Professional Pictures

Boy, I swear there is just rarely a quiet moment in this house. Let me start out with my first aggrivation which has continued now for months. I've been trying like crazy to get a professional photo of the boys. Doesn't seem like it would be hard, yet Rylan's will be home 10 months in January!

Attempt #1 - The day started perfectly. Bath for the kids. Managed to keep them clean. We got to the portrait studio and were just outside the door when Rylan decided to dive for an electrical outlet on the floor! I quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him up... and at that same time he knew I was coming for him, so he jerked away. We lost the hold on each others hands and down he went. Face first into the tile floor! I scooped him up and his mouth and nose were bleeding, and he has a goose egg the size of silver dollar forming on his forehead. So needless to say that visit didn't end well. Thankfully after a few minutues he seemed fine. Cameron said "mom, you can still do my pictures". I felt horrible but tried to explain we'd reschedule.

Attempt #2 - This time we didn't even make it the studio. Rylan woke with earache and Cameron had a bad cough. I was bummed, but called to cancel. No point in even trying!

Attempt #3 - This was just about a month ago. We made back to back appts with Sean, Sonja, and Kayla. We had "big" plans to meet at the portrait studio and they would do their pictures first. Then we'd bet some of Rylan and Kayla together, then we'd do our pictures. Sounds good, right? Well, Rylan the night before was horribly crabby. He was pointing in his mouth and saying "OWE". And doing the same to his fingers too. I thought he had a mouth sore or 2-year molars coming in. Wasn't sure about the hands though as I couldn't see anything. The next morning we attempted the appointment and he was SO unusually crabby. He got excited to see Kayla, but after that it went downhill. We got him in the studio, then he screamed. He screamed so much that we had to leave the studio! I couldn't figure it out. He was miserable. Well, later that night little blisters started showing up on his hands and bottom. AHHH, I remembered hearing about this. Hand, foot , and mouth disease. A viral things that makes kids miserable... blisters break out all over the place. His mouth was FULL. No eating, no drinking, no sleeping, nothing but lots of crying. Poor kid.

Attempt #5 - Well, the next weekend we all got up. Everyone was healthy, happy, and ready to go! I threw the kids Christmas sweaters on and off to the mall we go. I was determined this time we would come away with something. Even if I had to fork over $15.00 for a 4-6 print! We pumped the kids up for the visit. Cameron I knew was excited and would be no problem. Rylan, I was not sure of. Well, we got there and he "appeared" excited! He was ready to budge to the front of the short line we were in. It was soon our turn. Cameron proudly walked up and hoisted himself on Santa's lap. Rylan, he turned and ran screaming! John took off running after him and brought him back, screaming louder! Me (in a not so proud moment), threw the stroller aside, grabbed Rylan and tossed him on Santa's lap, shoved John out of the way, told Santa not to let go, turned to the photographer and said "take the picture FAST".

Here is what we got!

For the life of me, I can't get it bigger without it being blurry (it's scanned) but maybe if you double click on it, you can? ... anyway you could count the teeth in Rylan's mouth... he was NOT happy! For those of you who think this is terribly cruel.... This was 5-10 seconds of a "not so comfortable moment". Rylan jumped off his lap, the tears were immediately turned off, and turned to Santa and held his hand out for candy! Then the lady showed me our picture and I laughed, and bought it anyway. I showed it to Rylan and said "look at you crying on Santa's lap". He pulled the picture from my hand and marched right up to Santa and holding it out just as the photographer was in the middle of working with another family. I'm not so sure they were happy to have Rylan in their picture! Retake for them, a quick exit from the mall for us.

**Part 2 of this saga continues, as the fun doesn't stop here... oh no, not in our house!**