Southern Lights

Evidence that, indeed, lights look better at night. I probably didn't need evidence of that, though, did I? Eleanor is fast asleep right now. She's been learning to crawl lately, though, so she is constantly waking herself up at night by sleep-crawling. That, coupled with teething pains and a general desire to stay awake and explore the world, adds up to not much sleep for Janelle & me.

Sleep deprivation is the hardest part about rearing an infant. It makes every other aspect seem trivial and totally navigable. Luckily, we humans seem engineered to be able to adjust to less sleep while our young are so tiny. New parents are thus able to function on very little sleep. But it's hard. Don't ever let anyone - esp. me - try to tell you otherwise.

Ease is overrated, though, in a way. I mean, what's so cool about things being easy? If everything was easy, nothing would be fun anymore. I gotta be honest - because of my general sleep deprivation, whenever I get to steal a nap, it feels much better than it ever did before Ella was born. Kids that are easy and compliant are rare...and creepy. Who wants a manageable little robot child? I do, sometimes...especially when I'm exhausted. But for the most part, I'm more relaxed with things being hard. Even sleep.