Thanks...

I tell you, if it weren’t for Amy, this blog probably would have died out some time ago; she’s keeping it alive. So, thanks, Amy!

I’ve been pretty exhausted the last couple of days, haven’t been sleeping well. Part of that may have to do with Joshua, who has started coming into our room anywhere between 12 AM and 4 AM in the morning to sleep in our bed for the remainder of the night. I don’t know what motivated this sudden change in his sleeping habits, but it can be quite annoying. At first, I awoke as soon as I heard the latch open on the bedroom door; a little click, a slowly expanding ray of light, and the silhouette of a three-year-old, dragging his blanked behind him as he traversed the minefield of our bedroom floor, pulled himself up over the railing on the foot of the bed, and wiggled his way between Amy and me, only to fall asleep almost immediately. Eventually, I grew sufficiently accustomed to this procedure that it didn’t even wake me any more; I’d sleep right through it, except on this odd nights when he didn’t climb into the middle of the bed, but onto the edge of the bed instead; on those nights, I was startled awake by a crash as Josh fell out of the bed and onto the floor, only to emerge unharmed a few moments later.

The novelty has worn off now, and it seems simply to be expected that Josh will stroll in at some ungodly hour and occupy a position in our bed. As a result, I haven’t been sleeping as well. The fault doesn’t lie entirely with Josh: my own bad habit of staying up late contributes in great measure. I guess I just see the evening as my “free time” and I’m loathe to “waste” it by going to bed at a reasonable hour. It catches up with me, though. The poor sleeping schedule makes me moody, and that’s not good. I’m already a pretty self-contained, quiet sort; add moodiness to that, and it’s just not good.

I do have something to be happy about, though. My 6 month hell project at work has finally reached its end. It has been one of those projects that is as near to a “death march” as I’d ever want to be. The deadline was set far too early and far too aggressively, and as if that weren’t enough, the deadline was communicated to a “touchy” customer; missing our deadline a few times didn’t look good. Finally, though, we’ve completed the project; now, the project moves into maintenance mode, which I am sure will be no bed of roses, but I plan to put the responsibility of maintenance onto my staff, and that should alleviate much of the stress I’ve been dealing with for the last several months. Stress. Stress and little sleep: not a good combination.

Well, I suppose I’ll sign off for now.