First Shoes

I bought the little peanut his first pair of "big boy" shoes today.  Since he just started to walk, I wanted him to have something that will give his tootsies lots of support when we play outside. Here he is trying out his new sneaks at the shoe store.

Now the day has given way to nighttime and he's fast asleep.  It's the time of day every parent relishes, when you finally get to slow down, take a breath, and survey the landscape.  But I've found it's also the time of day I'm most prone to little bittersweet pangs.  They sneak up on me when I find an airplane lying at the bottom of the stairs, a small sock lying askew, bath toys floating in now-cold water.  Any little object, it seems, can become a melancholy memento of this fleeting period in time.  Once it was my electric toothbrush.  As I started to use it late one night, I had to pause as I thought back to how much its "whirrrrrrrrr" noise made him smile earlier that day.  

Well, tonight it was the new shoes.  How tiny they looked next to the front door!