The Day I Found Out...

Dear Marshall,

Wow! It was three years ago tomorrow, October 31st, 2006, that I found out you were on your way into the world. It seems so long ago, but also just like yesterday. Your big brother, Patrick, was one day shy of being 3 months old. I was so surprised, yet very excited at the same time. I had a feeling you were a little boy from the very beginning, just as I had with Patrick. And, when that was confirmed I was so happy that you would have a big brother and that Patrick would have a little brother, especially since you guys are so close in age. Your due date (July 14, 2007) was exactly 11 months after Patrick's!! I had a very uneventful pregnancy and felt pretty good the entire time. I did go into preterm labor at 36 weeks, but you changed your mind at the last minute and decided to hold off another 2 weeks, leaving me 5cm dilated and wondering if you were going to just fall out at any given time! You arrived on July 2nd, a little early just as all Carraway babies like to do. You were in a hurry, too, as I was in labor for only about an hour adn a half. You had some major lungs from the moment you entered this world! You always make sure you are heard. You are also the sweetest boy. You are a 'feeler.' You are sensitive, and sensitive to others feelings. You love attention, in any shape or form. You have a twinkle in those big, brown eyes of yours and a grin that can melt any heart. You also have a little mischievous streak, too. It's those eyes and grin that pull you through that mischief!! You push the limits, both in good and bad ways. You will go far in this world because of this, provided we continue to channel this in the correct way. No person ever made change in this world without pushing limits, right?! You are the spitting image of your Grandfather and Uncle Christian, and you have your Uncle's personality, too. I wonder at times if you are his long lost twin! I cannot wait to see what God has in store for you. You are an amazing child and I love you more than you will ever know. My Marsh Man, my Marshy, my Marshmallow, my Mash Tater- I LOVE YOU and am SO blessed that God put you in this world as one of our children.

Love,
Momma :)

Your 3D ultrasound

I just loved seeing your sweet face while you were still in my belly!

Just moments before I would be holding you in my arms.

Lurkers

Well, I must admit, I AM A LURKER!! Not in the creepy sense, but in the oh-so-distracted-forgot-I-was-reading-your-blog-and-went-and-did-something-else-sense. I tend not to leave comments, usually because I get busy and don't have a chance to form any coherent thoughts to leave. Maybe I will make more of an effort!! But anyway, if you are a lurker, leave me a comment. Tell me who you are. Just click the little 'comment' link below each post and say hello! I can place most readers based on what the little Feedjit thing tells me, but not all. So, again, say hello! Maybe you will inspire me to do the same. :)

H1N1 Vaccine- Check...

Waiting in line all day- Check. Glad it's all over- CHECK.

Yesterday was the first day that they gave out the H1N1 vaccine in Cincinnati at the Health Department. Since our pediatrician said that they have NO idea when or even if they will get the vaccine in, we headed down to the Health Department. It was a not-so-great part of town, but I figured it was worth a shot. We got there about an hour before the clinic started and ended up being about 80th in line. They had only 177 vaccines and started turning people away shortly after we got in line. With our placement in line, I figured it would be a rather smooth, quick process. Um, NOPE. It took FOREVER. It was extremely UNORGANIZED. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that it was the first day and all, but it got pretty ridiculous. I guess that's further proof why our government SHOULD NOT run healthcare?! I ended up having to cancel my doctors appt. for my back and cancel Marshall's doctor's appt. for his ear- he woke up with blood coming out of it. I'm guessing an asymptomatic ear infection or a wad of play dough to be the culprit?! I'll keep you posted. But anyway, by the end of the day all three boys and myself were vaccinated. Yes, I got it, too. I brought a copy of my RN license and they were happy to give it to me. Yes, maybe slightly unethical being that I am not actually employed as an RN right now, but you gotta do what you gotta do. If I were to get sick, we'd be in a world of trouble! We'd have to have family fly in or something to take care of the kids. Not a hectic situation I want to deal with.

The boys, however, seemed to enjoy this crazy experience! They had tons of other kids around to play with and got to stay outside and run around for 4 hours while we were in line outside of the building. At least they were worn out after it all! We head to the car around 4pm, which was parked around the corner and several blocks away from the Health Department. The boys are too young to understand being in a not-so-great part of town, so that was a little difficult. They wanted to take their sweet time and look at everything and I just wanted to haul you-know-what and get back to the car!! We were even lucky enough to see a drug deal take place right at our car while we were only 10 feet away. Um, yeah, just what I want to be in the middle of with my three small children! I started walking REALLY slow once I figured out what was taking place, and the boys just kept telling me to go. Oh, the innocence of childhood!!

But, it's done now. Hopefully by the time they are due for round two of the vaccine it will be more accessible. Today we are off to have Marshall's ear checked out and I have to talk to the vet to figure out if I should do anything about the cat. Yesterday he was drooling like crazy, wouldn't eat and avoided all contact with me. He seems fine today, though. I'm guessing he got into something in the basement. We'll see. Just another thing to add to the to-do list, right?! Patrick also has another round to dental work this afternoon. My poor baby! Hopefully today she'll get at least two fillings done and Patrick will handle it okay. He was such a trooper last time!!

So, wishing a great Wednesday to all!!! Praying for a smooth ear appt. for Marshy and a smooth dental appt. for Patticakes. :)

Where's That Shirt?!

Last night while changing the boys into their pj's, Patrick's pj shirt went missing. Robert and I searched high and low for his shirt. I knew I had laid it out, but could not imagine what they had done with it in the brief 5 seconds before we changed them. I ended up just putting a long sleeved white t-shirt on Patrick and told him it was a special pj shirt. Well, I found the shirt this morning, just now. I picked up Marshall to help him into his chair to eat breakfast and noticed that his shirt felt a little thick. Low and behold, he had TWO pj shirts on!!! And, no, in my tizzy that is the 5-8pm time of day I DID NOT put two shirts on him. They like to put on their own clothes and I am guessing that Marshall got carried away and put on his brother's pj shirt, too! So, at least the shirt has been found and I feel a lot better about my sanity. I just knew that I had put that shirt out for them to change into!!!

Pumpkin Painting

Last week we did some pumpkin painting!! Patrick and I brought home 3 small pumpkins and some pumpkin paint from our trip to Shaw Farms. The boys had so much fun making their pieces of art! I really think you can see a lot of their personalities in their painting. Patrick's pumpkin was completely covered in paint. He even had me hold his pumpkin upside down so that he could get the bottom! He mixed all of the colors to that he pumpkin ended up being a peculiar shade of blue/gray. Marshall used all different colors on his pumpkin and was a little slower and more deliberate. He liked all of the bright colors! Graham kind of got the gist of the whole painting project by watching his brothers. In between eating all the paint off of the brushes he managed to get a little paint on his pumpkin! Not bad for a 14mo. old. Our pumpkins are now prominently displayed on our front steps next to my giant mum pots. It took a lot of convincing to get the boys to put their pumpkins outside, but I told them all of our friends would want to see them when they walked by our house. The boys, however, just wanted to use them to peg each other in the head in some sort of pumpkin dodge ball game! Boys will be boys...

Patrick working on his masterpiece.

Marshall's making some progress on his pumpkin!

Go Graham!! My little artist in training.

Momma and her little Picasso's.

Our finished product. Can you guess the artist of each pumpkin??

From left to right: Patrick, Marshall and Graham

Friday Family Fotos

So, who is going to volunteer to bathe this child for me?!

And, yes Robert, I let the boys eat all of your snack packs. :)

Breakfast is just not complete without Cars slippers on your feet!

Um, yea, I have NO idea what they are doing.
However, I do know that my entry way rug, throw blanket,
couch pillow and kitchen rug are totally out of place!

Special Trips

Tuesday was a day of "special trips" for the big boys! They each got to go somewhere with momma alone, which is a pretty rare event, as usually all three are in tow. I took Patrick on a fieldtrip with his preschool class to Shaw Farms. He was so excited and while we were packing up to head out he kept saying, "only one kid gets to go!" Marshall was pretty upset to not be joining us, but I kept reminding him of his special trip we were taking later in the day. I took Marshall to Joseph-Beth bookstore to buy a doggie stuffed animal like Patrick's and to play at the train table. We also stopped by good 'ol McDonald's for a Happy Meal on the way home!

My favorite pic of my little trip with Marshall!

My sweet Marshy all ready to go on his special trip.

He just LOVES the big train table at Joseph-Beth.
We were even lucky enough to be the only kids playing at the time.
Oops- only one kid! But, momma can count as a kid, too, right?!



Checking out the pig on the way out.

Headed home! Marshall picked out his new puppy dog

and even named him Cryer Avenue! We stopped by

the pet store to get him a new collar and make an engraved

name tag for him, just like Patrick's dog, Pat. Marshall

was also kind enough to pick up a dog for Graham!

We named him Doggie and he has a nice little collar and tag, too.

All three dogs- Pat, Cryer Avenue and Doggie are now members

of our family. They eat with us, take trips with us and sleep with us!

Shaw Farms, a great little working farm out in the Mason area!

We had fun meeting the entire HPCUMC Preschool there

for a hayride, animal petting and run running through the pumpkins!

Momma and her Patrick.

Gotta love the Scooby band-aids that he will not remove!!

I hear they are the latest fashion accessory for the 3 yr old crowd...

Look at that corn!

The soy bean field. I really love this picture because you

can see all the leaves that have changed for fall.

It was so beautiful in real life!

Dora and Boots were at the pumpkin patch, too!

Look! There are some of our friends on the tractor behind us!

Patrick loved looking back and seeing all of his buddies

on the three tractors that were coming behind ours.

Sweet Patticakes :)

Patrick giving the hop scotch a go!

I'm SO BIG, Momma!!

Patrick on the big wooden pirate ship.

All the kids loved running through all the huge wooden

cut outs they had at Shaw Farms!

Now, look at that beautiful girl Patrick

is on the horse and buggy with! ;)

I had a fantastic time taking a special trip with each of my big boys! It is so funny to see the change in their personalities when it's just one of them with me. It amazing- they listen, are more focused on activities and have this sweet little grin on their face the entire time. I really think they love the one-on-one time. This is something Robert and I plan to make sure happens with each of the three boys as they continue to grow older. I don't want them to be just grouped as the "Carraway Boys" all the time!

Wordless Wednesday

Good Morning Monday

Marshall and Graham woke up at 6:20am. Good thing momma got up at 5:45am and had some alone time with her coffee! Boys come downstairs to donuts for breakfast- yum! Well, not so much. Marshall sits to eat his donut and Graham protests. He wants momma milk for breakfast. He is in his chair looking up at me with huge brown eyes and big crocodile tears flowing. What do I do? Give in, of course. After a good dose of "mo-mo" he wants his donut. Too late! You snooze you loose in the Carraway house. Marshall took Graham's donut and ate it, leaving his completely untouched. Why do they do this??? Because when I tell Marshall to give Graham his donut since he ate Graham's he tells me that it is HIS donut and Grammy's is all gone. Uh, yeah. Because you ate it!!!

Patrick wanders down about 6:45am with "Pat" the dog. Since he has lost blue lovey, he has taken a liking to a stuffed chocolate lab he has. He named him Pat. Patrick jumps in his chair to eat his donut. Marshall and Graham are climbing down in the vent. I go to stop them. Patrick is sitting in the dining room singing a heavy metal version of Pattycakes, Pattycakes, Baker's Man. I love it- pretty funny!!!

Everyone is under control, two out of the three are dressed for the day. Big accomplishment in our house!!! Uh-oh. Boys are squirting water out of the fridge door. Lovely. Gotta run....

But, good morning, Monday!!! Please be kind to me. :)

Blue Lovey Update

The blue lovey was found, but has been lost again. AGAIN. Ugghh! I am hoping that it is in the playroom of the gym we go to, or maybe we left it at King Arthurs (a FABULOUS toy store, by the way, for anyone in our area!) So, be on the look out again. Blue lovey MUST be found...

And, once/if we recover blue lovey, I am making a new rule. Blue lovey DOES NOT leave the house!!! Not even for preschool. Patrick can take an alternate lovey or something because not only is nap time, boo-boo time and bed time horrific without blue lovey, the price for a replacement is pretty horrific, too. The little, darn 14x14in. things are $45 EACH! Or, maybe I should take him to Target to find a new type of lovey, preferably the $10 kind? Oh, wait, see previous post about trigger places. Maybe not a good idea...

Side note: I know that daddy believes I should just "do away" with loveys all together, but I just can't. I understand the deep attachment to these objects and just don't want to break their little hearts. I mean, they don't have a pacie or stuffed animal or any other object of attachment. Oh, I should also admit that all of this is coming from a person who slept with her blanket from her bassinet every night until her wedding night when Robert said it HAD to go. However, said blanket is kept in our nightstand and is occasionally brought out of hiding for a nice snuggle.

Target

I just LOVE Target. I spend WAY too much money there, according to my husband. But, that place totally sucks you in! I think that their marketing team might just be brilliant. However, my children do not share my love of Target. Target is one of those places that they just totally wig out in. I don't know why. All rules regarding behavior, manners, etc. go completely out the window while we are there. Why is this?? Does anyone else's child/children have "trigger" places? Just wondering.

But, while at Target yesterday, I was able to get each boy a pair of inexpensive bown shoes to wear and destroy. I have finally realized that as nice as Stride Rite is, my children do not have to have all of their shoes from that store. Especially considering to "shoe" all three of them there can be pretty pricey. So, mission accomplished. And, any person who saw us at Target yesterday, my deepest apologies go out to you. It was bad. But, just to make myself feel better, I will add that Target does not have the best shopping carts. All of the seat belts are constantly broken and my children must sense that they are not restrained and take total advantage of the situation. Oh well. Lessoned learned. No more Target trips with the boys in tow. And, again, anyone in that store yesterday, PLEASE accept my apology! :)

Potty Training Backfires and Nightmares

Well, I have a renewed enthusiasm for potty training!! GO ME. I had allowed Patrick to regress just because I was tired and overwhelmed, but not anymore. I bought these little Dora potty charts for both of the big boys. They get a star every time they do all the steps for using the potty. When they fill up their stars, they get a big sticker and a special treat. I'm still working on the special treat. I'm thinking maybe a trip alone with momma to do fun activity, or a bakery trip, or something like that. We'll see. But, Patrick has figured it out. He goes potty just a little bit, gets a star and does the whole routine over again. He's already put 4 stars on his chart this morning. This may be backfiring!

The hard part to all of this? Well, we are LIVING in the bathroom and it's only 9am on the first day. And, Marshall is trying his hardest to keep up the Patrick. Since they are Irish twins, and not true twins, Marshall is not quite as ready as his big brother, but he does not realize this. But, we are giving it a whirl!! Here's to a good potty training journey.

Now on to the nightmares. Robert walked downstairs in the middle of one our numerous potty trips this morning told me he had a dream. A dream that I told him I was pregnant and that was the reason I was in a bad mood yesterday. I informed him that it was no dream, but a NIGHTMARE! I know we are truly blessed and fortunate to have been able to become pregnant, but we are in no way ready for a fourth baby. Hopefully his dream was simply a dream and not anything foretelling our immediate future!!

Our Week in Fotos

Patrick had picture day this week at preschool. I told him to practice his picture smile and this is what I got! We'll have to wait and see how his school pictures turn out.

I am beginning to think my boys have a future career working in manholes! Duke Energy, Cincinnati Bell, Cincinnati Water Works you looking for any interns?!
The boys take off our vent covers, crawl in and think it's the most fun ever.

Yes, he is gnawing on my dining room table.
Yes, he left little marks. Yes, I got the stain pen and tried to fix it.
No, he is not a puppy. He is an obviously teething 14 month old!





Graham is bare bottomed! Let me explain...We were playing outside and I noticed that his leg looked really big. I went over and discovered that his diaper had fallen off and was around his calf. And, it was a pretty dry diaper, too! I've only had this sort of thing happen in the past with a diaper full from night time. I removed the diaper and let him continue to play outside for a little while. They say it's good to air them out occasionally, right?!

The same afternoon Graham went peeking through the fence
looking for Brutis, the boxer that lives next door.

I had been thinking that is was squirrels that were digging up my pansies, so I doused them in a TON of cayenne pepper. Much to my surprise, I have recently caught Graham digging in my pansies every time we are outside. I have also discovered that tons of cayenne pepper not only deters squirrels from digging up flowers, but also little boys!

The big boys' new favorite outside activity?

Digging in my flower beds for worms!

Their favorite digging tools?? Well, naturally all of my cooking utensils.

At least those things are getting some use these days...

Dumping out previously caught worms

so they can further destroy my flower beds to find more.

I got one, momma!!!

My boys are in no way, shape or form afraid of holding any type of bug!

They decided that the worms should be placed on the

bumper of my car, stuck up the trailer hitch, put in the tires, etc.

Lovely.

So, this pretty much sums up our week. Goofy smiles, playing in air vents, peeking through fences, running around bare-bottomed, destroying pansies and digging for worms. What little boy could ask for anything more?!

Blue Lovey

Oh, blue lovey, oh, blue lovey, where art thou, oh blue lovey?! PLEASE come home. Patrick's blue lovey has gone MISSING! Oh no. This is NOT GOOD. He managed to sleep last night without it, but when I woke up at 5:30am to nurse Graham he came to his bedroom door and asked me where blue lovey was. I don't know. So, if anyone sees a ratty, old, dish-towel-looking, dirty object that could be mistaken as a blue lovey let me know!!! We have numerous of these loveys, but they are not the blue lovey that he wants. The others are not as ratty and destroyed. And, Little Griaffe company, could you please start selling alreay loved on loveys?? With the satin edges sucked of, full of stains and no longer as soft as they once were? It would make my life MUCH easier.

The Children's Museum

Last Saturday, while Mimi was visiting from Memphis, we took a trip to the Cincinnati Children's Museum. The boys as a TON of FUN! It was a little crowded, being a Saturday, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time at the Children's Museum this winter, even though it is pretty much a germ fest. Graham has a cold now, and I'm assuming it's something he picked up while we were there. But, gotta build their immune systems some how, right?! Below are a bunch of our pics. Enjoy :)

Patrick running through the tunnel of the huge tree house.

This tunnel overlooked the play area, it was pretty cool!

However, the tree house was NOT made for mommas

to have to crawl through in order to keep up with their

little ones! Patrick thought it was soooo funny to go super

fast and watch me attempt to maneuver through all the nooks

and crannies!!

Momma and Marshall looking at the fish.

Marshall and Patrick watching the fish.
They both have always loved fish.
And, fish was actually Patrick's first word!



My Patticakes doing some construction work!

Marshy's dumping rocks into the truck.

Even little Grammy joined in the construction fun!

So, it is no surprise that Marshall went straight

to the cleaning supplies while playing

in the kitchen. Only one of my boys...

Marshall filling up the tank of the little car.

Graham's climbing up to the table for an afternoon snack!

The boys spent a lot of time in the grocery store.

They loaded up their carts, checked out and started

the whole process over again. It was even a matching

game, as they have pictures behind glass of where to

put your groceries back!

Marshall's loading up on some coffee (probably for momma!)

and some canned goods.

Graham getting in on the grocery shopping action!

Graham in the big ball area. They probably would
have stayed in this area all day! They had all sorts

of ball launching things that load up a big ball bin

and then a siren goes off and all the ball dump to the floor.

Every child in there would run over to have the balls fall on

them every time the siren went off!

Patrick dumping a bucket of ball into the big ball bin.

Mimi, Daddy Patrick and Marshall pulling

a bucket of balls up the the big bin.

I think some balls are about to drop!!

Well, the big boys found the cockroaches. Gross!!!

If I ever find one of these things in their bug
catchers, I can pretty much guarantee that

I will totally loose my cool! I can handle worms,

a praying mantis, ants, box elder bugs and caterpillars, but

cockroaches?! NO.

Do you feel as if something is crawling all over you yet?!

Daddy getting in on some construction action before we

headed for lunch. I guess it's every boy and man's dream

to play in dirt, dig and build things!!

Overall, it was a great trip! We all had tons of fun and even got to meet up with some old friends of Robert's that were visiting from Chicago. There was no major events (this is rare for us while on an outing!) The boys played nicely and Graham only started to melt down once, when he got hungry. What happened next I found a little humorous! I headed to the infant area and asked where the Mother's Room was. I went into this nice, cozy little room that had an image of a mother feeding her child on the door. When I walked in I found several dad's who were obviously totally over the Children's Museum. One was even sitting in the chair with his head cocked back dozing! I looked around at them, then back at the image on the door and then just walked out. I should have just sat down in there and started to nurse Graham. Something tells me they would have been A LOT more uncomfortable in this situation than I would have been! But, we headed off to the women's restroom to have our mid morning snack.

After spending the morning playing, we head to the food court for some yummy lunch. After eating the boys, especially Patrick, were ready to head back to the elevator to go do some more playing! But, momma said it was time to go home and nap.