what a joke!

Those of you with kids will have no problem relating to this post. If your kids are older I am sure you can remember a time when it was nearly impossible to snap a decent picture of them. Olivia is at a very active age (turning 17 months this week actually!). She pretty much moves non-stop from the moment she wakes up to the time she asks to go to bed. Yes, there are nights when she actually asks if it is time to go night-night. Just about every day I try to take some pictures of her. She is either wearing a super cute outfit I want to remember or doing something for the first time. Being the very proud first time mom that I am, it is very important for me to capture every single moment!

Olivia has a different agenda. She does not have time to stop and pose for me. I only get in the way of the many important things she is trying to do, like filling her shopping cart with toys or sorting her shapes. The only chance I have is to follow her around the house with my camera and snap away, hoping that out of 20 shots one will be a keeper. Thank goodness for digital pics that can easily be deleted. I would quickly go broke buying film, only to be disappointed that most of the pictures I took are of the back of her head or with her eyes closed.

With how active Olivia has become family pictures have become more and more difficult. She won't sit with Todd and I long enough for the shutter to click and the last thing she wants is for us to pick her up while we try to get her to smile for the camera. Just how difficult this can be became most apparent last weekend. We were all looking pretty decent on Easter (which doesn't happen very often). Obviously Olivia was looking the cutest in her adorable Spring dress. I so badly wanted a nice family picture. I did not think it would be too much to ask for Olivia to pose quickly with us. I guess I forgot who I was talking to. At first I was very frustrated with her, but it quickly turned to humor. I realized just how funny the whole situation was. Suddenly the idea of having a idyllic family photo was not so important, and the memory of the photos that resulted was much better!

There was just no way she was going to cooperate with us at that moment. I think part of the reason was because she was just given an Easter basket full of goodies that she wanted to check out. So since our photo shoot was a disaster Todd and I decided to jump into pictures with Olivia while she was playing. We knew it was the only way we were going to be able to have our picture taken with her that day.

So you think Todd and I would have gotten a clue from earlier in the day, but we tried one last time to get a family shot. After our Easter dinner and a very exhausting Easter egg hunt outdoors we thought Olivia would be a bit more subdued and willing to sit for a picture...WRONG! Now Todd and I have learned to just look at the camera and smile, hoping that Olivia will do the same and the perfect picture will be caught. Even with both of us posed and ready there was no chance Olivia was going to make the picture complete. And if by chance she did look at the camera then one of us either had our eyes closed or a silly look on our face. It was a joke but most definitely something we will always remember. So we don't have that perfect family picture from Easter...but we do have some pretty funny evidence of a photo shoot gone terribly wrong!

Oh, our Olivia...so delightful, but so very headstrong and stubborn! She definitely keeps things exciting, that's for sure! Hey, I can't expect too much from a one year old! I don't think picture taking is really at the top of her list right now. So for the time being I will just keep chasing her around the house and hope that someday before she leaves for college we are able to take a nice family photo!