Don't Laugh at my Pickle Nose

Now that Christian is able to hold his head up well and gives such cute smiles, I thought I'd take the kids for some professional photos. Haven't had any since Isabella was Christian's age. I also wanted some pics right now because we still don't have our camera back. (It seems to have been lost in the mail on its way to repair. Grrrrrrrr. We really have no luck with cameras.) The photographer, however, just really didn't click with my kids (ha! click! get it? I know. Not funny.) In my opinion, a HUGE part of being a good photographer at a studio where 99% of your clientele is under 10 years old, is being able to get kids to like you and laugh for you. When you see that something you're doing isn't working, you should have a huge repertoire of gimmicks and move on to something else. Our photographer had only one trick up her sleeve and that was the line, "Whatever you do, don't laugh at my pickle nose." I watched later and this line got other kids cracking up, but my kids took her at her word. She tells them not to laugh, so they don't. Stone faces all around. Instant cold shoulder. Slowly devolving into a complete refusal to even look in her direction. Yikes. I worried the session would be over before it began. Seeing that her line isn't working and that the kids are starting to get really annoyed by her, does she try something else? Does she call in someone else to help? No. She just kept saying it, over and over again, in an ever screechier, ever more obnoxious voice. You could almost hear the desperation in her voice as they stared her down. She finally came up with something new and tried the line, "Does mommy have stinky feet? Ew! Gross! Stinky feet!" Benjamin's response: "No, she doesn't." More stone faces. She momentarily left the room to grab a bean bag for Christian (and tear her hair out, I assume) and I jumped in to give them a pep talk. "I know she's annoying, but she's trying really hard to be nice and we really want these pictures to look good so we can hang them up at home. Please smile for her to make me happy, okay?" The rest of the pictures turned out better. Not great. Very few big happy smiles, but better. Thank heaven. I thought Miss Pickle Nose would doom us. Here are some of the results. My kids really are cute. Serious... but cute.