Week 48: Great Grandpa

Well, sometimes life just keeps punching. I have to admit that this post is more about me than about Jonah because he's too young to understand what happened.

Kristi and I waited for quite awhile after getting married to have Jonah - 10 years, in fact. Not completely uncommon for people in our generation, but a far cry from the world of our Grandparents, or even our parents for that matter. I'll never forget what my grandparents said when my mom told them we were going to have a baby: "oh, they decided to adopt!" I guess they had given up on us. Sadly, both of my dad's parents had been gone for quite awhile before Jonah came along, but thankfully, both of my mom's parents were still here to meet him. Needless to say, they are crazy about him. My grandpa was always asking for more time with him and, unfortunately, it always seemed that our time was rushed. Being in a different timezone with a young child is challenging when trying to get in meals and naps. Particularly Jonah - I swear you can set your watch by the kid. He's very scheduled.

This past Christmas was particularly rushed thanks to the blizzard abbreviating our schedule. Very sadly, that would be the last time I would see my grandpa alive. He passed away this Monday morning. He was blessed with a long, full life but had been failing for quite some time.

I was on a work trip in Denver last week when I got word that he was in the hospital again. That wasn't a terribly uncommon occurrence, but we always took it seriously. However, it was clear that his body was starting to shut down this time. He decided to go gracefully and was sent home with Hospice care on Saturday. I got back to NYC on Saturday and tried desperately to make it back with Jonah so we could see him - but moreover, so Grandpa could have a bit more time with Jonah. Unfortunately, I missed him by a day. I planned for this photo to be of Grandpa and Jonah, but it wasn't to be. Here's hoping we more time for Great Grandma, pictured above, to watch Jonah grow.

Great Grandpa loved to work with wood. We spent a lot of time in my childhood in his wood shop. About 10 or so years ago, one of my mom's friends commissioned him to build a school bus for her son who wanted a bus for his Beanie Babies to ride. Her son graduated from high school this year and in an act of wonderful generosity and impeccable timing, that friend gave the bus to us at Christmas so Jonah could have the bus his Great Grandpa made. Jonah absolutely loves it and Grandpa got to see that joy on his face in the bit of time we had together at Christmas.

So, here's to you Grandpa! Thank you. I love you.

Week 47: Little Chef

One thing is for certain with Jonah - he likes to help. He's good at cleaning up his toys, once you get him focused on the task. He loves taking something or other to Mommy or Daddy whenever needed. He loves to help feed Mr. Fish, too. We try to include him whenever possible and while sometimes that's not practical, we often make a point of including him in the kitchen.

We'd read that one strategy for getting kids to eat a wider variety of foods was to include them in the preparation. That was the initial motivation for asking him to help with tasks that I knew would lead to more work when he's around. Sadly, it didn't really work. However, Jonah now loves to help cook - especially breakfast. At least once a week he'll request to make waffles. A close second in the number of requests is banana bread or scones. You can tell we prefer carbs for breakfast to the protein heavy breakfasts in the midwest!

This weekend he got a double dose of cooking. I needed something chocolate to photograph for another project I'm working on, so Jonah helped make chocolate cupcakes. He'd been asking to make banana bread as we had a few bananas that were just right for baking, so this morning Mommy and Jonah made banana bread while I set up a couple of lights. I know that Jonah wanting to be in the middle of everything won't last forever and I'm doing my best to enjoy it while it lasts. It is hard sometimes when the flour goes flying everywhere and about a cup and a half of salt gets poured into a mix that required 1/2 teaspoon while I'm reaching for the milk. I do hope that this early exposure to the kitchen will lead to a lifelong love of cooking, though. I know I have been well served by my mom teaching me to cook as a child.

Photo - this one was very quick. Jonah was fine with cooking, but was ready to play when I asked him to move his stool over and look at the camera. I got a dozen frames at best, most in which Jonah was sporting a grimace. This is a Profoto head in a beauty dish on camera right and a Profoto head in a 3x4' softbox camera left for fill. This is my 50mm lens at f/5.6.

Week 46: Digging Out

For consistency's sake, I'll open this week by saying - what a busy week! As I mentioned in the past post, we were fortunate to get access to some last minute Super Bowl tickets. It took some finagling, but we managed to arrange for travel, hotels, babysitters and all in a few days and take advantage. We ended up flying to Kansas City, dropping off Jonah with Grandma Carolyn and having Grandpa Jerry drive us to Dallas. He was rewarded with a ticket to the big game! Grandma was rewarded with time with Jonah! Grandma Connie and Grandpa Jack picked up Jonah on Monday morning, spent a day spoiling him and we drove back to Liberty that afternoon. All in all, I think we all had a great time.

We were a little worried about this trip with Jonah. He had stayed with Grandma and Grandpa before while we took a short trip to Chicago. However, he stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in our apartment. We weren't sure what would happen in a place that he doesn't know as well; we were particularly nervous about him transitioning to Grandma Connie and Grandpa Jack without us there. He did a great job, though! Guess that means we need to plan to get away more often.

The other part of the trip that made us uneasy was the weather. I'm sure it comes as a big surprise to hear that this winter has been particularly brutal for most everyone in the country. Between Christmas and the end of January New York City saw 60 inches of snow; so, our weather has remained dicey. A few days before we flew to KC, a big snow storm tore through the Midwest. Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Carolyn were in the spot that got the most snow from the storm in the entire State of Missouri. Lovely. They ended up with 23 inches. I assured them that that amount was little more than a dusting. . .

The one night that mom and dad stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house, they ended up with another 2 inches overnight. Jonah was very excited to get up the next morning and help Grandpa Jerry shovel the snow. Jonah had a slight advantage over Grandpa with his big digger - while Grandpa wielded a mere shovel.

It's fun to see Jonah have such a great time with his Grandparents and to see him grow to be more and more independent.

Photo - this is a rented 16-35mm lens (HAD to have that for the Super Bowl!) at 16mm and f/8; straight sunlight bounced off 25 inches of cold white reflectors.

If you are interested - here are some more shots of the "shoveling"
http://web.me.com/rwdavi/rwdavi/Albums/Pages/Digging_Out.html

And here are some Super Bowl photos:
http://web.me.com/rwdavi/rwdavi/Albums/Pages/Super_Bowl%21.html

Week 45: Zac and Jonah!

Once again - what a week. Life has just refused to slow down around our house for the past couple of months. Hopefully sometime soon. I was stuck an extra day on a business trip this past week thanks to the 17th blizzard to hit NYC in the past month then we found out that we got tickets to the Super Bowl on Monday (!!) and have been busy making last minute travel arrangements (and buying Terrible Towels)!

Last week was dedicated to our wonderful friend and babysitter, Ms. Chiho, so this week I wanted to feature our "other" babysitter who is now "retired".  Meet Zachary! Our friends Avital and Nathan recently brought their first child into the world. I met Zac at his naming ceremony a couple of months ago, but Jonah and Kristi had not had an opportunity. We'd been trying to get together for quite awhile, but my travel schedule and Jonah's cold delayed things. This past weekend we finally coordinated all of our schedules and went for a visit.

Jonah had a great time meeting Zac. He did a great job being gentle and tried to interact a bit. Moreover, though, he enjoyed playing with Zac's truck and chasing his cats. Some things never change.

Photo - this was a quickie. Neither Jonah nor Zac were really in the mood, but we got a few shots in. This is a small flash in a reflective umbrella camera left and my 135mm lens at f/4.