The shortest month held a long length of calendar ordinary and extraordinary. Life and love in in-law visits and a newborn niece paired with days good and days hard at home. Some days picking up the camera feels like a block to check, but the reality is that the slow or boring or too-full days captured trace details of life. I often look back and find simple photos that foster so many memories of entire days. Looking at the mundane makes both the more vibrant and less exciting that much more gratitude inducing, I think. February, then, was a mix. Here it is my February in 28 frames.
February 1: Snack, with with the work macro.
February 2: Less than 25% of surgeons are women (read: too few, as super-heroic as their male counterparts and utterly competent), and the best way I know to showcase the incredible work they do is to pay attention when I get to document them at work. Hospital lighting is hard. Black and white is my friend.
February 3: A migraine set in first thing, and Ty left town that afternoon. I spent most of the day passing hours on the couch and in bed.
February 4: Committing to a spring marathon means committing to the weekly long run.
February 5: Millie's hydration preference.
February 6: Aspen, I think. My favorite tree in winter's grey hues.
February 7: Snow day seen from the medical center... and a selfie.
February 8: Building Connecticut community looked like my co-worker and now running buddy Lauren coming over for curry and brownies.
February 9: Morning. Albert hijacked my breakfast-as-self-care photo and tried to steal my egg.
February 10: Nap time. But honestly, the rainiest day, and Ty was still out of town. I felt all together uninspired to take a daily photo. Still, Darby's paw presented so this. :
February 11: Double exposed... a Valentine's Day trial that I never actually executed for the holiday. A self-portrait combined with "Honey and Salt" by Carl Sandburg, a poem about marriage (and the inspiration for naming my former wedding photography business).
February 12: Babs, my mother-in-law arrived, and Darby's look of sincere adoration and connection makes this one of my favorite photos of the year so far.
February 13: One of the things I appreciate most about Ty is that when he sees a task that needs doing, he gets it done. He rarely leaves things unattended. I admire his work ethic.
February 14: Valentine's Day with Babs and the Olympics.
February 15: Millie claimed this blanket from the day Ty brought home a tiny stray he found on a run, and it remains her favorite napping spot.
February 16: A bleak day, pondering Parkland.
February 17: I found my in-laws watching the Olympics sitting so similarly to how Ty and I sit sometimes that it made me smile. Tom arrived the day before.
February 18: These two, shoveling after an all-night snow. I felt that "memorize this" urge as I watched them work together, chatting and laughing. We traded lake projects for winter chores in moving north, and they remain the same get-the-to-do-list-done-early-with-a-grin-on mirrors of each other. It's always good to see them together and was so good to have the in-laws in New England.
February 19: I set the table and went to get our food and turned around to...
February 20: The after-work welcoming committee. Every night.
February 21: "I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be." -Robert Munsch
The next day Jameson became a big brother. I look at the photos I took on the eve of Maggie's brith and feel such tenderness for my nephew. It's a big change for such a little guy.
February 22: Margaret Joan's first impression of us was less enthusiastic than our first impression of her. Photographing any birth is incredible, but photographing my niece's birth... what a gift.
February 23: The reluctant big brother and a failed family photo attempt.
February 24: Mitchell, party of four, brought to you by the Ritz cracker that facilitated Jameson's cooperation.
February 25: The Maggie smirk. Little miss was happy to be home and surrounded by family, methinks.
February 26: Pops trying to coax Jameson into his chair for a sibling shot, because no way we were getting him into a shot where he was close to Maggie.
February 27: Back home to my circus.
February 28: Morning perch and that sunlight streaming in.