Well, maybe not per­fect but it was very cute.

Today, my kids went to my sister-in-law’s pho­tog­ra­phy stu­dio to have their 2 year (sec­ond try for these), 4 year, and Christ­mas pic­tures.  I wasn’t com­pletely sure how things were going to go.  I had an idea though.  I thought that K would prob­a­bly be mostly coop­er­a­tive for a while.  I fig­ured that A would be reluc­tant, and we would be lucky to get any 2 year or Christ­mas pictures.

We took A to have his 2 year pic­tures taken in July, but it was too much for him and too dif­fer­ent.  He wasn’t at all inter­ested in stand­ing in front of her back­drop.  He didn’t like her stuffed bird that helps her.  He didn’t want to sit on her chair or stand on her step stool.  We didn’t push it.  A has always been slow to warm up, so I knew push­ing him wasn’t going to be the answer.

This time, I decided to prac­tice ahead of time.  Sev­eral months ago, I read a blog post I, of course, can­not find or remem­ber where it came from.  It sug­gested that when encoun­ter­ing new sit­u­a­tions, par­ents should prac­tice ahead of time with their kids.  The mom who wrote the blog post talked about going to the den­tist and how she and her daugh­ter role played what might hap­pen.  If any­one knows where this post came from, please let me know.  I’d love to link to it.

So, last night, we got the vests out that the boys were plan­ning to wear in their pic­tures.  We put a blan­ket over the back of the couch.  I got a puppy to be my helper, and we took some pic­tures.  I told the boys where to sit.  I had Jason sit with them, too.  I also had them prac­tice stand­ing together and hav­ing K put his arm around A.  Then, we reversed roles.  K took our pic­tures.  He posed me and Jason.  He got to have the puppy as his helper.  It was a quick activ­ity.  I wasn’t sure it had made any dif­fer­ence at all.  Today was going to be the test.

When we went to have their pic­tures taken, I was wait­ing to see how A reacted.  Their Aun­tie Tera was great with them.  She had K take his pic­tures first.  He def­i­nitely worked the cam­era.  Next, came the pic­tures of the boys together.  I held my breath and waited to see what hap­pened.  Then, I saw a smile.  And another!  I was so excited!  I was prac­ti­cally beam­ing by the time A had his pic­tures.  I can say with cer­tainty that we are going to have some pretty cute hand­some pic­tures and Christ­mas cards!  I can’t wait to see them.  Thanks again, Tera!

Here are a cou­ple of the pic­tures from our prac­tice ses­sion.  They aren’t quite the same as the ones we’ll be send­ing out in a cou­ple weeks.

The food prop

With Dad

Not look­ing at cam­era