1. Two nights ago, I laid awake after waking up with Anselm–he was back asleep quickly, but I wasn’t–ten minutes, twenty minutes, forty minutes, an hour passed. As I lay there, I heard a snap. Then a pop. then a few second later, a snap again. While I was still wondering what it was, Jeremy woke and went downstairs to confirm what he thought: that the remnants of the previous day’s fire had burst into life again. It was only a very small amount, and nothing really to worry about. The next day I could not get over how a fire could seem to be dead since 9 p.m. but suddenly restart at 4 a.m.

2. Last night I woke in the night hearing another snap, snap, snap sound at intervals. This time it was coming from the far corner of our room. There was certainly no fire to be seen–no glowing in the dark–so I turned the flashlight on the phone on to try and discover the source of the noise. It took only a few moments to see that the sound was coming from drops of water falling from the growing wet spot on the ceiling and falling to a growing wet spot on the carpet below.

3. I’m glad I have someone who can crawl into the attic at 3 a.m. to investigate leaks so I don’t have to.

4. Yesterday was a rainy day that led to a rainy night and a dismal morning this morning. Tonight is supposed to be bitterly cold, and I imagine all the color that is left today will likely be gone in the next couple of days.

5. Once the leaves are gone, the Christmas things may commence. I tried to listen to some carols on Saturday and it just didn’t feel right.

6. I’m sure the season will be upon us before we know it–there’s no need to rush things, right?

7. Tempus fugit.

8. There are 3.5 months or so left in Anselm’s first year, which means 3.5 months until he is weaned, which means 3.5 months until  my first cup of caffeinated coffee in what will then be around 10.5 months. Not that I’m counting or anything.

9. I miss being able to get up in the morning after a rough night of sleep and think “Oh well, at least there is coffee.” Right now I drink a cup and, while I still enjoy it, I have this nagging voice in one corner of my mind that says faker, faker, faker.

10. I could probably just test and see if Anselm is still sensitive to it, but I have not forgotten those days that drove me to cut it out of my diet. I think I’ll just wait until March.

11. It just occurred to me that I’ve got to start thinking about first birthday things for him. Thankfully there will be chocolate cake at his party, so that I don’t have to botch another non-chocolate cake recipe in the name of being caffeine-free

12. It hasn’t really been that hard to be without caffeine, but I do like to play it up a little bit. Not sure why. It seemed like the thing to do.

13. This would probably all be better if you could see my face while I’m typing.

14. As much as I am thankful for social media and blogs and the like, it really is hard to interact with people when all you have are words on a screen. I’ve slowly (and sometimes quickly) been removing myself from most online forms of social interaction–chats, forums, groups.

15. I mentioned deactivating facebook the last time I did one of these, but doing so would delete my photography page, so I’m stuck at the moment.

16. I don’t really mean stuck. I just still wonder if I’d write more without it.

17. I could really use a nap. Or some caffeine.