Spring Fever

This week the sun finally came back and it was glorious! Every year it's the same: I forget how down winter makes me until spring comes back and then suddenly I have way more energy and I feel so much more positive! It is such a huge difference for me! The sun comes out and I am filled with the desire to just go play outside, and swim and run around with the kids. It's so great! Levi and Emery and I went back to the truck park for the first time in a while and it was so nice to play outside with blue skies and not be freezing!

In Emery milestone news, she learned how to pull to stand two days ago! She is so proud of herself and I am so proud of her too! I am actually surprised how quickly that happened considering how long it took her to learn how to crawl. Of course, she doesn't know how to sit back down again yet so when she gets tired of standing she starts to fuss until she gets rescued. Haha.

In Levi milestone news, we had his third birthday party last Saturday and it was perfect :) We had six little friends of his over which I think was just about the perfect number. We did a pinata and cupcakes and let the kids run around and play together and that was it. Super low-key and fun. And I was surprised at how well the kids did with the pinata! They all loved it and it took a little while but they did actually manage to break it open themselves which was quite the accomplishment considering that it was a dinosaur taller than Levi. Haha. And oh man, my favorite was watching little Lincoln get his power stance on and just whack at it. We didn't blindfold them because we figured it was hard enough already.

Anyway, Portland Dining Month has rolled around again. Eric and I went to this very Portland restaurant called The Picnic House. I'm glad we went because it just felt like the epitome of Portland- very quirky with a theme of "bringing the outside in." Unfortunately, the food was just ok. I mean, the meat was super tender but had a bit of an earthy taste to it which I just didn't love. But it is still always nice to go out with Eric and spend some us time.

So yeah, that's pretty much what has been going on. I alerted my boss at the district and my contract company that we will be moving to Texas this summer and I've already been talking to my contract company's rep down in Dallas to let her know what I am looking for for next school year. It's getting so close and I'm so excited! Also, I am very excited for Spring Break this week and for my family's family reunion! I love that we will get to spend several days together as a family and no one will have to work! So great!

My little strawberry! She got this outfit from Eric and Natachia but it has been too cold for her to wear it. I finally just put a white shirt on underneath though and I have to say, she rocked it. 

Her smiles are the bestest! 

Levi: "I building an army number 'veyor belt!"

They look so cute riding in the shopping cart together but when I try to take a picture, Levi hides. *Sigh* At least you can tell how psyched Emery is to be sitting next to Levi. 

Dinosaur island cupcakes for Levi's birthday party! They were a big hit with the three year olds! 

Sunny park day!!! He told me he was the ship captain looking to tell the ship where to go. 

I love this outfit so much! 

We celebrated Isaac's one year birthday the other night and tried to get a picture of the babies together. Isaac is the one on the left and Corbin (on the right) is only two weeks older than Emery but is massive compared to the other two haha. 

Levi was playing around on the coffee table the other night and totally biffed it and gave himself a black eye! It still hasn't cleared up all the way and it just looks so sad! 

Go Baby Go!

So after a winter that has felt like it has lasted forever (it even snowed more on Thursday! ick) the sun finally came out today. It always makes me so much happier when the sun finally comes back! It makes me have more energy and definitely lifts my spirits. I won't even realize that I've been feeling down until the sun comes out and I realize how much better I feel. This long winter and the seemingly relentless round of colds the kids and I have had has definitely taken its toll on me. But today I am feeling better about things.

Anyway, we've had a busy couple of weeks. Levi and Emery both had doctors appointments last week and Emery ended up getting referred to PT for gross motor delay. It's so ironic that she's a little slower on her gross motor stuff considering I'm a pediatric PT! It kind of makes me feel bad, like I should be working with her more. But I really think it's just a personality thing. That and she's a little lower tone, but not enough to really concern me. I think she's like me and just got a little bit more ligamentous laxity and a little lower muscle tone so she has to work harder on gross motor things and she's content to just not. Haha. But I don't think I will actually make the appointment for her because I feel like I know some things I could do already to work with her I just need to make the time to actually do it. And in the last couple of days she FINALLY figured out how to crawl! Yay! It still definitely looks like hard work but she's finally figured out how to move her body forward and she is very excited about this new-found freedom! She crawled all the way down the hall last night and I am so proud of her. I feel like I'm even more excited for her than I was for Levi when he started crawling just because he figured it out so young and so quickly and Emmie had to work so much harder for it!

Levi also had a dentist appointment this week. We found out that his binkie addiction is causing him a posterior cross-bite. I know we need to take the binkies away, but he just really relies on them to help him fall asleep! And he is so good at night now that I hate to change anything about his routine. But I know we just need to bite the bullet and do it. Ugh. He's going to hate the idea. He still sneaks them during the day if he can find one within reach and he thinks I'm not watching.

Speaking of Levi, my big boy turned 3 this week! I can barely believe it! He's a legit preschooler now and has definitely embraced his threenager status. I LOVE that he is so talkative and can express such complex ideas now, but he is also very contrary a lot of the time. Sometimes he drives me crazy but other times he just cracks me up and I have to write down our conversations. For example:
After Levi had contradicted the last three things I had said:
Me: Levi, do you just feel like you need to contradict everything I say?!
Levi: No! I don't need to do that. I just being grouchy with you.
*sigh*

Or:
Levi: You know Dad?
Me: You mean Daddy? Yes of course I know Daddy!
Levi: No! I call him Dad.
Me: Ok.
Levi: Who's Dad?

Or one time while I was eating a nectarine:
Levi: If you're like me, you not eat nectarines because them are yucky!

I just love seeing his grammar develop and getting this little glimpse into his smart, complex mind! Sometimes he makes connections that surprise me. For example, one day when we were driving in the car, I mentioned how the sun had melted the snow and he was like, "How it do that?" So I science geeked out on him for a minute and explained how the light from the sun gives energy to the molecules in the snow and makes them move more which makes them turn into water and then they get more energy and turn into gas. And he was like, "And then the gas goes into the car and gives the engine power to turn the wheels!" Haha

Anyway, so we celebrated Levi's birthday on Wednesday. I made him raspberry overnight oats with chocolate chips for breakfast then he got to go to daycare (he chose to take fruit leathers as his treats for the class haha) and then when we all got home we ate pizza and strawberry cake and Levi opened his presents.

Eric and I got him a playmobil airport that he is now obsessed with and plays with constantly. It's right up his alley with two conveyor belts, several pieces of luggage and a baggage cart. He now spends most of every day asking if we will play with his airport with him. I have a love/hate relationship with the new airport. I love that he loves it so much, but it has a lot of little pieces which totally freaks me out since Emery has just figured out how to crawl and I'm paranoid that she's going to get her hands on one of the little pieces and choke on it. Levi is not exactly careful with his toys and so I have to constantly be vigilant with them.

In addition to learning to crawl, Emery has also picked up some other fun new tricks recently. She can now eat puffs without gagging on them and she can clap her hands. She also can now sign "more" with some consistency which is super exciting. I love seeing her grow and learn.

Also, I got to do some learning of my own yesterday because I went up to the OPTA conference up in Portland. It was cool to meet some other peds PTs practicing in the area but the sessions weren't quite as immediately applicable as I had hoped. I still think it was a good use of my time, and definitely always good to knock out 6 CE hours in a day but the sessions didn't get me as fired up as the NEXT conference did. I have also started listening to a podcast called Wired on Development and that is super cool. One of the episodes was with Susan Blum who developed TMR Tots and Teens and that got me seriously considering taking the TMR Tots course. It's expensive but I think it would be super valuable for me, especially if I ever transition to outpatient or early intervention. I would actually love to get into early intervention soon because I just love the babies and fostering those early developmental milestones but I feel like I need to get a little more experience (and some more con ed) under my belt before I'm ready for that.

So yeah, that's what's been going on here lately. To close out, here are our little snippets of life:

We had some friends over for dinner the other day and Emery loved playing with their little boy Breyton even though he's almost a year older than her.

During one of our recent snow days, there was enough snow on the ground that Levi and Emery got to experience sledding for the first time! It was so fun! 

Emery wasn't sure what to think about it. 

We went for a walk and a random stranger took our picture for us. Love it!

Finished my jewelry shelf and I LOVE how it turned out. It seriously makes me happy every time I walk into my room and see it. 

My cutest boys! 

Family jam session. Both my kiddos love music. Emery likes to do this cute little dance at music class and Levi has loved exploring new instruments and learning new songs. He also loves his new ukelele he got from grandma and grandpa for his birthday.

"You Sneaker Mommy!"

Sometimes Levi says the funniest things. The other day while the kids were napping I was just sitting on the couch finishing up my lunch with some Girl Scout cookies and Levi came out of his room and as soon as he saw me he was like: "Sneaker Mommy! You sneaking treats?! You sneaker Mommy!" It was so funny I had to share a Girl Scout cookie with him! Haha. Also he has taking to saying "No, no, no" in a very grownup way (like with a sigh at the end) whenever he disagrees with what we've said (which is a lot of the time). He is so funny but can be so incredibly disagreeable sometimes! The other day he tried to pick a fight with me because I said that our pretend cooked cars were crunchy! Me: "mmm crunchy!" Levi: "No mommy! They're not crunchy!" Oook. 

In other news, Emery and Levi and I have all come down with colds again. Mine just started and Emery's is the worst by far. Poor girl has the worst sounding cough! And she had a fever the other night and she just sounds all congested and hasn't been sleeping super well and is way more grouchy than normal. I feel like we've had more than our fair share of sickness this winter and it just makes me long for summer even more than I am already. I feel like summer just can't come soon enough! I am just so ready to not be cold and wet all the time. And to have a house. And a garage. And a yard. And a kitchen that I can open the fridge and the dishwasher at the same time in. And a dedicated playroom to house all these toys. And did I mention a garage? They started doing some renovations on our apartment complex so the work crews and supplies have taken up some of the parking. So Eric had to park way far away yesterday. And Emery's car seat was in his car. Which meant that when we went to go to church today not only did we have to walk down two flights of stairs we also had to trudge across the complex in the rain and wrestle the kids into their carseats while getting rained on and not having enough space to open the doors all the way because the parking spaces are small and Eric was wedged between a big van and a dumpster. I am so over it. But at least we only have 4 more months here. And hopefully I will remember this and it will help me to appreciate it when I do have all these things that I want so much now. 

Anyway, Eric and I got to celebrate our anniversary this weekend! We kept it simple and just went out to dinner at a nice place. And then when we got home, we just both pretty much immediately fell asleep! A testament to how tiring it is to have a sick baby! Happy 6 years, and goodnight! Haha. 

So yeah, that's how life has been here in the Martino household recently. Just waiting for it to stop raining, and slushing and snowing and be nice again so we can get back to playing outside. I miss the park a lot. And poor Levi still has barely had a chance to try his new scooter or his tricycle. But someday I'm sure the sun will come out again! Until then, here's some cuteness to help make the time pass:

Why hello cuteness!!

Last Saturday while I worked on my shelf, Eric took the kids on a hike with his friend Lavell and his kids Porter and Rylee. Levi had a blast but Emery looked a little cold and less than thrilled. 

 

Burrito Babies! Levi was jumping off the walls the other day and wanted to wrestle and be wild but Emery was sleeping. So I rolled him up in a yoga mat and gave him some axial compressions as if he was one of my patients and then I put pretend toppings on him and pretended to eat him. He loved it and it kind of helped calm the crazy. Then when Emery woke up and she had to be a burrito too. 

Emery loves playing in the Ikea house and tunnel with Levi! 

My (almost) finished jewelry shelf. I am seriously so proud of this! Easy enough for me to make by myself with my very limited skills in just a couple of hours and for less than $10 of material (we already had the stain and sealant and the wood screws). 

When Eric and I went out to dinner for our anniversary the restaurant gave us a card. Happy birthday to our marriage! Haha. 

Levi: "Take a picture mommy!" 

Emery: "mmmm brother"

I love it when baby girl shoots me the biggest grins when I go in to get her from her nap! It's one of the best feelings in the world. Recently she's started sitting up in her crib so I will go in there when she wakes up and shes just sitting there waiting for me. Soo cute.