Picture Perfect

So this is what I've been agonizing over for the past 2 days.....not world hunger....not global warming.....not the dissention in the Middle East.....I've actually lost sleep trying to figure out what I'm going to dress the kids in for their portraits tomorrow!!!

Talk about pressure! When you have one kid, it's easy....you see a cute outfit, you buy it, you have yourself an adorable picture of the little tyke. It continued to be an effortless chore for me even with two kids. Two little girls, two adorable matching dresses, viola...double the cuteness. Then this little boy came along and I was SO excited to shop for little boy clothes. I actually knew exactly what I wanted him to wear for his pictures....the tough part was trying to match the girls to him.

To make matters more stressful, the portrait studio we use lets you bring a change of clothing for the little dears. Thus forcing me to come up with not one cute matching ensemble for 3....but two cute matching ensembles for 3!! I was trying to vent my frustrations out on David last night about the dynamics of it all but he just wasn't getting it. He said, "Just have them wear what they have on today." (Which happened to be mismatched tops, skirts....general pint sized frumpiness). I went on to explain, to a selectively deaf ear, that not only did I have to make sure the outfits coordinated well with each other, they also had to do well as separate outfits during their individual shots.

I am already feeling totally guilty because this will be Tate's first portrait studio debut....and he's almost 8 months old! I always planned on getting my kids' pictures taken at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, then yearly after that. But I flubbed up with Reese because I was just a total basket case after she was born. I missed her 3 month shot altogether and ended up getting 5, 9, and 12 months. With Drue I did 6 months, 10 months, and....oops, that's it. Her last picture was at 10 months and she is now 27 months! So much for my dream of hanging all my kids pictures up side by side down the hallway because there would be a big BARE spot where Drue's 1 year picture should go. (Seriously, I get a knot in my stomach every time I think about this).

I instructed David not to rough house with, tickle, wrestle, or even look in the general direction of the children until after tomorrow, hoping to prevent any red marks or bruising as a result of their playful interactions. Nevermind that Tate tumbled down a flight of stairs on my watch this past weekend. He was fine. I quickly scooped him up, made sure he could still move all his appendages, then thoroughly checked his little face for any incurred blemishes, ready to dash out to the drugstore for make-up for very fair baby skin.

The dryer is almost finished with the last of their outfits, the rest of them lay neatly on the dining room table awaiting our big day tomorrow, and I am just exhausted from the whole pre-portrait planning. I started trying to prepare Drue that she would, indeed, have to wear the dreaded black shrug over her dress tomorrow for her picture. The very same shrug that elicited squeals of protest all the way to our Christmas Eve service. I enlisted the help of my mom to come along for the big "outfit change" and to make sure the kids don't shove all the legos up their nose in the waiting area while I am deep in thought picking which poses I want to buy. (Last time I went by myself and ended up spending way more money than I planned because the girls were climbing the walls and I was so anxious to get out of there I just flew through the selection process without realizing how many poses I picked).

Each child has specific instructions from me on preferred portrait behavior: Reese--no kooky smiles. Drue--Do not cry in every single picture. Tate--no dousing your freshly laundered shirts with regurgitated cheerios during the shoot.

"CHEESE!"