Baby photographers must be the most patient people next to Saints

Hey guys,

Well I know that it has been a while since my last post and I apologize but it has been a little busy. First of all, I would like to say that through the grace of God and the MO House of Representatives, I will still have a job on August 1st. The Senate and House gave us the minimum amount needed to continue keeping clinicians in the school system. In fact the Department of Mental Health is considering expanding to more school districts in the near future. So I am quite ecstatic about that.

Now, I would like to talk about infant photo-shoots. I don't ever remebering getting the brilliant idea to pray for patience because I understand that God has a sense of humor, so somebody must have asked for me. Let me back up a moment and explain why I came to this conclusion. We have some goofy traditions for childrearing and one of those goofy traditions are one year pictures. Since Meg is on bedrest I was nominated to take the twins for their photos (almost 2 months late). Meg made us an appoinment at Sears because we had some luck there before. We decided to make it in the afternoon, after nap time, unfortunately the kids got to sleep late because they sat up and "talked" to each other. So we (Debbie, Meg's mom and I) wake the twins up and grab some toys and head out. We assume (never assume where children and photographers are involved) that we would be in and out and back before dinner. We arrive for our 4 o'clock appointment and we sit around and wait, and wait, and wait. The twins begin to become restless and their smiles begin to take a sour turn. Finally, we are allowed to get our photos taken. These are the times where having only one child would be so much simpler. Zoey, my performer, immediately began taking good pictures with pretty smiles and took no time at all. The problem started with Zane, he never once cracked a smile and more often then not was crying incessantly. I will admit that my frustration level is slowly climbing but what could I do. I tried every trick i could come up with to get Zane to smile at the appropriate time. The only thing that worked was when the photographer placed Zane in the cheeziest egg chair I ever saw. The one rule I was told by Meg wa no stupid props, oops. Anyway the egg chair quickly lost its appeal to Zane so we gave up and rescheduled. Oh yeah the real reason Zane was so mad was he missed snack. AHHHHH!

Well Meg was not happy with the report that her mother gave her about the lack of a good backdrops and the stupid yellow egg so we look and look for another photographer that may give us some better photos. Enter, Kiddie Kandids Photography at the mall. They supposedly specialize in infant photography so we figure why not. Med decided that she would come along on this one and boy was I glad. We hear that the place is by the food court at the mall, so this time we schedule the appointment right after lunch and before nap time. We load up and head to the mall. Meg and I were a little surprised when we got to the "studio" because it was a kiosk at the food court. Meg was a little hesitant but I did not want to do this a third time so we stayed. I must say that I was quite surprised with the patience of the photographer. She worked herself into a sweat getting us a collection of really good photos that you can see here. Meg and I would sit on the side and try to manipulte our children for a good shot but Meg, being on bedrest tired out pretty easily so the asst. manager stepped in and worked with Zane. Zoey, of course, did great, I am a little worried that she is going to become a prima donna or something. Zane on the other hand felt he should be held the whole time. We did eventually get several pictures with him smiling as you can see which is a first in photo history. I thanked the staff and told them they must have great patience and the asst. manager replied that one hard to get smile makes it all worth it. Well, it was worth it. So I wanted to share that hard work for all my friends and family out there. Enjoy them because these are the last professional photos I will be a part of (until Meg reads this and tells me differently at least).

See ya.

Shaun