More cheese, please.

Generally, I find staged portraits to be undesirable. The results can sometimes be stiff and unnatural. I was encouraged by friends/family to have holiday photos taken of Patty, so I obliged. I scheduled an appointment for 6:30 PM on a weekday to try to avoid the crowds. Apparently, there's no such thing as avoiding crowds at a department store portrait studio between November 1 and December 24. Who knew?

I hate being late, so I raced home from work and quickly pulled Patterson's hair into pony tails and got her into her dress and tights (that was the fun part). We arrived early for her appointment by about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the photographers were running behind. One family had been waiting for an hour! After about a 40 minute wait, it was our turn and we were off to a good start. Patty sat on the tiny couch and smiled. (I was beside her, so I didn't realize her first smile was a gremlin smile until Matt told me later. Needless to say, we didn't purchase that picture.) Three hours later, when all was said and done, we had some pretty good shots! Patty paid them back for the wait by spreading cheerios all over the waiting area. Hey, I picked up as much as I could, but what did they expect from a one year old waiting for three hours in a small space?

This is Patty after three hours of waiting, posing and smiling. I think we all felt the same way, including the photographer. No more cheese, PLEASE!

The Butterfly and The Bear

It just so happened that Patty's check-up fell on Halloween day. Yes, there were lots of shots involved which meant there were lots of tears involved. Now that Patty's older, the doctor's office introduced a new trick. As soon as the shots were done, the nurse rushed out for the real meds - suckers! Patty gave the sucker a once over then stuck it in her mouth. This was her first sucker experience and she enjoyed every single bit! Eventually, she held the sucker upside down and created a sticky mess.

After our visit to the doctor, we took Patty to the park for some relaxation. Between the sucker and play time at park, Patty was feeling much better.

Later on, Cousin Aiden came by to help pass out Halloween candy. We actually got about six door bell rings, which was up from last year's zero! But, the real fun was hanging out with the Bear (Aiden) and the Butterfly (Patterson Pearl). The cutest picture of the night was the one below when Aiden helped Patty to fix her costume (bottom).

Since they're still really young, I wasn't willing to give them any Halloween candy, but neither of them seemed to mind as long as we kept the Cheerios coming!

Ten Little Ladybugs

We’ve been reading Ten Little Ladybugs to Patty every night for the past couple of weeks. Just recently, she actually started paying attention during reading time and she’s really taken a liking to this one. The book was given to her as a birthday gift from the Wills’ and it’s a fun one. As soon as I open the book and begin ‘Ten Little…” she starts grinning. I think Patty likes it because it rhymes and there are plastic ladybugs glued to the pages (but not for long if she has her way). I love the illustrations and the surprise ending.

If you’ve got a "little one" - get Ten Little Ladybugs!