Brothers and Chopsticks

As part of Patrick's Multicultural November at school he got to eat rice with chopsticks!!! He had a lot of fun and was able to bring his chopsticks home. Of course, he wanted to have them in the car. So, I got them out of his bag and let him hold them in his car seat. Big mistake!! As I'm driving down the road I look in my rear view mirror and see that Patrick has given Marshall a chopstick and that they are using them as swords to poke each other!!! Our ride home from school involved pulling over into a parking lot, me taking the "swords" away and the boys screaming the entire way home. Lesson learned- brothers and chopsticks do not mix. AT ALL!!!

Updates

Hello!! Some updates to previous posts. Enjoy :)

All Smiles: Well, I must say, we have been blessed with three beautiful, happy little boys!!! Graham has mastered the "social smile" and will flirt with just about anyone! I am so in love with his big, gummy grin!...Patrick loves to smile, too. He will keep saying "cheese" whenever a camera is present...Marshall has quite a big, mouthy smile!!! Just like his mommy. I do still dream of the day when I can capture all three of their beautiful smiles in one picture.

Pumpkin Patch: The boys still love pumpkins. Patrick still thinks they are "geen" instead of orange. We're working on that one!

The Papi Fairy: Well, she has not made it to the Carraway house. We limit the pacie to the crib only, but Marshy is a hoarder. He reaches in his crib and pulls out as many pacies as his little hands can hold!!! He reminds me of the dog on the race track chasing the rabbit- he will follow you where ever you go with his mouth wide open if you hold out a pacie. This is how we often lure him upstairs to go to bed. Sounds cruel, but he's laughing the entire time!! We're going to have to get his one on our video camera.

Butter: Still a favorite! The big boys will eat just about any veggie if I put spray butter on it. Marshall even says "bubber" now when he wants butter on something!

Big Trucks: Boys LOVE trucks!! They even know what one sounds likes when it drives by our house. We spend a lot of time watching the UPS man do his daily runs down our street!

Exhaustion: I'm not feeling too tired these days. Spent some time trying to catch up on sleep, eat better and relax. Trying to put my OCD tendencies on the back burner when it comes to house cleaning. Not doing so well with this one, but I'm working on it! I cannot stand to have a house that is not absolutely spottless. If only I were this determined to keep caught up on laundry...But, at least I'm feeling better. The nasty sinus heachaches I was getting that actually rivaled natural childbirth have subsided and that makes a huge difference!! I am still on track with my running to do the Flying Pig 1/2 Marahon and I am going to run the Jingle Bell Run/Walk in a couple of weeks!!

Halloween: We actually put all the candy away Halloween night, but the boys have figured out sugar!! Patrick will say at dinner, "All done, Momma. I want treat!" and hand me his plate that does not have a single bite missing!

Milestones

Last night Graham reached a milestone- he rolled from back to front! Go Grammy!!!!! He was quite proud of himself, until he realized he was doing "tummy time." He quickly bagan to fuss and wanted to be on his back. Graham is NOT a fan of "tummy time," but neither were Patrick and Marshall! Graham was all smiles again, though, once he was on his back and Patrick came over to bring him a pacie. Patrick has decided that if a baby cries they MUST have a pacifier- whether they want one or not!

Jack-in-the-Box

Patrick Pretending to be a Jack-in-the-Box

Patrick-in-the-Box!!!!

Patrick not wanting it to be a Patrick & Marshall-in-the-Box

Patrick making it clear to Marshall that he is not welcome in the Jack-in-the-Box!!

Last night while the boys were playing in the playroom we heard Patrick saying, "Jack-in-the-box! Jack-in-the-box!!" I went in to see exactly what he was talking about, since we don't own a Jack-in-the-box, and saw him popping up out of a toy bin that he had taken all the toys out of! He proceeded to carry the bin around, climbing in and popping out. It was pretty funny! Then, Marshall wanted to join in on the action. He climbed in the toy bin, too. Patrick, of course, was less than thrilled about this. The evening ended with the boys wrestling on the dining room floor. Just another episode of Carraway WWF....

Say What!?!

As we all know, kids say the funniest things!! I've been keeping track of many of them over the past year or so and have decided to post some of our most recent favorites. Enjoy :)

Patrick:

"Oh, man!!!" in a high pitched voice every time he drops something, something doesn't do what
he wants it to, etc...
"Come on, peepee, come on!!!" as he slaps his leg when he's sitting on the potty or standing at
the potty.
"I comin', MaChe, I comin'. I comin', Gammy, I comin'!" when Marshall or Graham are fussing
and need attention. Can we guess what Mommy says when one of the boys needs
something and I'm busy with another?!
"Goin' on a tip!!!" whenever we get in the car to go anywhere. Patrick and Marshall get SO
excited if we say we are going on a trip!! Hmmm....wonder if they'll feel that way
after our long car trips over the holidays?!
"Daddy"is a slightly British accent. It cracks us up every time!! Don't know where he heard it,
but Marshall does it too!
"Damn, MaChe!" And, yes, this one if my fault. I apoligize in advance for when Patrick is sitting
at Christmas dinner and looks over at Marshall and says, "Damn, MaChe!!."
New Year's resolution for Mommy is to use less foul language. At least he hasn't
dropped any f-bombs yet, as we don't use that one!!! (Thank goodness!)
"Momma a hottie!" Robert is to blame for this one. I guess Robert's New Year's resolution will
be similar to mine!!

Well, that's all that I can think of right now. I'll have to look up some of the older ones. But, the Carraway's are now off to prepare for our family outing to the mall. Totally Robert's idea, not mine!!

Big Boy!

Yes, Graham is becoming a big boy!!! He has decided he must be sitting up at all times- no reclining. I don't know if he does this because he's just getting older (don't think the other boys wanted to sit up this young) or because he wants to know when his brothers are moving in for the kill!! When Graham is sitting up in the exersaucer-his new favorite thing- Patrick and Marshall come over to play with him and he absolutely loves it.

However, I must admit, this makes me a little sad. Graham is no longer my squishy little newborn!! He is growing up. This summer I had a mother of three tell me that she appreciated and enjoyed the newborn/infant stage more and more with each baby because she knew how quickly it passed. I definitely think this is the case with me, too. I am relishing in the first smiles, cooes and milestones much more these days and try to take extra time to appreciate them. I know that all too soon Graham will be less reliant on me. He will no longer rely on me for food and extra cuddle time. He will be running through the house with his big brothers recking havoc!! But, at least for a short time more he is my little guy. :)

Halloween

Patrick is Ready to Get Candy!!!

Marshall Loves Chocolate!!

Our Little Monkey


Graham's First Halloween!!!



Momma and Her Boys!


Daddy and His Boys!

Happy Halloween!!! We had a blast Friday night trick-or-treating! All three boys were in a pleasant mood (very rare) and we went up and down our street to collect candy. Although, I must admit I was dreading the whole thing up until about 6:30pm because for the past month Patrick and Marshall have wanted nothing to do with their costumes. Patrick would just say, "Marshy monkey, Marshy be elephant." He didn't want to put either costume on! And, when we went to a friend's house for a party Friday morning, Patrick was scared of all the kids in costumes! But, he warmed up at the party and we ended up making some arts and crafts, having lunch and heading home just in time for nap. Thanks Colleen for a wonderful time!!!...So, Friday around 6:30pm Robert told the boys it was time to put on their costumes. They both just looked at him confused for a minute, but when he said they could get treats if they wore their elephant and monkey the switch was flipped!!! Patrick was all about his elephant outfit!!! Marshall didn't conplain too much because his big brother was doing it, so it must be okay. So, off we went to trick-or-treat!! Patrick carried his little brothers' candy bags and at each house the held them out to collect candy. However, he was somewhat confused by the whole process! He got a sucker at the first house and began to eat it. Then, at the next house he wanted to put the half eaten sucker into the candy bowl and pick a new piece!! It was hysterical! Once we got past the whole don't put your old candy back, just take another piece thing they all had fun. Marshall is a huge chocolate fan, as his face is a total mess in all of our pics! I think they both should have had terrible stomach aches, with as much candy as they ate, but they crashed from their sugar highs and drifted off to sleep quite nicely!!

Robert and I then headed out, with Graham, to our annual neighborhood Halloween block party. It was a ton of fun!!! We sat by the fire pit, ate smores and had lots of great food! Thanks, Don and Terry, for the awesome pulled pork you smoked!!! Graham was a trooper at the party and got to be passed around the whole night. He just smiled and cooed at everyone and seemed to enjoy himself. He's our party baby! He went to his first outdoor party when he was only 4 days old, so I guess he's got it down!!

The Carraway's had a great weekend, overall!! The boys have somewhat adjusted to the time change and we have a week of temps in the 70's!!! So, we'll get to spend lots of time outside this week burning off all the extra energy they have from eating all of our Halloween candy.