One Year Old Pictures

Baby was scheduled to have her one year old pictures last month.  Then croup struck and we had to reschedule for this month.  We can call them her thirteen month pictures instead.  

I wracked my brain trying to think of cute poses and outfits for Baby to do and wear.  Where should we take them?  What would be memorable and artsy and unique?

I asked everyone I knew.  I Googled one year baby pictures.  I saw some really cool ideas and things to do.  I spent hours going over other babies' pictures and created my own list of possible poses and props.

A popular option was wearing a tutu and pearls.  Well, I don't have a tutu for Baby.  Why would I?  There's really no practical reason and I'm very pragmatic.  Same with the pearls.  I have no pearls.  Scratch the tutu and pearls idea then. 

One that came up most often was the birthday cake or cupcake pose.  I decided Baby HAD to do this.  Naked Baby covered in cupcake and frosting goodness, licking her fingers greedily.  How cute would that be?

Well, the night before I figured I would need cupcakes if I was going to do the pose (the naked part I could handle.  I had a cute cloth diaper I would have her in).  Well, I wanted to do something a little healthier, and I had bananas that were a little over ripe.  Why not bake muffins, then frost those?  They should look like cupcakes in the pictures, right?  I'm so creative!

I baked my muffins.  While they did turn out yummy, they in no way resembled cupcakes.  I didn't even bother frosting them because that would have tasted rather gross.  Would you want a sugary sweet frosted banana muffin? I didn't think so.

I made Husband go to the store and he picked up a few store bought ones.  I cheated, but I wanted to get that picture.

Picture day arrived and our lovely photographer (a super creative friend of mine who did Baby's six month pictures)  came to the house.  We decided to head to the park around the corner to get some good outdoor shots.  Don't worry, I remembered to bring my cupcakes.  

Baby was very unsure of what we were doing.  For the first few shots, I plopped her down in the grass barefoot.  She was wearing a cute peasant type dress with matching bloomers.  She hated the grass on her bare feet and just stood there.  So much for cute barefoot in the park pose.

I put on her dress shoes (which are a tad to small), and she didn't like those very much either.  Again, she just stood there and kept pointing to the play equipment.  We decided to give in and stick her in the baby swings, which she LOVES.  We got a few good shots of her enjoying those.  Same with the slide and stairs.

Another pose I really wanted was one of Husband and I standing, holding on to Baby's hands while she stood in between us.  The shot would feature her and our legs.  We tried it, but she didn't want to hold our hands.  She just wanted to scream and run off.

Then we saw a doggie.  An older Basset Hound and owner were meandering along.  Baby saw him and started pointing and squealing, "Doggie!  Doggie!:  The owner said we could pet the dog, which was really  nice of him.  However, when we got closer, Baby froze up and didn't know what to do.  Scratch the Baby and dog pose.

We then brought out the cupcake.  We sat Baby on the bench, but she didn't want to sit.   We tried to tempt her with the cupcake, but she just wanted to run around.  I ended up eating the cupcake. 

Then it started to sprinkle, so we headed home to try cupcake shots there.

I stripped Baby down and plopped a cupcake in the middle of the floor for her.  She wasn't interested.  She wanted to go back outside (she is an expert at the Baby Sign for "outside").  I think I may have eaten another cupcake trying to get her interested.  I smeared frosting on her tummy.  She ignored me.  Tiger, however, noticed and wanted to know what was going on.  He ended up licking a little frosting off of Baby's tummy.

That was the end of the shoot.  My friend had to go and Baby was pretty much done.

You can bet that after my friend left, Baby suddenly became very interested in the cupcake.  And she was all smiles and giggles.

Figures.

Needless to say, we didn't get the exact poses that I wanted, but we did get some amazing pictures!