Today were Alice’s 1-year portraits at the professional photographer. These people are crazy expensive, but the pictures they get are VERY good.
Well, Alice was NOT in the mood. Her appointment was at 10:30. So at 10:10, after she’d been asleep for almost 2 hours this morning (much longer than her usual naps are), I went downstairs and started making noise. So she didn’t get to wake up naturally. Possible Cause of Alice Angst #1.
After I got her up, combed her hair, dressed her in playclothes, and got her in the car, there wasn’t time for a snack. She wasn’t fussy, so I didn’t worry about it. But I didn’t want her to have a mouthful of cracker mess when we got there, so I didn’t give her anything to eat. And she didn’t ask for juice. Possible Cause of Alice Angst #2.
Then, once we were in the studio and they were trying to get her to smile for pictures, she kept making this weird face. It’s kind of a fake smile, and she gets a little squinty. She made it every time she looked at Cherry, the photographer’s assistant. Cherry said that kids this age don’t typically know how to fake smile, so we couldn’t decide what it was. I think I know, though — Alice doesn’t like it when the flash goes off. She’s already associating Cherry with the flash, so if she looks at Cherry, she does a facial flinch, hence the face. Pretty funny, really. Possible Cause of Alice Angst #3.
So I got to try to make Alice smile. I pulled out every trick in the book, except for the two that ALWAYS work (because they also have immediate consequences if she’s not able to have what I mention): “Cracker” and “Come get me!” The first one is obvious — the path to Alice’s heart is through her stomach. The second one is a game we play to get Alice to chase us around the house, and she thinks it’s hilarious. Today, she wanted to walk. Cherry says that’s another tough thing for newly-mobile kids getting photos — they get MAD when they’re held in one place. Possible Cause of Alice Angst #4.
So. I think a combination of all four contributed to Alice’s mood, but I think he did get some good ones. Just not a motherlode. I’ll go back in 2 weeks to see the proofs, and I’ll report then.