I came home exhausted last night, vowing never to try getting professional pictures taken of the kids again.
It all started at Walmart. They’re inexpensive and I just wanted one
nice picture package of my 3 children together. I should have known the
first time we tried that it was not to be.
We entered Walmart at around noon. The kids were dressed in church
attire, well fed and ready to go. We had been sick all weekend, which is
why Ethan was home from school, but I felt the children were well
enough and calm enough (due to illness) that now was the time to try.
We had been in the waiting area for 20 minutes when Ethan told me
he had to go to the bathroom which was right around the corner. So I sent him on his way.
Moments later I heard a small anxious sounding, “Momma!” coming from
the bathroom. I saw Ethan peeking out of the door and he slowly
emerged. There were mustard like stains down his pants and at the bottom
of his white shirt. He was nearly in tears as he told me he got poop on
himself. Diarrhea. He was clearly embarrassed and I wanted to thump
myself for not thinking to accompany him in case he was still suffering
from it. You see, Ethan has been in the habit of squatting on top
of the toilet seat to relieve his bowels, since his earliest days of
potty training and we’re still working to convince him he won’t fall in
if he sits his butt down on the toilet seat. Thus the sprayage of the
diarrhea on everything.
I put his jacket on him so at least his shirt was covered and whisked
the kids over to the children’s clothing section where I quickly picked
up some clearance slacks and a white dress shirt. At the check out I
reached into my diaper bag and, behold, no pocket book.
Did I mention that this Walmart, the closest one with a photo studio, is 25 minutes from our home?
I keep blankets in the back of the car in case of emergency so Ethan sat on top of a blanket in soiled pants for the ride home. Once
showered and dressed in new clothes he asked to go back out. You see, I
had told the kids we could go visit Santa at the mall today (to avoid
having to do it later when crowds are big and lines are long) so I told
him we would indeed go back out to see Santa. But since we were going to
go back out we would try getting pictures again. And try we did.
After another relatively long wait and then a 1 hour photo session,
we had pictures of all three children alone, but none showing them all
together.
It proved impossible to get all three children to look at the camera
at the same time, while smiling, with eyes open and sitting up straight. Caleb kept slouching and leaning into Ethan. Vanessa kept
trying to squirm out of Caleb's arms. It was a fruitless endeavor and I
still feel that it ought never to be attempted again.
Afterward we did make our visit to Santa even though I really just
wanted to go home. The boys sat in his lap and told them what they
wanted for Christmas and then I put Vanessa in Santa’s arms as well
and asked for a picture. Miracle of miracles, they all three looked at
the camera. The boys were smiling, Vanessa was not, but she still looks
cute of course. They all looked at the camera and that more than half
decent picture took 3 minutes to take.
Why didn’t I just go with Santa in the first place?
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