Week 36: Little Moments

It's a cliche, I know, but it is amazing how fast time starts to move when you have a child. I always thought I had a busy life and time was slipping away. Since Jonah, I realize how slow and manageable my former pace was. However, he seems to find little ways to pull me back into focus - whether he realizes it or not.

My job with VH1 Save The Music involves a fair bit of travel. I used to love it - new people, new places, new food and getting to make an impact on a national scale. Even typing that now reminds me how fortunate I am. However, after Jonah came along my love of travel started fading. Every time I walk out the door to head for the airport my heart is ripped out. It's hard to be away. I can be gone 24 hours and I come back to a different child. Every. Single. Time. He changes and learns so quickly that I always miss something. Trips when I have to be gone multiple days might as well be a decade.

Another constant in my travels is the fact that the night before I leave, when I need to pack, Kristi has something come up and has to work late. It's hard to complain because I know she will be tasked with taking care of Jonah alone for the duration of my trip, but it does complicate things.

My most recent trip was just before Thanksgiving and sure enough, Kristi had to work late. So, I left work and went to pick up Jonah at school solo. It was a rough night. Jonah was tired, was being his 2 year old obstinate self and I was getting sick with a cold. We got home a bit later than normal after some challenges with the subway not running as scheduled. I quickly went to our bedroom to change out of the suit that I was wearing that day. I kicked off my shoes along the wall by our closet where shoes tend to live until we can focus on putting them away. There are typically a couple of pairs of shoes sitting there at any given time. . .

I quickly grabbed the suits that I needed for my trip (they still hang in Jonah's closet), made dinner for Jonah, got him fed, got him bathed and got him to bed. Still on a roll, I grabbed my suitcase and packed the things I would need for the next couple of days away.

Done. Time to focus on dinner for Kristi and me. I turned around and saw my shoes sitting where I had left them and found Jonah's left shoe neatly placed beside mine and Jonah's right shoe neatly placed beside mine. It dawned on me that I had never taken Jonah's shoes off that night. He had followed me into the bedroom and taken off his shoes as I had.

In the craziness of the night, I missed it.

It was harder than ever to leave when the car came to pick me up at 5 AM the next morning.

Photo: Yeah, I have to admit that I recreated the scene. This is my 50mm at f/11. There is a Profoto strobe in a 1x4' stripbox slightly camera right at 2 stops down for fill. The key is a small, gridded speedlight coming in high camera left focused on the shoes.