A Few of Macy's Favorite Things

Macy will turn 2 on January 24th and is such a joy to our family. Here are some of Macy's favorite things:
1. Being a Princess - she loves to dress up in princess costumes. Several times a day she says "I need my princess" and we help her put her princess costume over her clothes. The next line is usually "where is my crown?", so we find her crown and she promptly puts it in place. Then she says "I need a mirror" and she admires her costume in the full-length bedroom in our room. I am a little surprised that she is so "into" being a princess because she has had no exposure to princess-type of things except for dress-up clothes. In the 2nd pic, her princess clothes were dirty and she was very sad so I suggested she wear her halloween costume which made her very happy. She wore it to the grocery store and to see Santa in the ER. Santa Claus was a patient (literally) in Daddy's ER and he was nice enough to hang around for a few minutes after being discharged to meet Macy. Sweet Macy, you are a princess. You are a princess to Mommy & Daddy and most importantly to our Lord. I pray that you always know your worth and value have nothing to do with the clothes you wear or with your physical beauty. You are a treasure to God and are 100% loved and secure in Him.

2. Baby and 2 Fingers - Since Macy was about 4 months old she has sucked on the index and middle fingers of her left hand (see pic) when she is tired/sad/happy/anything. At about age 9 months or so, she added her "baby" to her right hand. These things comfort her. It is funny to watch her hold her baby with her teeth while she is playing so she can use her hands for other things.

3. Jackson - Macy loves her Jackson. Jackson, you are such a sweet bubba to Macy. She looks up to you and adores you.

Long Time No Blog

No posts in 6 months and does my last post even count? I have been really enjoying reading my friends blogs so I want to try this again. Isn't this a nice pic of Mr. Martin and I? His parents were in town watching our little pumpkins while we went on a hot date to Sullivan's.
A lot has changed in my life over the past year. The biggest change happened about 4 months ago when I quit my recruiting job and became a stay-at-home mom. I do still work a few shifts per month in the ER, but am home the rest of the time. I am REALLY enjoying this and Ryan and the kids are loving it too! I realized that the things that I liked about working were things I could do at home too and they are more fulfilling when you do them at home. The kids are doing fantastic - more pics of them to come. They are really enjoying a new preschool where they go 3 morning/week. Macy still takes a 3+ hour nap in the afternoons and Jackson requested to have "lunch and rest at home".

More posts to come!

Ugh!

I am crying in the office with the door shut because I feel tired and overwhelmed. No one told me that this mommy thing would be so hard! I feel like I have given all of myself to my family today but my list of to-dos is still there. The dishwasher is full of clean dishes, I need to unpack from our weekend trip, I need to pack lunches/stuff for kids school tomorrow, my office is a disaster (as usual), I have not opened a piece of mail in like 5 days and there is a huge pile waiting for me, I need to go to the grocery store TONIGHT.

And here is what I have done today. Shouldn't this be enough for one day?

Macy woke up at 4:15am wide awake. Awesome.
Left east Texas where we were visiting ryan's family for the weekend (packed stuff, folded laundry, packed snacks/sippies, etc.)
Drove 1 hour.
Went to Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, TX (applied sunscreen to 2 happy kids, changed diapers, dished out tons of animal cookies)
Ate a late lunch in Lufkin.
Drove 3 hours back to Dallas.
Unpacked. Macy swam in splash pool in backyard. Went on bike rides with the kids. Macy and I took a bath together. Macy pooped in the bath. Awesome. Went to clean up poop and realized my plastic bag had a big hole in it. Went to get another plastic bag. Tried to smile and act like I love every second of this.

Bascially, I still feel like I am not prepared for the constant list of to-dos that motherhood requires. I feel sorry for myself. I want to lay on the couch and watch ANYTHING.

Training Year

You know you are not a regular blogger if you have to reset your password every time you post because you can never remember it. lol

I decided this is going to be a year of training for me in every sense of the word. There are so many things I want to do more consistently in my life. Here it is....

1. I want to seek God consistently in 2009 through time in his word, time with his people and most importantly through time with him. I want to use this blog as a journal of this experience. All of my friends know that I have asked you to pray time and time again that I will do this and I just have not. I have not made God a priority and I am so excited to do so this year.
So far, I have been praying, worshipping and reading God's word. I have been really blessed by the journey (www.jointhejourney.com) and am excited to participate a women's bible study at my church (www.watermark.org). I could go on and on about how excited I am about Jesus, but I will pace myself to avoid burnout. :)

2. Exercise - I have not exercised regularly since college. I graduted from A&M in 1999 - you do the math. Here is my problem. Exercise is something you need to do consistently to reap all of the benefits. Well, I am too impatient for the physical and mental benefits that I fall off the wagon time and time again. But, this year is different. I am making a commitment to exercise 3 times a week. I joined a gym and will be meeting with a personal training. I hope I kind of hate her and want to throw up after our sessions. Then, I know I really had a good work-out.

I have other much smaller (mostly silly) areas that I am trying to be disciplined in:

Teeth whitening - I have the crest whitestrips. I just need to freaking put them on my yellowish teeth! (yes, I have done this for the past several days in a row).

Skin care - My derm friend gave me samples of retin-a to use on my face. This stuff is supposed to be awesome and was free. I tried it a few times (literally like only 3 times) about a year ago and my skin was a little dry so I quit. I stink at perseverance.

Teeth brushing - I won't go into detail. I now have the sonicare toothbrush and I am doing much better.

I hope to keep you updated a little more frequently this year of my progress and other Martin family happenings.
So far, God has been showing himself to me and it has been AWESOME!

Happy New Year!

3 Kids?

No, I am not pregnant and I would really freak out if I was. Two kiddos are the max I can handle right now. I do think/hope we will have a 3rd child, but not anytime soon. I did accidently miss a few birth control pills last week in Mexico and I am praying that nothing "took".

Things are really going well. Macy is 6 months now and is so awesome. She is super easy - sleeps from 7p-7a, takes 2-3 good naps, plays independently, eats well, and is generally very happy. It is hard to believe this little princess had such a hard start in life. We received the allergy testing results and to the surprise of both myself and the allergist, the tests came back negative. Now, these blood allergy tests are not perfect - but I am still very relieved. I think the hives she experienced last month were random. Ryan confessed to me that before we even received the test results, he smeared milk on her skin to just see what would happen. Yes he had Benadryl and Epi-pens nearby, but ARE YOU KIDDING ME? He was smart to share this information AFTER we received the negative results.

Macy's personality is really starting to show. Although she has a very happy disposition - she is quick to let you know when she is unhappy. If Jackson takes a toy away or if she decides she wants something that she does not have at the time - she throws a fit. Like mother, like daughter? She has a strong personality and I can see parts of my in her. She really is my little princess/diva. :)

Jackson is just loving life. He loves mommy, daddy, macy, dee-dee, gramps, lindsey, grana, pops, uncle mike, uncle brent, jersey (uncle brent's dog), lydia, jessica, & kyle. He does not like molly (uncle mike's dog). He loves school. We are really so very happy with the montessori preschool jackson goes to. He still loves choo-choos. Gordon is still his fave choo-choo, although he now calls him Gorbor? We are working on potty training off and on. He has been pee-peeing in the potty and in the shower (thanks ryan!) for quite some time. I think he doesn't get the poo-poo thing and is scared? of it. Maybe because Ryan has showed him his poo-poos!
Tonight was the first night in underware only. He had 3 accidents in like an hour. Hmmm...maybe that is why I could not imagine being pregnant or having a third child right now.

Jackson is our little bubba. Here are some of my favorite things about Jackson:
1. Every night he wants me to "sing a song about jack-jack" where I talk about all the things he did that day and we review all of the people he loves. He ask for this "song" in the sweetest voice.

2. Ryan wrote jackson's initials "JRM" on his choo-choos a few months ago. Jackson loves to say "JRM" and thinks his full name is "Jack-Jack Ry-Ry Martin".

3. For awhile I would call Jackson my little baby and he would say, "no momma, jack-jack is a big boy". Now I have convinced him that he IS indeed a big boy and is still momma's baby. He is okay with that. :)

4. He likes to dance.

5. He likes to snuggle with mommy. I savor these sweet moments.

Lots of other things I love about my sweet boy. More to come.

Girls Night

Last night Macy and I had a girl's night. Ryan was working and Jackson spent the night at Dee-Dee and Gramps' house. After getting Macy down, I suddenly (and strangely) felt inspired to be creative. Any of you who know me, know that I am a total right-brain type of gal. I don't draw, paint, decorate, make bows, or scrapbook. I would LOVE to be able to do these type of things - but I am handicapped in this area.
These are the projects I worked on last night (and I have taken pictures and I am blogging about it - don't pass out!)

This is a pic of Jackson bottom bunk to give you and idea of the theme of his room...



This is the pic of a bulletin board that I made to showcase all of Jackson's artwork....



Here is a close-up of the fabric for the bulletin board....


These are the wall letters that used to be white and hung in Jackson's nursery. I painted them for his big boy room....



I hope to post a pic when we get everything hung up on the walls in his room. By the way - this is the best post I have ever done!

Sick Again

Jackson woke up crying at 11:30am this morning (I had just returned home from working a 10a-10p ER shift and Ryan had to work a 6a - 4p ER shift today - just wanted to give a little context) complaining of right ear pain. Thanks to my trusty otoscope from PA school, I quickly diagnosed him with a raging right ear infection. Stink! My pediatrician's office was so nice to call in Augmentin, Auralgan (ear drops for pain), and Tylenol with codeine. We started Jackson on medicine last night and I took Jackson into the pediatrician today as I promised over the phone last night. Even though Jackson has not felt 100% and I have Macy to take care of as well - I have really enjoyed the kids today. I worked Sat, Sun, and Mon 10a-10p. Yes, I only work 5 shifts/month, but sometimes they are not spread out too well. So - I have just missed being home and have missed the kids. I am so thankful for each of them and am thankful for a husband who is definitely in the top 100% of Daddy helpfulness.

I also want to mention that I just got over a stomach virus that lasted 7 days. I have been well for a week now. I hope Jackson will turn around quicker than I did.

Macy update: We are still waiting for the official update of her allergy tests results. She had a blood test on Friday to test for allergies to milk, soy, fish, eggs, and nuts. I'll keep you posted....