Meanwhile...

Despite John's corneal infection fiasco, life has continued in our home. Maybe not as organized or calm as normal, but it's continued nonetheless.

As you can see Finn has continued to grow in size and in cuteness. His bottom two teeth have emerged, but he remains the drooler and gnawer that he was before they arrived. He's still a great baby. Loves to eat, sleep, and play. His current tricks are doing the army crawl, and pulling himself up to stand. My parents lowered the crib mattress before we had another reason to visit the hospital.

Oh, yes, and Finn's other favorite trick is toe-sucking. He's quite limber.

This picture was taken on D Day. D Day being the Darn Day that John's eye infection first roared it's ugly head. We went to the downtown festival that night and walked a while around the banks of the May River. It was beautiful!

Last week the kids performed at CBS after the lecture. If you will recall, Jack's first performance back in December did not go so well. He cried and threw himself onto the floor into a fit of sorts. This time was a little different.

Out of the 25-30 children that were on stage, mine was one of the few who didn't stand still to sing the song, but wandered back and forth, jumping on and off the stage. At one point he found this microphone that he's holding and started singing into it. Too bad it wasn't turned on.

All in all, I was pleased that he stayed up there for the most part. He did come to me a few times just to say hi, but then returned to the stage again. This time without tears!!!

Again, I get an "F" in the family photo taking department. This time I'll blame it on the lack of sleep and stress due to the eye infection. Although, we all know I just forgot. Out of the days that my parents were here with the children and the times that Papa Johnny and Gigi had them, this is the only picture I got. Maybe one day ...

This morning the boys and I went to the grocery store before the rain hit. Jack and Finn were able to share a seat for the first time which would have made for a nice grocery outing had Jack not decided that both of the steering wheels on the cart were his, and that pushing Finn's head into the side of the cart was a good way to get him to share. After threatening to take his raisins and beloved toy boat away, Jack shaped up and we indeed had a good grocery run! They were mighty cute sitting in this buggy together.

Jack was a little confused this past Thursday when we headed to Charleston. I don't know if he confused it with Chapel Hill or what, but he randomly announced: "I watch Austin play tennis!!!" When we'd try to sell him on the USS Yorktown ("big ship") or aquarium, he's say, "No. I wanna watch Austin." So, Austin, Jack may be your #1 fan!

***Fungus Among Us Update***

John just called from Charleston. The infection is bigger, which did not surprise the doctor. He said it will probably worsen a little before getting better. However, the fungus is actually a different one than what he was told before. Therefore, the drops that he has been on may not have been helping. After more scraping, another culture (this time with a cotton swab and not a razor blade, yay!!), some photos by the residents because it's "so rare", and being passed on to another corneal infections specialist, they're waiting for the lab to formulate an eye drop specific to this fungus so that it will work. PLEASE pray that this works!!!! Pray for safe travels, too. John's required to be there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. The saga continues....

Stay tuned for more pictures, updates, and information on eye fungus!

There's a Fungus Among Us

It has been a while, I know. Usually long time gaps in between blog posts can be blamed on busy schedules, traveling, lack of good pictures, etc. This one can be blamed on an eye infection.

It all started two Friday's ago, when John started having eye irritation and light sensitivity in his left eye. Two visits to his local optometrist and two different antibiotic drops later, we found ourselves driving to MUSC in Charleston at 11pm last Sunday night after being told to do so by Dr. Kerry Solomon, the corneal guru at MUSC. The pain was unbearable and John's vision had started to go in the eye, which concerned the doctor most. When we arrived at the hospital, John was seen by a resident on Dr. Solomon's team. He informed us that John would need to have cultures taken of his eye to see exactly what type of infection was present. John has since spread the word that if you're ever told that you need to have a culture taken of your eye....RUN!!!!! The doctor (who was our age) basically took these small razor blade looking things and scraped his eye with it...8 times! It was so horrible looking, but thankfully they numbed him. From there we were told to treat it as if it were bacterial, which is the most common cause of eye infections. The other cases being either viral or fungal. To treat it properly, John had to do the eye drops every 30 minutes around the clock! (He was also allowed narcotics, thank the LORD!)

After doing that for 2 days, several trips back and forth to Charleston, the eye was healing well and John's vision began to return. All good signs, right? On Thursday John returned to Dr. Solomon's office only to learn that his cultures were finally back. The infection was not bacterial, but fungal. They had to scrape his eye again to permeate the first corneal layer so that the new drops, the antifungal ones, could reach the infection. No more drops every 30 minutes, just every hour. Around the clock. Plus antibiotic drops 4 times a day. Plus no contacts for at least 6 weeks. Plus...the potential for more scraping in the near future. John's going today for his 6th trip to Charleston in 8 days. He's become 'that guy' who all the interns and residents have to check out because we've been told that fungal eye infections are pretty rare. I guess that's just one more way that John proves to be on in a million.

Everyone wants to know how he got this. From what we're told, it probably started from a small corneal scratch that could have been caused by a piece of sand, dirt, etc. in his eye. It could have been so small that he didn't even notice it. Then, fusarium, the mold that grew on his fungal culture, found it's way into his eye. It's a common mold found in dirt and on plants in the southern states that if not in your eye is harmless. But, since John is a contact wearer, the infection had perfect breeding grounds once it was covered up by his contact. We're told it's not more 'difficult' to treat than a bacterial or viral infection, but that it just takes a lot longer. We're praying that he can soon space out the drops and not have to take them during the night. Waking up every hour doesn't exactly equal a full REM sleep cycle, so he's a little tired to say the least.

Thanks to everyone for all of your prayers and phone calls. A special HUGE thanks to both of our parents, Jason, Lauren and Leslie who helped out tremendously with Jack and Finn, rides to and from Charleston and meals. We could not have survived this far without you.

Though the past 10 days have royally stunk, we absolutely realize how blessed John is to be going through something so minor compared to what a lot of other people are going through. (Although...after having a beetle perforate his ear drum late last year and now this, John is kind of a walking freak show now.) We have managed to have some funny stories emerge out of the all the eye drop administrations and eye scrapings. Despite Johnny's urgings, I refrained from taking any pictures of the eye scraping. If John didn't appreciate me posting goofy pictures from our in house date night, I doubt he would have approved of those. I also went ape on a lady at Arbys for making my sandwich wrong on the day that we found out that the infection was fungal and that more scraping was needed. We made the poor decision of taking the kids to Charleston that day, thinking we were going to receive good news and would be able to enjoy the day. Instead, I harassed the Arby's chick, John found himself yet again needing Hydrocodone and we forced both sets of parents to make really inconvenient scheduling decisions for our benefit. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

But today is another day! Hopefully we can post some awesome news on John's improvement soon!!!

Have a super day!!!

Warming Up

The weather has been warming up in the lowcountry over the past few weeks (although the past few days have been cooler setbacks...), and since the daylight lasts longer and we have babies to entertain, we've been taking the party outside.



We decided to break the 9-36 month age range on this red car ride and give 7 month old Finn a spin in it. I thought he would be way too small to sit up in it and actually enjoy it without his upper body swirling around in circles the entire time, but I was wrong. He faired quite well in the 'wed car' despite the wheelies that Jack attempted while pushing him.

Finn loved the joy ride. He kept standing up while riding and putting his hands on the wheel. It brought me back to days of riding my bicycle, and how awesome it/I felt when riding standing up. Why is that? It's really not that awesome. Finn has such a devilish grin on his face here. He may have some inner thrill issues that we'll have to address in the future.

The teething saga continues, and it's only the beginning!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! The second bottom tooth is working it's way through now. Hopefully tomorrow it will arrive safe and sound.

Finn is already so chill. He is truly a baby stud.

The older Ussery studs were busy "mowing" the yard. John said the whole time Jack was sitting in his lap he was yelling "Digger MAN!!" Digger Man is a book Jack has about a little boy who loves back hoes, frontloaders, etc. and whenever we see any piece of like machinery, he yells "Giggaman!" John was Jack's hero tonight because as he watched his dad mow the yard, he saw him transform into a real life digger man.

Here's Jack doing his shy thumb to lip move. He continues to rub his lip with his thumb whenever he feels shy or scared or is in a new situation. Whenever I asked him to smile, he seemed to get embarrassed and do this. What a funny boy.

And here's the FinnMan's latest thrill in life: JUMPING! Check it out. (Jack is in the background asking to be on the 'tamra' (camera.)

Airing out our laundry (John's turn)

During the last 4 (nearly 5) years of 'marital bliss' a number of things have evolved. If our marriage were a film, then I've undoubtedly written, directed, and starred in a romantic tragedy (with an emphasis on tragedy). And by tragedy I of course mean tacky gestures of affection such as a breakfast burrito and spanish card on Valentines, passing gas in the car and blaming one of our boys, and the occasional high five at the front end of what could have potentially been an intimate moment.

Romantic husbands quote poets or musicians with lines like: "I've got an angel, she doesn't wear any wings. She wears a heart that could melt my own. She wears a smile that can make me want to sing..." I, on the other hand, have an unfortunate tendency to announce that I have a great butt and suggest that she should grab it.

That said, in spite all of my missteps along the way... and in spite of all of my failings to even 'step' when it's apparently obvious to everyone but me that flowers are a nice gesture on mothers day... (etc) for Erin to post these (clearly distorted and photoshopped) images of me from our in-house date is nothing less than cruel and unusual punishment. I'm fairly certain that our Constitution prohibits such treatment, and in the honor of this highly partisan political season... I demand a retraction.

I'd also like to remind everyone that I did win best eyes and best dressed in high school - graduating class of 24 - word. Now that my dignity on the web has been restored I'll turn the blog back over to Erin for future posts. I'd also like for the world (or just the 10 of you who read this blog) to see what our date night really looked like.

Loco en la Cabeza

With a less than booming real estate market and a more than full daytime schedule, John and I decided to save some money while spending some time together. We had our first in house date night this week! And I have to say that it went really well. We put the kids to bed, cooked dinner together and ate without having any interruptions of ketchup finger licking or vegetable avoidance. However, after reviewing the pictures that I took of our date night, I realized that we are a really, really strange couple. Here's what we've got...

John giving me the 'A-OK' finger symbol to show that our dinner was good. For those of you interested in what we cooked...we had pecan coated orange roughy with a white wine and orange sauce, sauteed zuccini, bread and dessert. John was very helpful in the kitchen, and I think he may have enjoyed himself.

Apparently the chocolate chess pie was laced with some sort of crazy pill. I chose this dessert because John ordered it at the Angus Barn the other night, and he NEVER orders dessert or seems to care about yummy, calorie rich foods like I do. So...I found the super easy recipe online and whipped it up for him. He said it was so good that it may be better than the 5th best chocolate chess pie in the world. (Our server at the Angus Barn said their chess pie won the #5 best in the world....strangest award I've heard of in a while.)

Here's where I lost my mind and thought a picture of me lusting after the pie would be a good idea. As my friend Jen said, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife nor they huband's dessert." I broke that one for sure. It was hard to pass up a whole piece, so I settled for a bite. Or three.

So you can see why our sons are not normal, and why our photo books may be the oddest collection around. These pictures below are no different...

Jack received this sombrero as a party favor a few weeks ago at our neighbor's birthday party. I never imagined a sombrero would be so much fun! Everyone has worn it.

Jack insisted on Finn donning the hat as well. "Fen wear hat, Mommy...Fen funny!"

Jack even forced the insanity onto the only normal member of the whole bunch. Scout is the best dog in the world for putting up with our antics. As I'm sitting here typing, he's lying at my feet and making heavy sighs occasionally. I love him.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Back in Action

Yes. We're alive.

Last week the little boys and I traveled to Greensboro to see my family. We had a great time seeing everyone and hope that our next trip goes just as smoothly! Instead of posting a gazillion pictures and risking carpal tunnel from excessive scrolling, the pictures of our trip are below in the form of a slideshow. Apologies to many of you that I yet again failed to get any pictures of. My issues with photo forgetfulness continue. Next time, please remind me, because kicking myself time and time again doesn't seem to be working.


Here's how our trip went:

Sunday-Friday afternoon: Greensboro. Visits to many family members and several friends, a meeting to plan my 10 year high school reunion in 09 (I'M OLD!).

Friday afternoon-Sunday: Chapel Hill/Cary. John joined us. Jordan, Trevor, Jackie, Luke (Jackie's boyfriend), Jeff, Gigi and Papa were all there. We watched UNC/GT Baseball game, went for a Chapel Hill drive (due to the rain), watched Austin play tennis, Dinner with family, Watched UNC get mutilated by Kansas. Vomited multiple times after watching UNC's mutilation. Another baseball game. Headed home.

When we returned home, we had the great opportunity to see one of my oldest childhood buddies, Lucas Pierce, and his wife and daughter, Casey and Presley. They were visiting the Bluffton area and swung by after dinner to say hello. Jack loved Presley and had fun referring to her as 'Baby'. How endearing! She was such a little cutie and so well behaved. I shot John the "See...we COULD have a girl and not lose our minds" look several times throughout their visit. Hopefully he caught it.

Jack even shared his prized duckies with Presley which means business. He doesn't do that with anyone.

The boys were excited to return home to familiarity, Scout and their other toys.

Jack must have been a little confused with all of the short naps and confined space travel because after we got home he tried to put his underwear on outside of his shorts.....Good effort though!

Just a fun picture of Jack while playing in our bed the other night. He was hiding after I discovered how badly he destroyed the perfect pillow placement.

Finn cut his first tooth while we were gone! It's on the bottom and it's so cute!!! He loves using the sippy cup for chewing. Every once in a while he'll surprise himself with a gulp of water. He's a little unsure about it.

Hope everyone is doing well!!!!

Easter

We had a nice Easter weekend celebrating the resurrection of Jesus ("Jethuth ith AWIVE" -Jack) with family and friends. Matt and Melissa came down on Friday night. Jack and Finn enjoyed playing with them and with their dog, Fergie. We hated to see them go, and AS ALWAYS...I failed to get any pictures. I have problems. On Sunday night our small group had Easter dinner at our house. The kiddos were running wild, but the food and fellowship were awesome. (AND SO WERE THE TARHEELS!!!!!)


Here's the token family shot. If you were raised in North Carolina, then you know what is missing from this photo. ....A dogwood tree! That's right! There were no dogwoods to be found, but we did manage to get all four of us in the frame which is a miracle in itself.

Jack and Finn had matching shirts for Easter. Finn didn't seem to mind his hat at all! I knew it was silly and a little over the top, but bear with me, I don't have a daughter to accessorize. Jack's Easter outfit addition was a belt. You wouldn't have known that he had one on because within a few minutes his shirt tail was untucked.

Jack had some pancakes for Easter morning. They must have been laced with some insanity sprinkles because Jack was off the chain crazy all day yesterday! So crazy in fact, that the Easter bunny's delivery was never given to it's recipient. Sugar on top of crazy is not a smart combo.

We caught this cute moment a few days ago while John, Jack and Finn were playing in Jack's bed together. Finn is such a happy little guy.

This picture is for my mom. When Matt and I were growing up, we looked forward to 2 things at Easter: dyeing Easter eggs and mom's bunny cake. Here's my rendition of her bunny wonder. I think it turned out okay. It still looks pretty much like this but without an ear and with several finger swipes to the sides. Who do you think those are from?

One Very Full Weekend

We had a great weekend full of fun and exciting things....Lots of pictures, so here we go:
The first activity was our church's Easter Egg Hunt.  There were over 2,000 kids and over 30,000 eggs!  We had a much better time than last year considering last year Jack pitched the biggest fit of all time and he had no idea what candy was.  
He absolutely understands what candy is this year, and he hunted with the best of them.  He asked me today if we were going to 'clean up' the eggs.  I guess since 'cleaning up' at home means putting his toys in the appropriate basket, he saw the egg hunt as a big cleaning session.  With candy.  Check out his cheeks full of the gooey goodness of a Starburst.  
Here's Jack with his basketball Easter basket.  The use of it must have given the Tarheels the good fortune that they needed for the weekend!  GO HEELS!!!!  We're excited about their win yesterday and look forward to March Madness...I think.  With us being seeded #1 in our bracket, there's always that fear that we'll be the first #1 seed to lose to a #16 seed.  Oh, I hope not.  
After the Egg Hunt, we drove straight to Hampton Lake for the grand opening of Dogpaddle Park, which is the dog park in the community.  They had a K9 unit there, which was amazing to hear about how these dogs are bread and trained to sniff the stuff out that they do.  I had no idea that they train them to find just one type of thing (drugs, people, weapons...).  There was also a frisbee catching exhibition that we went to.  All of the dogs were rescued from abused homes and they could catch the junk out of a frisbee.  John and I were watching and thinking the same thing:  Scout needs to pick it up a notch.  But we love him all the same.  
On Sunday we went to the early service which put us out of church at 9:30.  So...we headed to the beach along with Jason and Lauren!  The wind was kicking, but the weather was awesome.  Jack had fun in the water before he got "too cold."  
He did his usual harassment of the birds.  He ran so much in his wet sandy bathing suit that he has the chafe marks to prove it today.  Ouch!
John had fun fishing for a while.  The fish weren't biting, but it made for some fun pictures.  

Despite the occasional wind gust that prevented Finn from breathing, he loved the beach!  I can't wait until it's a little warmer and he can get his drooly little fists into the sand.  He'll think it's great.
Gigi graciously let us borrow her camera for a while, so we were able to take some great pictures of the boys yesterday and today.  Neither one of us know what we're doing with a nice camera (or junky one for that matter), but the quality is so much better.  The fact that her camera makes this cool shutter clicking sound with each picture doesn't hurt either.  It at least makes you FEEL like you're doing something right:)
During the game yesterday I took pictures to relieve some of the stress.  I'd click a few and then scream at the television.  Fortunately the boys are used to these antics from their mother, and they went about their play as usual.  Jack is a fan of shaking the exersaucer back in forth while Finn is in it.  As much as we punish him and make him stop doing it, we'd be lying if we said Finn didn't obviously enjoy it himself.  But after the face plant into the tile last week, we're avoiding all possible brain injuries like the plague.  
John discovered that Jack made funny faces after we would blow into his face as a baby.  Well....Finley is no different.
Jack took his chalk outside today for some drawing action.  He wants to draw his letters these days.  They don't look like letters, but he'll 'draw' an A and then say, "What does THIS sound make, Mommy?" instead of 'What sound does this make?'.  He knows a lot of his letters, which thrills us that he's remotely interested in anything academic!  I'm sure it's just a phase...
You can't see it here, but we resorted to using the Rec Spec strap on the back of Jack's glasses.  We used it for the beach so he wouldn't lose them in the ocean, but after seeing that they work really well at keeping his glasses on, we may just stick with it. 
Jack grabbed the lens cloth from the camera bag and started wiping his glasses.  "Thee, Mommy? I kween my gwathes."
Finn intently studying something....
What a little cutie.....
Jack asked to take a picture, but this wasn't what he wanted to do.  I think my arms look like something reflected back in one of those carnival distortion mirrors.  Go, Go, Gadget Mommy Picture Taking Arms!!!!  Jack is clearly upset that he didn't get to push the button.  

Hope you enjoyed the montage of pictures!  

I Almost Killed Finn

Our family has survived a lot since the last posting. Finn fell from the kitchen island, which was 100% my fault and Jack had his first dental visit.


So most of you who read this have heard the Finn fall story already, but for those of you who haven't, here goes: Finn was in his carseat sitting on the kitchen island (MISTAKE NUMBER 1). I pulled the handlebar back to remove him from the carseat. In walks Jack from the garage. He's walking like he just rode a bull and is saying "I poopie on the potty?" in a fretful voice which means he actually had already pooped in his pants. I run Jack to the bathroom and leave Finn sitting there, still strapped into his carseat (MISTAKE NUMBER 2). After about 10 seconds, I hear a bang. I immediately know what the bang is, return to the kitchen to see the carseat upside down on the tile floor and Finn's chubby little legs sticking out from under it. I never would have imagined that Finn could weasle himself and the carseat over the edge of the island. Let's just say I learned it the hard way. After tears shed by all 3 of us present, an 'okay' given by our pediatrician and more self inflicted guilt trips than you dare imagine, we're piecing our lives back together. Since I have been a mother, nothing has shaken me to the core like this. I felt terrible. So why am I blogging about it? For some reason it feels like due punishment to have cyberspace and the few Ussery blog readers know what an idiotic thing it was that I did. The other reason is for all reading parents to know they should never get their kids in or out of a carseat unless it's on the ground! Lesson learned.

Finn was fine other than a busted lip and sore nose. He's 6 months old today, which is so hard to believe. I'll post his stats soon. He has his check up tomorrow.

On Monday, Jack had his first dental appointment. John and I were THRILLED to find out that his teeth do not have any cavities! Yet. We've been blessed with the horrible teeth gene and dread the day that we see our children suffering the dental drills and spit suckers on a regular basis. We are thankful that Jack loves to brush his teeth. Flossing is another story, but we try.

He did enjoy the dentist's office. There were TVs on the ceiling, one of which was playing Ratatouille. So he just chilled and watched a movie while they poked and prodded his pearly whites. Dr. Hubbard did say that his teeth are close together which indicates a future need for braces. Better add that to the list of things to start saving for!

I was folding clothes in Finn's nursery yesterday and looked over to find this cute scene. Jack and Finn were playing together! It was so cute. Finn was pulling Jack's hair and Jack was saying "Ouch" in baby talk, which was funny. He hears us talking to him that way and assumes that's what he needs to do as well. I hope the trend of brotherly love continues.

Jack is the master at messy face pictures. On this particular day he was enjoying the hazlenut/cocoa wonder of Nutella. He called it his chocolate sandwich.

Oh, and by the way.....GO HEELS!!!!