Blah Blah Blagging Blogging-One of Those Long Posts

Ahhh, the dinner dishes are done in the sink, the boys are bathed and in bed, the dogs are sniffing around eating things off the carpet, and my laundry is caught up 90% done. I can blog and not get that nagging feeling that there is something else I should be doing. As I rocked the boys in fuzzy footie pajamas tonight I kept thanking God for my little guys. I love to rock and smell their hair and sing. Just one of my favorite things about being a mom.
So far I only have 2 guesses on my EYE SPY contest post which means I either have a really lame contest (probably true) or no one else was really digging my EYE SPY posts either, which is part of the reason why I am discontinuing them. Or a combo deal of both. I will be ending the contest Friday evening.

We've been trying to stay busy and sane during this cold spell. After a week off last week because of snow days, the kids have been excited to see each other, but also testy with each other at the same time. I've been trying to invent some fun along with letting them work through problems themselves. One of their favorite activities is to spread a king size sheet between our four dining room chairs (we keep it on with #1's carpentry-type clamps). They like to read, play games, and relax.
No, they are not eating in their tent/fort/castle (depending on who you ask), they are playing with an Oreo cookie matching game my mom gave us. It doubles as a fake snack in case you were to get hungry for BPA.

I am putting the label "Baby J's growth" on this post...not because I actually know how much he weighs or anything, but because I am including pictures of some big milestones he met this week. A 'label' is a way to track similar posts. They (on my blog) are located on the right sidebar. So say you are reading my blog and you think "man, that is just so interesting...I would love to know more about how that lady feels about that topic" then you can go to the label, click on it, and read everything I've written about that topic. Or, more accurately, I put them on so I can track what I have written about and have some sort of a filing system when I go back to look things up. Yeah, that would my real reason for labeling things, but I can always pretend like you all are riveted and hanging on my every word. Not. Ok, so back to growth!

Look who is sitting up on his own! This started on Wednesday. We have to kinda arrange him, and he does fall over after awhile, but overall, we are pretty excited about this milestone :o) Mom, I know what you are thinking...this is going to be your new screen saver...but wait, there is more! There has also been some serious cat-baby bonding going on. Our cat is an outdoor cat, but it has been pretty cold so he gets to come inside and hang out in the afternoons after the Draycare kids are gone.
We are going to have to learn some kitty etiquette here soon though...pulling tails isn't nice or a good idea. To Baby J it is just something convenient to hang on to. Speaking of etiquette...one of the things we have been doing lately is discussing tub etiquette. There are things we have to set straight.
1. Thou shall not take thy brother's tub toys out of his hands.
2. Thou shall not dump cups of water over thy brother's head.
3. Thou shall not stand in thy tub for any reason.
4. Thou shall not go potty in the tub-ever.
5. Thou shall not pull the shower stop while the tub is filling (unless you want a BIG surprise)
6. Thou shall not drink the tub water.
7. Thou shall not get out of the tub while mama is drying your brother off
8. Thou shall not pour water out of the tub
Feel free to instate these commandments into thy your house.

Another milestone happened tonight. Baby J started eating teething biscuits. He loved it!

These biscuits...

Are really...

Serious.

Here is a little tidbit I will share with all you moms out there. We are giving Baby J "Earth's Best" teething biscuits instead of the Gerber Graduates that we gave Snug. We started really reading labels last summer.
I make almost all of Baby J's baby food, and we are saving quite a bit of money, but there are some things I can't/choose not to make. I'm on a tangent here, but hear me out. I have not discovered a great way to make peas or teething biscuits. I have a brand spankin new box of Graduates Zwieback Toast, but I really doubt Baby J will get it before he is a year old-or ever. The second ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup (which we are trying to get completely out of the house for the adults, let alone the 7 month old) and the fourth ingredient is sugar, and the sixth is corn syrup. Other than that it is completely wholesome full of refined flour, salt, and things I can't pronounce. Earth's Best isn't the best food Baby J will eat, but it is made with whole grains, and flavored with natural, unprocessed cane juice. It is still just a treat.
Two more things Snug got consistently that Baby J won't be were yogurt melts (FULL of sugar) and the little puff things (high fructose corn syrup city). I was so shocked when I started reading what was in that stuff. I figured if it was made by Gerber and labeled for babies it was good for them. One thing I was really happy about was that the dried fruit is actually freeze dried fruit! No additives or preservatives...just fruit! Yeah!