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.
5 Responses
You know, of all the jobs I have had, that’s one of the two I swore I would never, ever subject myself to.. a photographer’s assistant while shooting baby portraits. Parents expect some miracle that will calm their screaming infant, and immediately take away the resulting flush in their face, and somehow contort their baby (no matter how truly ugly) into the Gerber Baby.
(Alice is precious. I, in no way, mean to infer that this was the case.)
Since Alice began to walk, sitting still is simply not something she willingly does much. She’s almost always moving. toddle toddle toddle toddle toddle toddle toddle toddle toddle.
Having been a baby wrangler for a photographer…I can say that it is crazy hard to get lots of good ones again until they are about 3. Not impossible…just crazy hard.
It appears (from my typing) that I was on crack when I typed that last entry.
Now you’ll look like you were on crack when you suggested that you were on crack, because I fixed your post. 🙂