Top ten things you missed since I quit blogging

1. Miriam has become a star sleeper again. The night spent screaming with Elijah to no avail from her mother has scarred her, although I hope it's not too deeply. The night after my last success email, Miriam figured out how to climb out of the crib so she could run into the hallway. After I picked her up twice and placed her kindly but firmly back into the crib, I heard her getting out again as soon as I left the room. I stood in the doorway of my bedroom so she didn't see me until she was walking down the hall. My heart thrilled at the fast flight response she had when she did see me. I remember all the times I thought I was sneaky but then saw my own mama and ran like heck to get somewhere safe. Miriam indeed displayed a jolt of energy and ran straight to the office and closed the door. When I opened it, she was climbing into the twin bed we have there for guests saying "I'm going to sleep here tonight." The girl didn't leave the room once and indeed did sleep there all night. The next night when she went straight to the office at bedtime, I said "YOU BET, but no bottle in such a big bed." It only shows the depth of desire to sleep there that she didn't complain. She has gone to bed every night since with little complaining and no bottle. She's earned her yogos (for not getting out of bed after I tuck her in) most mornings, and her Pullups are dry most mornings. My little girl is growing up.
2. With a little girl sleeping in the office with such great success, we decided that the best planners realize when their plan isn't going to work and change the plan rather than keep hitting heads against walls. After simply going without computer access after bedtime (as seen by such little blogging activity), we moved one computer temporarily into our bedroom. Sigh.
3. Elijah is also back to being a great sleeper. Without Miriam's crying to wake him up, he's a master. He's now in the crib rather than the cradle, which fits him MUCH better. He usually is chomping at the bit to get down about 6:30, and usually sleeps til about 7, although if he wakes up before 6:30ish, I give him a bottle and he sleeps til 8ish. At least that's what I want to happen, and since it happened more than once I can call it "normal" in my head. I love that kid.
4. We went to Boise for a week for a monumental Family Picture. We drove there and we drove back and my two kids did AMAZINGLY WONDERFULLY for so long in the car. I sat in the back for a majority of the trip there and back and did a lot of entertaining, but between the songs and food and dvd player and books and toys and everything else, the boredom never set in too strongly. I can be pretty entertaining :).
5. My babyfood making has reached another great pinacle. My mom has an icemaker and therefor does not have ice trays. Due to the fact that I usually heat up about 8 ice cubes of veggies for the boy's meals, I thought that my mom's suggestion of muffin tins just might work. It were easier to pour into a bigger casing and it felt easier taking 1-2 of the veggie muffins out instead of 6-8 of the veggie cubes. And they were gorgeous too! I felt so proud of them that I showed them off to every adult female that came into the home. I haven't done it since I got back but mostly because I haven't gone shopping for anything other than milk and eggs and diapers. We'll see what the next few days bring.
6. Elijah picked up his binkie and put it in his mouth all by himself. This is big.
7. College football started. Ah the joy and excitement! Boise State beat Oregon last night for a dramatic statement of the non-BCS-ers. For the opening night of football action, BSU was the only non-BCS team to play a BCS team and they beat them soundly. Take that. If you somehow missed my diatribe on the Bowl Conference Series last year, you can read it here.
8. Okay, so my top ten list only has 7 real things, but it's late and I want to get to bed and I'm going to wrap it up without changing the title.
9. Or adding pictures.
10. Thank you and good night.