SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE FINALE

For anyone who watches this show as faithfully as I do, this is for you....
What did you think of the results tonight? I was a little shocked. I thought Twitch and Courtney would be the ones going home tonight. I thought out of everyone they were the weakest dancers last night. But I wish we could just keep all 6 because they are all great!! It will be interesting to see who wins. I would love to have 2 winners because I would choose Katee and Joshua. They are amazing together and I can't pick just one winner dangit. Who do you think will win? Post your vote on my poll. See you next week with the winner. Happy dancing.

Parting with the Pacifier....dun dun dun

So Tim and I have decided the pacifier has got to go. Well, at least during the day. Xavier has become extremely dependent on his pacifier. (Tim and I take credit for that, but it came in handy through all our life changes and chaos these last couple months)

Today was day 1 of the weaning process and Xavier was not a happy camper. It was very upsetting for him and he wined most of the day. One positive note was that he was extra happy to take his nap and go to bed because his little friend, "Paci" was waiting for him in his crib. There were many times where I wanted to give in and just give him his pacifier, but I remained strong in my determination to cut back on the pacifier usage. All in all it was a successful day 1 for us both. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Week in Review

Friday we went to a Tigers game. Before the game we decided to stop by the old Tiger Stadium to get a couple pictures. They are in the process of tearing it down. Tim thought it would be cool to have a picture of him and Xavier in front of it. We had a blast at the game. It was perfect weather. The only bad thing was that they lost the game. They were winning up until the 9th inning. So sad





Just lounging in the pool trying to keep cool.

Xavier got to play with his cousing Kameron a lot this week. He calls him "Ki Ki" and he just loves it when Ki Ki comes over to play.

We went to Hawk Island Park with some friends. They have an awesome splash pad that Xavier loves. I love it too because it's free and I don't have to worry that Xavier is going to drown. Hawk Island also has a lake that you can swim in, a walking trail, and a playground. Needless to say we could spend hours here and not get bored.

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Xavier decided that he would help me with the laundry. I guess the best way he knew how to help was to climb right into the dryer.

Temper Tantrum

Xavier had his first full blown temper tantrum yesterday. Guess what he was upset over? My least favorite thing in the whole world- HIS PACIFIER. I took him out of his crib, brought him downstairs, and pulled his pacifier out of his mouth. Next thing I knew the meltdown had begun. I have never seen him so upset over anything before. The worst part about it is my sister in law Katie got to experience the entire thing with us. No matter what I did to distract him he wanted his pacifier. Finally I realized he had slept for almost 3 hours without the air on and it was about 80 degrees in our house. I have a feeling that contributed to his behavior. After getting some water in his system, singing some songs, and reading his favorite Thomas the Train book he finally calmed down enough to play outside. If this is a glimpse of what is to come I can't wait.
Oh and by the way, today I felt his mouth and one of his teeth has finally started to break the surface, so that was probably another big reason why he just HAD to have that pacifier. I guess I'm just hoping if I think of a long list of reasons for his out-of-the-ordinary behavior I can also hope that this was a one time occurrence. Who am I kidding right?

Walk down memory lane

I have been trying to organize our basement since we moved in and it's been quite the project. All I have left are 3 boxes which consist of sporting equipment and things I will one day put in scrapbooks. Last night I organized all the pictures I have. A lot of them were miscellaneous pictures; a picture from one event here and another picture from another event there. Thanks to technology most of our pictures are on our computer. But it was fun to take a minute, look back and remember a lot of fun times. Many of the pictures reminded me of my first few years in MIchigan. I realized how many great experiences I have had since I made that big decision. Not to mention all the amazing people I have met along the way. So I have to say thank you to everyone, family and friends, for enriching my life and being the fun people that you are.

My Little Fish

I've decided I have a fish, not a baby.  We went to a play group at Lake Lansing today.  We were just planning on playing with the other kiddos at the park.  Come to find out some of the other moms had planned on playing in the lake.  After me, Xavier, my friend Aubrey, and her son Bauer played at the park for a little while we decided to join the rest of the crowd.  (not knowing before hand what would happen).  As soon as Xavier saw the water he was off.  He decided to walk into the water, clothes and all.  Keep in mind several of the other kids weren't quite as confident about playing in the water.  NO fear I tell ya.  He was having a blast.  I, on the other hand, was mortified.  What a terrible mom I was by being so unprepared.  I didn't have a towel, a swimsuit, or a change of clothes for my little swimmer.  So, I just let him enjoy the water.  Everyone was entertained by Xavier's complete and utter excitement.  

Once his diaper got so full I thought it was going to explode I took him to the car, stripped him of everything, and put on a clean diaper.  Boy do I love spending time with my little guy.  He just loves exploring everything and has so much energy that it keeps me waiting for more fun memories to share with you.

Discipline

I'm hoping somebody out there has some good advice for disciplining a 15 month old. There are some things I've told Xavier not to do over and over and over again. Yet he still does them. When he does them he knows he's not supposed to because he'll look right at me with that little mischievous look or he'll run away from me because he knows I'll take something away from him. It gets to the point when I tell him no he giggles and thinks it's a game. How can I best get my point across? How do you or did you discipline your children at 15 months. I've tried sitting him on my lap for 1 minute right after he does something he's not supposed to, but I don't feel like that is working.

Summer Fun

We are having a great summer so far. If we are outside Xavier is a happy camper. This week we've done a couple things Xavier has enjoyed: playing in his little pool and making forts.

Xavier has recently learned some more animal sounds. He likes making the donkey sound by saying "eee aaawww" and he also will say "ha ha ha" for a hyena. I've decided he enjoys the uncommon animal sounds rather than the usual pig or cat.

The other thing I find so hilarious is his obsession with hats and shoes. If he sees a hat he has to try it on. If he sees shoes in a store he says "shoe! shoe! shoe!" as if it's the greatest sight to see. He's always playing in mine and Tim's shoes and trying them on his feet. I guess he gets his shoe obsession from his mom. What have I done?

That's just a tidbit of some fun things Xavier is doing right now.

Happy 4th of July

We had a fun and jam packed Fourth of July weekend. Tim was stoked because he had a 3 day weekend. We played wiffle ball with a bunch of friends Friday morning and went to a BBQ in the evening. We met a lot of people from our new ward. There are a lot of nice people in our new ward. Yeah!!

Then on Saturday we went to Lake Michigan with 5 families from our ward. It was the perfect day. I probably sat down once the entire day. Keeping tabs on Xavier was quite challenging. He never stopped going. He kept walking up to people to say hi and check out all their cool beach toys. Apparently ours weren't interesting enough. He also walked right up to a lady, climbed into her chair, and just sat down. He keeps me on my toes and I never know what he's going to do next. I love my little guy to pieces.

Since I was so preoccupied with keeping Xavier safe I forgot to put sunscreen on, so I'm definitely feeling the pain. My back is quite red and sore. Lesson learned: put sunscreen on myself before heading to the beach. After spending most the day at the beach we stopped by Tim's parents for another BBQ.

I can't forget to say how grateful I am to be able to live and raise a family in the USA. We are truly blessed to have the freedoms we enjoy each day.

Pool party

I took Xavier to the swimming pool on Thursday. The weather has been so crazy this summer that there haven't been a whole lot of days good enough for the pool. Today was finally a day we could do it. Katie and her son Kameron came along too. Xavier is a total water baby. He LOVED it. He was screaming and giggling with excitement pretty much the whole time. He didn't want to leave. The cutest part was when he'd get out of the pool he'd walk around the outer edge saying hi to everyone that was laying out in the sun. My son has no inhibitions whatsoever. He's my little social butterfly. He also did well with his life jacket on. I can't wait to go to the pool some more this summer.

Xavier's First "Real" Haircut

We finally took Xavier in to get his haircut on Thursday. Tim has cut it before, but it wasn't the easiest thing to do and it took a couple of tries before Tim got it to look decent. Tim and Xavier both needed haircuts so we went to Diane, who used to cut Tim's hair when we lived in East Lansing. I'm including the before and after pictures. He did pretty good at first. I gave him some cheerios thinking that would keep him occupied, but it didn't turn out to be the best idea. He started getting hair everywhere and ended up eating as much hair as cheerios. Toward the end of the haircut he was getting very antsy. All in all, he did a great job and Diane did a great job on his cut. Doesn't he look like a little boy?