It's been too long.

Well, it's about to be May.  No joke.  That's kind of insane.  The last four months have FLOWN by.  Here are some updates:

The MRI came back as Lexington having some "very, very, very slight white matter dystrophy", which the neurologist said you could take a picture of his brain and it could look like that.  So it may or may not be a real answer to what is going on.  She has seen a genetic specialist this year, we are waiting to hear back about some blood tests but the specialist did not believe it was anything genetic.  Lexi is in physical & occupational therapy once a week each. We have no official diagnosis. She is definitely always progressing, just at a much slower rate than other children.  With 'normal' kids it's like the stages are 1) rolling over, 2) sitting up 3) army crawling 4) crawling 5) standing 6) walking.  Lexi's has been more like this 1) rolling over 2) rolling around 3) sitting up while holding herself up with her arms 4) sitting up 5) laying on her belly and pushing her head off the ground (big improvement) 6) ... this one hasn't happened yet but we are hoping next... pushing her head off the ground while having her knees tucked under her.  So that's our next goal. You can see it's a slower process.  She hasn't been having any crying fits which is glorious but she has been waking up at between 1 and 4 in the morning to eat.  If you had told me I would have a baby that was 14 months old doing that I would have said no way!  I am all about sleep training, letting them cry it out (though Josh would say I've been easier on her, but hello! she's had so many issues I am not going to let her cry it out if I think it could be pain.  Anyways, she doesn't wake up the same every night, so I don't feel it's habit.  And what she can eat is so limited sometimes I feel like she isn't getting enough (and especially when she hadn't gained any weight at her 1 year appointment, and that when we went back in a month later she had lost a pound, and then 2 weeks later lost another pound...).  So it's still a guessing game.  But I guess all of life is, right?  She's unusually sweet.  It's fun to watch her progress in ways that for other children it's annoying :o)  For example the 'grabby' stage.  She does it so delicately, when I am holding her and we're in the kitchen and she grabs some things it's pretty funny for the most part.  Lex has feathery white blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and pale pink skin.  it's really kind of irresistible.

So update about the family, after about 8 months of waiting, Josh finally got a promotion we had been hoping for!  It's been really great in alot of ways.  He is enjoying his work more as Director of Operations and is more mentally stimulated at work which is great!  The sad news is we had to move away from the city we lived in for the last 2 years (I can't believe it's been that long!).  But on the upside, we LOVE the new home we are renting!  It's open and airy and just exactly what the doctor ordered.  I can truly say this is the first time in all of our moves I have been super proactive about unpacking (ok, as proactive as seems possible with 2 wee ones running around and having to still cook/clean/get to therapy).  We really feel like it's a home and not just a place we are living.  We are out in the BOONIES.  But it's kind of awesome (minus the lack of cell phone coverage).  It's East of Dallas, and it's fascinating there is a large city Mesquite and then the metropolis just kind of drops off and you are in rolling hills and we live in this small city.   It has a Walmart, and a Chilli's, some fast food restaurants, a couple of Mexican restaurants, a different grocery store and that's about it.  So far, I love it.  We are close enough to the main city to get conveniences (Costco, In'n Out, therapy & malls) but we get to feel a bit more country.  The best part?  Josh can literally get to work within 15 minutes!!  Goodbye hour long commute!!!!!!!!!  So awesome.  We miss our Rockies, and hope to get back to them (whether on the Wasatch front side, or the Colorado side just depends wherever we can get a job) one day ... but for now, we are enjoying where we are.

Jacer!  What can I say about him?  He is tender, emotional, loving, sweet, prone to outbursts of frustration and then wanting you to hold him.  He is SUCH a boy, ALL boy, he roars at everything, loves sticks and bugs (which we have Grandpa Dan to thank for that one.  Literally when we go on a family walk he tries to stop at each and every rolly polly.  And sometimes when he's in the back yard he'll have 3 or 4 crawling on his hands at once), LOVES trains and cars and trucks.  It is funny how innate these things are for him.  He is starting to say funny things so I wanted to start to do a better job at writing them down.  So in October I rented a book from the library, "three little ghosties" ... it's a fabulous book and it was his first 'big boy book' he would just sit and listen to.  (one that had actual paper pages, rather than the thick board books). Anyways, fast forward, didn't return to the library, we move, we're reading the same 4 books we've unpacked, I get sick of it so I look for some more, get this one out, it used to be his fav, ya know?  WELP, maybe I had a mom fail moment?  Bc last night Jace had been hanging out in bed for like 40 min, I honestly thought he was asleep, and he came out to where Josh and I were unpacking.  He said there were ghosts in his room.  I swear he was more 'pretending' to be scared than actually being scared.  So he would point 'at the ghost', and in the book the little boy said BOO! and the ghosts got scared, so Jace and said Boo to the imaginary ghosts like 10 different times and he was giggling.  Seriously, he was SO faking.  So really it wasn't a mom fail moment, bc even this morning he wanted me to read the book again.  Anyways he had a pretty deep scrape off of skin, about the size of a nickel, on the top of his foot.  No idea how he got it, but in the back of the car driving home one day he said "Mom, I want to take my owie off" ... how cute is that?!  And don't we all wish we could!

Finally there is me.  "I wanna talk about ME, I wanna talk about I, I wanna talk about be number one oh me oh my."  If you don't listen to country than you don't get it.  Anyways, moving on, the most pressing matter is that my wonderful, amazing sisterly Devany is coming into town in 3 weeks from this last Friday, and then we are running a Spartan race!!  Intense, nerve racking, and exciting.  I think it'll be great for us to do together and it'll be by far the hardest physical thing I have ever done.  But I have enjoyed having a goal to train for, and enjoyed working out hard.  I was off track a bit with the move but I have jumped right back in.  I'll be a little sad when it's over.  Then Josh and I have a BUSY June ... but I'll leave that for a different update.

Love you all.  Miss you all as well.
- The Martin clan

P.S. While all of our moving was happening, my parents ALSO moved to Arizona.  They are just settling in as well, and we miss them greatly here - but we are so thankful for technology where we can skype with them regularly!  Even with that though, I know my mom aches to hold little Lexi.