Happy Hippo, Angry Duck

Hello little person. How are you today? 

Is your mood quite terrific or only just okay? 

Are you happy like a hippo or angry like a duck? 

Maybe sad as a chicken? 

Can you sadly say 'cluck cluck'? 

Are you grumpy as a moose? Or excited as a dog? 

Worried as a rabbit? Contented as a frog? 

Perhaps like a pig, you are sweetly amused. 

Or perhaps like a cow you're completely confused. 

You might feel that somehow you've lost all your fizz 

or you're frazzled like a, um, frazzled thing 

(I'm not sure what that is). 

Well I hope you are happy but if you are not 

you have friends who will help you, we like you a lot. 

And a difficult mood is not here to stay - 

everyone's moods will change day to day. 

Unless you're that duck - he's always this way.

Who knew children's board books could be so insightful?

Meet our newest family member!

I realize I've been a bit absent recently here. The last 5 days or so have been a bit crazy.

I can't go into the exact details right now, but hubby's family is having a bit of a family crisis.

A lot of prayer for his parents and especially his little sister would be very much appreciated!

His father is in poor health (if you follow me on Twitter, you know I had mentioned he was in the hospital briefly last week) and his sister is only 13.

In the wake of all this mess we're trying to take care of, we have acquired one of my in-laws dogs!

Meet Lady
Our newest addition to the family!

She's very friendly and loves people - when we went in to get her she came running to greet us! Hubby and I haven't seen her since the last time we were out there, which was Christmas 2010,  and she's taken to us just fine. She's a border collie/ lab/ Australian shepherd mix - so about medium sized. Completely house trained and about 3 and a half years old. Her name is Lady.

Jay is beyond thrilled - he LOVES playing with the dog at my parent's house, especially when my sis was still living there with her dog. We brought him home tonight, after cleaning Lady up real good, and he was sooooo excited to see a doggie, in his house. We were afraid of her attacking him, but instead of having to watch her, we had to watch Jay instead as he was going completely crazy over her, lol... he was tired too, as it was bedtime. I had put her in the dog carrier/crate while I got Jay ready for bed, just since she's not used to the house yet. I let Jay watch her as I got his bedtime yogurt snack ready - he sat across the hall from the face of the crate, staring at her and giggling and smiling, inching closer and closer til I had to tell him not to put his fingers in the crate, and he'd back up against the hall way and start the process over again, lol...

Once he was in bed I let her back out again and have been letting her roam the main living areas of the house on the main floor. She seems to be settling in just fine, having already taken a nap on the rug in the kitchen and rolling around the floors.

I forgot about her and Tiger though... she's used to cats as at one point my inlaws had an army of kitties in their house (okay, so it was like 5. Or 6. Still...). Tiger's not used to other animals, in her house though. The dog didn't know about Tiger so as she was exploring, Tiger popped out and scared her, making her run into some of Jay's toys, lol... and then Tiger proceeded to "guard" the family room by sitting on the bottom portion of the table near the hallway between the kitchen and the family room, going into defense mode and growling (yes, my cat growls). It's been pretty funny! At one point she walked a little too close near Tiger as she was following me to the family room (after Tiger had moved and let her check it out, lol...) and I had to spray Tiger with the water bottle before she lunged at Lady's thigh, lol... She seems to be calming down though, as she's back on her spot on the loveseat and dozing in and out while the dog lays around nearby.

We gave her a flea and tick shampooing and a good washing and brushing before bringing her in the house - poor dog, my sister in law couldn't remember the last time they gave her a bath other than "it was warm out." Sooo much dead dog fur came off her! I'm calling the vet in the morning to see if we can get her in soon to get her shots, license and just checked out in general - my inlaws lived out in the country and of course they didn't do any of that; us being in the city, she has to be licensed or we could get fined or in trouble. We'll get her spayed eventually (cuz again, they lived out in the country and didn't do that either) but since we no longer qualify for the voucher we can't afford it at the moment.

Considering the state of my inlaw's house (I'm not even joking when I say it looks like something you'd see on an episode of Hoarders) and the fact she wasn't being properly cared for (especially these last few days)
 my mom said she probably thinks she died and went to heaven!

So we are now officially dual-animal owners =)

Book Club Friday: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

This week I finished the last book in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

I read the 1st 2 books last year and waited til this one came out in paperback to finish/complete my set.

I must say, out of all 3 books, this was my favorite!

The 1st 2 started out slow - it was painful to read them as nothing really important happened in the 1st 200 pages or so of each book. But then something major happened in each book that was like "whoa!" and they became page turners.

This installment on the other hand... it picks up exactly where the second book left off, basically being a continuation of the story that already started so there was no slow beginning, although some parts did seem to drag at times (ie: parts about history of an organization or a character's background, which sure, it was necessary, but sooooo lengthy at times!).

Sure, Lisbeth is in the hospital for the first 600 pages, but there's plenty that's going down outside her hospital room! And the trial... had me flipping pages, it was quite exciting, especially to see how Lisbeth and her lawyer (Blomkvist's sister) dealt with the evil Dr. Teleborian!

If you've already read the 1st 2 part of this trilogy (or at least book 2), definitely don't skip out on this final installment!

And be sure to check out the Swedish movies of the trilogy too - they condense the Blomkvist/Berger storylines and cut a bit of Lisbeth's adventures away from Sweden (which ya can't really blame them considering they're big books and the movies are 2-2.5 hours long). I haven't seen the English remake, but I enjoyed the Swedish ones (I do think Daniel Craig is a more attractive Blomkvist though). They're subtitled in English and have been on Netflix's Instant Watch for quite some time now too.

Oh and in case you missed it - hubby is now a published author!

His novel will be for sale on Amazon in July, however, to give you a taste of his Griffins and Gunpowder universe he has released 3 short stories! So if you have a Kindle, or the free Kindle smartphone app or the client for your computer be sure to check them out and leave a review - we'd really appreciate it!

The Nail Files #4

 

Last weekend I went to Ulta for the 1st time since they changed locations and remodeled awhile back and bought some nail polish.

Pixel's Spy Wears

Pixel's Oh Yesss!!

Ulta's Indigo-Go Girl

Ulta's Alter Ego

Ulta's Little Black Dress

Ulta's Baby Doll

Here's the Oh Yesss!! red:

(not sure why it loaded sideways)

The bottle is kind of small and it took several brush strokes to cover one nail. It reminds me of a red watermelon with the dark speckles throughout the polish - kinda neat!

Hubby Is Published!

Last weekend, hubby became a published author!

He's been writing for years and years. There was a time years ago he tried to get one of his stories published, sending letters and stuff out to various publishers.

Last year he started on a fresh story idea that kinda spun into it's own universe.

In his words:

Griffins and Gunpowder is a Gunpowder Fantasy; fantasy set in a world that includes gunpowder and it's associated weaponry but does not focus on steam-power or other elements typical of a "steampunk" novel.
It is set on the world of Zaria, where Elves, Magic and Griffins co-exist alongside rifles and railroads.

Thanks to joys of modern technology, hubby learned about self-publishing and the e-reader format that self-published authors have been taking full advantage of. No need to worry about a publishing giant rejecting your work because they don't want to take a chance since you're unknown - you can now self-publish it yourself and even make a better percentage off it since there's no middleman to take a cut.

His novel - The Cerberus Rebellion - will be for sale on Amazon in July, however, to give you a taste of his Griffins and Gunpowder universe he has released 3 short stories! So if you have a Kindle, or the free Kindle smartphone app or the client for your computer be sure to check them out and leave a review - we'd really appreciate it! Book 2 in the series is already being planned and a novella is in the works to be released soon!

He also has a site/blog that he regularly updates too - feel free to check it out!

The Day the Toys Went Away

As you can probably guess from the title of this post, Jay got (most) of his toys taken away from him for the time being.

I'm sure I've posted  before but here's how my family room usually looks on any given day within hours of Jay waking up:

And here's how our basement stairs usually look throughout the day as Jay likes to toss his toys over the gate and down the stairs:

The other day I caught him throwing his Leapfrog magnet set down the stairs. I told him not to, even told him he'd get his bottom smacked if he did. At first he went to take it back to the dishwasher where we keep it, however he took off running back to the stairs with it, tossing it over the gate. Being that it's a Leapfrog toy, obviously it's not cheap like other little figurines and plastic toys he throws down the stairs.

I wasn't too happy.

I gave his bottom a swap and told him it was naptime and that that was it - if he can't play nice with his toys he's not going to have them anymore.

I spent naptime going through his toys, picking them up and putting most of them away out of reach. I left his stuffed animals out and his plush trains and toddler cars as well as his few favorite books he's always having us read to him. All the DVDs and their cases got put up - since figuring out how to open them he's become destructive with them. All the electronic educational toys got put up (I had found his Cookie Monster keyboard thrown down the stairs and it must have bounced into the rec room) but I did bring up his activity table so he has some educational toy to play with it.

He was a bit confused as to where many of his toys went and he threw a fit several times about the DVDs being up out of reach. New rule too is that if he throws a toy down the stairs, that's it. He doesn't get it back the rest of the day.

He's been a bit better since - only a handful for toys down the stairs the 1st day and just a few yesterday. It seems to be working - he has less toys to play with right now, but he's not throwing them all over (he got his trains taken off him briefly as he was literally throwing them across the room just for fun!). Mom thinks the less choice and stimulation might be it. We've been reading more, playing trains more... and there's been much less mess to pick up at the end of the night too!

Photo Fun Mondays 06.18.12

It's Monday, so that means it's time to link-up once again!

 Hubby took this one of Jay sticking a business card between his toes. That stinker remembered as a day or 2 before this he was going through my wallet so I let him play with our realtor's old business card and I started sticking it between his toes - he thought it was hilarious that his toes could hold something... so here he is doing it himself!

 Jay decided to help "pick-up" in the family.
Here he is, putting one of the couch pillows into his pack and play.

Everything he threw into his pack and play... including 3 of the 4 couch pillows

The rest of his toys/belongings from the family room he threw down the stairs.

We went to Target with my mom Saturday evening while she shopped for my dad for Father's Day. Here's some of the deals we found for $1 - a Garfield At the Zoo book, Crayola sidewalk chalk, a Sesame Street notepad, some Sesame Street color and shape flash cards, some Roseart watercolor paints. I also got his 1st Christmas present for this year too - a talking, plush Super Grover Target Exclusive that was 50% off on clearance (so $9.98).

Hubby's Father's Day loot - from Jay he got the movie Role Models (last year he "gave" him Big Daddy) and the 1st Calvin and Hobbes collection; I gave him V for Vendetta on DVD as well as Civil War Trivia book and Great Maps of the Civil War (hubby's big into Civil War stuff).

Jay being silly at my parent's house.

Scooting around the table.

Drinking Grammie's iced tea.

Sitting pretty with daddy on the couch.

Prayers Please

Just a quick post here, if you could all please keep hubby's father in your thoughts and prayers it would be much appreciated!

Yesterday evening (Father's Day) we got word that his father was back in the hospital (in case you forgot, he was in the hospital for 21 days back in January 2011, being admitted on New Year's Day for kidney problems and has been on dialysis several times a week since) and they were looking into Pulmonary Embolism but running other tests as well to narrow down what was the problem. We were supposed to meet with hubby's family for Father's Day breakfast at the local Swedish pancake house, but his mom informed us Saturday that it would have to be rescheduled as his dad has pneumonia, which we're assuming is why he's in the hospital now.

We haven't gotten anymore details since last night - I'm working tonight, so I'm not sure if hubby will go over and visit today or not (he was thinking about going over last night but his mom said they were going to be doing various testing for awhile and then running dialysis so it wouldn't be worth it), we'd rather not have Jay in a hospital setting unless we need to because 1) sick people with who knows what and 2) too many expensive and dangerous tools/machines for him to get into. Hubby's baby sister is unaware too, as she's in Kentucky this week with our church's youth group on an their summer missions trip.

Hopefully they're able to properly diagnose him and get him whatever he needs to get back on his feet!

Thanks in advance though!

The Nail Files #4

Linking up with Tara and Vicki once again for

Earlier this week, I painted my nails this color:

 
Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri in Mauve It

I kinda liked it.

I also received my Essie Klout Perk in the mail this week:


I got the orange color - Fear or Desire
 I was hoping to get the blue (Bikini So Teeny), but oh well, it was free!

Guess I'll give this one a try at some point when I'm feeling orange-y =)

Splish Splash, We Had a Blast!

I apologize in advance for any typos or format errors - I'm typing this on my tablet with the keyboard attachment =)

Yesterday we crossed an item off my summer bucket list and took Jay to our local stateline waterpark for the 1st time! There was a Groupon for our area a few weeks ago for 2 admissions with tube rental and an all day locker key so we thought it would be fun. We didn't read the fine print til after we purchased it though and saw that it was only valid for June so we needed to get our butts out there sometime soon! Hubby took a half day at his dayjob, getting home a little after 1pm and we got there right at 2pm.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures as I didn't want water damage to my phone (neither did hubby with his), so you'll just have to use your imagination as you read my recount =)

Anyways, Jay was apparently free as they didn't charge us for him. They did give us this little plastic reuseable diaper thing to put over his Huggie's Little Swimmers swim diaper as they claim those tend to disinagrate in their pools.

First we got our locker and put sunscreen on and then we headed over to the Little Lagoon pool and water area they had for kids Jay's size. He walked into it just fine but got a little nervous once the water went up past his knees and started getting clingy to mommy and started crying when he would fall on his bottom and the water was up to his chest. He played with the water stream shooters for a bit before we decided to go check out the lazy river.

He rode in my lap but at first started getting antsy, climbing all over me, almost tipping us over once by trying to climb over my shoulder. Daddy picked him up and my tube started floating away which made Jay freak out - mommy was going bubbyes! Hubby handed him back to me and he sat in my lap for the rest of that trip around as well as another trip around.

After that we got out, we checked out Tiki Island (a water playground for grade-school aged kids) and then we went and sat in the shallow end of the wave pool (apparently the largest one in Illinois!) as the waves started up. We stayed in for a whole cycle, but Jay wasn't a fan once the waves picked up and spent most of the cycle standing in my lap, his head over my shoulder, clinging to me.

For whatever reason he didn't want Daddy to carry him - he wanted only Mommy :-/

After the wave pool, hubby declared he really wanted to ride one of the water slides before we left so I told him to go ahead - I'd take Jay back to the nearby Little Lagoon. Instead we sat on benches at the exit of the water slide hubby was in line for and watched people make big splashes as they came off the slide - Jay thought some were funny.

Next we tried the Little Lagoon again. Jay got a little braver, I sat in the pool with him and he played with some water bubbler things in the water near me before he wanted me to pick him up again.

We figured we'd try the lazy river again but on our way out hubby mentioned wanting to do the water slide again so I told him to go ahead and I'd occupy Jay. We went to go sit down on the benches by the slide exit again but Jay wanted down, so I let him roam, following him as he went.

That little stinker, he started walking towards a picnic area! Luckily there was no one eating for him to beg for food from (all our money was in the locker and hubby had the key on him and he was in line at the top of a water slide). Jay did stop at a bottled drink vending machine though and started hitting the buttons trying to get a drink to come out.

Thinking he might be thirsty, we set out to find a drinking fountain, which was a whole new experience for Jay - first he put his arm in it, then he splashed his hand it and I had to push his head/mouth towards the spout so he'd get the idea to drink. Then he realized if he put his mouth closer to the spout he could drink more at once... And you can guess that that led to him trying to put his mouth on the spout.

After he got a drink we headed back towards the slide exit to wait for hubby. He was still in line so we waited. Jay saw some kids playing in a water sprayer nearby that you operate by pressing buttons so we watched them for a bit and I let Jay down to go check them out. Hubby made a big splash again and joined us as Jay played with the sprayers.

Then we walked over to the lazy river. And once again, Jay tried climbing all over me but once Daddy took him away from mommy and handed him back to me Jay was fine. By the end of the 1st trip around Jay had snuggled up on me and fell asleep (it was naptime anyway). Hubby and I took 4 more trips around the lazy river, Jay sleeping the whole time, before it was getting to be time to leave (they had announced it was 5pm soon after we started our last trip around the lazy river).

We woke Jay up as we left the lazy river and got our stuff and trekked back out to the car. We stopped at Beef A Roo on our way home (a local area burger joint with the best cheddar fries EVER!) and got some cheddar fries and a strawberry milkshake.

We got a large shake as hubby and I were going to split it and figured Jay would have some... Jay ended up drinking 1/3rd of the shake! And because he was hogging it, I ended up putting some in one of his own cups, some hubby and I could drink some, lol...

So yeah, that was our trip to the waterpark!

Hubby thinks Jay might have been a little scared as it was a new place he'd never been to before and there were a lot of people too - he loves bathtime at home in the big tub, but again, it's just him in the tub and no one else. We're thinking maybe we'll go again in August as he'll be 1 and a half then and maybe 2 months will make a difference and he won't be quite so clingy and nervous and have a bit more fun.

This was actually hubby's 1st time there too! Apparently he never went as a kid or during any of the church youth group trips there back in the day. He seemed to enjoy it! I hadn't been in probably 10 years or so - we used to go at least once a summer when I was a kid. Things changed a little bit, new (and more) slides were added as well as the 2 kiddie zones, but it was still familiar.

Oh and Dippin' Dots - "the ice cream of the future" - is still there! I remember being a kid in the early 90s and how cool I thought it was that they were serving the ice cream of the future and just had to try it! And I remember telling my parents all about it and how it was "THE ice cream of the future!" Yeah, that was like 20 years ago... We're still eating the same ol' ice cream we were back then, lol...

Currently... {06.14.12}

 

I saw this link-up a few weeks back and thought I would give it a shot =)

current book(s)

 

finishing up "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest"

~150 pages to go!

current playlist

my 2012Spotify playlist

current color

 

been on a brownish/natural/neutral kick lately

current food

nothing in particularly, but we have been eating Wheat Thins a lot lately

current favorite show(s)

 

I would say Game of Thrones, but the season just ended recently =(

current needs

to go potty, lol...

current banes of my existence

oh I don't know...

current celebrity crush

 

Jason Statham

Alexander Skarsgard
(he plays True Blood's vampire Eric Northman)

Kit Harington

(as Game of Thrones' Jon Snow here)

 

Jaqen H'ghar from Game of Thrones

current #1 blessing

Jay of course!

current indulgence

hubby rubbing my toes - it feels soooooo good!

maybe TMI, but his toe-rubs are like orgasmic!

current outfit

my dark denim jeans that are solely for work

new "nice" top I bought at Gordman's last week that has browns and turquoise in it

current excitement

taking Jay to the local waterpark tomorrow (er today)

he's gonna have soooo much fun - I hear their Tot Spot is great!

current mood

tired - hubby's home from his 3rd shift job, it's about time for bed!

current favorite quote or verse

I don't know - I keep seeing various funny someecards on Facebook a lot lately

current wishlist item

no 1 thing in particular - there's a bunch of stuff I would like 

but nothing I absolutely need to have at this exact moment

current favorite product(s)

off the top of my head...

my HTC Thunderbolt

I LOVE this phone! I've had it over a year now and it still works well (my original Moto Droid had slowed down significantly after a year of regular use). I use my phone all the time - during the day (until Jay goes to bed at night) it's basically my life-line to the outside world as Jay won't let me near an actual computer during the day. I seriously use it for everything - phone calls and texting, as my camera, as a calendar (LOVE Google calenders - I can sync mine with hubby's!), email, checking Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, paying bills, various apps, weather, Googling random things, playing music, watching videos or Netflix/Youtube with Jay, repinning things on Pinterest lately... I don't know how I functioned before Smartphones - and to think, I originally thought they were dumb as I already had an mp3 player, a laptop, etc.

Bloggers Coast to Coast

Not gonna lie, I'm a tad jealous of my Texas blogger friends as they're all pretty closing and get the chance to meet up from time to time, participate in local stuff together, etc.

I've looked/Googled for bloggers in the Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin area, but haven't really had much luck (the majority of my search results are the professional blogs of our local newspaper reporters - not the kind of bloggers I'm looking for, obviously!).

So you can imagine I was thrilled when I saw that Angie made a post recently about Shane's Bloggers Coast to Coast link-up! Apparently there's other bloggers out there that seem to have the same problem as me - there seems to be no other bloggers in your area! Well thanks to Shane's link-up, I found a handful of bloggers within 90 miles or so of me! How exciting!

So if you think you're alone in your neck of the woods of Blogland, check out the link-up and see what other bloggers exist in your area! Maybe build some new friendships!

This is "The Symbol" along the river
walking path. No one really seems to know
what it's supposed to be or mean, but
whoever the artist was that scrapped
this thing together sure was a genius!

If you're visiting from the link-up, I'm in Rockford, IL - approximately 90 miles west of Chicago and just south of the Wisconsin border. It's made Forbes' list of 10 most dangerous cities 2 years in a row now, but it's home for me. I've lived here most of my life aside from when we moved to a small town called Malone in upstate New York due to my dad's job 2 weeks after I was born but we moved back when I was 2 (again, due to my dad's job). I also lived for about 6 years 30 miles south in DeKalb when I attended NIU for college and stayed down there awhile after graduation until a job brought me back to good ol' Rockford.

Rockford is also the home of rock band Cheap Trick (you know their songs "I Want You to Want Me," "Surrender," "Dream Police," and many others over the last 3 or 4 decades), Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child, and Jody Benson (aka Ariel from Disney's classic "The Little Mermaid").

Phone Photo Fun Monday 06.11.12

 

 Jay now likes to open all the drawers in the kitchen...

 ...and then close them all, one by one.

 Tiger thought she saw a bug or something on the wall and I caught her stretched out,
standing like this trying to reach it and check it out, lol...

 Being a big boy, drinking from a straw sippy! Yay!

 My Thomas the Assault Tank Engine shirt arrived! It was originally the shirt of the day awhile back on either Teefury or Ript and I missed it, so I bought directly from the artist on Red Bubble. A bit more pricey than the original $10 deal, but oh well - I had to have it!

 I bought shorter shorts this summer from Old Navy - they were cute and I wanted to try them and turns out, they weren't all that short and fit me pretty well! Guys, I haven't worn shorts that didn't come to my knees in years!

 We were at Gordman's the other day and Jay was trying to dive out of the cart to reach a plush Ernie doll he saw on the bottom shelf. I let him hold it while we shopped but really didn't want to spent $16 on a plush doll that did nothing (for $4 more we could get a talking one at Walmart or somewhere). Eventually I snuck it away from him but remembered I had plush Bert and Ernie's when I was a kid so while Jay was taking his nap I went looking in a few storage boxes for my old stuffed animals from my parent's house and found them! Jay was so excited to see Ernie (and Bert) when he woke up from his nap - he's been carrying Ernie around with him everywhere, including to bed! I don't know when or why or how he got on this Ernie kick, but he's been nuts about the dude all week!

 Jay carrying around his favorite things:

Binky, burpie and Ernie

 Sunday night, just chillin' in the family room with his burpie, binky, his light-up duckie from Bath and Body Works and his feet up on a pillow, lol...

Jay's Day Out

Today (Sunday) it was 90º out. Hubby wasn't up for playing outside in the heat and I wanted to make the most of a family day together so we decided to opt for some indoor fun.

We loaded ourselves up into hubby's air conditioned car and Jay started looking through a book as we drove over to the big indoor playcentre.

Only we learned that they're closed on Sundays during the summer - wtf?

So... we ended up at the mall.

We let Jay walk with us for a bit too, until he started getting distracted by fun things in various store windows and would drop our hands, running off towards the windows. He also got extremely distracted by the barking, flipping puppy toy that a toy kiosk had going.

Our main reason for stopping out at the mall was to let Jay play for a little bit in the "germ pit":

And of course he spied the 1 family sitting along the sides that can't read the "no food" rule and were breaking out the snacks of chips and Cheetos for their kids. He toddled right over to the mom with the food, his mouth open wide, waiting for her to give him a Cheeto /facepalm

Hubby said he saw them with the food, then he saw Jay noticing it too and thought "No... he wouldn't" only for it to turn into a "omg he is!"

We let him have the 1 Cheeto that the mom gave him and hubby tried to explain to Jay that you don't just walk up to strangers with your mouth wide open and insist they stuff their food into it. It was still pretty funny though - of course my kid has food radar!

We took the Cheeto incident as our cue that he was hungry so we went to the food court for a late lunch and got him a Burger King kids meal with chicken nuggets, a juice box and apple slices. He wasn't too fond of the apple slices though so I got him a fruit yogurt parfait from Subway since I was getting my food there. He most of the nuggets, 2/3rd of the parfait and drank all the juice box. He also got this nasty snake toy from Rango in his kid's meal that I don't think we'll be keeping in the house - yuck! His meal came in a box that had a tear of BK crown that we tried to get him to wear - he pulled it off his head (like he does with any hat these days *sad face*) and was a bit confused as to what it was!

After lunch we let him ride in one of the motorized ride cars for 75¢ before walking over to Barnes and Noble and taking him to play with the Thomas train set they have in the kid's section. There was another little boy playing there too who shared a few train cars with Jay. Jay was more interested in pulling all the books off the shelves though.

See, he's a tad OCD about books being on shelves - for whatever reason he *has* to pull them all off the shelves at home and put them on the floor ("Mommy, books don't go on shelves - they belong on the floor!"); I pick the books and DVD cases up most nights and put them away on the shelves, one of the first things Jay does when he's up in the morning is walk right over and pull them all down. Half the time he doesn't even look at them - he'll just pull them all down and leave them. One time we had cleaned up the family room as I was expecting company. I told hubby, who was watching Jay, to make sure he didn't destroy the family room (which is also our front room). It was literally killing Jay that we wouldn't let him pull all the books and DVD cases down - he threw such a fit over it, it was actually pretty hilarious! He had a complete meltdown over it!

So you can imagine, him in a bookstore... yeah... sooooo many books to put on the floor! LOL... Fortunately Hurricane Jay wasn't moving quite so quickly so we were able to pick them up as we went.

By the time we left there, it was time to go home and put Jay down for a late afternoon nap.

And that was Jay's Day Out.