Most days, I work hard to capture good photos of my family. To make sure that our memories are preserved so we can go back and remember and smile and re-live the precious moments.

But some days are just too hard to capture. Nights and lights and moving rollercoasters make it impossible to capture the essence of the joy that’s in the air. The excitement and thrill of being up past bedtime.

The cold air blowing through our clothes and turning our skin pink. The shrieks of joy and begging for more.

These things cannot be captured in film.

Sometimes you just have to let go and live in the moment. Know that the photos will be imperfect and yet you will still cherish having them so that you can look back and remember the magical night. So you can almost smell the cold air mixed with popcorn and fried dough. So you can almost hear the Christmas music and the jingles and bells.

Sometimes you just let go, get the best photos you can.

Sometimes life’s too magical to be captured in film.

Today was a long day. I woke up with a sore throat and tired and cranky. And Nathaniel is also still cranky. So we did a lot of sitting still and doing quiet things.

Poor David is still home. His nose is still really clogged and with Nathaniel sick and me getting sick, I didn’t want to take my chances. He spent the day watching movies and coloring his box. I love him so.

And Nathaniel ate and cried and clung to me most of the day.

Thank you for your well wishes. We’re all mostly on the mend. I called a plastic surgeon today and got an appointment for next week so I can have someone look at my nose. And I am catching up on my endless todo list and there’s light at the end of this tunnel. I can’t see it just yet but I know it’s there.

I spent the whole day making some changes to my website. This is my yearly redesign and it’s very much unfinished. But I had to move because for the first time in ten years, I moved to not using my own database. I am now using hosted WordPress. There are many reasons to do this but I need to spend the next few weeks playing with it and seeing if I like it. So I thought why not now. It’s not like I don’t have 5 million things going on.

Here’s me this morning. I woke up to see a much more swollen face.

I also woke up more depressed and sad. I am guessing the reality of what happened is finally hitting me now that the adrenalin and shock are wearing off. It’s going to be ok and I am already feeling better about it but I had a rough day today and so the kids very kindly played by themselves a lot.

David spent the day in his Buzz Lightyear costume. He still has a runny nose so I’ve been keeping him at home.

All was well until Nathaniel woke up from his afternoon nap and he was very hot. I took his temperature to find out it was 103. I didn’t even want to think of what might be wrong so I took him to the doctor and despite the Tylanol, his fever was still 102. They checked him and said he was ok and to watch and see if he feels better by Thursday. He’s been all sweet and mostly happy but I’m a basket case of course.

It’s only Tuesday but I am so ready for this week to be over already. Tomorrow I’m back at work after a long break which means hundreds of emails to be read and a ton of catching up. Fun fun fun!

Ok I am off to sleep. More changes tomorrow. I haven’t moved over the comments yet and some other things either. But you are welcome to leave me comments on this post. Hopefully it will work. I am afraid you will have to change your RSS reader if you’ve been reading me on Google Reader, etc. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Nathaniel puts everything in his mouth so I decided to get him these teething biscuits and he loves them.



And then I remembered the mess they make!

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve had this toy for years and just realized that its in the shape of a face. The blue eyes, yellow eye brows, green head and blue hait. The smiling red mouth. Holy cow! How did I not ever notice that before?







Yesterday’s Gilroy Gardens attempt had to be aborted. So today we try again. We ended up in the model train show yesterday and then a long trip to Target. Let’s see if we manage to get there today.

Hanukkah begins.



David was the Shabbat helper today at school so we all went to be with him.

Here he is collecting sadakah.







It was lovely watching him and how comfortable he was.







Nathaniel woke up at 4am today for his second feeding and I could not fall back asleep so I really need to go off to bed now. Happy weekend.

See? I told you he’s standing up! He loves playing with this toy and standing up as he does, even though it’s supposed to be a sit-down toy.



I am normally very anti putting even slightly naked photos of my kids online anywhere. Just a personal peeve. To each his own. But I love this cute little one and it doesn’t show anything so I decided it was ok. This is from last night’s bath. David was in there, too.

And a smile from Nathaniel.







Trying to catch up today. Working hard and methodically. This month is going to be topsy turvy. I won’t get to read as many books but I will spend lots of time with my boys. All three of them. Love them.



Today David said that his brain was full and that he had to create more room in it. And then he proceeded to do just that. Love love love this boy.