Hello Holidays

 I've said this before at other times in my life but it is true once again: time seems to be flying by and standing still all at once. I am so grateful that I am privileged enough that I could quit my job and not have to go back to work after 8 weeks of maternity leave. That would have meant that I would be back to work already! I can't imagine working right now. Isla is still so little and I am loving having her precious baby snuggles. I love being with her but at the same time, the weekdays are long as I try to balance caring for both girls and attending to mundane tasks like cleaning and laundry. In the moments where Isla is screaming due to gas pain and Emery has been whining all day due to lack of attention, boredom and/or feeling under the weather due to the neverending colds she keeps getting, I feel like I am going to go crazy. But even in those moments, it is still so much easier than things were post-partum with Emery because Eric is here. He's right there in his office if I ever need him to just take the baby for a moment or try to get Emery to do her works so I can shower. It makes things so much easier for me and I am SO grateful for it. I've been reflecting lately on how I don't want to miss things with my kids. They're only little like this for such a short time. I have the whole rest of my life to work and pursue my own pursuits. But at the same time, I'm not sure I would really be happy committing to being a SAHM full time. But this is definitely the closest I've come to really considering it. I've quit my job already, I could just not go back for a while. It would mean a complete lifestyle switch for our family. We would definitely need to find a cheap but worthwhile preschool for Emery. And I would need to "find my tribe" of other SAHM friends. Maybe join a workout group for moms. Start going to storytime regularly. Trade babysitting so I could help out at Levi's school. Things I wouldn't have time for if I'm working even part-time. I guess I'm just wondering if two weekdays a week is enough with my girls. Especially when one of those days is pretty well eaten up by laundry? When Levi was a baby, I had to start working. I had my PT license but hadn't started working as a PT at all. And at that time, Eric was struggling to find work so I especially needed to work. Then, when Emery was born, I had just gotten my foot in the door in pediatric PT and felt that I really needed to stick with it to build my resume in pediatrics so that I could hopefully one day have a job like the one I have (had) now. And with her, I was only working 2 days a week. Now, I love my job. It's what I want to do in PT. But do I want to do it now? Or I do I want to hit pause for a longer while and see what it's like for our family if I'm here more to experiment with healthy meals and make homemade gummies with Emery and do more crafts and stuff. It would mean a lifestyle change for us financially- especially because of the loss of health insurance for me and the kids that we currently get through my work. There's a lot to think and pray on. 

Meanwhile, we are forging ahead as though I am going back to work in January. I did reapply for my job and put my available start date as January 17th. And we are looking for a nanny for Isla so that we can do a nanny share with the Gordons in our ward. Their daughter, Alice is 8 months old and they said the girls could be watched at their house. So we figure that would be better from a germs perspective and also allow Isla more one-on-one attention than she would get at a daycare. I just hope and pray we can find the right person to nanny for us! 

Anyway, while all this pondering has been going on in my head and my heart, life keeps flying by. November seemed to pass in a blur and suddenly it was Isla's blessing day with my family in town to visit! I am sooo glad Katie and Kendall could come, even if it was only for two days, and meet baby Isla. I wish, as always, we lived closer together. 

First time being held by Auntie Katie and check out that smile! 

Also giving the love eyes and smile for Uncle Kendall too! 

Happy Blessing day baby girl! Her blessing was so beautiful. I really appreciate how I can tell that Eric is directed by the spirit as he gives the blessing. He pauses and listens before speaking and it is always so amazing.

Happiness is all of us together :) 

Man I just have the cutest kids and the best family ever! 

My parents got to stay with us through Thanksgiving. We enjoyed big family Thanksgiving dinner out at the ranch which was soo nice and also had fun decorating gingerbread houses and going to the McKinney tree lighting downtown.

With Grandma and Grandpa here of course we went to the zoo again! My Emery girl is looking so big and grown up these days! 

At the tree lighting there was also a model train display that the kids liked looking at. 

Since Thanksgiving, our family has been busy doing the Christmas things! Decorating, advent calendar, shopping for gifts, making and dropping off treats for friends and neighbors, sending Christmas cards, etc. Eric took Levi and Emery to a live drive-by nativity last night that was apparently pretty cool. I tried to go with but it was Miss Isla's bedtime and she is not a fan of riding in the car so...Eric and I decided everyone would have a better time if I stayed home with her instead of subjecting all of us to constant screaming. 

I wish that in the midst of all this, we could be as social as we want to be but in a cruel irony of trying to avoid germs and grappling with the effects of germs we already have, we have had to cancel or choose not to attend several things with friends. In November, Levi brought a cold home from school that all of us got (including poor baby Isla- thankfully it was mild for her!) but in Emery it caused a double ear infection which was resistant to the first round of antibiotics so we had to go with a second, different antibiotic. Then, Emery came down with a mild fever and hives all over her body which still have not fully cleared up over a week later. Now, Emery has ANOTHER cold and runny nose and I managed to develop what I'm pretty sure was mastitis which gave me an awful fever with chills and sweats and body aches and extreme fatigue for a couple days last week. Oh, and Eric's cough from the cold in November never really cleared up so he's still dealing with that. It's all very lame and I just wish that all my efforts for us to avoid getting sick would start working a little better! But even though we're struggling to stay healthy, life is still pretty darn good over here in the Martino house. I mean, check out these smiles:

Lights and music are a pretty good motivation to lift her head! Even with those super chunky cheeks holding her down! haha

November also brought the end of the soccer season! I feel like both kids really improved in their soccer skills this year. Next up: more gymnastics and Ninja classes! 

Poor Emery's hives were really bad the first couple nights and thankfully have calmed down significantly although she still has them! They move around but show up on her face, arms, hands, torso and legs- basically anywhere. 

"If I just try hard enough I'm sure I can fit my whole fist in my mouth!"

NBD Emery just totally looking like the threenager that she is. 

I do love how much Emery just adores Isla 

"Raising my eyebrows definitely helps me lift my head!"

Happy baby! 

I can't believe how good my baby girl is getting with tummy time! Look at her reading her book today! I am seriously impressed. 

Isla Sage Newborn Photos

 We got family pictures and newborn pictures done of Isla when she was just over a week old. I'm somewhat obsessed with them! I have the most beautiful baby and wonderful family! 

They both love their baby sister so much and I love seeing them love on her!!

Such a cute squish!!!

This little sleepy smile is the best!!

Love these fall colors for my little Isla Sage. 

Hello sweet little toes!

Onederful Month Old Isla

 Well, Isla is 4 weeks old today. Tomorrow starts my first day "alone" with the kids although Eric will be working from home so I won't really be all by myself. It's intimidating but has to happen eventually. And Isla is finally sleeping a bit more at night so that helps! For the first three and a half weeks she wouldn't go longer than 2.5 hours between feeds even in the night time which got exhausting pretty fast, especially since she's pretty refluxy so we hold her upright for 15-20 minutes after eating. BUT the last two nights she suddenly started sleeping longer! Night before last I feed her at 8 and then she slept until 1 am! And then she slept again till 5! It was awesome. Last night she did another long earlier evening stretch (9-1) but then ate every 3ish hours after that. But the biggest struggle for my sleep honestly isn't even how often she is eating but rather how grunty she is! She makes so much noise at night! She grunts and squirms and coughs sometimes and gags and just is generally noisy even though she is asleep. I think its partially the reflux and partially that she is just generally very gassy despite my diligent attempts to burp her and she holds her poop so she'll go a full day or more with no poop and then squirm and fuss a lot and then have a blow out. I'm hoping she learns how to poop and fart more easily soon! Until then, Eric advocates for putting her in the closet to sleep but I just feel anxious about having her not right by us at night even with the owlet sock on. I do think the owlet sock is helping me sleep better and not feel as anxious but I still feel uncomfortable putting her farther away from us. So, Eric has been taking her out and sleeping on the couch with her about once a night for an hour or two when she's being especially noisy and keeping me up. He sleeps through it much better than I do and he's very patient and good with her when she is actually awake and can usually get her back to sleep well. 

Sleepy baby smiles

We spend a lot of time together with her on my knees making faces at each other! 

I feel ya sister!

More sleepy baby smiles

Ugh life is just too much to open my eyes! 

Anyway, with the lack of sleep, these past several weeks have passed in that zombie-like blur of the newborn period. Sometimes I am amazed at how little I get done and how much I feel like all I do is feed the baby even with my Mom and Eric to help out. My Mom was here until last Sunday and was a HUGE help, especially with Emery who got so much love and attention from Grandma. Emery has been struggling a little bit with not being in school. She says she doesn't miss school and she likes being home but I can tell she is missing the structure of school and the socialization. She is constantly asking to go to Maren's house or Silva's house and she is always asking "what we going to do after this?" and when I tell her she says "and after that? and after that?" She likes to know the plan! Which is challenging when there really isn't much of a plan! Haha. And I do feel bad because Maren and Silva are both in preschool now, Silva from 9-3:30 every day so they don't have much time for play dates! And I have been very cautious about germs around Isla what with RSV being so high here right now and it being flu season. So I've not wanted to take Emery to indoor play dates or places like the children's museum where I just feel like there's so many germs. So while my mom was here she mostly took Emery to the park to play or to the outdoor story time at the library. This week I did let Emery go over to the Ennis's house for a play date because I know they are super germ conscious and safe too so I feel comfortable with them. She had a blast playing with other kids her age! She's been missing nursery but we've just been watching church at home. Eric and I have talked about it and decided to go back for Sacrament meeting only starting next week. I would be fine with us staying for 2nd hour except for the whole nursery thing. I feel like Emery regularly catches bugs from nursery because there are people in our ward who will send their kids sick to nursery and none of the teacher or anything wear masks and I don't think the toys get cleaned much or anything. Soooo, I feel bad that Emery is missing her favorite part of church but also I just don't feel comfortable. She will age up to Sunbeams in January and I am seriously considering just keeping her out of second hour of church until then. Eric feels like we should maybe let her go to nursery again before that but I'm not sold on it yet. We'll see how we feel in December but that's such a germy month here in TX with people traveling and everything that I doubt I will want her to go. It's a bummer but I just really don't want Isla to end up with RSV. 

Anyway, so to try to help Emery out with a little more structure, Eric was an awesome dad this week and came up with a little preschool at home schedule. He planned out 2 hours of each day broken into 15 minute work segments for her to do. She does 1 hour with him and one hour with me and she has been responding really well to it. I feel like she's been happier this week having that bit of focused time and attention. He tried to do things that draw from the Montessori works she's used to but also introduced some new things. So she's been doing work books, pin poking, number puzzles, letter tracing, lacing cards, etc. He tried to make many of things stuff she can do mostly independently once she's set up with it so that's good. I feel better with her doing these things so I don't feel like she's forgetting everything she learned at her Montessori school. She's a very smart girl and already knows many of her letters and the numbers 1-10 (like can match a group of 5 objects to the written number 5). I want to make sure we continue to intellectually stimulate her. 

So excited about the rubber band board Daddy got her as one of her works. 

Also, my Emery girl LOVES clothes. Here she's showing off a new dress I had gotten her for family pictures (although she ended up wearing something else for the pictures anyway). I took her shopping with me this past week for some winter clothes for all three kids and she is all about it! She loves holding up options and deciding and couldn't wait to get home and show Daddy what she picked out. It is so fun having a little girly girl to shop with!! 

Speaking of intellectual stimulation, we had Levi tested for the gifted and talented program this week. I gave him a heads up that they would be pulling him from class to do puzzles. He told me he had a lot of fun with the puzzles and that they were easy for him. We should hear by the beginning of December whether or not they are putting him in the program. I think it would be good for him because he is definitely gifted with numbers but we'll see. Thankfully, he seems to really like school even though all the math work in his class is way too easy for him. He has become very good friends with Kyler Thompson (from our ward) and talks about him a lot. We went to the ward trunk or treat on Friday night and Levi and Kyler quickly ran off to trick or treat together and were inseparable the whole night. It's incredibly cute. And Matthew, Valerie and Silva came to our trunk or treat too so Emery had fun being with Silva. Matthew, at Eric's invitation, had arranged the Pokemon theme song in a minor key for us to play since we had a Pokemon themed trunk! The trunk was Levi's idea. He had a very distinct vision of how he wanted it to look. He came home from school one day and was like, "I need some cardboard and I need to measure the trunk!" He traced a wooden circle I gave him and with Eric and Emery's help made a whole bunch of Pokeballs to decorate the trunk with. Then Eric got some Pokemon cards and white balloons from Walmart and they taped the cards to the balloons and colored a sensory ball to make a Pokeball and had kids throw the ball and whichever balloon they hit, they got to keep that Pokemon card. According to Eric who manned the trunk while Valerie and I took the girls trunk or treating, the trunk was a HUGE hit and all the kids really loved it. 

Ward trunk or treat. Silva looks much more photogenic in this picture than my darling offspring haha

Levi with his best buddies: Teddy, Kyler and Willy. We love having Willy, Levi, and Teddy on the same soccer team! 

Anyway, so despite having a newborn, we have been able to do some fun Halloween things with the kids. We did the trunk or treat like I said, and last Saturday we did a trick-or-treat around the lake which was put on by the city of McKinney and included some bounce houses which the kids liked. And then yesterday we took the kids up to Gunter to the Preston Trail Farms pumpkin patch. Honestly, it wasn't the best pumpkin patch I've been to but they did have a hay maze, a hay ride, feed for the farm animals, a little train ride and a small selection of pumpkins to choose from. The kids really liked the train ride and had fun feeding/petting the goats and cows. Emery picked out a little white pumpkin and has been asking ever since when she can paint it and Levi picked out a funky gourd he said looks like a fire. Eric and I decided to skip pumpkin carving this year and I can't say I'm sad about it at all haha. 

Trick or Treat around the lake. It was super windy so both the kids ditched their hats pretty quickly. 

Levi said it tickled when the goats would like the food from his hand but Emery refused to try it. She pet one of the goats but mostly watched as I fed them her feed haha. 

Hay ride as a family! I wore Isla the whole outing and she was happy as a clam and just slept the whole time except when she got hungry and I took a break to feed her. Thank goodness that just like Emery, she loves to be worn and sleeps pretty much every time I put her in the wrap. 

So yeah, that's how things have been going lately. I spend a lot of time on the couch or in our room feeding Isla but I am excited for when she starts to go longer between feeds during the day too and I am physically healed enough to start exercising again. I feel like this week will be a chance for me and Emery and Isla to start settling into our new routine for the next couple months. Fingers crossed it goes well and I don't go completely crazy haha. 

Our little soccer girl! She is way the youngest on her team and often rarely touches the ball during the game but somehow still always has fun. Full disclosure: I think her favorite part of the game is the treats at the end haha. 

The day before Isla was born the kids had fun playing in the sprinklers. 

I was ginormous! About ready to pop! 

Willy showing Emery his loose tooth during one of Levi's soccer games

My heart! I love these sisters so much!!

Sleeping on Grandma's chest while the family watches church is a great place to be! 

My little creators. My kids love to play with games unconventionally. Levi likes to take the pieces of Tiny Towns and make patterns or designs with them instead. Emery plays along too. 

Best Daddy ever!

Can't wait to see how their relationship progresses as they both get older.