Asher is sick with a mild cold. Most of the time he’s his usual self, but then he punctuates that with periods of bitchiness. One of those charming periods started last night at 10 o’clock, just when Ian and I were drifting off to sleep, and lasted until 12:45 a.m. During that time, he kicked me, scratched me, pinched my nipples, hit me in the face, and pulled my hair. It’s not fun trying to sleep with an attack baby by your side.

“Mom! I’m uncomfortable and mad, and you’re trying to sleep! What the hell? Don’t you know I’m The BABY? I RUN THE SHOW AROUND HERE. How dare you try to sleep!”

Ian snored—loudly—when I wasn’t talking to Asher or crying out of frustration. I eventually gave up and turned on our nightlight and the TV. Asher was delighted to be sitting up in bed watching the tube. “This is WAY more fun that sleeping or torturing you with my tiny fingernails, Mom!” Lucas slept fine until he wet the bed. At 12:30 a.m. we were all awake and looking at each other. Ian and I were both pissed off, Lucas wanted to snuggle with us and didn’t consciously realize that the reason he was out of his bed was because of the puddle in it. Asher thought it was grand to see everyone in the middle of that long, boring dark thing. What do they call it? Night?

I’m so freakin’ tired. The effects of sleep deprivation are cumulative, I’m certain of it.

The painful moment when I give up my office to my son so he can have a bedroom and move all my work crap into my cute living room has arrived. I am sad about The Move. It may actually take me weeks to complete it, as cleaning and organizing are NOT my strong suits in life, but the process has begun. Yesterday Ian and Lucas built my giant bookshelf/room divider from Ikea. It has been sitting in my living room in its three boxes for weeks, and yesterday it went together so quickly that if I hadn’t known its origin, I wouldn’t have believed it was an Ikea product. 

The truth is that Asher has accumulated enough stuff —clothes, toys, etc.—that it’s all scattered everywhere and there’s nowhere to put any of it away until The Move is done. Even if he doesn’t sleep in this room, we need the space for his stuff.

Last week we gave away a La-Z-Boy chair. We have its twin to give away still, so if you know of anyone who wants a blue La-Z-Boy let me know. It’s functional, not ugly, and comfy if you’re tall. If you’re my height, it’s not so comfy. Thomas? Steve? Bryn? Anyone?

The good news is that we’re going to buy some new furniture this year and next.

I started writing this post days ago, but work intervened in a majorly stressful way.

Tomorrow Lucas will be 5 and a 1/2 years old. Hard to believe, really.

“I’m never, ever, ever going to blame my brother!”

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Originally uploaded by SarabellaE

Pumpkin Patch photos from Sunday, October 21, 2007.

We visited the pumpkin patch about a week ago. Pumpkin patches are one of my favorite places to take our family, despite my allergies. I absolutely love pumpkin photos, so of course I snapped a gazillion. A few of the best ones are on my Flickr, if you care. I had to contend with some bright sunshine and harsh shadows, but a few turned out really nice.

Damn it! Boys are MESSY! 

This is not news to me, but I am now considering buying stock in Spray ‘N’ Wash.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/10/23/j-k-rowling-on-dumbledore-revelation-i-m-not-kidding

Apparently there was a big hoo-ha about Rowling “outing” Dumbledore.  

I finished editing a BOOK FROM HELL today. I’ve been working on it steadily since July, which is a loooong time for this market. I’m soooooooo glad to see the end of it.

My new, 320 gig external hard drive is cool! Now I have space to work with and store all the photos I take.

I have three photographs being published in Sacramento magazine in November. Another photo I took of Asher will be published in January. I have officially justified the purchase of the camera as a business expense. Yipee!

I’m feeling guilty about not seeing my grandmother lately. I plan to print out a bunch of pictures of my kids to take with me when I do get around to going…. later this week maybe. Maybe they will get me out of the doghouse.

In the next couple of days, I should be able to invoice for 2-3 projects, which is always tons of fun. Almost as much fun as receiving the checks in the mail. I guess that means I should ask for more work… even though I desperately want a break.

I had a fantastic time with some of my girlfriends on Friday night. It was getting to be a get-me-out-of-the-house-or-I’ll-do-myself-or-someone-else-harm kind of situation. It was relaxing and exhilarating to be out and about in grown up places with no children hanging off my hands and breasts. So nice being around girl energy for a while. You see, I get a lot of boy energy in my life these days!

On Saturday we got to drop the kiddos off with grandma for a few hours. We had planned to catch a movie, but were just a tad too late to make that happen. So instead, we went to a sushi bar for lunch, tried a bunch of new sushi, and enjoyed ourselves. We then visited one of our favorite used book stores and browsed! Browsing a bookstore is usually not possible with small people in tow, so it was a treat to sit down and peruse titles and back-cover copy to make my selections. Ian and picked up about 6-7 new novels and 4 kids’ books for $20. Super!