Random after-Christmas news

Well, we're a week into the new year now - Happy 2009! I didn't make any resolutions this year, but here are some things we're doing around here in Shmuffin land.

First of all, Elijah celebrated the new year by giving up his pacifiers altogether. He was using them only to sleep (and a few exceptional circumstances) for over a year, but he was still very attached to them and showed no signs of ever giving them up on his own. We decided it would be better to break the habit now than to wait until ... well, whenever. We talked about it for a few weeks through December, and Elijah agreed that when Nana came to visit he would throw away his pacifiers. When the big day came, Elijah very happily ran and threw his pacifiers into the trash all by himself. He was happy and proud of himself at first, but a few minutes later when it was time to go to sleep he was quite sad. It took longer to get to sleep for the first few nights, and he was pretty sad, especially for the first two nights. But the really difficult part was nap time. Elijah went almost a week without sleeping during naps. I was really starting to think he was never going to nap again! But he's slept for the past two days now, so I think we're past the hardest part. I guess this means that he's really growing up!

For Christmas, Elijah got his own little backpack and some quiet toys to take to church. We are working on being quiet, and stretching him longer and longer before going to nursery. He lasted at least 10 minutes longer than usual this week, hooray!

I got some new little bins for Christmas that fit in the bookshelves to keep the kids' toys more organized. It really helps the living room look neater (at least when things are put away). Patrick and my mom helped me get both the living room toys and the kids' clothes sorted and organized last week, which was really nice. We also got out some of Elijah's paper books, and he has been very good with them so far - another sign that he's growing up. I am excited to have things more organized and tidy around here, especially since we spend so much time stuck inside in the winter.

We had some very cold days last week, and the other three apartments in our building had trouble with their heat. Finally a pipe burst in one of the downstairs apartments in the middle of the night - another fun night for Patrick. The broken pipe made our apartment really cold too, especially the kids' room, so we had to put space heaters everywhere for the night. It seems to all be working now, and everything should be dry and cleaned up when someone comes to move in down there this semester. I am so glad that our heat never went out!