It was ugly.
Oh. my. goodness. Can I just say that it should NOT be this hard to get a simple set of pictures taken???
To be honest, the photo shoot itself was great. We went to a nice, secluded, beautiful garden. The kids were pretty cooperative. The photographer brought a bag of gummy bears and they got one after each shot. Dallin found a cool tree to climb, and the photographer took his picture up in the tree. Then Sariah climbed up and joined him.
But getting there? Yeah, that was [a word I won't say on a family blog].
It started with Dallin needing a haircut this afternoon. And Dallin FREAKING because the stylist didn't cut his hair the way he wanted. (How many ways are there to cut boy hair that's already short?)
And Daddy had a headache leftover from the day that was, so Daddy wasn't too patient with Dallin's meltdown over his hair.
Then Dallin decided that he didn't like and didn't want to wear the new shorts I bought him today. The shorts that are the same size, style, and brand as the six pairs of jeans he wears all the time, the only difference is that they are shorts instead of long pants. And he didn't like the red shirt I'd set out for him to wear either. He wanted to wear his soccer uniform in the picture, and was furious when I said no. I reminded him that he'd worn his soccer uniform a few weeks ago for soccer pictures, and this time we were all going to be coordinating. So we had tears and sobbing over the outfit.
Then it was time to do Sariah's hair, and she was mad because she wanted to do it herself. Earlier today, I'd given her pretty much the same hairstyle I wanted her to have for the pictures, because then I'd be able to easily redo it, make sure the part was exactly straight, etc. But she wanted to comb the part all out, and I said no. Usually I'm pretty patient about hair-styling time, trying to make it fun and tear-free. But I did NOT want her messing up anything! And she wasn't liking that answer AT ALL. So Daddy came in and tried to hold her head still, and she was rocking back and forth and crying, and I'm trying to put in little pony tails on a head that's going every different direction except for looking straight forward.
And this whole time, Dallin was sitting on the bed crying still.
I could feel myself losing it. I was starting to shake, almost like a panic attack or something. I was trying so hard to keep it together. It's really my fault that everyone else in the family has to endure these photo ops, which none of them are into except for me. But by golly, this one was important! This one is going on our adoption profile! And by golly, I wanted to know why on earth this had to be so much harder than it really needed to be. I mean, all I was asking was to put on a change of clothes (comfy clothes, not even Sunday best) and go for an hour to a fun place and hug each other and smile for the camera. What's so hard about that? Why is it that EVERY time we get a family picture taken, it's a miserable battle to get there and we're all barely speaking to each other by the time we get to the place where we're supposed to put on our best smiles and pretend like we're a happy family???
Through all the angst, I couldn't help but smile as Dallin tearfully demanded (i.e screamed) that this was the second time we'd had to get our pictures taken, and why did we have to do this again, why wasn't the first time good enough, and for all he knew, we'd have to do it a third and a fourth time too to get it right!
Luckily for ALL of us, I'm pretty sure there won't have to be a third and a fourth time. Otherwise, I'm afraid there won't be a family photo with our adoption profile. All those prospective birth mothers would just have to guess what we look like, because I can 100% guarantee that our family will not be sitting for another family portrait for a VERY LONG time.
Oh. my. goodness. Can I just say that it should NOT be this hard to get a simple set of pictures taken???
To be honest, the photo shoot itself was great. We went to a nice, secluded, beautiful garden. The kids were pretty cooperative. The photographer brought a bag of gummy bears and they got one after each shot. Dallin found a cool tree to climb, and the photographer took his picture up in the tree. Then Sariah climbed up and joined him.
But getting there? Yeah, that was [a word I won't say on a family blog].
It started with Dallin needing a haircut this afternoon. And Dallin FREAKING because the stylist didn't cut his hair the way he wanted. (How many ways are there to cut boy hair that's already short?)
And Daddy had a headache leftover from the day that was, so Daddy wasn't too patient with Dallin's meltdown over his hair.
Then Dallin decided that he didn't like and didn't want to wear the new shorts I bought him today. The shorts that are the same size, style, and brand as the six pairs of jeans he wears all the time, the only difference is that they are shorts instead of long pants. And he didn't like the red shirt I'd set out for him to wear either. He wanted to wear his soccer uniform in the picture, and was furious when I said no. I reminded him that he'd worn his soccer uniform a few weeks ago for soccer pictures, and this time we were all going to be coordinating. So we had tears and sobbing over the outfit.
Then it was time to do Sariah's hair, and she was mad because she wanted to do it herself. Earlier today, I'd given her pretty much the same hairstyle I wanted her to have for the pictures, because then I'd be able to easily redo it, make sure the part was exactly straight, etc. But she wanted to comb the part all out, and I said no. Usually I'm pretty patient about hair-styling time, trying to make it fun and tear-free. But I did NOT want her messing up anything! And she wasn't liking that answer AT ALL. So Daddy came in and tried to hold her head still, and she was rocking back and forth and crying, and I'm trying to put in little pony tails on a head that's going every different direction except for looking straight forward.
And this whole time, Dallin was sitting on the bed crying still.
I could feel myself losing it. I was starting to shake, almost like a panic attack or something. I was trying so hard to keep it together. It's really my fault that everyone else in the family has to endure these photo ops, which none of them are into except for me. But by golly, this one was important! This one is going on our adoption profile! And by golly, I wanted to know why on earth this had to be so much harder than it really needed to be. I mean, all I was asking was to put on a change of clothes (comfy clothes, not even Sunday best) and go for an hour to a fun place and hug each other and smile for the camera. What's so hard about that? Why is it that EVERY time we get a family picture taken, it's a miserable battle to get there and we're all barely speaking to each other by the time we get to the place where we're supposed to put on our best smiles and pretend like we're a happy family???
Through all the angst, I couldn't help but smile as Dallin tearfully demanded (i.e screamed) that this was the second time we'd had to get our pictures taken, and why did we have to do this again, why wasn't the first time good enough, and for all he knew, we'd have to do it a third and a fourth time too to get it right!
Luckily for ALL of us, I'm pretty sure there won't have to be a third and a fourth time. Otherwise, I'm afraid there won't be a family photo with our adoption profile. All those prospective birth mothers would just have to guess what we look like, because I can 100% guarantee that our family will not be sitting for another family portrait for a VERY LONG time.
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