The Best Laid Plans

I'd like to make this a witty post, but my brain is fried and I have some work to do before I turn in for the night, so this will be more "bare bones" than I'd prefer. Long story short, we have had difficulty getting a decent school/posed photo of Lucy alone and with her brother. On two separate school photo occasions, the resulting proofs of Goose were a complete disaster. I blogged about the first experience here in preparation of the second experience (by the way, I went with tights over the onesie), and if you can make it out, below is a photo of the second attempt at Lucy's school pictures. This is a digital photo taken of the proof, so quality is low, but hopefully you can make out the incredibly red-rimmed eyes and goopy nose from all the crying and - oh, yes, the BRONCHIOLITIS - from that day:



Needless to say, we never bought any of those school pictures, and I've been meaning to get some professional ones taken of the kids together. I finally overcame the activation energy needed, and made an appointment at the Target portrait studio to get pictures taken of the two kids today. In my mind it was the perfect time - Lucy just turned 1, Finn is 3.5, so it would capture some milestone ages for them.

Preparation for the photos included: 1) Purchasing new white sandals for Lucy from Stride Rite (read: $$) as her cheap Target brand ones broke - twice - and I gave up on fixing them; 2) Getting Finn a haircut; 3) Laundering appropriately cute coordinating outfits (two per kid); 4) Administering morning baths to tame the typical post-bath bedhead.

My first clue that things would not go entirely according to plan came on Saturday night, when Lucy managed to bang her head into a chair, give herself a slight fat lip, and a bump on her forehead. The lip swelling was gone by morning, as was the head bump, but it was replaces by a nice linear bruise down the front left section of her forehead. The part her sideswept "bangs" don't cover, of course.

My second clue was the abbreviated nap Lucy took today (could only manage to get an afternoon photo session, unfortunately, even though everyone knows kids are at the top of their game in the morning). She woke up crying only an hour and a half in - not enough sleep for a one-nap day. I coaxed her back down for another 20 minutes or so, but it was still clear she hadn't had enough rest.

The third clue was ALL THE CRYING that Lucy did from the moment we walked into the studio. It was clear Lucy didn't like the room, didn't like the strange woman talking to her, didn't like that Mommy kept trying to put her down on a white sheet in the middle of the room, didn't like all the many times we tried wiping her nose to stem the flow of snot...

We finally gave up, and M. brought her out into the lobby and let her play with the toys out there. We managed to get one shot of her that we felt obligated to buy, taken while I was holding her, so my arm is in the background of the shot. She is nowhere close to smiling, but she looks slightly less unhappy than in the other few photos that were taken of her. We didn't get any shots of the two kids together.

Finn, on the other hand, did great. We spent far too much money on several different poses of him, so relatives, beware. You'll be receiving pictures of your nephew/grandson/great grandson soon. We'll just have to keep working on getting you some of Lucy.

10 minutes later, once we were outside and walking around, Lucy was all smiles. Of course. Below are some photos from before and after the portrait session, mostly of Lucy. I didn't want to bully Finn into sitting for more pictures since he had already done so well in the studio.