This is why I need a drink

Remember way back in January when I had the brilliant idea to take the boys to the portrait studio to have secret Valentine's Day pictures taken for Michael.  Remember how that all played out?  No?  Need a refresher?

It was disastrous.

 

And I've been afraid to go back ever since. 

 

We have a wall in our hallway with 5 x 7 pictures of Spencer at 6 months, 1 year, 18 months, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years.  We'll keep adding pictures each year until he graduates from high school.  Obviously we have to do the same for Elliott otherwise he'll end up in counseling for deep psychological and rejection issues.  Knowing that we HAD to get an 18 month picture for the wall we went in on Memorial Day to get patriotic/summer pictures of both of the boys as sort of a training session for Elliott.  We even brought our own balloons (falsly) thinking that Elliott would have fun holding them.

 

This should tell you a bit about how it went.

Elliott flipped out as soon as we got in the studio.  Crying, running away, the whole bit.  So Spencer had his own little photo shoot.

 

And we tried again.

At this point we had used up all of our time and the people for the next session were there and waiting.  So we hung out for 20 minutes in the waiting room while an 8 month old had a photo session of my dreams.  Then it was our turn again.  Elliott was having such a good time playing with the bead table while we were waiting that we picked it up and brought it into the studio with us.

 

That's the only way we were able to get any photos of the two of them.

 

 

 

I ended up ordering two prints, but I'm still disappointed that we didn't get any great pictures.

 

So.  June rolls around and Elliott is now 18 months old.  I know we have to try again because we HAVE to have a 5 x 7 to hang on the wall next to Spencer.  I made an appointment for Saturday the 22nd.  The day before I actually drove the kids to the portrait studio and we hung out there for 15 minutes and just let Elliott do whatever he wanted.  We looked at the camera, we touched the walls, we sat on the floor.  It was ridiculous.

 

We arrived to our appointment on Saturday and I told the photographer that Elliott had flipped out the last two times and that all I needed was one vertical picture from the chest up to hang on the wall.  I actually didn't even care if Elliott was smiling, I just didn't want him sobbing.  I also told her that I was willing to do whatever it took, including laying on the floor and having him sit on my stomach to make this happen.

 

And that's how we got this.  I am actually laying flat on the floor and bouncing him up and down on my stomach.  It's really hard to do without having bent knees.  Try it. 

 

And not only did we get one great picture, we got three great pictures!

 

 

And one full of attitude.

We were considering having professional family pictures this fall.  I don't know if we can handle it yet.  I'm already worrying about his 2-year photo shoot.