Picture Day!

Whew! It was a fun, but exhausting day today! I stopped procrastinating and finally took Rachel for her 12 Month/1st Birthday pictures. I thought they went amazingly well considering she is one week shy of being 1 year old. We had formals with dress, shoes, cardigan and hair bow, then traded the hair bow for the party hat, then added balloons:). Then we did some casual diaper ones with the hair bow and cupcake bracelet, then just hair bow, then added a pink t-shirt and traded the hair bow for the party hat:)...then added balloons and finally...the cupcake! Whew!

Rachel was quite the little "model". We only had a few "problems" when she suddenly decided she really just wanted to be either on the photographer's lap or standing in front of her:). This was the 5th time we had this photographer, and I guess she was feeling quite comfortable around her! So Mommy had to keep pulling her away to put her back on the red spot! We are talking about at least 8 -10 times! Yes, it became quite the fun game. There were several photos we couldn't use because Mommy's hands were in them trying to hold baby on the red spot! I admit I was getting pretty tired of the game and pretty warm under those lights while baby just giggled and "ran" away again and again! I looked at the photographer for help! somewhere in the middle of it all and told her I truly did not know how to make her stay put!? I actually told my daughter to "Stay!" in as firm as voice as I could muster without bursting out laughing as memories of trying to train the dog came to mind:). I got a giggle that sounded like, "You don't really think that is going to work on me, do you Mommy?". Finally, this close to exhausted Mommy asked, "Can't we just move the red spot!"...um, nope:)

Enter...unplanned props that did not belong to us...a pink rose and scruffy teddy bear who began singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in Mommy's voice:). It worked! And we got some great smiles! Of course the balloons and cupcake kept her in place very well when it was their turn to be photographed:). Afterwards, silly Mommy thought baby would stay on the white blanket she brought and just eat the cupcake while Mommy cleaned up the rest of the mess. Wrong! I was sitting on the floor cleaning up and suddenly I had a very sticky, frosting and cupcake covered baby on my lap. Oh, yeah...my black Docker's made quite the fashion statement with frosting and cupcake smeared all over the front of them for the next hour or so as I looked at, tried to eliminate "bad" pictures and choose good ones, and make my purchases! Okay, is there really such a thing as a "bad" picture of your baby:)? Today, she had taken 50 photographs! Yikes! Cha-Ching...Fortunately, there were some with Rachel blinking or looking away or just some random shots of nothing. They were still cute, but I got it narrowed down to about 36...then maybe 30. I ordered a bunch, created some cute collages, paid and we went lunch. Then, after lunch, we went back and ordered some more I decided I needed once I had time to really think about it:). Then I got my Starbuck's Green Iced Tea and called Da-Da to see if maybe he could get a second job or work some overtime:). (Just kidding!) Well, I actually did call and ask him but I was just teasing him.

After lunch, Rachel practically passed out from exhaustion. So being the good Mommy than I am I let her sleep in the stroller, undisturbed, while I shopped around a little!

I tucked her in for an afternoon nap when we got home, and I seriously think she would have slept until morning if I hadn't gone up to wake her for dinner! I do think it is almost time for Mommy to head to bed too...if you have read all this...thank you! I know it is long:).

Here are a couple of pictures we took at breakfast this morning as I wanted her to get a little used to wearing the party hat and also having balloons around her. She thought the balloons were pretty neat and played with them on the floor a bit. I prayed she would not accidentally pop one then end up afraid of them! The hat was a much bigger success today as I clipped off the elastic band that went under her chin and looked quite painful! I sewed soft pink ribbons on it last night so I could tie it under her chin instead. My sewing ability is very limited, but I felt pretty good about this...