Photo Shoot No. 2…

Saturday, December 15, 2007 &
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Once again the parents rented the heavy duty equipment for a special photo shoot of the Little Princess. Me thinkest she has memories of the last one or she’s still brewing over the Santa Photo Shoot last Thursday. She does not like photo shoots anymore.

We were invited to come early Saturday afternoon for this photo shoot. (We were baby-sitting later that night so Mommy and Daddy could go partying! Really an office party for Mommy so they were going to get some pictures earlier in the afternoon and we were to assist in keeping her occupied when needed.) Little Princess had a nice long nap so she should have been rested up, but apparently she heard the conversation between her mommy and daddy and decided she would not cooperate at all!

Mommy wanted some really cute pictures of her wearing the little dress that mommy’s grandmother had made especially for her when she was little. It was a pretty little green velvet dress with a matching coat, and since it had sentimental attachments it would have been nice if Little Princess had been in a better mood. Perhaps it conjured up memories of wearing that dress on Thursday’s visit with Santa.

She was anywhere and everywhere except where she was placed for the photo shoot. She even tried running into the background equipment and bumping her noggin. Maybe a knot on the head would stop this foolishness, but alas, it wasn’t to be a discouragement to her mommy at all. The equipment had been rented; the pictures would be made!

Little Princess even tried falling off the little white chair and scraping her little knee and leg. Maybe that would help; any bruises showing surely would be a reason to stop. But it didn’t work. The camera kept clicking. The lights kept flashing.

She had already tried to bust her lip on at least two different occasions, nothing. What’s a girl to do but cry when she’s frustrated with all those camera lights flashing constantly in her pretty blue eyes. But even though temporarily blinded, somehow she would still manage to escape.

Try again for pictures with the little white chair mentioned earlier in my posts. She does love that little chair, maybe because she loves to climb so much. She climbs in every direction and there were a few good shots of her in her little red and white checked Christmas dress Mommy had found on e-bay. It was smocked and had Ho, Ho, Ho embroidered on the top of it. I think there was maybe a Santa embroidered on it, also.

Bring out the candy canes for background effects. Hmm, those look awfully tasty. She managed to figure out a way to get the tightly covered candy canes loose from their cellophane wrappers. Then it was candy cane sticky all over the backdrop, The Little Princess, mommy, daddy and anything and everything in sight.

In comes the clean-up squad. Out comes the diaper wipes. We must get those sticky candy canes off the backdrop, off the baby, off the clothes and off the carpet before they become permanent. And then it was once again back to the picture taking.

Daddy, change your shirt, please. A few more pictures here and there of mommy, daddy and The Little Princess. Daddy feels comfortable changing back into his “work clothes” to continue the shoot. Daddy, do you mind changing your shirt again to get more pictures. Back to the work clothes. Please, Daddy, just one more time with the three of us. I thought he would wear the buttons off that shirt changing back and force. But he did it without too much complaining. After all, he said at the beginning this was Mommy’s night. He would do what she asked. I don’t think so, Daddy, this was definitely The Little Princesses’ night, but I think you probably still got a lot of really adorable pictures. Maybe at least two or three out of the hundreds you took. That’s just the way it goes with an almost 14 month old. She’s become a bit more independent, and that’s not all bad.

And what was their reply when we suggested getting pictures of just the two of them?
"Oh no, it's just not the same without Little Princess in them! She's our family, now." In just a blink of the eye one tiny little being can enter our lives and it's never the same again. Not for any of us! And we're so blessed!

Sunday’s shoot…
Went much the same as Saturdays, only with Daddy missing. He had served his time yesterday and deserved a day off, so it was Mommy, Granddaddy, Grandmomma and The Little Princess.

Into that adorable little pink dress mommy had picked out for her to wear. She wasn’t quite as tired as last night, but she wasn’t in the most cooperative mood, either. I think her patience was limited to one dress today, so that eliminated a few problems for the Little Princess. Those wardrobe changes can be irritating after a while.

How about a shoot with Grandmomma’s new tea set? That sounds like a great idea! We set it up and made sure The Little Princess was properly seated, without her dress hiked over her head, and with Teddy there as her special guest. That worked for a while, then someone (I won’t name names) upset the apple cart, I mean the tea set. All the saucers, cups, teapot, spoons, cream pitcher, sugar dish, and anything left remaining on the table flew in several different directions, leaving poor Teddy all alone and sprawled over the floor in a pitiful heap.

Granddaddy had an idea. Maybe The Little Princess would like some animal crackers for her tea party. The Little Princess thought that was an excellent idea…as long as she could have the cookies anywhere except on the saucers provided. Oops, what are those brown spots on the white backdrop? Hmmm, looks like somebody raked some animal cookies right over it when she fell! (It’s very difficult keeping your balance when you’re trying to walk or sit just as near the back of the backdrop as you can, so you can understand a fall every now and then.)

But,nevertheless, out come the wipes….spot clean here, spot clean there, routine all over again. (Oh, and did I mentioned there are to be NO SHOES on the backdrop except for The Little Princesses’. Hers are fine, just no adult ones!)

It was a fairly short session today, although I’m quite sure The Little Princess would argue with that statement. To her it was just as long as the one yesterday, and the adults would learn one thing. She will only allow herself to be photographed for so long, and then it’s bye bye!

Sunday – December 16, 2007 - Part II.
After the lights were cut off and the photo shoot officially ended, Mommy decided The Little Princess needed a nap. Yep, she certainly did need a nap! So she spends some time getting her to sleep, finally. Grandmomma then suggested maybe her mommy and Granddaddy might want to do some running around they needed to do and she would stay home with The Little Princess since the weather has finally gotten to be just a little more like winter than we’ve had for a while now. Well, really a lot more like winter.

Two and one half hours later Mommy calls to see how things are going with Grandmomma and The Little Princess. All was well. She had been asleep the entire time they were gone. Did she want me to wake her and make sure she was alright? No, definitely not! Just to be on the safe side, I stood outside her door and listened for any strange noises, but there were none, so I went back to what I had been doing until she called again. This time I decided maybe I should get her food partially ready because she would be starving when she woke up. Then I stood outside her door once again, expecting to hear nothing. This time I heard her talking to herself, Teddy and baby doll, Carly, and other creatures in the crib, so I opened the door, went in and rescued her from that bad old bed.

We sat so she could see her Mommy when she drove up. I told her they were on their way home and we would watch for them. She saw them when they pulled into the driveway. She recognized the car and knew it was her Mommy. She smiled and was so excited and chatted away!

Later in the afternoon Mommy, Granddaddy and I were all needed to move a package or two into the house, so The Little Princess had to be confined to her crib for a short time. Mommy really wanted me to put her there because she didn’t want to be the bad guy, but I didn’t want to, so Mommy had to put her in the bed. The Little Princess was not happy. She took exception to that. She knew she had already had her nap, and she didn’t need another, so she screamed as loud as she could. We could hear her outside. The neighbors probably thought we were killing the child. She was perfectly happy as soon as we rescued her.

She thought it would be fun to help Mommy and Granddaddy as they tried to figure out how to wrap this gi-gi-ga-nenormous package. I thought it would be more fun to watch them figure it out, and take pictures.

The thing that amazes me is, here are two people who are math geniuses and the obvious way to wrap a package doesn’t occur to them. I, who absolutely stink at math, had to suggest the proper way to wrap it! But it was fun watching them tax their brains trying to solve such a simple problem.

These are the same two people who, if you ask them how much something costs that is 60% off, will give you the total runaround and take five hundred steps to come to an answer while I, who, as I said, stink at math, can have the price figured out in a few seconds compared to their method.

I try not to ask them for help with the simple things, because they can’t handle it. But anyway, back to the story…They finally listened to me and got the package wrapped, but not without the help of The Little Princess who was constantly grabbing the tape, moving the paper, and climbing on top of the other unwrapped package.

One funny thing I observed during all this fun time…The Little Princess goes over to a drawer in one of the tables. She looks at it, and immediately starts shaking her sweet little head from side to side. She knew she wasn’t supposed to pull that drawer out, but temptation was getting the better of her because she wanted to so bad. She finally just walked away, but you knew from watching at her, that was a forbidden drawer. And according to her mommy, it was. Maybe this is just the beginning of developing a little conscience. Oh, come on, it has to start somewhere, doesn’t it?

To add to the excitement of the afternoon, The Little Princesses’ daddy decided he would come home and pick up her and her mommy so they could meet with some other people and have dinner tonight. That was not acceptable because Mommy, Granddaddy and The Little Princess were still working on the first big package and didn’t even have the second package started. Daddy was forced to stay outside until they finished. That’s what he gets for coming home early and messing up Mommy’s plans!
As a footnote to this, Granddaddy was holding The Little Princess up to the window in the door when her Daddy came up. He says he heard her say, "Dares Da-da!"

The Little Princess also was very helpful to me when I decided I would help her Mommy by unloading the dishwasher. We didn’t lose a single piece of that expensive dinnerware on that hard granite floor, or while trying to grab it before it was tossed onto the floor. Not one single piece. At least not this time.