All for a picture

All for a picture..

Does anybody like taking their kids for pictures?

I wouldn't even have gone today seeing as we plan on doing a holiday family portrait (our first!) in a month or so, but Ms. Toddler hasn't had her picture taken since around her 1st birthday and she was just really due for one.

Up until now I've had pretty positive experiences with both my girls, but today the whole process just didn't sit well with me.

Building up a sweat while chasing down a 2 year old who is refusing to:
1. Get dressed.
2. Let me comb her hair.
3. Eat breakfast.
4. Stay clean
all for the sake of a halfway decent picture is just not very fun. Add to the fact that the outfit that she was suppose to wear ended being MUCH too big for her. Why don't sizes mean the same thing from store to store?? Ahhh, but that's an issue for another day.

So after picking egg yolk from my daughter's hair, ironing a set of clothes I knew did fit her, practically holding her down so that she wouldn't look like she's been running around the survivor island (she can have some very bad hair days) and searching for the shoes she's taken off for the third time. We finally got out the door!

The whole process must have tired her out too. She began edging toward crankiness. As soon as we arrived, she headed for the toy section and told this perfectly nice little boy who just wanted to play with her to GO!

Now, I've described my little... princess... as a social butterfly in the past. Today, she was just not in the mood. She wouldn't sit on the table. She didn't want to smile. And she really didn't want the photographer to get closer than 5 feet from her. My normally independent,happy girl become a clingly, weepy, runny-nosed mess.

Top it off with the fact that I think the photographer wasn't the most patient person either, and she was running behind of course. I do have to say that she really did make a great effort though. Kept the mood positive as best as she could. But I'm sure she was as happy as I was when we could leave. Our exit was just as grand. Ms. Toddler wiggled, said "NO,NO,NO" and cried all the way out of the studio and to the car.

All that for a picture... *sigh*

Although we didn't get the picture we originally intended to have taken today, we did manage to get a few decent shots. I settled on one, and it's pretty good. It's just that the whole experience pretty much tainted my enthusiam for picture day now. I just have that feeling that it'll never be the same.