Say Cheese! Or Not...

After coming across multiple blogs boasting pictures from one-year-old photo shoots, it dawned on me that maybe I should have some professional pictures taken of Em. She is, after all, unbearably cute, and what else besides family photos will we grab if, heaven forbid, our house ever starts on fire? (The laptop and iPod, but who wants to be accused of being shallow?)

Em's at the curious and grabby stage that means most every picture I manage to snap is of her lunging for the camera. (Good thing she has those adorable dimples on her fingers). "Say Cheese" has become a dangerous command, because then she just wants food--and she loves food more than she loves her parents. Still, I mustered the courage and made the appointment.

The spitting up on her shirt and skirt moments before we plunked her down in the studio should have come as no surprise. Dressing your baby in the perfect outfit for a photo shoot is like shaking your fist at the sky and daring lightning to strike you. Luckily I'd planned on torturing Em through a series of outfits, so I had extra clothes. Including some headbands to declare her female-ness (not enough hair for bows, yet...)

Things progressed with surprising smoothness from there. Highlights included fake burping to make Em laugh (desperate times...), her persistence at trying to plunge off whatever surface we placed her on, and the way her little baby mullet refused to cooperate.

After a week of anticipation, I got to view the pictures today, and they turned out tremendously gorgeous. Now to narrow them down from 268 to our allowed amount of twenty prints...