The January That Never Ends

So I was chatting with my mom the other day, (ok let's be honest, I chat with her pretty much every day, Haha) but anyway, we were talking about how it feels like January is lasting forever. I mean, it feels like Christmas was AGES ago and it was just barely a month ago. How is that even possible?? I mean, not that it's been that bad. We've had some good things going on this month, but it just seems like it's dragging on. And it probably doesn't help that I had a bit of a relapse this week. I don't know what happened but it was awful! I threw up my dinner 5 days this week! It's ridiculous. And Wed-Fri I was getting horrible stomach pains, some contractions, and acid reflux on top of the nausea even though I've been taking my Zofran and my omeprazole faithfully. I don't know what triggered it but it was pretty discouraging. I even had to leave work early on Thursday because I was too tired and nauseous to work. Yesterday was much better but I still had a rough evening and threw up. *sigh*. Just when I think I've settled into a groove of functioning again, the HG rears its ugly head. But I know it's true what they said in our regional broadcast today, "There is no situation so bad that complaining about it won't make it worse." I'm going to really try to live by that more starting now. I know that moaning about how I'm feeling doesn't make me feel any better.

In other news, Eric, Levi and I toured a 3 bedroom apartment in our complex yesterday! It's on the top floor so no more noisy upstairs neighbors and it's got vaulted ceilings which make it feel lighter and more spacious. We still need to pray about it some more but we are definitely leaning towards taking it! Which is super exciting! It just seems to make sense for our family to move sooner rather than later so that we have time to get the nursery ready and get all unpacked before the craziness that the end of the school year is going to bring for me at work. And we found out that it's a little cheaper than we had expected so that's a big bonus as well! I'm super excited about it even though I'm starting to freak out about packing up our whole apartment in the next two weeks, especially with Eric and Natachia's wedding coming up meaning we will be gone one of those weekends! (Don't get me wrong, I'm super happy for them and excited for the wedding and to see my family, it's just stressful timing wise).

Speaking of the wedding, in preparation for it I finally took Levi and got his hair cut! It was a little hard to say goodbye to his little baby curls but he looks so big and grown up now! And he looks even more like Eric than before! Patty sent me some pictures of Eric as a baby and toddler and good heavens he and Levi look the same! Guess those Martino genes run strong!

Levi with his new big boy haircut. 

Seriously so dapper!

Let's see, what else has been going on here? Eric took me on a date to a hockey game a couple weeks ago and that was pretty fun! Decent hockey and well matched teams even though we ended up losing. Then we went to a cookie dough cafe where they serve eggless cookie dough in scoops like its icecream! That was different, very Portland. Haha. It was a little too sweet for me so I ended up just getting baked cookies instead but Eric liked it. Also, Eric, Levi and I went up to the OMSI yesterday as a last hurrah before our membership expires at the end of the month. They have this exhibit that shows what babies look like at different weeks of gestation using actual fetuses which is sad but also super amazing. It was really cool to look at the babies that are 23 weeks and realize that's what baby girl looks like right now. She's smaller than I expected given how hard she can kick and how close she is to potentially surviving outside the womb! But hopefully she stays in there and plumps up a lot before she decides to make her appearance! 

Other than that, not much is going on here. We found out that Lincoln's family is also expecting a baby girl due two weeks after ours which is awesome. We must be on the same family plan haha. Levi has been having fun at daycare and on playdates and at story time at the library. I feel like we are always running and busy but I also kind of love it. Oh! Except that he has gotten bitten by a kid at daycare twice now! Yikes! And then last Sunday he bit another kid during nursery!!! NO!!! I really don't want him to learn that this is ok behavior. We talk about how teeth are only for food and not for biting people but I still worry. He is just so oral. I feel like he always has something in his mouth. For example: 

We keep his binkies away from him except for during naps or bedtime but the other day he managed to get ahold of two of them! He acted like he had won the lottery! Hahaha.

We are trying to start really working on what things are appropriate to put in your mouth and what things aren't but with him it is definitely a struggle. He found one of my old nursing necklaces this week though and he has been wearing that around the house and chewing on it. I figure if that is working for him as a chewy, I'm ok with it. Better that than his books, our chairs, literally everything else in our house. Haha. 

So yeah, that's what's going on! Here's just a couple last pictures to round out the last couple of weeks:

Levi LOVES it when his friend Lincoln comes over to play!

They get along great (Levi hasn't bitten him yet, knock on wood! Haha) and it's so cute how they're like the exact same size. 

Levi's also been really into taking selfies lately. He will ask, "selfie?" But usually when he takes them, they involve only his forehead haha. This time I took charge of the phone. 

Baby "Car" is a...

2018 started off with a bang! Jan 2nd we got to find out the gender of baby#2!

I am soooo excited to have a sweet little girl joining our family! I feel like she already has a lot of personality. She was moving around a ton during the ultrasound and even waved at me and Eric at one point! I feel her moving a lot, especially if Levi is sitting on my lap. She will also kick back if I push on her at all, like, "hey! That's my space!" Haha she's gonna need that with Levi around! Haha. But yeah, I am super excited to buy cute little girl clothes and for some reason this has also made me even more anxious to move! I feel like we are all on top of each other here already I can't imagine adding baby and all her stuff to the mix! I know there's no reason to rush and I'm sure a three bedroom apartment will open up well before May but I just am ready to get out of here and into a larger space. Although the thought of packing up our whole apartment is a little bit overwhelming! I think it will also be a good chance to purge some things as well. I already sold our single jogging stroller so we are taking steps in the right direction.

Anyway, besides news of baby girl, other good things also heralded in the new year including a lovely visit from Trey and Patty. It was so fun to get to spend some time with just them and hear some awesome and funny stories, especially from Trey about his childhood and teenage years. And Levi took to them so quickly! I was surprised considering he didn't remember them at all. But now he asks after them regularly. We have practiced him saying "Texas" so that he knows where they are now.

While Trey and Patty were here the three of us took Levi up to the Portland Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun to watch Levi have fun and explore. They got him a membership there for Christmas and I am super excited to get to take him up there whenever I want over the next year. It is much more relaxing to let him play with someone else's toys and make a mess somewhere where I don't have to worry too much about cleaning it up! Haha.

Levi was soo cute in his little builder's hat!

He also wanted Papi to wear one. 

I love the serious expression that he gets on his face whenever he is concentrating on something. 

So yeah, since Trey and Patty have gone home we've settled back into our routine. January 1st was a Monday so we took the opportunity to make some goals as a family during family home evening including the goal to eat a good serving of vegetables with every lunch and dinner and I have to say we have been rocking it so far! I made salad as the central portion of our meal two nights this week and feel so good about how I've also managed to make sure to at least offer Levi a veggie at pretty much every meal and some snacks too! I am so grateful that I am well enough now to start eating healthy again. I am still medicated (tried to wean this last week for one day and it did not go well at all so I'm back on the meds) but that's ok. At least the meds work and I'm functioning. I am grateful for them. 

Anyway, so that's been life around here lately. I took Levi to the park yesterday while Eric had to go to a work meeting and snapped these super cute pictures of my boy. He's growing up so much and definitely, definitely in need of a haircut now!

He still loves his dragon boots. When given a choice of footwear he will always choose them :)

Love those blue eyes!