Everyone tells you how fast time seems to fly when you get older. The speed seems to pick up somewhere in the mid-twenties and before you know it, you’re thirty and marveling at how fast the last ten years have gone. Childhood doesn’t seem to do us any favors in this category. Doesn’t it seem like childhood moved at snails pace? I remember summer vacations seemingly lasting forever. Now each day rolls into the next and with no distinguishable break, time just keeps on a’ truckin’.

When you have a baby, everyone tells you how fast they grow and change. These same people remind you to enjoy it. To soak it all in. But the truth is, I spent the last year enjoying our family and soaking in all the changes and excitement and well, it just isn’t enough. What they don’t tell is no matter how much you relish in the moment, the moments pass too quickly.

I imagine the sock monster that hides in the dryer and devotes his life to rearranging pairs of cotton booties must also hide behind clocks and play with those little dials when we’re not looking.

Because time moves too fast.

This past year, I’ve watched my baby grow into a boy. He started the year as a googly eyed bobble head and is closing the year out as a bull in a china shop with a mind all his own. See, it’s not only that time goes fast, it’s also that within a short amount of time a lot of change takes place. Imagine learning to roll, sit, crawl, walk, and run all in the same year. Imagine going from breastfeeding to spoon feeding yourself. A child’s development is incredible.

Anyway, here’s some of my favorite Hooper shots from 2011. I better put my running shoes on in 2012 if I have any aspirations of capturing the blur that is to be next year. And trust me, I do have aspirations.

Happy New Year!