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.

Relief

So, I am writing to rave about Active Response Techniques!! The past few months my back pain and tightness got out of control. It was making me miserable and unable to run. I asked around and was referred to an ART provider. It is working! After 3 weeks of treatment I am feeling better. ART is a form of soft tissue massage and stretching. It is not exactly comfortable to have done, but it seems to be working out my knotted up hip flexors and back. Evidently, being pregnant for 3 years and running has wrecked havoc on my hips. But, we are making progress. Yippee!!! I ran yesterday and for the first time in months I did not feel as if I was fighting my body. It was so liberating! You runners out there know what I'm talking about. A nice, good, fast, hard run that felt amazing. It made me remember why I love to run! So, any of you out there that are having back/neck/leg pain issues, look into ART. Google it and you'll get to their site to find a provider in your area. I'm too lazy to figure out how to post the link. :) I am fighting the urge to go on a nice, long run today, as I don't want to jinx myself, but maybe tomorrow!! Here's to happy, pain free runs! :) :)

Hitting the Wall

I have hit the wall....the Exhaustion Wall. Big time. Can someone pass me a spatula, a BIG one, so I can try to pry myself off?? Puleeezzeee!! This is terrible. The sinus infection has wiped me out, my new neighbors are insane with their Wednesday night partying, Graham is still waking up once to nurse and Marshall went and decided to have a bad dream and need mommy to come in bed with him. The change in weather is not helping, either. What am I going to do when the time changes and it's dark at like 4pm?? I'm really going to want to sleep then! And, to my doctor that I saw yesterday for my back, NO I am NOT going to train for any races right now. I'm BURNT OUT. He runs marathons like every other weekend. HA! Not me. His wife is pregnant with her third baby now, and all of their children are close together, like ours. I want to see the two of them hit the pavement running marathons next year!! But anyway....off to make breakfast for my little men. I'm thinking that I should have ranted on Monday just for the heck of it, because now her sisters, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are giving me way too much trouble.