylists who had apparently heard about Jack's hair predicament said, "Wow, he really does have a mullet!" Thanks to a great stylist, Danielle, a fistful of graham crackers, some combs and a bottle, Jack managed to survive the experience. Now he looks like a little boy, not a baby redneck.




Here's a nice side angle of the mullet, a "before" picture. Don't you like how the hair in the back is draped over his tiger smock? The second picture isn't the best angle, but it's the most detailed of the new do. Doesn't he look fabulous? Thanks, Jamie, for taking the pictures! Jamie Payne was here to witness the death of the mullet. A true milestone for sure.

Everyone is doing well here. Jack is walking more and more each day. John's working, and I'm being Mom. Hope you're all doing well!

Mt. Gilead (Gi'-yid)

John, Jack and I took a fun trip this weekend to Lake Tillery! For those of you who don't know where that is (which may be most of you), Lake Tillery is located in Mt. Gilead. Okay, so that probably doesn't help much either....Mt. Gilead is a small town in North Carolina. It's close to Albemarle, the home of Kellie Pickler, for you American Idol fans out there, and about an hour from Charlotte. John's parents grew up in Mt. Gilead. He has relatives that still live there, but unfortunately they were out of town so we couldn't visit:(

On Saturday night, Brian and Jenny Fox joined us for some relaxation and water sports. Brian, John and I attempted the Air Chair. I don't think I lasted more than 5 seconds on any of my attempts. The nice wipe out picture is of Brian. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of John, the Air Chair master of the day. Jenny, Jack and I went for a float in the lake. It was so nice to swim/float without the fear of jelly fish or sharks (or stingrays, poor Steve Irwin!) Scout obviously took part in the swimming as well. He fetched a football over and over, and whenever we left him inside, he would cry to be let out. He loves the lake. Scout is currently experiencing post-lake depression.

After Brian and Jenny left, John and I took a little venture around the town. We stopped at the local playground, which was incredible. John's uncle, Jack Jordan, had it built there for the kiddos to enjoy. The castle like picture above is it. Jack enjoyed the swings, as always, and we managed to take one run down the slide. We then found John's grandmother's farm house which is on John Ussery Rd.! How neat. John and I briefly thought about stealing it, but then decided that we didn't want to spend the night in the Montgomery Co. jail house. And we didn't think stealing was a good lesson for Jack to learn. Not at this age, anyway:)

Hope yall had a fun Labor Day weekend!!!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, JACK!!!!

50 Cent's (pronounced 'Fiddy Sent') lyric, "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" may have a lot more meaning to you after seeing this picture. Jack turned one on Wednesday the 23rd. Incredible! John and I are in shock at how quickly the last year passed. One day we're picking out cribs and carseats. The next day we're playing rock-paper-scissors to see who has to change a blowout diaper. The stuff in between is just a blur. But a good blur. Jack has been the greatest joy to us. We are amazed daily at our love for him and how cool, funny, adorable, sweet, feisty, and wonderful he is. Thank you, Lord, for blessing us and so many others with our son. We're undeserving but eternally grateful!

Jack celebrated his birthday with family and friends. On Saturday, he had a party at Berkeley Hall with a lot of his StrollerFit friends and a few others. My parents were able to make it, along with my brother, Matt, and sister-in-law, Melissa. Jordan, Jackie and Trevor came, too. It was so much fun! The room was packed full of little children, crawling, walking and lying around. There was a lot of sippy cup sharing going on which probably accounts for half of our StrollerFit class being sick right now. Oops. Sorry guys! Jack got so many awesome presents. Thank you everyone. Some of his favorites are his red wagon and his John Deere hayride. He obviously enjoyed the cake experience. Well...we actually enjoyed it more than he did. Jack never took a bite of the cake. He just played in it. He played so hard, in fact, that John had to take him to the showers mid-party to clean up. The coloring came out, but it took several baths to get the grease out of his hair. Jack not only discovered icing that weekend, but he discovered his nose and booger eating as well. It was a birthday present to himself.

On Jack's actual birthday, we went to Gigi and Papa Johnny's house for supper and another party! They were unable to make it to Jack's Saturday party because of moving Jeffrey to college. After dinner, Jack had his 2nd cake experience, which was thankfully mild compared to the first. Several of their family friends came over to witness the event and to sing to him. It was so much fun and so nice of everyone to come! Thank you!

Jack's birthday events were a lot of fun and a lot of excitement. We look forward to many more parties! We just dread how quickly they'll get here:( Here are some pictures from the festivities: