Friday Funny Pages

If your kids (or dogs, or cats, lets be fair here) did something funny this week put up a post about it so others can giggle, laugh, snort, or wonder why on earth you thought it was funny. You need to then go to http://www.racecarsandrubyslippers.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment. Share the funnies this Friday.

Lots of goofy things happen here daily, that just is part and parcel to having a houseful of preschoolers and toddlers 8 hours a day. I usually write mostly about Snug because, well, he's mine :o) However, I'll include some Draycare funnies too.

First up is E. She is almost 2 and talks up a storm. She has this babydoll that she got for Christmas (#1 and her own mother think it looks like an alien, I think it is cute enough but I digress). Lately she keeps calling it "bebe yive". I don't really think much about it because frankly, I could care less what she calls it. Her mom though wanted to know what she was saying. She kept asking her to repeat it and E got frustrated and slammed (I can't think of another way or a nicer way to describe the action) the baby doll's head on the carpet and yelled "baby yive" again. I asked her mom if perhaps she was saying "Baby Alive" because I think there is a doll called that (Baby Alive apparently 'eats' and then 'poos', really people? Isn't that is a bit much?) and I've heard TV commercials for it. Her mom didn't know, but today when 'alien baby' returned indeed she has been saying "Baby Alive". She had seen the commercial. Ok, so the funny part is she is yelling Baby alive while smashing its head in the floor. We need to define alive for her. I just hope she doesn't get the eating/pooing doll because frankly I have enough of that around here already.

Snug has two this week. First, he has a nice collection of toy cars from the movie "Cars". He calls the red one (Lightning McQueen) his "queen car". Not terribly hilarious, but cute.

His second is funny, he kept talking about "Baby J's applesaucer". He kept telling me "Baby J wants applesaucer mama". I kept informing him that although Baby J indeed loves applesauce it wasn't time to feed him. Finally #1 figured out that he thought Baby J wanted to be in his exersaucer (a large round thing that he sits in and plays with toys for those of you who are still confused). I'm not sure Baby J indeed wanted the 'applesaucer' but I do know a certain 2 1/2 year old who likes to play with the toys around the edge as his baby brother looks on adoringly.

I leave you with a video of Baby J playing today that I am posting for my mom because I know she is missing her grandbabies (and we miss her too). Check out his cute BabyLegs that just came in the mail today :o) We aren't huge skull and cross bones people, but when buying your baby boy 'tights' you had better go with the most masculine ones on the market!

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!

Goodbye Eye Spy...Here's A Contest To Remember You By

I am done with my EYE SPY posts...it takes quite a bit of time to find all the little things to put together and I am trying to put more energy into my active 2 year old and less into my blog (read: do more household things when he is sleeping instead of while he is awake...leaving less time to blog while he is sleeping)...so that being said, I am done! It was fun to do, I loved getting to use some of my pent up creativity, but all good things must come to an end. Thanks so much to Melissa for making my button and to those of you who posted it on your page. There are 8 different kinds of toys used to make my logo...does anyone know what they are? Some are very obvious, and some are not. The first person to name all 8 or get the closest/most I will mail another "Sippy Saver" to. I still need to post a picture of one in action...but sometimes the day to day mundane things just never hit my blog...and sometimes those of you reading wish not as much day to day mundane would get on my blog.
If you do not have a blogger account, simply sign in as 'anonymous' leave your name at the bottom of your comment, and a way for me to contact you...or just read back later to see if you won. As always, you can click on the image to make it bigger. Happy guessing!

Just Another Tuesday? Never.

This Post Is Depressing...

So you were warned, but you continue to read...do you like depressing things? Did you need someone to commiserate with because YOU are having "one of those days" too? Well, read on sister (or brother, I know there are a few of you out there too).

First of all I want to say I am ashamed to even be blogging about my problems when Abby is so young and struggling with Leukemia, Donna is struggling with her third bout with cancer and not doing very well, Heather has six children and her army husband is off on some assignment leaving her to raise them by herself for awhile, Shelby was burned on 11% of her little body, and Carrie's husband just lost his job.

However, now that I have acknowledged that there are other problems in the world and mine are minuscule I will continue with my post. Ahem.

I had all of the kids today, and we have two that...well...kinda drive us nuts. If I could think of a polite way to not have them at my house, I would. Don't worry, my babysitting families do not read my blog. But it is just me being mean that I don't enjoy their company, there is not serious problem. Ok, the gagging and throwing up of food, and the crying through every meal...that would drive anyone a bit batty.

Next it was grocery shopping day and we had to take 4 children 3 and under to the store...in the freezing cold. In and out and in and out of carseats. And they didn't especially behave this time.

As we arrived home #1 went to go work out and as I was tugging 4 children out of coats/hats/boots I realized it seemed a tiny bit cold in my house. If you follow me on Twitter then you saw that it was indeed cold...55 deg cold. I tried turning the heat up...it got colder. I tried turning the heat OFF (because no matter what #1 says I swear the air conditioning was on) and that didn't work either...the blowers kept blowing more and more and more cold air into our house.

Of course everyone was playing politely, no one was crying, and there were no major diapers during this time...and keep in mind I had 3 large bags of groceries to put away whilst worrying about the furnace.

I didn't post a "Not Me Monday" post yesterday because I chose to spend extra time playing with Snug and fold the laundry/vacuum/etc while he was sleeping last night instead of blogging. We had a nice time. *This is just a small oasis in the middle of my doomsday post*

So when #1 got home and I went to go pick up Mother Hen from preschool he turned the furnace completely off and then back on and our house got all the way up to...wait for it...58 deg! Wahoooo! Um, the cold air has now been blowing for 3 hours straight and our house is 58. So there is a nice man coming in a few minutes to 'fix' it. Of course I have 3 GRUMPY children sleeping just 10 feet from said furnace so it will be delightful to have them all woken up. We didn't even ask what the charge would be...

Ah, I just feel better writing all of this down. Now if I don't hit PUBLISH POST then none of you will know what happened to us today...but this is The Drays Today. And it isn't just another Tuesday...or is it?

Advertisement

Today I am advertising! Not Me Monday will be up later (nighttime)...but right now I want to do some advertising. This being my blog I will go ahead and do so. I hope you check some of these FREE* things out :o)
*Use your local library to get books before you decide to buy...ok so this is semi-free




First up today is serious.life MAGAZINE. I have Abby's button on the side of my blog as a reminder to pray for her and the Rigg's family. February's issue comes out today (if you are reading Monday...tomorrow if you are reading Sunday), and I hope you click over and read it. You can click on the "pray for Abby" button and then once on their site click on the magazine. It is free to read! It is worth your time!!!!
serious.life is a great read. I just finished up December's issue. I love that it is paperless (yeah environment!), chocked full of scriptures, and December had many articles that I was interested in. I loved the article on 100% down, not taking 'low monthly payment' routes, of course that goes right with Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University! I also was interested in the article about parabens, one of the reasons we switched to Melaleuca. This magazine has a big emphasis on adoption (since their own family has adopted several children) and ministry. Check them out!
http://www.seriouslifemagazine.com/

My next advertisement is for Jellytelly. Jellytelly is a super kid-oriented, scripture based online show. We love it because it incorporates learning about the Bible (right now specific books in the old testament and how they came to be) along with humor and skits. Snug loves it because all the voices are the same as "Bob N Narry" (aka Veggie Tales), it has puppets, and music videos. You can watch it anytime of the day, and it only lasts 30 minutes. Weekends sport a family movie (more than 30 min.) that can be viewed anytime on Saturday or Sunday. Check them out! http://www.jellytelly.com/


My last advertisement of the day is "bringing up BOYS" by Dr. James Dobson.
I am so excited to have other people read it, and #1 is going to start it (hopefully) tonight at work...running traffic post will be boring seems how everyone else will be at Super Bowl parties. If you have a boy, a grandson, or are a teacher, PLEASE read this. Get it from your library if you want to see if it is for you (it is) and then go ahead and get yourself a copy if/when you love it. Get it on Amazon used for cheaper if you want!