Toddler Bed Night 2 and other good things.

Night two...and everything is magical.  I was supposed to work tonight, leaving me slightly fretful as to how this very new bedtime thing would go without me.  Conveniently, they canceled me until later tonight.  We did our normal nighttime routine and I did something that I felt was pretty bold.  I coached Josiah on what to expect, and then I put them to bed at the same time...in the same room.  It was a sure fire plan for disaster.  Honestly.  I had just started to put them to bed at the same time in the same room the week before we left on vacation, so it was still a very new procedure.  However, it went beautifully.  She stopped crying after a minute or so, he rolled over and went to sleep, and she crawled back up in her bed and proceeded to chat with herself for a solid 20 minutes before settling in for the night.  I listened in from the bathroom as I removed my nail polish.  As I peeked through the door, I was amazed that what I thought I was hearing was true.  I still am shaking my head in amazement.  Clearly children are capable of far more than we often expect.  I'm still not excited about a toddler bed at 16 months, but I am incredibly grateful for how well it has gone so far.

In other news...
Evangeline is walking fairly well.  She has been walking for a couple of weeks now, but only a few steps at a time.  This week she has improved her skill and has the ability to walk through a couple of rooms.  She usually elects to crawl before reaching such a distance, though.  It has been such a different journey with her.  It seems like from the time Josiah took his first steps to the time he was running spanned about 3 weeks.  He was so excited to perfect his newfound mobility.  She is not.  She had the ability to take the same 4 steps months ago.  She's perfectly happy to get around in whatever way is fastest, which is most often what we affectionately call her amputee crawl.  Are you unsure what an amputee crawl is?  Let her demonstrate:



People ask me if she is capable of crawling the traditional way.  She is.  She has found this to provide a larger stride, no need to change positions when starting and stopping, no need to hurt her knees on the hardwood floors, and most importantly--it's fast.  I'm sure all forms of crawling will slowly dissipate as she improves her walking speed.

Josiah is enjoying being a fish these days.  He was devastated to discover the only way he can use the water slide at the Y before he reaches 48" (he is currently 41") is to pass a fairly difficult swim test.  It includes swimming an entire lap freestyle followed by one minute of treading water.  Now, if they let him swim any 'ole way he could probably pass the test now.  However, they specify it must be freestyle.  He has set his sights on being able to do that just so he can do the water slide.  It's a very lofty goal, but there is a chance that with much practice he might be able to accomplish it by the end of the summer.  I will still be surprised if he does, but we are just trying to support him in the goals he has set for himself.  I expect it will take him 3 more summers to be 48" tall, so any time he can cut off of that will be beneficial.

Tonight we ate our first tomato off of our giant bush.  Here are some updated pictures to show just how large it has gotten.  It now requires two metal rings and my bottle tree to support it.  It's almost (if not already) 6 feet tall.

I also made this beautiful arrangement out of my garden:

It's so gratifying when such nice things come out of your own yard.  

I am hoping to compose a "Best of 2011" Video post in the next week, as a couple of weeks ago I finally finished editing our family video for 2011 and was able to choose which were my favorites for the year.  Be on the lookout!