Here's Finn's latest move.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Really Long Post
This is a posting of epic proportions. Just giving that to you up front. Considering this blog is written with the grandparents and other family members in mind, we'll understand if the rest of you just skip the headings and get to the good stuff. Hooray for pictures AND video in this posting!
We'll start in Atlanta. Two weekends ago we headed north for a chance of scenery. Jordan and Trevor were coming to town so we couldn't pass up a chance to see them! The 4 of us, 2 of them and Gigi and Poppy Johnny all packed it into the condo (or "Congo" as Jack referred to it) for one rainy, fun weekend. We watched lots of basketball and had lots of laughs with the boys. And no, even though the ACC tournament was in town, we didn't make it to any of the games. Turns out we didn't miss much anyway.
On Friday John and I took the boys to ImagineIt, Atlanta's children's museum. Jack had the most fun with this thing. He could use a pulley system to pick up balls and then release them into a bin. Or dump them on passerby.
Poppy Johnny snuck in some snuggles with Finn. I think everyone had fun being with the boys from start to finish for a few days. (Right, crew?)
On Saturday we ventured to the Georgia Aquarium. If you've never been, you have to make a trip. This place is incredible. Jack and Finn both enjoyed it, and the adults all slept better that night knowing how to distinguish a male beluga whale from a female beluga whale. (The males have curved dorsal fins for all you geeks out there.)
Finn perfected his family identification over the weekend. He can clearly say both of their names now, which is precious.
Here's the Ussery/Smith gang sans Johnny in the congo.
One more aquarium pic. Little rubberneckers. At one point Jack asked if the sharks were going to eat him.
It was sad to leave, as it is everytime we're leaving fun and family behind. But it doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing, the boys never cease to crack us up. This is Finn's latest funny face. He reminds me of one of those Christmas caroler decorations with the painted faces you see during the holidays.
This past Saturday was perhaps the busiest I've ever had as a mama. It began with soccer at 8:45 on the island. If you're not from around here you have to understand that going to the island for anything is compared to driving to Canada. At least we talk about it like it's the same. But really it's only about a 5 minute drive to get to the bridge and then only 10 more minutes to get to the soccer fields. But our kids sleep til around 8, which poses some problems with getting dressed, fed and out the door in 30 minutes. But we did it! Jack had his first soccer "game" (which was more of a field full of children with some soccer balls lying around.) HILARIOUS! Here's a cute picture of Finn who, as usual, wanted part of the action.
And here is the future Beckham. Jack was really into dribbling and scoring. He was not into the idea of sharing his ball with anyone, which is good in theory, but not when you're unwilling to earn the ball and instead, you want everyone to have their own ball. He insisted on wearing his shin guards even though they did not need them.
It really doesn't get much better than this for us. Our son, playing a sport, wearing his UNC gear and getting excited about all of it. John and I kept saying "I can't believe we have a child old enough to take to his soccer practice." It was a fun day for us. A first sports day of thousands I hope.
After soccer we went to our first birthday party of the day. Our next door neighbor turned 4 and he had the cutest pirate party ever. My pictures did not turn out so well, but both boys had a blast. Then we attended a 2nd birthday party at 3pm. Finn only napped 45 minutes on the way to the 2nd party. No nap for Jack. You can understand why I felt like the bus driver from the movie Speed, the movie where there was a bomb under the city bus, remember? At any moment, our little happy Saturday full of soccer, sugar and ice cream could blow up into a nasty preschool ball of fury.
The 2nd party of the day was for Wyatt, one of Jack's buddies. He had a great party, too! It was super hero themed. Wyatt was kind enough to let Jack borrow his Batman costume. And boy, did he work it! Here he is peering at me from his bat cave...er, bounce house.
And here...is BATMAN!!!! Jack felt so awesome in this costume. His chest was literally puffed out and he kept patting his chest like this. He probably thought it was his own party.
Jack was stoked to see Mr. Incredible in attendance. They quickly kicked it into Make Believe high gear. There were several attempts to "rescue" the girls from the bounce house and Jack would only refer to this boy as Mr. Incredible despite knowing his real name. Later that night, Jack informed me that "all of my things are amazing." I asked him where he learned that word. Mr. Incredible of course!
The Bat Mobile!
After the birthday parties ended, we headed to church on Saturday night and then to dinner with friends. We crashed fast and hard when we got home, but thankfully everyone slept in until 9 on Sunday!!! Hallelujah!
John was off on Sunday, so we had the rare opportunity of a full family day. John decided we should go to Hunting Island, which was a great plan. It was beautiful! Finn had fun digging in the sand...
Jack had fun attempting to scoop up water into his bucket (although this picture would not lead you to believe that he was having fun).
We found another similarity between our sons. They are both into bird chasing. Just after this picture Finn took off like a mad man towards these birds. We asked Jack what he would do if he caught one. "I'd just pet him."
Someone is turning into a Daddy's boy I believe...
Jack found this driftwood, put it to his head and said, "Look, I'm Rudolph!"
And not to be outdone....
Last but not least, the videos! We went into Beaufort for lunch after leaving Hunting Island. There was a small grassy area where some children were playing. Jack decided he wanted to join them. He ran straight up to them and thought that introductions were not as needed as showing them how quickly you can run in circles. It must have won their attention (or sympathy) because he ended up taking these children to another area of the yard to look at boats together. We were laughing to see how hysterical our oldest boy is, and how he's not lacking in personality one bit. Enjoy!
We'll start in Atlanta. Two weekends ago we headed north for a chance of scenery. Jordan and Trevor were coming to town so we couldn't pass up a chance to see them! The 4 of us, 2 of them and Gigi and Poppy Johnny all packed it into the condo (or "Congo" as Jack referred to it) for one rainy, fun weekend. We watched lots of basketball and had lots of laughs with the boys. And no, even though the ACC tournament was in town, we didn't make it to any of the games. Turns out we didn't miss much anyway.
On Friday John and I took the boys to ImagineIt, Atlanta's children's museum. Jack had the most fun with this thing. He could use a pulley system to pick up balls and then release them into a bin. Or dump them on passerby.
Poppy Johnny snuck in some snuggles with Finn. I think everyone had fun being with the boys from start to finish for a few days. (Right, crew?)
On Saturday we ventured to the Georgia Aquarium. If you've never been, you have to make a trip. This place is incredible. Jack and Finn both enjoyed it, and the adults all slept better that night knowing how to distinguish a male beluga whale from a female beluga whale. (The males have curved dorsal fins for all you geeks out there.)
Finn perfected his family identification over the weekend. He can clearly say both of their names now, which is precious.
Here's the Ussery/Smith gang sans Johnny in the congo.
One more aquarium pic. Little rubberneckers. At one point Jack asked if the sharks were going to eat him.
It was sad to leave, as it is everytime we're leaving fun and family behind. But it doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing, the boys never cease to crack us up. This is Finn's latest funny face. He reminds me of one of those Christmas caroler decorations with the painted faces you see during the holidays.
This past Saturday was perhaps the busiest I've ever had as a mama. It began with soccer at 8:45 on the island. If you're not from around here you have to understand that going to the island for anything is compared to driving to Canada. At least we talk about it like it's the same. But really it's only about a 5 minute drive to get to the bridge and then only 10 more minutes to get to the soccer fields. But our kids sleep til around 8, which poses some problems with getting dressed, fed and out the door in 30 minutes. But we did it! Jack had his first soccer "game" (which was more of a field full of children with some soccer balls lying around.) HILARIOUS! Here's a cute picture of Finn who, as usual, wanted part of the action.
And here is the future Beckham. Jack was really into dribbling and scoring. He was not into the idea of sharing his ball with anyone, which is good in theory, but not when you're unwilling to earn the ball and instead, you want everyone to have their own ball. He insisted on wearing his shin guards even though they did not need them.
It really doesn't get much better than this for us. Our son, playing a sport, wearing his UNC gear and getting excited about all of it. John and I kept saying "I can't believe we have a child old enough to take to his soccer practice." It was a fun day for us. A first sports day of thousands I hope.
After soccer we went to our first birthday party of the day. Our next door neighbor turned 4 and he had the cutest pirate party ever. My pictures did not turn out so well, but both boys had a blast. Then we attended a 2nd birthday party at 3pm. Finn only napped 45 minutes on the way to the 2nd party. No nap for Jack. You can understand why I felt like the bus driver from the movie Speed, the movie where there was a bomb under the city bus, remember? At any moment, our little happy Saturday full of soccer, sugar and ice cream could blow up into a nasty preschool ball of fury.
The 2nd party of the day was for Wyatt, one of Jack's buddies. He had a great party, too! It was super hero themed. Wyatt was kind enough to let Jack borrow his Batman costume. And boy, did he work it! Here he is peering at me from his bat cave...er, bounce house.
And here...is BATMAN!!!! Jack felt so awesome in this costume. His chest was literally puffed out and he kept patting his chest like this. He probably thought it was his own party.
Jack was stoked to see Mr. Incredible in attendance. They quickly kicked it into Make Believe high gear. There were several attempts to "rescue" the girls from the bounce house and Jack would only refer to this boy as Mr. Incredible despite knowing his real name. Later that night, Jack informed me that "all of my things are amazing." I asked him where he learned that word. Mr. Incredible of course!
The Bat Mobile!
After the birthday parties ended, we headed to church on Saturday night and then to dinner with friends. We crashed fast and hard when we got home, but thankfully everyone slept in until 9 on Sunday!!! Hallelujah!
John was off on Sunday, so we had the rare opportunity of a full family day. John decided we should go to Hunting Island, which was a great plan. It was beautiful! Finn had fun digging in the sand...
Jack had fun attempting to scoop up water into his bucket (although this picture would not lead you to believe that he was having fun).
We found another similarity between our sons. They are both into bird chasing. Just after this picture Finn took off like a mad man towards these birds. We asked Jack what he would do if he caught one. "I'd just pet him."
Someone is turning into a Daddy's boy I believe...
Jack found this driftwood, put it to his head and said, "Look, I'm Rudolph!"
And not to be outdone....
Last but not least, the videos! We went into Beaufort for lunch after leaving Hunting Island. There was a small grassy area where some children were playing. Jack decided he wanted to join them. He ran straight up to them and thought that introductions were not as needed as showing them how quickly you can run in circles. It must have won their attention (or sympathy) because he ended up taking these children to another area of the yard to look at boats together. We were laughing to see how hysterical our oldest boy is, and how he's not lacking in personality one bit. Enjoy!
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Because
It’s the answer that your average 8 year old boy will give in response to any number of questions. “Jimmy. Why did you cut your sisters hair and super glue it to the cat?” or “Kenneth. Why did you turn your underwear into a headband, paint your face blue, and force your brother to eat a worm?” Standard 8 year old answer: “I don’t know. BECAUSE.”
The thing is… it’s true. He probably doesn’t have a reason at all. It was just something interesting to do. Sadly, 21 years later our reasons (or lack thereof) haven’t changed much. We try to provide context for our odd decisions, and build value in their social or economic benefit(s)… but more often than we’d like to admit, it’s “just because.” So rather than conjure up some deep meaning for our weekend trip to Cumberland Island in South Georgia, I’ll just shoot straight. During our 3 days and 2 nights on the island we did very little that will provide any social or economic benefit to society at large or our families. We went, “just because” and it was awesome! Huge thanks to Erin, Lauren, and Laura Leigh for being so cool with our wholly unproductive man-weekend. It meant/means a lot to us.
Some photos.
Thank God the anchor held at night.
It looks like a camper’s paradise, until the rabid raccoons stalk you and your food. Seriously. Seth said it well when he noted that those things are like the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park (part 1), communicating and coordinating their attack.
Seth & Jason follow directions. Not even sure where to start with this one…
Wild Horses: As a side note, it’s a super awkward experience to be taking a midnight leak in 30 degree weather when your headlamp picks up a 1200 pound quadruped staring at you from 15 ft away. I definitely would have peed my pants if I hadn’t already been... well, you know.
In short, it was a great weekend of laughing, relaxing, fishing, exploring, and just being guys. No good reason. Just because.
The thing is… it’s true. He probably doesn’t have a reason at all. It was just something interesting to do. Sadly, 21 years later our reasons (or lack thereof) haven’t changed much. We try to provide context for our odd decisions, and build value in their social or economic benefit(s)… but more often than we’d like to admit, it’s “just because.” So rather than conjure up some deep meaning for our weekend trip to Cumberland Island in South Georgia, I’ll just shoot straight. During our 3 days and 2 nights on the island we did very little that will provide any social or economic benefit to society at large or our families. We went, “just because” and it was awesome! Huge thanks to Erin, Lauren, and Laura Leigh for being so cool with our wholly unproductive man-weekend. It meant/means a lot to us.
Some photos.
Thank God the anchor held at night.
It looks like a camper’s paradise, until the rabid raccoons stalk you and your food. Seriously. Seth said it well when he noted that those things are like the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park (part 1), communicating and coordinating their attack.
Seth & Jason follow directions. Not even sure where to start with this one…
Wild Horses: As a side note, it’s a super awkward experience to be taking a midnight leak in 30 degree weather when your headlamp picks up a 1200 pound quadruped staring at you from 15 ft away. I definitely would have peed my pants if I hadn’t already been... well, you know.
In short, it was a great weekend of laughing, relaxing, fishing, exploring, and just being guys. No good reason. Just because.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
The Ussereeds
If it were appropriate, or normal, for everyday families like ours to have blended names like celebrity couples do, we would have been the Ussereeds last Tuesday! The Reeds had us and the Weavers over for a fun family night. Jack was so excited about going to Shelby's house that he couldn't fall asleep for his nap. Or maybe that's my wishful thinking....I think he's on the verge of dropping his nap, which is so frightening.
Here's the little gang at the kid table eating their kid food (which looked good to me!). Notice the Reed children actually eating their food. We had to pull every trick out of the Eating Coercion Bag that night..."Firemen eat peas!" "You can be big like Daddy if you eat." "No playing until you eat your hotdog." Seriously, can you imagine someone having to strong arm you to eat a hotdog? Or take a nap?
Jack and Shelby posed for a moment. They enjoy hugging one another.
Finn stuck his finger in a light socket while we were there. It was so scary! Just kidding....Jack and Finn got their hair cut earlier that day. Their toddler stylist knows how to get a laugh out of everyone. After the cut she gives them "crazy hair", which means a faux hawk for Jack and really messy hair for Finn. They howl at themselves. Jack's faux hawk fell, but Finn's crazy hair was still rockin' by dinnertime.
I think JP liked his mac n' cheese. Check out this messy eater pic. And check out those curls! What a handsome little man. Thanks, Reed fam, for a fun evening!!!
Here's our pooch. Yes, Scout is still alive. He's still the only child that's allowed to sleep in our bed. This picture was taken last Thursday after our fetching time. I wish I could say he could catch a frisbee like the pugs next door can, but alas, he cannot. He's just content, I suppose, on being beautiful. Apparently our ex-next door neighbor who's looking to rent out the house he used to live in is not so in love with our precious Scout. After a rather hilarious encounter with this man, a retiree, he informed me that Scout leaves "gifts" in his yard on a frequent basis. I politely told him that no, Scout is not allowed in his yard and that on the very infrequent occasion that he does deliver a "gift", that we quickly transport it to another location. This did not satisfy our neighbor. He then compared the size of the gifts left to the size of the dogs that live nearby and said he KNEW it was Scout. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry that this is what I have to look forward to when I have more time on my hands. Maybe I, too, can become a turd expert. Er..."gift" expert.
The boys are showing their true Ussery blood. Here they've created their own circuit training exercise. A little push ups, a little sit ups, some running in circles and finish it off with some bed jumping. They love this Iron Gym thing. It hangs in the doorway and they can do pull ups on it. I'm trying to increase Finn's time on the Flexed Arm Hang, but we're only at about 3 seconds. That would not win him the Presidential Fitness Award. Do any of you NC public schoolers know what I'm talking about? A little V Sit anyone?
Yesterday I got the trains out. This can mean one of two things: 1. I really want to play constructively with the boys and have fun with them or 2. I need them distracted from whatever is taking place in the house at that moment. Yesterday was a reason #2 day. I was distracting them from the heating repair man who was there for the 4th time in 6 weeks. We woke up yesterday to our home being a frigid 59 degrees. Poor Finn was moaning in his crib when he woke up. But, Jeremiah (yes, we're on a first name basis now) fixed the heater, and we were warm as toast last night.
Stay tuned for John's blog about his recent camping trip to Cumberland Island....
Here's the little gang at the kid table eating their kid food (which looked good to me!). Notice the Reed children actually eating their food. We had to pull every trick out of the Eating Coercion Bag that night..."Firemen eat peas!" "You can be big like Daddy if you eat." "No playing until you eat your hotdog." Seriously, can you imagine someone having to strong arm you to eat a hotdog? Or take a nap?
Jack and Shelby posed for a moment. They enjoy hugging one another.
Finn stuck his finger in a light socket while we were there. It was so scary! Just kidding....Jack and Finn got their hair cut earlier that day. Their toddler stylist knows how to get a laugh out of everyone. After the cut she gives them "crazy hair", which means a faux hawk for Jack and really messy hair for Finn. They howl at themselves. Jack's faux hawk fell, but Finn's crazy hair was still rockin' by dinnertime.
I think JP liked his mac n' cheese. Check out this messy eater pic. And check out those curls! What a handsome little man. Thanks, Reed fam, for a fun evening!!!
Here's our pooch. Yes, Scout is still alive. He's still the only child that's allowed to sleep in our bed. This picture was taken last Thursday after our fetching time. I wish I could say he could catch a frisbee like the pugs next door can, but alas, he cannot. He's just content, I suppose, on being beautiful. Apparently our ex-next door neighbor who's looking to rent out the house he used to live in is not so in love with our precious Scout. After a rather hilarious encounter with this man, a retiree, he informed me that Scout leaves "gifts" in his yard on a frequent basis. I politely told him that no, Scout is not allowed in his yard and that on the very infrequent occasion that he does deliver a "gift", that we quickly transport it to another location. This did not satisfy our neighbor. He then compared the size of the gifts left to the size of the dogs that live nearby and said he KNEW it was Scout. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry that this is what I have to look forward to when I have more time on my hands. Maybe I, too, can become a turd expert. Er..."gift" expert.
The boys are showing their true Ussery blood. Here they've created their own circuit training exercise. A little push ups, a little sit ups, some running in circles and finish it off with some bed jumping. They love this Iron Gym thing. It hangs in the doorway and they can do pull ups on it. I'm trying to increase Finn's time on the Flexed Arm Hang, but we're only at about 3 seconds. That would not win him the Presidential Fitness Award. Do any of you NC public schoolers know what I'm talking about? A little V Sit anyone?
Yesterday I got the trains out. This can mean one of two things: 1. I really want to play constructively with the boys and have fun with them or 2. I need them distracted from whatever is taking place in the house at that moment. Yesterday was a reason #2 day. I was distracting them from the heating repair man who was there for the 4th time in 6 weeks. We woke up yesterday to our home being a frigid 59 degrees. Poor Finn was moaning in his crib when he woke up. But, Jeremiah (yes, we're on a first name basis now) fixed the heater, and we were warm as toast last night.
Stay tuned for John's blog about his recent camping trip to Cumberland Island....
Sunday, February 15, 2009
We Live in a Beautiful Place
John had an awesome idea the other night of going to South Beach to hang out and watch the sunset. We loaded up the kids, paid our $5 to get into Sea Pines (ugh) and trekked it to the sandy beaches. This is about the longest drive we could make to go to the beach, but since it's on the backside of the island, we got to see an amazing sunset. Check it out...
Jack and Finn were so excited to go to the beach. Finn was not a huge fan of walking on the sand at first, but he warmed up to it. Jack on the other hand, stripped down naked without us realizing it when we made it to the end of the boardwalk. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was going in the water. It was warm that day, but not that warm. So, on went the clothes again.
Finn enjoyed watching a group of kite surfers. There were 3 or 4 of them out there, along with a handful of other sunset watching groups. One couple told us that they come out every night to see the sunset. They've lived here for 11 years and only miss it when it rains. How cool is that?
This mini trip to the shore got me all excited about the summer. Last year Finn couldn't walk and he was a little afraid of the ocean. This year will be much different. We're hoping to get Jack into some swim lessons.
I love this picture. Jack was curious about the kite surfers as well. I think he thought they were walking on the water.
Here's one of the surfers. He's not on the water, but on a board with wheels. It looked like a funky skateboard of sorts. Being the competitors that we are, we all wanted a go at it ourselves.
Beautiful ending to a beautiful day!
It got better....We left the beach and had a blast at dinner with Papa Johnny and Gigi. We went to a local Gullah restaurant and had some great food and entertainment. The boys were the entertainment of course.
Have a great week everyone!
Jack and Finn were so excited to go to the beach. Finn was not a huge fan of walking on the sand at first, but he warmed up to it. Jack on the other hand, stripped down naked without us realizing it when we made it to the end of the boardwalk. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was going in the water. It was warm that day, but not that warm. So, on went the clothes again.
Finn enjoyed watching a group of kite surfers. There were 3 or 4 of them out there, along with a handful of other sunset watching groups. One couple told us that they come out every night to see the sunset. They've lived here for 11 years and only miss it when it rains. How cool is that?
This mini trip to the shore got me all excited about the summer. Last year Finn couldn't walk and he was a little afraid of the ocean. This year will be much different. We're hoping to get Jack into some swim lessons.
I love this picture. Jack was curious about the kite surfers as well. I think he thought they were walking on the water.
Here's one of the surfers. He's not on the water, but on a board with wheels. It looked like a funky skateboard of sorts. Being the competitors that we are, we all wanted a go at it ourselves.
Beautiful ending to a beautiful day!
It got better....We left the beach and had a blast at dinner with Papa Johnny and Gigi. We went to a local Gullah restaurant and had some great food and entertainment. The boys were the entertainment of course.
Have a great week everyone!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
We Got Out of Dodge
Sometimes you just need to get outta dodge. That's what we did last Friday. The boys and I loaded up the Denton crew and headed over the "big, big bridge" to Savannah. Afterall, it is our new favorite wandering spot. The trip wasn't perfect to say the least, but since that didn't seem bother any of us, you could assume we needed the little getaway pretty badly. We had a difficult time finding parking and finally surrendered to a parking garage. After parking on the 6th floor, unloading the kids and passing out Ritz crackers to the masses, we discovered that the elevator wasn't working. Unpack the younger kids from their strollers, convince the older ones that the stairs are FUN, and there we went, dragging our strollers and our children down 6 flights of stairs. Jack and Gracen were crying because the rails were too cold to touch. It was hilarious and maddening all at the same time. We hit the streets in search of lunch only to get the "Sure, you can eat here if you're willing to wait 2 hours" talk from Paula Deen's restaurant. No thanks. Fuddruckers here we come. The kids screamed the entire time, but the food was good, we didn't have to clean anything up and it was a change of scenery. Thank you, Lord, for options!
Onto our next hunt: cupcakes! If you didn't know already, cupcakes can change your life. Or your day. And that's what they did for us last Friday afternoon. What started off as a series of unfortunate events turned into a sugar high bliss. We entered the doors of Mabel's Cupcake Emporium (Yes, "you want to go to there"-Liz Lemmon), and everything got happier. See?
The kids were sticky from head to toe, but it was worth their good moods, the photo opportunities and the bystanders' comments on what cute children we had and what fun parents we were. Little did they know our inner OCD, clutter/mess-hating personalities were screaming on the inside, counting down the seconds until we could whip out our wet wipes like a gun at a western shoot out.
Gracen and Jack were all smiles as soon as they entered the gluten/sugar/trans fat haven that is Mabel's Cupcake Emporium. Jack gave it his thumbs up approval. That's equivalent to a 5 star hotel rating or a 4 star movie review.
Jen and I gave the parking garage attendants a thumbs up approval as well for ending our little excursion on such a high note. One of them retrieved the car for us so we didn't have to make the 6 floor trek in the uglier direction. How does that country song go, "there are angels among us?" If you're in need of meeting any, there are 2 that work at the parking deck on the corner of Drayton and Congress in downtown Savannah, GA.
John is a great dad. I was gone the other morning for a little bit and I returned to him playing with the boys in the driveway. It's nothing super special or out of the ordinary, but it's what I love about coming home whenever I'm gone. My four men! (counting Scout)
Remember those magazines called Highlights that were in every doctor and dentist office in the country? (Do they still publish that?) Well they had a game called hidden pictures in every volume where there were ...guess what...hidden pictures in one busy looking scene. Wait...I just realized that this illustration is not going to work, but I really want to leave my shout out to Highlights in here, so I'm going to move on. Anyway, you'll notice that something is missing (not hidden) in the following picture. If you're having a hard time, here are some clues....Vision....Crossed Eyes....Lenses....Rims....Ralphie. Indeed, Jack took a 4 day hiatus from his glasses wearing. During his Friday afternoon naptime, he didn't want to nap and got bored, I suppose, and thought that popping his left lens out of his glasses was really fun and cool. We looked for that lens for collective hours. Jason and Lauren helped. We took the sheets off of his bed, we looked in books, we looked for it in places that it would have been had he decided to swallow it. (not fun or cool) Never found it. Still haven't found it. Jack got a replacement set of lenses in his old frames on Tuesday. He immediately burst into singing "I can see! I can see! The leaves are green! The leaves are green!" Maybe this new appreciation will keep him from playing his $130 game of hide and seek again.
This cake was made last night to get pumped for the UNC/Duke game. It was also made to entice me to eat again, since my appetite has been low for a while. Not sure exactly the cause, but I think it has been because of the game, which is the dumbest thing in the world. Outside of duke basketball in general of course. Do you really think that me posting the day after the UNC win last night is by coincidence? We've all noticed my lack in blogging lately, so of course I had to say a big, fat GO HEELS on this thing. Since this was the first game of at least 2 this season, I know well enough to save the trash talk until we win the 2nd. So, game well played. UNC just happened to play better last night and I wanted to say congratulations to them.
Funny Jack Story:
Some children have imaginary friends. Our oldest son has an imaginary word. Not in the sense that we don't hear it when he says it, but in the sense that the dictionary doesn't recognize it as real. The word is "schupang". Pronounced "SHOE-pang". We don't know if it's a noun, verb, or exclamation. So far, when asking him what shupang is, we've gotten these responses:
-"it's a poopie loopie, doopie" which we assume is just the beginnings of potty talk for our 3 year old
-"schupang is for the bed" which was said while sitting in his bed
-SHUPANG! which was yelled after banging his knee into the table.
We don't know what it means exactly, but somehow, oddly, it seems appropriate in many settings. Let's play a little blog Balderdash...What does schupang mean to you?
Saturday, January 31, 2009
January
Outside of booger picking (see last blog post), we have attended several birthday parties, gone to NC for a wedding, purchased a bounce house and have taken part in the daily insanity that is Casa de Ussery.
Our first soiree of the month was Camden's 2nd birthday party. We were treated to an awesome day at Island Playground (the indoor bounce house haven of the lowcountry) and to lunch at Moe's. Camden was so cute diving into his cupcake. He was such a fun (and talkative!) little host. If you ever meet Camden get ready to be amazed at this child's unbelievable vocabulary. He's so smart, cute and hilarious. What a great combo. Happy Birthday, Camden! Thanks for letting us share in your day.
Finn wore his party hat...er...plate well. He looked like a kid from Newsies after he ate his cupcake, but replace the newsprint with chocolate and you've got the idea.
Earlier this month we went to dinner at the Reed's. We had so much fun watching the kids play in their back yard. Jack was trying to impress Shelby with his wagon pulling skills here, and the rest of them were cackling so hard. We had a fun dinner and the kids played so well together. After we ate we got a little worried at how quiet the kids were, because that's never good with kids, right? JP had taken his diaper off and had swished it the toilet upstairs. For those of you who are trying their best to destroy the Earth like I am by using disposable diapers, BEWARE. If you over saturate one of those puppies, these little gel beads will spill out like some sort of nasty sludge all over the place. NOT easy to clean up, is it Kim? Just a warning.
On January 17th, Erin Coltrane and Josh Smith got married! Erin and I (and 6 other cool ladies) roomed together our senior year at UNC. There were 3 Erins (The "Trifecta") among the 8 of us, which made for some confusion. Lots of head turning. Two of us married men named Josh. I'm the oddball who married a John. Anyhoo...their wedding was absolutely gorgeous and thrilling to be a part of. Thank you for letting us share in your marriage ceremony! What a blessing. Congratulations, Erin and Josh!!!!! I cannot wait to see you both again.
Here are some of the roomies doing the house dance at the reception. What? You don't have a house dance? What's wrong with you? We were a little rusty, but once we got going it was like riding a bike. We all joked about how we'll bust out the house dance at our own kids' wedding receptions, how our kids will hate it and want to disown us., and how we'll love embarrassing them with our post dance awkward high fiving.
Congratulations, again, Erin and Josh! Your wedding was awesome!
We are now the proud owners of a bounce house. My grandmother (aka Gammy) gave Jack money for Christmas so he could pick out what he wanted. He's known about the money since it was given to him. Although he has very limited knowledge about dollars and money and what not, we're trying to at least teach him that it doesn't grow on trees. Well, on one of our trips to Target, Jack saw a Spiderman jacket that he just had to have. He asked if he could get it with his Gammy money, so I swallowed my loathing of all character clothing and let him get the jacket. It was about $3 on the clearance rack. He made one other purchase of a $1 "baby Speed Racer" as well. So, needless to say, we had a lot of leftover Gammy money. When we went to NC, we of course had to go to Target, just to see if NC Targets were better than Bluffton Target, and Jack saw the bounce house. He wanted to use his Gammy money to get the bounce house. I tried to explain to him that his Gammy money would not be enough for a bounce house, but then a little red sticker on the box caught my eye. It, too, was on clearance and indeed, the Gammy money would suffice. Jack is so Dave Ramsey. On clearance. Paid in full with cash. Atta boy.
Here's another atta boy headed Jack's way. This picture just warms my basketball loving heart. John and I will occasionally let Jack stay up late to watch basketball. Sometimes it's because we want him to have a little one on two with us while Finn's in bed, but mostly it's because a game will start and neither one of us want to pry ourselves away from the TV long enough to complete his 15 minute bedtime routine. Terrible, I know. But this was a 'just for fun' night. On his own, Jack went to the playroom, dragged his chair into the living room, got his duckie and plopped his little butt down for a night of basketball watching.
Jack has been having a rough time lately with acting out and just being a little more obstinate than usual. Thinking he needed some attention, Gigi came and kidnapped Jack for one evening this week. They had dinner together, played and just hung out. It was just what the attitude doctor ordered. He came back a new being! Thank you, Gigi! He also pocketed the orange harmonica seen here.
This morning Jack and I got bitten by the painting bug. He saw me painting and begged to paint something "of my own!" Here is his masterpiece! Apparently blue, orange, pink and red make one funky shade of purple.
John sneaked this shot of Jack this morning with Scout. Out of nowhere Jack laid down with Scout in our bathroom and just cuddled with him like this for a while. We asked him why he was doing that and he said, "I hug him because he's my best friend."
Thank goodness we put the paints up before Jack got the grand idea to mark his legs up with an ink pen. Here he is displaying his body modifications. Check out his shins. This was hilarious watching John take this picture because Jack was all giggles and then he got very serious, much like a high school boys sports team photo. Whatever you do, don't smile. Smiling is for girls and for little boys who aren't cool enough to draw on their legs. Maybe that's what he was thinking.
Last night we attended the bash of the year: Kim's 30th birthday party! We had the best time. Kim's hubby, Pratt, planned and executed the best dance party. I honestly think my feet are bruised from all the dancing (and some rather uncomfy shoes).
Here's Pratt, Kim, Leslie and Gerrit (the DJ of the night). Gerrit did an incredible job keeping the party going with all kinds of fun music, In honor of Kim's love of musicals, all the ladies hit the floor to Dancing Queen, boas and all!
Happy Birthday, Kim!!!! Thank you for letting us celebrate with you!!!
So far the February calendar is a lot less full than January. We certainly won't let that stop us from insane amounts of fun. Hope everyone is doing well!!!
Our first soiree of the month was Camden's 2nd birthday party. We were treated to an awesome day at Island Playground (the indoor bounce house haven of the lowcountry) and to lunch at Moe's. Camden was so cute diving into his cupcake. He was such a fun (and talkative!) little host. If you ever meet Camden get ready to be amazed at this child's unbelievable vocabulary. He's so smart, cute and hilarious. What a great combo. Happy Birthday, Camden! Thanks for letting us share in your day.
Finn wore his party hat...er...plate well. He looked like a kid from Newsies after he ate his cupcake, but replace the newsprint with chocolate and you've got the idea.
Earlier this month we went to dinner at the Reed's. We had so much fun watching the kids play in their back yard. Jack was trying to impress Shelby with his wagon pulling skills here, and the rest of them were cackling so hard. We had a fun dinner and the kids played so well together. After we ate we got a little worried at how quiet the kids were, because that's never good with kids, right? JP had taken his diaper off and had swished it the toilet upstairs. For those of you who are trying their best to destroy the Earth like I am by using disposable diapers, BEWARE. If you over saturate one of those puppies, these little gel beads will spill out like some sort of nasty sludge all over the place. NOT easy to clean up, is it Kim? Just a warning.
On January 17th, Erin Coltrane and Josh Smith got married! Erin and I (and 6 other cool ladies) roomed together our senior year at UNC. There were 3 Erins (The "Trifecta") among the 8 of us, which made for some confusion. Lots of head turning. Two of us married men named Josh. I'm the oddball who married a John. Anyhoo...their wedding was absolutely gorgeous and thrilling to be a part of. Thank you for letting us share in your marriage ceremony! What a blessing. Congratulations, Erin and Josh!!!!! I cannot wait to see you both again.
Here are some of the roomies doing the house dance at the reception. What? You don't have a house dance? What's wrong with you? We were a little rusty, but once we got going it was like riding a bike. We all joked about how we'll bust out the house dance at our own kids' wedding receptions, how our kids will hate it and want to disown us., and how we'll love embarrassing them with our post dance awkward high fiving.
Congratulations, again, Erin and Josh! Your wedding was awesome!
We are now the proud owners of a bounce house. My grandmother (aka Gammy) gave Jack money for Christmas so he could pick out what he wanted. He's known about the money since it was given to him. Although he has very limited knowledge about dollars and money and what not, we're trying to at least teach him that it doesn't grow on trees. Well, on one of our trips to Target, Jack saw a Spiderman jacket that he just had to have. He asked if he could get it with his Gammy money, so I swallowed my loathing of all character clothing and let him get the jacket. It was about $3 on the clearance rack. He made one other purchase of a $1 "baby Speed Racer" as well. So, needless to say, we had a lot of leftover Gammy money. When we went to NC, we of course had to go to Target, just to see if NC Targets were better than Bluffton Target, and Jack saw the bounce house. He wanted to use his Gammy money to get the bounce house. I tried to explain to him that his Gammy money would not be enough for a bounce house, but then a little red sticker on the box caught my eye. It, too, was on clearance and indeed, the Gammy money would suffice. Jack is so Dave Ramsey. On clearance. Paid in full with cash. Atta boy.
Here's another atta boy headed Jack's way. This picture just warms my basketball loving heart. John and I will occasionally let Jack stay up late to watch basketball. Sometimes it's because we want him to have a little one on two with us while Finn's in bed, but mostly it's because a game will start and neither one of us want to pry ourselves away from the TV long enough to complete his 15 minute bedtime routine. Terrible, I know. But this was a 'just for fun' night. On his own, Jack went to the playroom, dragged his chair into the living room, got his duckie and plopped his little butt down for a night of basketball watching.
Jack has been having a rough time lately with acting out and just being a little more obstinate than usual. Thinking he needed some attention, Gigi came and kidnapped Jack for one evening this week. They had dinner together, played and just hung out. It was just what the attitude doctor ordered. He came back a new being! Thank you, Gigi! He also pocketed the orange harmonica seen here.
This morning Jack and I got bitten by the painting bug. He saw me painting and begged to paint something "of my own!" Here is his masterpiece! Apparently blue, orange, pink and red make one funky shade of purple.
John sneaked this shot of Jack this morning with Scout. Out of nowhere Jack laid down with Scout in our bathroom and just cuddled with him like this for a while. We asked him why he was doing that and he said, "I hug him because he's my best friend."
Thank goodness we put the paints up before Jack got the grand idea to mark his legs up with an ink pen. Here he is displaying his body modifications. Check out his shins. This was hilarious watching John take this picture because Jack was all giggles and then he got very serious, much like a high school boys sports team photo. Whatever you do, don't smile. Smiling is for girls and for little boys who aren't cool enough to draw on their legs. Maybe that's what he was thinking.
Last night we attended the bash of the year: Kim's 30th birthday party! We had the best time. Kim's hubby, Pratt, planned and executed the best dance party. I honestly think my feet are bruised from all the dancing (and some rather uncomfy shoes).
Here's Pratt, Kim, Leslie and Gerrit (the DJ of the night). Gerrit did an incredible job keeping the party going with all kinds of fun music, In honor of Kim's love of musicals, all the ladies hit the floor to Dancing Queen, boas and all!
Happy Birthday, Kim!!!! Thank you for letting us celebrate with you!!!
So far the February calendar is a lot less full than January. We certainly won't let that stop us from insane amounts of fun. Hope everyone is doing well!!!
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