TIM got an internship! YAHOO!

So, I haven't wanted to post anything because I was afraid of jinxing our chances of getting an internship. As you know this economy has not been the best for job opportunities. Companies have scaled back on how many interns they hire thus making each and every internship opportunity more and more competitive. After 1 and 1/2 semesters of attending career fairs, interviewing with countless companies, and receiving many disappointing rejections, Tim has finally received an offer from..........Apple! We are so thrilled and feel truly blessed that this has happened. When Tim started his MBA program in the fall he had his eyes set on Apple, but wasn't really sure what his chances would be of nailing a position with them. It is highly competitive to get an internship with Apple. From past experience they have been known to hire mainly international students for their internship positions. Tim didn't lose hope. Over the last 2 weeks he had 5 or 6 interviews with Apple and tonight he received the good news. We will be living in the beautiful state of California for the summer. I can't wait. Thank you everyone for praying for us and encouraging Tim along the way. The waiting and anticipation is over. Tim can now focus on his studies and breathe a little bit before finals hit.

Parenting Woes

So this week has been one of those weeks where I feel like all my efforts at parenting have failed. Xavier is getting to be more difficult to handle when we are in social settings. He is such a curious boy that no matter how calmly and patiently I try to teach him that he has limits to where and where he cannot explore he pretty much does what he wants anyway. If I try to "reign him in" so to speak he fights me kicking and screaming all the way. Welcome to terrible twos huh? So I find myself losing patience more and more easily. Then I start to raise my voice and wonder in my head why he's behaving so badly (when he should "know better"). Then it dawned on me that I'm kind of throwing my own temper tantrum that goes something like this: Xavier I want you to act my way. Why won't you act my way? Ughhhhhh! Act my way now! It might not be in those exact words, but I think that's how Xavier sees it. So I'm hoping that if I try harder this coming week to stay patient when it's hardest not to I might have a little more success with Xavier. Lesson learned: If I want my child to behave properly I need to behave a little more maturely as well. We'll test out this theory and see if it works. Oh and I guess I have to remember he's not even 2 yet. He's still learning his limits and I'm just going to have to understand he wants a little more independence- I'm just going to have to be a little more creative in how I let him gain that independence.

Oh and as a side note during one of my less favorable moments this week Xavier just out of the blue said "Mommy's a pretty princess". How sweet is that. That's when I realized he's just a normal toddler or human being for that matter; we all have our good moments and our not so good moments. This was a great moment for me and helped me realize that he is a super kid.

Jr. Pre-school and the letter H

We had our first field trip with our junior pre-school class yesterday. Instead of having a lesson about the letter H we decided to visit the Horse Barns at MSU. The kids enjoyed seeing the horses up close. The other kids inspected the horses while Xavier made mischief of his own. Xavier found a cat and chased that around for a while, then he found a garbage can and decided to bang on it like a drum, third he thought he would stand in one of the empty stables (yeah, I'm so glad he was able to get covered in hay and horse poop), and then he attempted to drive their John Deer vehicle. I guess if he didn't learn that horse starts with H he learned explore starts with E and I was T for tired by the end of our field trip. he he!

We also stopped by the Butterfly house, but the butterflies won't be ready until next month. So we might just have to make another trip to see the butterflies in action.

Valentine Festivities

I feel like we had more events to attend for Valentine's than Christmas. Needless to say I'm sugar cookied out! We had a special Valentine preschool last week. My friend Emily did a great job teaching the kids the letters L and V and heart. We decorated Valentine boxes, passed out Valentines, and played musical hearts. It was a lot of fun.

We also had a special Valentine playgroup for our church where the kids passed out Valentines and frosted cookies. Xavier was more interested in the lollipops and the basketball hoops to do much decorating of his bag, but he still had a lot of fun.

The MBA S3 Association also hosted a family Valentine party. He frosted lots of cookies and really loved the M&M's. I think Xavier had enough sugar to last him the rest of the year. He had a blast and met a couple new friends.

We hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's activities. We love you all heeps!

NO MORE PACI!

Hip hip hooray! Xavier has weened himself from the pacifier. I almost couldn't believe it myself. This is how it happened. He started with 3 pacifiers in his crib. We lost one I don't know when or where, which left him with two. He'd usually suck on one and hold the other.

One day I discovered he had bit a hole in one of the pacifiers. He said to me "mommy broken, fix it." I told him that I couldn't fix the pacifier that it was broken for good. I threw it away and that was that.

I bought a book this week called "No more pacis". I had been reading the book to Xavier for a couple of days and he loved it. Then on Wednesday I looked at his final paci and noticed the tip had been bitten off of that one too. So I said "Uh oh, it's broken bud." I took it out of his crib and Xavier didn't ask any questions.
He cried for it a couple times and I reminded him that it was broken. I reassured him that he was a big boy now and didn't need a pacifier. So needless to say he has been pacifier free for 5 whole days.

My goal was to have it gone by his 2nd birthday and much to my surprise we beat that goal. Thank goodness. Hooray for Xavier for accomplishing such a major milestone.

Xavier is growing up

I can't believe Xavier will be 2 in April. It seems like yesterday I was leaving the hospital with this 7 lb. 11 oz. little baby. Now almost 28 lbs. and energetic as ever I am finding many new challenges with this little guy. Friday was quite the eventful day. Xavier did something naughty so I put him in his crib for time out. The next thing I knew he was at the top of the stairs. How in the world did he get out of his crib?

Well, then I put him down for his nap. I guess he didn't want to go down because before I made it to the bottom of the stairs he managed to escape again. I calmly picked him up, gave him a big kiss, and put him back in his crib. I shut his door all the way hoping this would dissuade him from jumping out. Well, it didn't. Once again he escaped within seconds and started pounding on the door while yelling "want door on" (which means want door open.

All I could think was be consistent, be consistent. So for the 3rd time I put him in his crib. This time, afraid he might break his leg or neck one of these times I sat in the chair until he fell asleep. Phew!

I thought we were safe. After about an hour or so I went to listen at his door just to make sure he was still sleeping. I then proceeded to my bedroom. I heard a quiet rustling of some sort, but decided it was my neighbors or something. I turned around and there was my little boy with the biggest grin on his face. He just said "Hi mommy" and waved his little hand in the air.

I couldn't believe it he had escaped his crib 4 times and had figured out how to open the door.

What are we going to do now? No corner or room or crib is safe now. I guess he's letting us know it's time for a big boy bed and time to put some safety covers on our doors.

Jr. Pre-school

So a few of my friends inspired me and my friend Steph to start a junior pre-school. We've been having the pre-school once a week for a couple months now. There are five children that attend. For the most part we keep things pretty simple. We focus on a letter and a shape or a letter and a number each week. Yesterday we finally had everyone attend. We were all healthy and happy! The kids learned about the letter F. Some of the activities we did was fish in the bathtub, make frog puppets, sing Old McDonald had a Farm, and eat fruit and fish crackers for snack. It was a lot of fun.

Xavier's newest stunt

My little tumbler is quite proud of his newest trick. Tim laughed and asked me if I purposely left just a onesie on so it looked like he was wearing a leotard. I swear I didn't. Xavier hates wearing pants and socks these days and takes them off every chance he gets. We will not be encouraging the use of leotards in our house unless we have a little girl. ;)

Xavier sings his ABC's

This is Xavier's favorite song to sing right now. I love the part where he attempts to say L-M-N-O-P.