the hiatus.

Holy Moly, it seems as though I've been abandoned the ol' blog for an entire week! Any other week, I would be apologetic and try to post some awesome photos from the past few days, or a story about Nate's latest antic that would make you smile and tell me that it was worth a few blog-less days. This week, I've got nothin' but a few sad, sorry excuses.
Sometime late last week (like right after that last post...), Nate stopped sleeping. I'm pretty sure that he was awake for 48 straight at one point. He didn't nap, and he spent most of his nights crying. More than once, I considered joining him in his tearful wails. After several sleepless nights and a few ear tugs, we made a visit to the pediatrician. And, although I would never wish any pain upon my baby, I secretly hoped that there would be an ear infection solely so that we could get started on an antibiotic and get some rest! When the doctor proclaimed Nate's ears perfectly healthy, my reaction was something like, "YAY no pain or antibiotic!! But, wait, why isn't he slee......zzzzzzzzz!" Hah. Really, I stayed awake (and by "awake", I mean in some sort of dazed trance known only by those who haven't slept in 70+ hours) to hear the doctor's opinion. And, it was brilliant. Nate is teething. Again. Seriously?! He's teething AGAIN?! And, we didn't figure that out ourselves? Cool. So, with the help of some infants' ibuprofen, we've had ourselves two nights of sound sleep now. It's been heavenly. And, I can finally focus on the computer screen well enough to type again!
The other reason that I haven't blogged recently (you know, because being so tired that I have to tape my eyelids open isn't enough to keep me away!) is that my camera is broken. It's not totally gone yet, but I think that we're on our way to a new model. The flash doesn't work anymore, so I can only get decent pictures outdoors when it's light. Otherwise, they turn out like this:

Combine no flash with an almost-10-month-old, and you get a bunch of photos like this:

So, while I'm sure that the barrage of Nate pictures won't be stopping any time soon, it might be slowing down for a bit. And, you'll be seeing lots of outdoor/not-so-close shots in the near future!