Tuesday, November 27, 2012

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.  

11 comments:

  1. When it comes to being bilingual, children tend to speak later on than kids who are in a monolingual environment! I had a class last year on the Psychology of bilingual kids, and they just have more to process, as they are learning double the amount of words! Being brought up in a culture where many kids are bilingual (Polish American), I definitely see that happening a lot! But in the long run, speaking 2 languages is a huge plus :)

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  2. prayers for health! and I feel the same way about Hockey. Imagine my horror when I realized one of lil' A's favorite toys is his hockey stick :( No good comes from the culture of children's/teen's icw hockey

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  3. LOooove these kids. Can't wait to see them. Hopefully I can still hobble over to your house in a few days.

    As for Xander, Ava's not speaking a lot of "words" either and look who her mother is! Many bilingual kids have a few delays, but I don't think Xander's behind by any stretch. As long as those speaking portuguese and English are using good, complete language models (instead of broken or fragmented language) you should be good. You can also tell that he has excellent language comprehension (he understands everything you're saying) and that shows that there isn't a language processing issue.

    Your kids were ALL super smart (I should know), so no worries now Mrs. Martin. He also doesn't NEED to speak as much as he has everyone doing it for him.

    Maggie. I love that chiquita... but God knew what he was doing. ;) And if I recall... someone BEGGED for a girl!

    Eamon. Love that he's drawing. Always has been so good at that. And he's def mini-you

    Andrew. So handsome. I'm lucky I've barely ever seen that irish temper you mention. He's always been so patient that I recall.

    John Paul. Growing up beautifully. Kiss him while you can and tell him it's from me! xo

    As for YOU! Give a call & let me know what's going on IRL.

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  4. lol..you have a great family:)!

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  5. Hope you are feeling better. Healthy stuff can be scary.
    This is a long post...so much to see and say. I had the same thing happen with a son of mine..in Catholic school but the public school wouldnt help him because he was too intelligent...I think it was because he was in Catholic school.
    cute kids!

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  6. Where to start?! Prayers for your medical stuff! Maybe some of it is cold-weather related too? Well, we just got cold weather here today (58!) so maybe I'm completely off...

    Your hair is getting long and it looks really good on you. That picture set-up of Xander was spit-your-drink-out funny :) Why does 5 sound so old?!

    Lotus and John Paul holding HANDS??? It's like the gossip blogs of celebrities. Because all these little kids are the future of our worlds. I love it. I hope they continue ;)

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  7. The hand-holding is TOO presh. So glad you got the green light on those!!!

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  8. You have been blessed with such a wonderful family! You're a great mom and extra prayers heading your way!!! XOXO

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  9. I love your update posts and when you let us all in on the ins and outs of Martinville. How quickly they are all growing!! My, how your Maggie Moo (did I tell you I sometimes call my Margaret 'Maggie Lu', eventhough I said I'd never call her Maggie. ha!)is growing. How is she FIVE already?! Promise me you'll give her lots-o-hugs from me on her big day ;)

    Your family looks wonderful and happily growing and thriving. Now, as for health issues, I'll keep you in my prayers. Having been the recipient of thyroid issues over the last few years, I def. know it can have some weird effects and that monitoring it is a good thing. I have labs to have mine rechecked today since my weight keeps dropping (horrible, I know). Although I feel all is fine, I still get it checked periodically because I have had problems in the past. Keep us posted on how things go. Mama needs to stay healthy to take care of those kiddos and amazing husband too.

    Let me say it again--how cute are you!!?? I'm always amazed at bloggers/mamas that look so amazing all.the.time. Lucky dogs!!

    Alrighty, now I'm inspired to do a family update on my blog since I've essentially fallen off the face of the blog world. Life is kickin' my butt right now.

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  10. 3 years ago I had over half of my thyroid removed swollen with 3 nodules (benign!) and my levels are borderline low. It was interesting to find out how many thing can be caused by thyroid levels. I hope everything goes well!

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  11. Baby butts are the cutest thing ever....and Xander's does not disappoint.
    Wow. that came out creepy.
    So glad all is well....except for YOU figuring out what is going on. I hope you have good Dr.'s who are patient and give you their undivided attention. I found that right there could be a roadblock. Please update us...we worry about you!
    XO

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