Dead Animal Smell

Yesterday we noticed a dead animal like smell in Xavier's room. We looked everywhere in that room to try and locate the smell and could not. It seemed to be a little better when we had his door open along with the windows but you could still tell it was lingering. I called maintenance today and they cant sent an appointment with the exterminator. "He'll just call you when he is available.", the woman said.

Really? So I have to live with this dead animal smell until its convenient for the exterminator to come and take a look? What do I do in the meantime? We are trying to transition Xavier to his crib and its crucial we keep up on it or we will be back at square one. This just adds to the list of why I dont like living here.

E i e i o.

Something from my day yesterday:

Jeremy: Old MacDonald had a farm, e i e i o....
Xavier: E i e i o.

It's just a phase, right?

Kids grow out of things, right? Say, like throwing things, or throwing things at babies? What I am about to tell you is something I am not proud of and feel extremely horrible about.

Xavier sometimes likes to throw toys and such. It's noting really serious but we try and teach him not to throw in the house. He is only 1 so he obviously can't fully understand his actions. Today was a pretty bad demonstration of that. He took his shoe (for some reason he is obsessed with shoes and will play with them) and threw it at baby Alexander while he was swinging in the baby swing. I couldn't believe it. Here we tell him to be nice constantly and to gentle with the cats and to Alexander and he throws his shoe at him. I was also embarrassed and felt it was more my fault for letting him play with his shoes and not keeping a closer eye on him.

I don't ever remember any of my younger siblings acting the way that Xavier does. Now, I am not saying Xavier is bad all the time but there are things he does that need to be corrected. I just to know how to correct it. I appreciate my parents so much for the discipline they gave us. I wouldn't be the person I am today without it. I just want Xavier to be the same.

Any suggestions on discipline??

Weaning: Ummm....

So I gave up! People aren't perfect, ya know!

I started reading information about weaning and one of the sources said that if I do it too abruptly the Xavier could get traumatized. I stopped weaning after read that.

We will try again once I read more on it.

Weaning: Day 2

Last night was much better than the 1st night. I gave Xavier milk before bed and he slept from 10:30 until sometime early this morning. I nursed him and he went back to sleep and then we woke up at 7:30am. He probably didnt need to nurse but I just did it anyway.

I think he is getting the hang of it and I hope soon he will sleep through the night and be totally weaned!

Weaning: Day 1

Last night I decided to full on wean Xavier. I knew it was going to be hard and I was never really ready to do it but there were some things recently that pushed me to do it now. 

Last night wasnt that bad. Jeremy got him to sleep by rocking him; we usually do this. About an hour later he woke up and just would not go back to sleep. I would rock him, he fell asleep for a minute, woke up, fell asleep, woke up, ect. He finally fell asleep for more than 5 minutes and I went to lay him down and he woke up. I came out in the living room and laid with him on the recliner. Same thing happened with falling asleep then waking up. Then I thought that he actually might be hungry or something so I put him down while I got him some milk in a sippy cup. I warmed the milk up a little so it wouldnt be so cold and he drank a lot of it right away. Then we laid together while he drank the rest. He fell asleep and I moved him in the bedroom and he slept for 4 1/2 hrs. He woke up at 5:30am and I got him milk again and he fell asleep while we were in the living room. He woke up again at like 8am and I finally broke down and nursed him because I was so tired I just wanted to sleep a little bit longer. Plus, I really needed it. 

So that was my first attempt at really weaning Xavier. He also needs to break this whole not sleeping through the night thing. Its getting old. 

My plan for tonight: Give him a sippy cup of milk right before bed. Rock him to sleep. Get up and give him milk if he wakes up. Get up in the morning when he wakes up even if its at 7am. 

Please pray that I get through this because I am basically doing it all by myself. 

Timeline

Lately I just havent felt like writing much. I just always find something better to do. Whether its play with Xavier, tidy up the house, craft, something is always better. I will try and make more time for writing because I like to do it and there is no reason not to.

Anyway, so since I havent posted anything in a month I will give you a timeline of things that happened in the last couple weeks of April. 

April 15th - Melanie came to visit!

April 16th - We had Xavier's 1st birthday party! It was Dr. Seuss themed. It was a good time. You can see photos here.

April 17th - Family photos! The talented Tanya Price took our family photos and I really like how they turned out. You can take a peek right.....HERE!

April 19th - Arrived in Ireland for our 4 day mini vacation. We drove from Dublin to Killarney. 

       April 20th - Toured Killarney and then headed up to Bunratty.

       April 21st - Toured Bunratty area and then headed up to Galway.

       April 22nd - Me and Jeremy's 5 yr anniversary! From Galway we went up to Dublin and toured Dublin.

April 23rd - Left Ireland to go home to Germany. To see photos, you can go, here. Samara picked us up from the airport that day and that was the first time I saw her in over a month! I missed her so much!

April 24th - Easter! We celebrated Xavier's first Easter with us! It was a nice day with some amazing friends. 

April 25th - My 25th birthday! It happened to be a German holiday so we really couldnt do anything but go out to dinner and then we came home and I opened my presents as well as had an awesome cake that Melanie and Samara made for me. 

April 28th - Xavier's actual 1st birthday. You can see photos and read the blog here.

April 30th - Melanie leaves us. Sad day.

May 7th - We took a little trip to the town of Triberg in the Black Forest to see a waterfall and to see the area. It was really nice. The hike up by the waterfall was really steep and it was hard pushing a stroller, but it was a good workout! Haha. Here are some photos.

May 8th - Mother's Day! My 2nd one ever! It was a nice day. Jeremy woke me up with tea in a new mug that says "I <3 Mom" and a book entitled "My Mom's The Best Mom". Both of those from Xavier. Jeremy made breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He also did everything for Xavier and did the dishes. We went to the playground and just spent the day with each other. =) Here is one of my favorite photos from that day.

May 12th - My friend Ana had her baby! It was so exciting because we have been walking together to try and start labor! It worked and she has a healthy, beautiful little boy named Alexander James. 

Wow, the past month has been a busy one! It has been really beautiful lately, well, actually the last couple of days have been rainy and cool, but today it was really beautiful. I hope it stays this way for Memorial Day weekend! I want to go do something but havent figured it out yet. Hmmm.....

Thanks for reading!