Can you even believe it!? Two days in a row of blogging!

Listen, you’re all likely to get a lot more dog photos around these parts soon because 1. The kid is finally back in school, leaving me at home alone in my slower winter months and 2. Because the dogs still adore me and the child asked me to hug him and say our goodbyes a half block from school today so I “wouldn’t embarrass him.” It’s his seventh day at school.

So yeah.

Also, last weekend, since school has officially moved from OUT OF MY OFFICE and into a public building, we moved Ezra’s desk setup into his bedroom and moved the glider/rocker that I nursed him in to my office. I will never get rid of this chair because it is THE MOST COMFORTABLE. Anyway, we were sitting in it maybe once or twice a month before, and now we all are fighting over it.

Probably because I positioned it to face out the window where you can prop your chilled feet on the warm radiator and either snuggle in with a book (me), snuggle in with a parent reading to you (Ezra) or guard the block (Magda). Hazel is too low on the family totem pole to have made it into the chair, but frankly I think the rocking weirds her out anyway.

So here’s to my new-to-me chair that sits in a warm, sunny corner of my office and that is currently collecting dog hair like crazy. Bravo!

I’m sure wherever you are in this country (excluding the West Coast) you know it was FREEZING COLD this weekend. So we haven’t been up to much. I wish I could say I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been too busy doing fun things…

But in reality, I’ve been working a ton (mostly product shots which I don’t really feature on the blog) and sleeping a lot thanks to this broken arm. Also, lots of physical therapy.

I’ve also been reading a ton and… honestly… not taking many photos. My camera is heavy, and I’m working hard to heal up quickly, so I’m just sorta worthless at the moment. But even that can be nice sometimes.

I did, however, snap this photo this weekend because the kid/dog snuggles are rare, and I’ll capture them like this every time I can.

Today starts our elementary school’s read-a-thon, which is a first for our family. Ezra is pretty excited about it (sometimes) and then other times he’s like I JUST WANT TO WATCH TV.

But I do love that most mornings he likes to start the day reading. He’s currently quite enamored with The Mysterious Benedict Society books as we’re taking a break after finishing the fourth Harry Potter, which was a bit scary for the kiddo at the end.

Anyway, I snapped this photo this weekend as he could not put down his book to even eat his cereal. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me.

Well, guess who broke her arm?

Yup, you got it. Me.

We’ve been spending a ton of time outside this winter (as it’s the only way we can safely see other people), and this has included sledding and ice skating as the regular activities. This weekend, right when I got on the ice with Ezra, I slipped and fell, landing on my back and my left hand. The doctors say the force in my hand traveled up my arm and cracked the top of my radius, right by my elbow.

Honestly, this was a pretty lucky break (ba-dum-dum psssss) as I have this splint instead of a full cast (which I can remove for showering etc), and they think I could be healed up in as little as four weeks (fingers crossed! on my right hand anyway!). It does require daily physical therapy exercises (which are hard and painful), but I’d much rather have this as a result than surgery.

And btw, look how swollen my hand still is in that photo! Gross! Good thing I was smart enough to take off my wedding rings the day I broke it.

Today has been a long time coming.

This morning I hung this flag out front before delivering champagne to many of my neighbors. I watched the ceremony with my kid, who got to see how many different kinds of people there are in our country and how they can all be represented.

I cried when Kamala and the Obamas bumped fists. We gasped when we saw Gaga’s amazing dress. And I was BLOWN AWAY by Amanda Gorman’s poem. If you missed it, please see it here.

We still have a lot of work to do, but man does this feel good. Happy inauguration everyone!

Last week, I got to photograph this adorable little guy! Oh wow, was he sweet. Plus, he was a few weeks older than most of my newborn sessions, which. meant I even got a smile or two! Be still my heart!

Newborn sessions are still among my very favorites, and I feel so lucky that my clients still trust me inside their homes right now. There’s a lot of precautions happening beforehand, but it’s totally worth it!

This weekend, I was heading downtown to the studio for a shoot, and I had to pull over multiple times to capture the winter beauty in the city around me.

It looked nothing like this near our house, but as I got further north, it just got more and more lovely. Winter is harsh, but also just stunning.

I was happy as a clam today with my headphones on, editing a video all day with coffee by my side. No phone calls scheduled, no online meetings, no reason to even put on lipstick.

But then my kid had a “winter scavenger hunt” assignment, and he asked me if I would join him on a walk down the block to find some of the items. I mean… who can say no. Sigh.

So I put on some lipstick, grabbed all my winter gear, and we headed out to see what we could.

We found bunny tracks (and a rabbit!), pine cones, leafless trees, icicles, a bird in a tree (a pileated woodpecker! I had the totally wrong lens for photographing birds, but I did snap it flying away!) among other nature finds.

And it was totally delightful.

As hard as this time at home has been, I know it will be coming to an end soon, and I’m trying to enjoy these moments with my kid as much as I can. Because in a blink of an eye, I’ll be uncool and totally annoying, and I’ll long for these days so, so much.