- oh, I was so naive -

I finally got a pretty decent family picture the other day!

I remember when I was pregnant, and even when little miss E was very tiny, other moms with toddlers would tell me how hard it was to ever get a decent picture. I even remember seeing a picture of a family on vacation...it was a pretty bad family picture, and the mom's caption was "This was the best family picture we could get!" I love photos and photography, and I remember thinking that I would always make sure we have plenty of good family pictures, no matter what age little miss E was. My kid wouldn't be that kid that made it impossible to get good pictures. My kid would pose nicely at all times for the camera so I could document all these great memories. Fast forward almost a year and a half...and folks, it is nearly impossible to get a decent family picture right now!

Seriously....nearly....impossible! little miss E will not stand still for the camera, not matter how much I beg and plead with her. It practically takes an entire dance troupe and a marching band entertaining her just to keep her still for the one second it takes to snap a picture. Needless to say, I most certainly do not have a plethora of pictures of her posing nicely. As a matter of fact most of the pictures I do have of her recently seem to be of the back of her head!

At least she has a nice head to look at huh?

Oh, and there were many other things I was sure our child would do (or not do) before we actually had her. The hubby and I often said that our baby would be able to sleep anywhere! Yup, we were going to take her everywhere, and when it was naptime, she would just fall asleep. In her stroller, in the car, at our friends' houses...doesn't matter where we were, our kid was going to fall asleep anywhere...WRONG! Not little miss E. We are very, very lucky that she is an excellent sleeper both at night and at naptime...if we are at home, and she is in her own crib. If we aren't home, we hear a lot of screaming and crying until she finally falls asleep out of sheer exhaustion, or if it's naptime, she most often just forgoes sleeping all together. For this reason, we haven't traveled half as much as we have wanted to since little miss E was born and we find ourselves planning our days around her nap and bedtime (which we swore we would never do when I was pregnant). 

We also swore that we would have a baby that would be happy in anybody's arms...WRONG! Not little miss E. Ever since she was born, she has loved being held. Even at 17 months old, she loves to be picked up and held. But she is very, very picky about who holds her. Let's put it this way...if you aren't in her tiny circle of safe people that she sees on a regular basis, she most certainly is not going to allow you to pick her up. It's not such a bad thing...this "stranger danger" that she has. At least we don't have to worry about her running into the arms of someone that she shouldn't!

Oh little miss E! Such a strong -willed little girl! I love you so much, but oh, I was so naive!

I'll leave you with this sweet picture...I brought out the dance troupe and the marching band, and got her to sit still and smile...just for a second. But that was all it took to snap this adorable shot!