Family Portraits & The Goldfish

Annika had a first in the potty yesterday...and Josiah, who has taken on duties as cheerleading captain (pottytraining division), declared it to look like goldfish!

I don't care if it looks like the Venus de Milo kid! This was a major score. Annika finally got her toenails painted with the special sparkly nail polish.

As for other D4 news, we had our family portraits done. The problems started when, instead of wearing what I had carefully laid out for him, my husband decided he had to wear something completely different. And I do mean completely different. OK, it was in the same color family, but it was different. I had him and Josiah neatly coordinated in navy blue tops and khaki pants, and Hans, being the 4-year-old that he can be, refused to wear the sweater because the collar kept standing up. It's itttttccccchhhyyy!! He also refused to wear the specified khaki pants and instead demanded to wear a pair that he insists is also khaki, only darker, but I say are more of an olive-based khaki. Suit pants, too, when I wanted regular cotton khakis.

Suffer, I say. Suffer for a decent family picture.

Oh, I know. The problems of the world right now. The economy, the election, pirates, Casey Anthony, Madonna's divorce (yep, it's been confirmed)...and Rachel is complaining about olive vs. khaki pants.

We all piled in the car a half-hour before our appointment for the quick drive over. Only it wasn't very quick. It was stop and go traffic all the way over there, and so the trip that normally takes us 8-1/2 minutes took over 30 and I forgot to bring along my paper bag. We were four minutes late. It turned out to be no big deal, especially when we got there and realized what a low-tech "studio" the photographer had. I've taken passport pictures with a nicer background.

It was basically black curtains and a black cloth floor with a bunch of variegated boxes. No backgrounds, no props, just "you sit here, you sit there, snap-snap, come back in two weeks to pay an ungodly amount for your shots".

Sigh. I should have known that it would be like that. Of course, two days after I signed up for it, I found out about this great photographer here who takes more candid shots, will take you outside or anywhere you want the shots, and take all day to follow your family around for a truly remarkable portrait.

Woulda. Shoulda. Coulda.

Now someone tell me how to set the timer on our Nikon camera and I'll just get a tripod and start setting our own camera up for family shots. Cheaper and probably better quality.

Lesson has been learned. Now I'm off to await the arrival of the goldfish.