Martin Family Updates

In age order from youngest to oldest...buckle up because here we go....

Xander, Xander, Xander, what will become of Xander?  My 16 month old (yesterday!) not so little boy.  He is still huge, still cutting his 4 molars, and still screaming instead of using his inside voice.  You gots to be loud to be heard in this house, ya know?  He is thriving under the loving care of his Portuguese nanny who stuffs him full of soup, veggies, chourizo, and milk all day long.  He can understand both English and Portuguese which is priceless but doesn't say too many words (is it his age?) which is the opposite of priceless.  Pricey?  That doesn't seem right.

 He'll thank me later for not showing too much skin in this picture.

But then get mad about this one, perhaps.

Ewe's not fat, ewe's fluffy.

Maggie Moo is about to turn FIVE on Saturday! 

  Here she is with her boyfriend that she swears she's going to marry, Robby.  She is in the early reading stages (knows a lot of small words, sounds out the rest) and is into dolls, fashion, and her girl friends.  She talks about the little girls in her class all the time which only makes me wish she had a sister even more. But then I think about having two Maggie's, and I think God knew what He was doing (duh)! She is a bit high maintenance, but so sweet, funny and loves to sing and dance.  She loved playing soccer with her brothers (whom she always refers to as "my boys") and can't wait to start *real* (as opposed to the ones at the YMCA) swimming lessons at the college pool in the spring.

Eamon is a sweet and affectionate Kindergartner.  He loves cuddling up on our laps and sometimes Phil says he gets a little handsy with me, but I'll take it because he'll be a big guy in no time who won't want to sit in his mom's lap anymore.  He's started drawing like crazy lately, and will take a notebook into the family room and draw the characters he sees on his nightly tv show.  This picture is dark, but I think you can make out that he's drawing Quack from Peep.

He is doing awesome at school, and only gets in trouble sometimes for talking to his cousin (and BFF), Tommy, who's in the same class.  He still has a lisp and we will be seeing a speech pathologist in December to see what we can do.  The public school system said he was "too intelligent to qualify for services".  Ummmm, he needs help with his speech, not his intelligence.  Wasted tax dollars.

Andrew is my 8 year old superhero in disguise.  I mean, just look at this flying leap:

 No fear, this one.  Never has had any.  Everything comes easy to him and his one struggle is his temper.  I guess we can't all be prefect, huh?  He has his mother's Irish temper that is quick to flare up but doesn't hold a grudge.  He's doing wonderfully in school and gets really goofy with his friends, as is age appropriate.  He still dreams of playing for the Patriots, but we won't let him play football until he's 18 so that's gonna take a lot of cramming to rise to the professional level in his college years ;)  I know, we're mean parents like that.  We're also nixing ice hockey because so many of the bad boys around here play it.  Not that all ice hockey players are mean, but all the mean boys do happen to be ice hockey players.  Just kidding!  I just don't want him in any sport that praises tackling/fighting of any kind.  Because he would totally be the kid with no front teeth and a crooked broken nose.

John-Paul is 3 months shy from being double digits, even though Phil is definitely too young to have a ten year old.  Breaking news: I just got the green light from Lotus that I can go ahead and post the following pictures:

Do you see what I see?

 A closer look...

So cute!

John-Paul is such a good big brother.  Always helpful (unless his nose is stuck in a book and he can't hear us) and always forgetful!  He's basically Brick Heck without the whispering and whooping ticks.

He sets a great example for the younger kids in the family and loves to play sports even when he's not the best on the team :)  He has an artistic side and prefers reading or creating experiments to watching football on tv, which his Dad just does.not.understand.

Phil is the picture hater extraordinaire (so we'll just have to use a repeat): 

This picture suits him perfectly - a totally involved Dad who's willing to do the dirty work and not complain about it.  Plus he cooks and cleans, and he's super easy on the eyes :)  What more could a girl want?  Phil is still the Department Chair of Theology at our Catholic high school, and has one internship until he's done with his latest Master's in Administration.  

Me, posing last night with my lookalike, Eamon and his lookalike, Xander.  Do you agree?

So just to update you on the weird medical stuff going on with me....I should probably wait until I have answers, but I'm more of an oversharer.  Sorry.

I went to my doctor yesterday who drew more blood to test my thyroid levels again (they were very low on Friday night at the ER) and some other stuff.  He felt my neck and said my thyroid felt "stiff" and ordered an ultrasound for tomorrow afternoon.  I also happened to get Raynaud's disease on Sunday when I discovered that my right thumb and knuckles were blue.  Like scary blue. I guess it can be caused by stress, so I'm hoping that if it's my thyroid that's influencing my stress levels, we can get that figured out and all these weird symptoms will stop.  

So that's the family update, and if you've read the whole thing, you're ah-mazing.